“Fast like this,” she said, sprinting a few yards toward the wildflowers and back again. She did this several times before announcing that she needed to see the goats and show them the cricket.
When she was out of earshot, I asked, “When should I come by to work with her?”
“Therapy is on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons,” he said, suddenly occupied with his phone. “Afternoons are best. She’s a little more chill, if you can believe that.”
“So then, Monday, Wednesday, Friday? We only have a few weeks until school starts and I want to give her a fighting chance and—”
“Yeah. That’s fine.”
“Okay.” I tried to catch his eye but he was very interested in his phone. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then. At your place, right?”
He nodded, still thumbing out a message. “There’s a turnoff leading to the house. It’s about half a mile past the main entrance. There’s a mailbox. If the apple trees stop and cows start, you’ve gone too far.”
“Noah, Bootsie got out of the pen,” Gennie called.
“Goddammit.” He shoved his phone in his back pocket and spared me a quick glance. “Figure out if I’m marrying you, okay? Good.”
I watched as he headed in the direction of the goats with his new body and new personality.
And his marriage proposal.
chapterfour
Noah
Students will be able to deflect like their life depends on it.
The first timeI saw Shay Zucconi, I was driving my mother’s beat-up old SUV on my way to school for the first day of junior year. I had a daily countdown to graduation going and that day was a turning point. It was the start of the last half of the horror show that was my high school experience. I was close enough to the end to see life after this town and I wanted nothing more than to reach out and grab it.
She waited on the corner of Old Windmill Hill Road, long honey-gold hair falling down her back and clothes that looked very, very expensive. She looked like she damn near owned the world. She was beautiful in a way that overwhelmed me, though it wasn’t just her face, her body. She was a sunbeam through a storm cloud.
Even to this day, I couldn’t explain why I pulled over but I knew I had to stop for her. It struck me like a physical necessity.
I rolled down my window and asked if she wanted a ride to school rather than waiting on the bus. I knew she was Lollie Thomas’s granddaughter because everyone knew everyone’s business in the farm community, and my parents had been loudly curious about the circumstances that brought this girl to our neighbor’s home. I was curious too.
I worshipped her from the minute she slid in beside me, smelling like heaven and looking at me with those cat eyes. I believed then that she saw me, the real me. She didn’t do anything miraculous and that was helpful because I didn’t think I could tolerate any miracle beyond being with a beautiful girl who chose to ride with me.
She captivated everyone like that. The first school day was barely through before Shay had been inducted into the popular crowd and the guys who always got the girls had called dibs. But I picked her up every morning and I drove her home when she wasn’t busy with the cool kids, and she sat with me, gorgeous and made of mysteries and momentarily mine, and I let myself believe that meant something. I let myself love her, and a significant portion of me died when I was faced with the reality that it was entirely one-sided.
And then, half a lifetime later, I offered to marry her and blamed it on wanting her land, of all the asinine things.
I had too many businesses to run and an endless stream of other people’s problems to handle. Plus a child pirate and all the complications that came baked in with that. I couldn’t rush in and save the day for Shay. Not when Gennie was my primary concern.
So, in that sense, Shay laughing off my offer was for the best. It didn’t bother me. There would be nothing worse than a hollow marriage to Shay.I didn’t care.
But what the hell had happened with her last relationship? What had gone wrong there? And why had it been necessary for her to pick up and move here to recover from it?
Not that I needed to know what that was all about. Not my problem.Shewasn’t my problem.
Unless she changed her mind about getting married to inherit Twin Tulip.
The whole thing was absurd. Every farm-related legal document I’d come across since taking over this place had some element of irresponsible absurdity to it, but the alleged terms of that will took top honors. I couldn’t believe Lollie left Shay with so many unnecessary complications.
None of it would hold up in court.
Instead of volunteering to be her husband, I should’ve offered to handle the matter on her behalf. One memo and she would’ve owned that land free and clear. I could still do that. I could explain to her how simple it would be to get rid of those terms. I could eliminate the need for a fake marriage altogether.
Instead of hashing out either of those issues, I did the one thing I should’ve from the start: I gave Shay the widest berth I could manage when she came to the house to work with Gennie.
