Hilary looked back at him and laughed. “Yes, I remember that.”
“So, first goats, now apple orchards and bed-and-breakfasts.”
She looked at him pointedly for a few extra seconds. Then she hitched her shoulders. “That’s the plan,” she said, her gaze returning to the birds who were becoming increasingly more brazen. One bird landed within three feet from her shoes. It cocked its head toward the ground as if suggesting more popcorn needed to be tossed his way.
There it was again. The sense that she wasn’t a hundred percent on board with the entrepreneurial idea. He might chalk it up to a lack of confidence, something that could be smoothed out with a solid business plan. But as he got to know her better, Dane figured there was something else in the way.
“Is the conference helping?” He leaned back on his hands.
“The speakers and field trips have been very inspiring,” she said flatly.
A generic answer. It was such a canned response that he smiled. She might as well be reading from a script.
“What’s so funny?”
She’d turned back toward him. Saw him smiling like a goon and probably thought he was laughing at her. Now he was embarrassed.
Dane opened his mouth to explain but stopped himself twice. He didn’t want to question her motive for being here again.
“You don’t believe me.” She tossed a piece of popcorn at him, bouncing it off his cheek.
Stunned, he didn’t know what shocked him more—the directness of her question or being targeted with popcorn. “What does that mean?”
“Ever since you picked me up at the airport you’ve been wondering what I’m doing here,” she said. Hilary tucked her hair behind her ear, but the breeze carried it across her face anyway. She brushed it back to look at him. “Don’t tell me you haven’t.”
He sat forward. “What have I said that gave you that impression?” He felt like a thief caught with his hand in the jewelry box.
“It’s not anything you’ve said. You’re very easy to read.”
It would be foolish to deny it. He had wondered no less than a dozen times why she was at a small farms conference when her heart wasn’t in it. Here she was handing him the chance to ask her.
Hilary’s eyes widened, waiting.
“Okay, fine.” He dropped his shoulders. “Let’s forget Jorie for a minute. What do you want to do?”
“Work.”
“Would I be wrong to say you’d rather do something else besides cultivate apple trees and book rooms?”
Hilary blew the air out of her cheeks. “It’s not that simple.” She looked away from him and down the deserted beach.
“Let’s pretend it is. What’s your ideal life?”
She smiled thinly. “I’d love to go back to work in a school. As a social worker.” There was no hesitancy in her voice.
“So what’s stopping you?”
Her gaze settled in her lap. She sighed again. “I feel like I owe this to…I don’t know.”
“You owe it to Jorie because it was a shared dream when your husband was alive.”
“Exactly. You have no idea how she and Calhelped me after Will died. I literally couldn’t get out of bed.”
“I’m sure it was horrible for everyone.” Dane chose his words carefully. He didn’t doubt she felt a strong allegiance to her in-laws. But committing to living someone else’s dream if her heart wasn’t in it was living a lie. He wasn’t going to come out and say that. But he knew she struggled with it. It was written on her face during the seminars. He heard it in her voice when she talked about the farm back home. It wasn’t his place to suggest she upend her life, but he heard the resignation in her voice when she spoke of the plans at Larkin Farms. His brothers left the family farm. Their parents didn’t guilt them into staying; he certainly wouldn’t have wanted them to stay in Clove and work the farm. It would have been a disaster. They wanted to make their life away from Lavender Lane Farm. He applauded them for living on their own terms.
She leaned back on her hands and groaned. “I’m grateful for the life I have there. I don’t want you to think I’m not.”
He touched her hand. “I know you are.”
