Chapter 7

7

STERLING

A few days had gone by since I'd arrived back in Allisburg, and I was finally starting to feel a little bit more settled. Things had changed a lot here. There was no denying that, but in many ways, they had also stayed the same.

Such as the fact that my dad was still up before dawn every morning and spent his days out in the field. After my first failed attempt at a conversation with him, I'd tried a few more times, but I hadn't really gotten through to him.

It had become crystal clear that he didn't really want me here. We'd barely spoken since I'd arrived, but when we had talked, we had only wound up bickering and he made a few gruff comments before he'd taken off again.

At this point, I was unsure how to have a relationship with him, if he even wanted to have one with me again. But at least I was here, trying. I couldn't say the same for him.

On the other hand, he'd basically written me off as soon as he'd realized I had no intention of sticking around to take over the farm from him when he retired. The property had been in his family for generations, and it was always passed from one son to the next.

I was the first who had broken the mold, and unfortunately for my father, he didn't have any other sons—or daughters—to pass it to. He and my mom had tried, but she'd told me once that the fact they'd even had me had been a miracle.

Making the decision to leave regardless had been the most difficult thing I'd ever done, but Northfield Farms was a sinking ship. It had been since before my birth, and while it had looked a lot better back when Mom had been alive, we'd never exactly been well off.

At first, I had thought I would go to business school, get a job, make some money, and send the bulk of it home to my parents. I'd figured it would allow them to appoint a farm manager eventually when Dad was ready to take a step back. It'd seemed like the only solution.

Before my mom had passed, I had sent money home every month, but then suddenly, Dad had stopped cashing my checks. As if he didn't want me to exist anymore either.

I sighed as I made my way down the stairs to his home office. Every morning when he went out, I sat down behind his desk and I was making my way through the books. Dad still kept them by hand, but at least I was making headway.

I sat down with a cup of coffee and dragged my fingers through my hair. The ancient desktop computer in front of me was so old, I was surprised it wasn't steam powered. With a machine like that, it was no wonder he still preferred pen and paper. Part of me was tempted to buy him a new laptop, put all the software on it he could ever possibly need for the farm, and offer to help him learn the ropes, but the bigger part of me knew he'd never accept it.

I would tell him to buy it for the farm himself, but I'd learned that Northfield Farms was barely breaking even. The fact it was breaking even at all had been more of a surprise than finding out it was only just scraping by.

Plus, the computer needed to be replaced, but that was far from the biggest problem. The house needed some serious work. The barns needed serious work. So did the trucks, the tractors, and just about everything else around here.

After spending another hour laboriously deciphering my dad's scribbles, I decided that it was time to take matters into my own hands. I had about five and a half more weeks before I had to head back to the city and that was enough time to do something about the worst of it.

Jake would have all the materials I needed to fix a few things myself and all the teams I could ask for to do the jobs I couldn't. Dad was clearly happy letting this place go to shit, but it wasn't going to fall apart any further on my watch.

I stood up and carefully put all Dad's stuff back the way it had been. Then I grabbed Eric's keys and pulled a ballcap from the coat rack by the front door onto my head. Fitting it the way I liked, I headed out, sliding on my sunglasses against the sharp glare of the morning sun and jogging to the truck.

Driving over to Garrisons' Construction Yard, I was once again struck by how little had changed around here. While there were some newer sections in town and a tiny bit of development around the outskirts, the farmland had mostly remained untouched.

A smile curved my lips when I drove past the spot where that party had been and I glanced at the corner where I'd finally caught up to Daphne, remembering the surprise that had washed over her features when I'd told her that if she didn't want a ride, I'd walk her home.

Reminiscing until I pulled up at Jake's lot, I was yanked out of my thoughts when I saw him penning a tall blonde woman against a truck. His head was bent, his lips skimming her neck as his body pegged her against the cherry red pickup I'd seen him climb into last night.

For just a moment, I wondered what the fuck he was up to. None of us had been known for keeping it in our pants back in high school, but we'd always been solid when we'd been in relationships. Now, he was married and?—

That's Rachel , I realized with a start when he finally stepped away and I saw her incredibly swollen belly. Blinking hard, I swallowed back a wave of guilt over even having had the thought I'd just had. Of course, he's making out with his pregnant wife in the middle of the damn day. This is Allisburg. That's life around here.

Slow and steady. People popping in to see their spouses rather than their mistresses at work. Very public displays of affection that others thought were adorable—as long as there were rings on both parties' fingers.

I inhaled deeply before slapping a smile on my face and parking next to Jake's truck. Surprise registered on his features when he saw me, but Rachel scowled before he nudged her. She finally forced a smile onto her own face and gave me a friendly smile when I got out.

"Hey, Sterling," she said. "Long time."

"It sure has been," I replied, wondering what that scowl had been about. "Congratulations, by the way. On the marriage and the baby."

She nodded tightly, but Jake stepped forward with a much warmer grin than the one I was getting from his wife. "If you're here to find out if I can grab lunch with you, the answer is no. I'm just about to head out for a job."

"Of course, man. I get it. I'm actually here to find out if you've got space on your dance card for some work at the farm."

He paused, sliding his sunglasses off his face to stare at me with questions in his eyes. "Care to elaborate a little bit?"

"Happy to. As long as you've got time. If you need to head out, I'll buy you a drink later and we can talk about it?"

He checked his watch. "I've got a few minutes."

Rachel slid her arm around his shoulders, rose up on her toes, and kissed his cheek. "That's my cue. Sterling, it was good to see you, finally. I'm glad you're home and I hope you and I get to catch up sometime. Jakey-babe, you've got your lunch, so I'll see you later."

He turned to her, sliding his arms around her waist and laying another hard kiss on her. I knew I should probably look away. At least pretend to give them some privacy, but instead, I felt a little pang of something that might've been jealousy as I watched them kiss.

Rachel was positively glowing, but the jealousy wasn't because I wanted her. She'd always been a gorgeous girl. We'd started calling Jake Barbie after he'd asked her out on their first date. Mostly because as a couple, they looked like Ken and Barbie, but since she'd decided what they would be doing that night, we teased him about her being the one who would wear the pants in their relationship, and as such, he'd become Barbie and she'd become Ken.

Either way, gorgeous or not, I'd never been attracted to her. As I looked at her, I was happy that I still wasn't attracted to her, but that pang was definitely there.

"Jake forgot his lunch at home," she explained and I blinked hard before turning my attention back on her. "I just came to drop it off for him. Have fun, boys. I'll see you later."

With that, she waggled her fingers at us and climbed into a station wagon on the other side of Jake's truck, then drove away after blowing him another kiss. I elbowed him once she was gone, grinning.

"I still can't believe you're married, man. What's that like?"

He shrugged, chuckling as he inclined his head toward a makeshift site office nearby. "Let me get us something cold to drink before I tell you. You're going to need it."

"Sheesh. I thought gentlemen didn't kiss and tell," I joked, finding myself falling into old patterns with him a little easier today than it had been that first night.

He winked. "I never claimed to be a gentleman, but I was joking. I'd never talk about my wife that way. So what's up at the farm, man? What kind of work do you need to have done?"

I followed him into the office and accepted a bottle of water, then leaned against the wall. He jotted down some notes as I spoke. "I'm not sure when you were out there last, but there's a lot of maintenance that needs to be done. If you'll let me borrow some of your tools, I can get started on the basics, but there's a lot more than just fixing leaky faucets, if you know what I mean."

"Sure," he said. "Help yourself to anything you need. As long as you know how to use it." He suddenly eyed me skeptically, but I saw the humor lighting his eyes. "Wait. You do still know how to use this kind of stuff, right? You haven't gotten all fancy on us and forgotten how to fix even a leaky faucet, have you?"

I laughed. "Please. You wish. I spent the first eighteen years of my life as manual labor on that farm. I've still got it."

He chuckled. "Good to know. In that case, tell me more about the work you're not planning on doing yourself."

"Well, I think it'll probably be best if you came out sometime to take a look for yourself, but here's the list I've made." I reached into my back pocket and pulled out a scrap of paper I'd been writing stuff down on since I'd gotten back.

Jake looked it over, nodding occasionally as he made more notes of his own. "Okay, good. We can handle all of this. I'll throw together a contract and let you know when it's done. Maybe you can come over to the house and we'll go over it?"

"Sure, man. Sounds good. You haven't told me what it's like to be married yet, though."

After checking his watch again, he swigged his water and relaxed back in his chair. A grin spread on his lips as he glanced at the window. "It's great, North. Really. I think even you would love it."

Both of my eyebrows arched. "I don't know about that."

He laughed. "No, seriously. You really should come over sometime. You'll see. Daphne likes to joke that whenever she's been to our house, she feels like she should just go buy herself her own engagement ring so she can get a head start getting what we have."

My interest suddenly piqued. "Daphne? Honestly, I'm actually a little surprised she's not married. I thought she would be."

"Yeah, everyone thought she was going to end up marrying Peter. God, they practically were married. Just without the rings, but I don't know. Something happened between them. He left town and that was the last we ever saw of the guy."

I frowned. "Peter?"

"Peter Jacobson," he said, staring at me like I should've known who he was talking about. "Sneaky Pete?"

My eyes widened when I finally realized I did know who he was talking about. "She dated that asshole? Seriously?"

I'd never liked the guy. We'd played football together and he'd always been such a dick that, internally, I'd cheered loudest of all whenever he'd gotten tackled.

Jake shrugged. "Very seriously. Like I said, we all thought they'd end up getting married."

"So what happened?" I asked.

"No idea," he said, his gaze becoming slightly unfocused. "Eric's never talked about it much and neither has Daphne. Rachel has mentioned some stuff over the years, but I think it's probably best to ask Daph about it directly if you want to know."

"Yeah. Of course." I nodded slowly, pushing away from the wall. "I was just curious, is all. If the opportunity ever presents itself, I'll ask, but it's not really any of my business."

"You're damn right about that." He gave me a strange look. "You haven't forgotten who she is, right?"

I scoffed. "Eric's baby sister and your wife's best friend. I was really just curious, Barbie. Relax. I'm just trying to get caught up on everything I missed around here."

"A lot," he said, sincerity in his eyes. He stood up after checking his watch again. "You missed a lot, but you're here now. I've got to get going, but I'll have that contract drawn up and I'll call you."

"Thanks, Jake," I said. "I appreciate it. I'd feel a lot better if I went home knowing things at the farm were looking better."

Hesitating behind his desk, he gave me another strange look. "Funny. I thought you were home. I'll see you around, North."

He shook his head, striding out from behind his desk and leaving me to follow him out of his office. I frowned, almost calling him back to ask what his problem was, but I'd already held him up for long enough. Whatever was going on, we could talk about it when he wasn't on his way to a job.

I hadn't come here to interfere with their work or their livelihoods, so I let him go for now, climbing back into Eric's truck with his sister still on my mind. Curious about her, I drove by the bakery on my way back to the farmhouse, but I didn't go inside.

I still didn't plan on ever going in there again, and besides, I had no clue why Daphne kept popping up in my head or why exactly I was so curious about her. She'd grown up beautiful and all, but like Jake had just reminded me, she was not someone I should've been so damn curious about.

Shutting down that line of thinking, I pulled over at one of my favorite spots near the pond on the farm and checked my email out of habit. To my surprise, I had a message about a planning committee meeting at the high school tomorrow and I groaned.

I'd almost forgotten about the reunion again, but it seemed like my time here in Allisburg was going to be busier than I'd originally anticipated.

But I was finding that I didn't mind it so much at all.