We ordered our usual breakfasts — why improve on a good thing? — and kept chattering.
“You haven’t gotten sick of this old boy yet, Emma?” Laraby asked, sending a sly grin across the table to her.
She flashed those knockout eyes at me before answering. “Not yet.”
“It’s only a matter of time!” Tex announced, and the guys had another hardy laugh at my expense. I didn’t mind one bit. I was here with the prettiest lady in Round Rock. And, somehow, she hadn’t gotten tired of me yet.
“I don’t know,” she said, bumping my shoulder again. “He’s not so bad.”
“That’s the God’s honest truth,” Big Tom said, his weathered face suddenly serious. He looked from Emma to me. “You have to hold on when you find someone special in this life. I was fortunate enough to have my dream girl in my life for forty-six years before she passed. We met in high school, raised a family, and grew old together.” He smiled sadly, his old eyes glistening. “Not as old as I’d have liked, but I’m thankful for every minute I spent with that woman.”
Emma glanced at me, her eyes shining, and I felt that kick to my gut that I sometimes did when I met her eyes.
“Y’all remind me so strongly of me and my Luanne when we were young,” Big Tom said. “I can see what you have is really special. Don’t let go of that. You might not find it again.”
Emma shifted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable from all the attention. I didn’t know what to do or say. I couldn’t turn to meet her eyes again. Big Tom cracked a smile and went on talking about some nonsense going on at another farm just past the border of Round Rock, but I couldn’t shake the worry twisting in my gut. It kept churning, making eating breakfast hard. Emma seemed to relax as soon as the conversation steered away from us, but I couldn’t.
“Ain’t you hungry, boy?” Winston asked, eyeing me closely. He mostly kept to himself at these breakfasts, letting the chatter go by without adding much to it. But he watched everything. I had a feeling he knew just about everything about everybody in town.
I forced a big grin. “I’m just thinking about the work I’ve got to do on the farm.”
“All the more reason to eat while you can,” Laraby replied. None of them had food. They sat here for hours in the morning. Every single one of them had retired a number of years ago. This served as their social club. I’d once asked my daddy about it, and he told me a person could do whatever the hell he wanted after working hard his whole life, that it was the best version of the American dream.
I dug into my food, forcing it down so no one would say anything else about it, the biscuits sitting heavy in my stomach. After we finished, I paid the tab — our food plus everyone’s coffee — and Emma and I left, telling the old timers goodbye until the next time, probably tomorrow.
We drove home in silence, Emma sticking her arm out the window and opening her hand to the breeze. She didn’t seem troubled by the lack of conversation, which was good. I couldn’t shake the worry that was turning in my gut. I was sick from putting food on top of all that unease.
I couldn’t deny that things were getting serious with Emma. Hell, I’d fully admit that I loved her and wanted to spend my life with her, but I didn’t know how she felt. She liked me, I knew that, but if she felt the same way about me that I did about her, that spelled trouble for me and Lacey. I dreaded the moment the woman I loved would ask me to choose between her and my best friend. I wasn’t ready for it.
And, I had no idea what I would do if she asked me. Refusing to pick at all was the same as picking Lacey. And picking Emma would mean stabbing Lacey right in the middle of the back.
We pulled up into the driveway, and saw that Lacey was here already. The sliding door to the barn was open. Emma looked just as relaxed and content as usual when we climbed out of the truck, dressed in her usual t-shirt, jeans, and boots, her dark hair pulled into a tight ponytail.
“I’ve got to spend all day at the back of the property working on the fence line. There’s plenty to do.” I really did have a pile of wood that I’d bought a few weeks ago and piled into the back of the storage barn. And, there really were a few hundred yards of fencing that could use repairing, but it wasn’t an emergency. In this weather, it would be long, sweaty work. I was saving it for the late fall after the weather cooled. But I needed some time to get things figured out, and I could barely think with Emma around. “I might not see you before you leave tonight.”
She kicked the dirt with the toe of her boot, a small smile on her face as she looked up at me.
“You want to come by for dinner tomorrow night?” I asked. “We could grill.”
She nodded, her smile expanding to put a twinkle in her dark green eyes. “That sounds nice. I can bring dessert and a few sides since you’re doing the grilling.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said.
I watched her walk off to the barn, enjoying the sight of her swinging hips and firm little ass in her jeans. I wandered back up to the house and went inside. I had a lot of thinking to get done today. I might as well just go start on that damned fence. Sweating hard cleared my mind and made it easier to puzzle through my problems.
I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t good at making hard choices. And, I never wanted to betray anyone I cared about. I loved both of these women in different ways. I wanted them both in my life. If I had to choose, I knew I’d never be happy with the consequences either way.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Emma
Friday
I finished my work in the barn just as the sun was setting. I gave the horses each a good scratch before I left, sliding the door shut behind me. Pete wasn’t up on the porch. I squinted in the direction of the rear of the property, but it was a long ways off.
I hadn’t seen him since breakfast. Things between us had been good, natural, on the way to the Texan. But then Big Tom had to go and say that stuff about us reminding him of the relationship he’d had his wife. I’d thought it sweet at the time, but Pete got strange immediately after that, staying distant all the way back to the farm before he scurried the hell off and stayed scarce all day.
I wanted to talk to him about all this, hating to leave things as uneasy as they were, but maybe this was his way of telling me he needed his space. We were seeing each other tomorrow night. I’d see how things were then. Maybe he had something else going on that he needed to work through.