Chapter Seven: Andrew

The sound of the curtain grommets scratching across the rod was a noise I was becoming all too familiar with. Unwillingly used to. Even after three weeks, I anticipated the commotion at 6:00 a.m.—the time Kelsey determined I needed to wake up. She often used the phrase “Early bird gets the worm.”

Little did she know 6:00 a.m. was sleeping in for me. My normal mornings at the farm began at four or five. I blamed the meds I took. Kelsey refused to let me skip them. After the first day of back stretches, I knew why. I’d nearly cried during the process.

But I was dreading today. My little ball of terror had decided we’d start a new round of exercises her ex-coworker, Jackson, had drummed up. She mentioned it the night before, when she saw that some of my swelling started to go down.

“Good morning, sunshine!”

Grabbing the pillow next to me, I placed it on my face and held it down with my arm. “Kill me now,” I mumbled into the squishy mound.

“Aw, don’t say that.” Not a second later, the pillow was pulled off my face, and I stared up at the woman who was becoming far too comfortable in my presence.

“Why are you so chipper in the morning? Not even Nash likes to wake up early.”

I watched as she shrugged and went to my dresser to pull out clothing for me.

“My dad and I used to always wake up early to watch the sunrise. I guess it’s just a habit I never grew out of. Plus, I don’t need much sleep to get by.”

“Must be nice to be young,” I told her, remembering our conversation the other night about our difference in age. She was barely twenty-six, the same age as my little sister, Aspen.

“Or maybe it’s because I can’t wait another second more to see your growly face. Now, let’s get dressed and then get started. I made you a protein shake this morning.”

“You didn’t have to do that.” I scoffed as I pulled on my T-shirt she brought over. Dressing was starting to get easier, and so were my movements. Kelsey still had to help with anything that required me to bend my leg, but that was becoming easier as well.

The doctor allowed me to start using the crutches last week, and I was finally getting used to them. The best part was not having to get Kelsey’s assistance when I needed to use the restroom.

It had been one of the more embarrassing times in my life. Top ten for sure, though I had a feeling number one would never be surpassed. That was a whole other reason I wanted out of this town as fast as I could. Since I’d been back, I hadn’t run into my ex—the person associated with my number-one spot.

I knew that moment would happen soon enough.

“You know, we’ve been doing a lot of hiding out since I’ve been here. What do you think about venturing into town today?” she asked with hope in her eyes. It was a Saturday, and the famous Ashfield Farmers Market was in full swing. I wondered which one of my sisters was tasked with running our family’s booth this time.

My first inclination was to shoot her down immediately. I didn't like the idea of everyone in town knowing I was holed up with an injury. But with the way the Ashfield gossip chain worked, I was sure everyone already knew.

She looked so hopeful as she added, “We can take it slow.”

My shoulders slumped as I replied, “Fine.”

Kelsey nearly jumped into my arms as she clapped and jumped around with joy. “Oh, thank you. I know you’re the reclusive type, but I need more than a daily trip to the coffee shop. I like being around people.”

“You don’t have to stay, Kelsey. No one is making you,” I declared, instantly regretting the way it made the smile slip off her face.

“I know I don’t have to do anything, but I think we’re making progress. And whether you want to admit it or not, I’m growing on you.”

“On my nerves maybe,” I relented, even though, in truth, she wasn’t wrong. I was starting to look forward to the way she moved around the small house with me. I’d never lived with a woman besides growing up with my family. In college, Nate had been my roommate. And since high school, I’d never been in a serious-enough relationship for it to be something to consider, despite some of the women’s demands to move in with me. My lifestyle was too chaotic for that.

But Kelsey? She was… tolerable.

“Maybe we can even take your truck today.”

We’d been using her car, since she was more comfortable driving it, but I assured her the year-old short-bed pickup was just as easy to drive.

As I drank the shake, I watched her move around the living room, tidying up after herself. She never once complained about sleeping on the air mattress or living out of her suitcases. I didn’t think even my sisters were capable of being so laid back.

Of course, with the help of Nate, I used his tech-whiz skills to deposit ten thousand dollars into her checking account. Either she found out already and was uncomfortable mentioning anything, which was what I hoped for, or she hadn’t even realized it had been deposited.

“Ready?” she asked as she slipped on a pair of cowboy boots that looked eerily similar to a pair my sister Aspen owned.

“Yep,” I said, grabbing my ball cap off the counter. It was a good substitute for the cowboy hat I usually wore around the ranch, though I preferred the latter.

“Oh, shoot,” Kelsey called out as she grabbed her phone. “I need to take this.”

“No sweat.”

She walked toward the French door that led to the back porch and stepped outside, but she didn’t close it all the way. Her voice came out in soft waves as she greeted her mom.

While they chatted, I pulled up my personal email. A few were from other riders checking up on me, while the group who put on the rodeo where I was injured wanted to know where they could send the check for my winnings and invited me back whenever I wanted—entrance fee waived. That wasn’t a typical offer, and it surprised me.

In my response, I typed out the mailing address of a P.O. Box I had in town and asked them how the horse I’d ridden was doing. No one mentioned if he had been injured as well. If he had been, it could unfortunately mean he’d be euthanized. If that was the case, I was hoping there was enough time to request the horse be transferred over to my farm instead. Sunny Brook Farms didn’t raise horses, but we kept a few on property, and most of them were rescues. We found my horse, Thunderbolt, in an abandoned stable when he was still a colt two counties over, and he came to the farm the same day.

“Sorry about that,” Kelsey said as she stepped back inside. Her mood had changed, and I noticed her quick smile had withered away.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “It’s just my mom. Sometimes, she can be… difficult.”

“How so?” I asked as I handed her the bottle of water she filled earlier.

“She…. Well… we aren’t close, but I’m trying to change that. Most of our conversations only center around her, and I know she means well, but it’s… a lot sometimes.”

“How old were you when your parents divorced?” I asked as she closed the front door behind us after I hobbled onto the porch with my crutches.

“I was three. My dad had a hard time with my mom. He used to say she acted like she never wanted a child to begin with and had done it for him. Dad never talked badly about her, but I could tell, as I got older, he wanted to keep me at a distance.”

“I’m sorry, Kelsey.”

“It’s okay. I’m trying to make things right with her, but keep her at arm’s length too, you know? I just want to have some sort of family in my life.”

“I get it.”

We stood at the open passenger door of the truck, and I tossed my crutches in behind the seat. Without Kelsey’s assistance, I hoisted myself into the seat using the oh-shit handles.

“Um… guess you don’t need my help with that,” she said with a pout, ducking her head as she closed the door. The expression made it hit home for me just how much she truly enjoyed being helpful.

Finally, she settled in the driver’s seat and made her adjustments, pulling her hair into a high ponytail before she lowered the windows.

“Ready?”

When I nodded, she carefully backed out of the driveway, and we were on our way to the market.

As we walked around, I did my best to ignore everyone’s prying eyes. News had clearly traveled that I was injured, but no one seemed to know how. The consensus Kelsey overheard was that they assumed it happened on the ranch.

I wasn’t about to tell anyone they were wrong.

I hobbled behind Kelsey as she made her way into each booth, greeting people like she’d known them her entire life. And they seemed to know her too. They would ask about her place in Nashville, what she was reading this week, and if she liked whatever she bought from them the last time she was at the market. Her tote was already almost full to the brim by the time we made it halfway around the market to where my family’s booth was set up.

It seemed this week fell on Owen and Aspen, as they leaned across the display and spoke with a customer.

Kelsey waited patiently for the person to purchase their produce before she addressed the duo.

“Hey, guys. Look who I dragged out of the house today,” she announced with a flourish, as if she was one of the models on the game show The Price is Right .

Aspen’s mouth hung agape as she took me in. Visiting the farmers market wasn’t a normal outing for me, even when I was feeling 100 percent, so being there while I was on crutches was even more shocking for everyone.

It was even more surprising for my sister, since I still refused to have anyone over to visit after they ganged up on me three weeks ago.

“Wow, he lives.” My youngest sibling stared at me wide-eyed in not-quite-fake shock. Thankfully, her fiancé had the decency to move around the booth and shake my hand. The crutches made it challenging, but I was getting better about moving around with them.

“Good to see you, Andrew,” he said genuinely, and it brought me back to the first time I learned Kelsey was in Ashfield. She had shown up at the front door of the bed-and-and-breakfast in town, where Owen’s mother worked as a manager, and asked for him when Beverly greeted her. I never met the woman, only overheard who she was looking for, but immediately assumed she was there to see Owen for nefarious purposes. I made it known to everyone there that day that I was unhappy with her presence.

Only minutes later, I felt like an ass, because little did I know she was actually there on behalf of Owen’s baseball team to help with his arm and his training for the next season. A fact I learned as I hovered in the hallway to eavesdrop without ever laying eyes on her, then promptly stomped off, mad at myself for being a jerk for no reason.

“Everything okay here?” I asked him, never once caring how the stand was performing. It was a passion project of my sisters, to carry on the legacy of their great-great-grandmother—on their dad’s side. Sunny Brook Farms had belonged to the Easterlys since Ashfield was founded.

More reason I felt like an outsider taking it over.

“Yeah. Mrs. Hensen came by earlier and showed us a blurry picture of the vegetable art project she’s been working on for the Fall Festival happening next month. It is… detailed.” I only heard bits and pieces of the story from Kelsey during her constant chatter, but the wild widow, as I’d dubbed Mrs. Hensen, was making life-sized statues of my brothers-in-law, and her method was using vegetables.

“Well, I can’t wait to see it,” I told him, which was followed abruptly by a gasp from Aspen. I already knew what she was going to say.

“You’re going to the Fall Festival?” we asked in unison, me putting on a high-pitched voice to mimic her, and I couldn’t hold back my laugh as she snarled at me.

“I figured, since I’m once again a resident of Ashfield, that I should probably go. And if my knee still needs some work, then I’m certain my handler won’t let me miss out.”

Thinking about her leaving when my knee got better left an ache in my chest, and I didn’t know why. The woman was stubborn and annoying, and as I watched the sun shimmer down on top of her head as she spoke with my sister, I realized she was absolutely breathtaking.

“Fuck,” I moaned and caught Owen’s snicker.

“Oh, damn. I can’t believe I’m seeing it with my own eyes. You like her.”

“I tolerate her,” I argued.

“Naw, you like her. I can tell.”

Turning away from the beauty before us, I faced the newest member of our family. “And how is that?”

“Because you are looking at her the same way I look at your sister, the way your sisters’ husbands all look at them, and the way your dad looks at your mom.” I didn’t bother correcting him about Nash being my dad. I was too busy wondering if he was right. He couldn’t be. I was almost fifteen years older than Kelsey.

“I’m too old to even be thinking about her that way.”

He shrugged. “Colton and Nate are fourteen years older than your other sisters. And I don’t know Kelsey well, but from the times I’ve spent with her, she’s definitely an old soul.”

I came to the same conclusion, but that didn’t change the forbidden aspect of thinking about her intimately. And that was all it could ever be. I didn’t do relationships.

She was also Rory’s best friend—a bridge I didn’t want to cross.

But as she turned to look at me and our gazes caught, I wondered if maybe it would be worth the attempt.

“Oh, man. I can’t wait to see this unfold,” Owen added as he stepped back over to Aspen and wrapped her in his arms.

“Ready to keep moving, or do you want to rest for a bit? Aspen said they have a couple of chairs in the truck you could use,” Kelsey asked as she reached out and ran her hand over my bicep.

I wasn’t sure if she was even aware of the movement.

“No, I’m okay. We can keep going.”

Nodding, she said goodbye to my family and journeyed over to the next booth, while I flicked-off my soon-to-be brother-in-law.

“Asshole,” I mumbled as he laughed into my sister’s hair.

By the time I caught up to Kelsey, she’d already passed three booths, and I found her surrounded by homemade salsas.

“Look at all the different varieties,” she said in awe. “Chips and salsa is one of my favorite snacks.”

“I like the one with the green lid. That’s what my mom uses.”

Smiling up at me as she grabbed the jar, she stated, “Sold,” and handed over some cash to the vendor, then placed the jar in her ever-expanding bag. I felt like by the end of the day, she was going to resemble Mary Poppins , with the bottomless carpet bag.

I only knew of the movie because Autumn and Alex watched it and tried to jump off the barn roof while holding umbrellas. The movie was a staple on the nights I had to babysit.

“Oooh. Soaps. I’m going to look here for a moment.”

She stepped farther into the booth and went about sniffing each one. I used the time to scroll through my phone, noticing a response from the rodeo. It read that the horse was being well taken care of. They were against killings of any kind.

Smiling at the notion that the horse was no worse for wear than I was, I scrolled through the endless messages in my spam folder from women I’d seen a time or two. I always made it known that things were never going to be serious, and when they started to look at me that way, I was out. It was a fact I clarified every time I would sleep with someone. Most were fine, but there were a few clingers who would continue to message me. I even had some show up looking for me at the condo I owned in Knoxville, though I never brought a woman there. I usually went back to their place or found a hotel.

The messages all said the same thing: I miss you. I love you. Don’t you want to get together again? You’re an asshole. I thought what we had was special.

The same thing over and over. It was tiring.

I’d been practically celibate since the last woman I slept with sent me a picture of our future children after using an AI app that mashed our features together. Since then, I’d sworn off women. Which was probably a good thing, considering Kelsey. I wasn’t leading with my cock.

Tucking my phone back into my pocket, I watched as Kelsey walked over with her nose scrunched and her face a pale shade of green.

“Everything okay?” I asked her.

“Yeah. I don’t know if the ingredients were expired, but the last bar of soap made me want to throw up. Completely gross.”

“I’m sorry. Why don’t you take some deep breaths?”

Without skipping a beat, she followed my instructions and closed her eyes, inhaling the autumn air.

“Better?”

“I’m good. I mentioned it to the teen who’s working the booth, and she didn’t believe me. She was taking a big whiff to see for herself as I was leaving. Oh well. Can we go over to the library booth? I’d love to see if she got in any new thrillers.”

Casually, I strolled behind her, the crunch of my feet and the crutches on the loose gravel its own slow melody mixed with her faster pace.

She loaded her arms with seven books she wanted to read, claiming I bored her to tears when I only conversed in grunts and growls.

“Want to get lunch? The Purple Goat has some great sandwiches.” I nearly tripped when I made the suggestion, surprising myself.

“That sounds great! I don’t mind cooking, but I can only eat so much of those frozen casseroles.”

I was tired of them too. I tried to convince Kelsey to cook whenever I could, but she wanted to go through the things people made first. I was hoping I’d soon be able to stand long enough to cook for her . Another first for me.

“Are you sure you’re not too worn out? I don’t want you to overdo it.”

“I’m fine, Kelsey. Don’t worry about me.”

“That’s literally my job right now.”

“What if it wasn’t? Would you still worry then?” I asked the question jokingly, but the muscle inside my chest sprang to life as it waited to hear her answer.

She pursed her lips as she thought it over, then shrugged as she replied, “Probably.”

Together, we walked to The Purple Goat—a staple in Ashfield. I thought of suggesting Angelo’s, the Italian restaurant a block away, but Harold made the best sandwiches in town. I was also hoping I could grab a beer, since I stopped my medicine last week.

As we stepped inside, the crowd quieted but then went on about their business. Usually, the nosy patrons would start up with their gossiping the moment two people walked through the door. Thankfully, the news of my injury was going to sidestep that humiliation.

Harold greeted us himself and slapped a gentle hand on my shoulder when he congratulated me on moving back home. Over the last year, I’d been commuting between Ashfield and Knoxville, but right before my fall, I officially changed all my addresses to Ashfield.

I ordered two double cheeseburgers, and Kelsey—shockingly—ordered the same. When Harold and I looked at her, flabbergasted, her shoulders rose.

“I’m hungry, and it sounded good. Oh, and a milkshake too. Thanks.”

“I’ll take whatever light beer you have on draft.” I peered over the menu at Kelsey to see if she’d object, but she just handed her menu to Harold and smiled at the older man.

We sat across from each other in the booth, making small talk about the game playing on the TV nearby, and she gave some hints about how she lost her job. I think she realized early on that I had a bit of a temper, and if I had all my limbs in full working order, I’d go make an example of her ex. It was unfortunate she wouldn’t disclose his name.

Too bad for her, I knew ways to figure those things out.

We both quieted as the meals came, and I was surprised once again when Kelsey met me bite for bite.

“Oh my God. These are so good. Best burgers I’ve ever had.”

“Can’t beat farm to table.”

“I’m so glad I didn’t know about the burgers here before today. Otherwise, I’d have eaten here every day, and I would be of no use to you.” Giggling, she added, “You’ll probably have to roll me home.”

Reaching out, I laid my hand on top of hers. “You’d still be beautiful.”

Silence fell over the table, but she didn’t slip her hand away, nor did I pull mine back. I waited for her reaction, but instead, Harold chose that moment to set the check down on the table, and we both pulled our hands away like they were on fire, then reached for the bill.

“Let me get this,” she said, but I shook my head.

“Absolutely not.”

“Can I at least pay for mine?”

“No.”

“Andrew,” she said in a low, angry voice that I found adorable.

I mimicked her tone. “Kelsey.”

Pulling out my wallet, I slapped my black card on the table, knowing Harold would scoot back around for it. She leaned back against the booth and crossed her arms against her chest, pouting like a toddler.

“You have medical bills to pay for. I know how pricey that can be, even with insurance. I can cover my share.”

I knew she was being serious, but all I could do was laugh. My outburst caused people at surrounding tables to turn around and gape in our direction. Probably because they’d never heard the jovial sound come out of me before.

“Sweetheart, do you have any idea how much money I have?”

“I… I didn’t mean anything by the comment, Andrew.” She obviously thought my question was coming from a place of wounded male pride, as if I might be offended she thought I might struggle to pay my bills.

It didn’t. The thought was just sincerely laughable, knowing the truth of my bank account.

“I know you didn’t. That’s why I’ll tell you. I invested in Nate’s software when he was first starting out. That investment has had an exponential return.”

“I don’t know what that means, and I really don’t need to.”

“Kelsey, I’m worth almost as much as Nate, and he’s a billionaire, all because I believed in him. Which wasn’t much of a gamble, because he was a damn genius even back then. So, please, if I want to buy your lunch, let me.”

Harold picked up the check and my card, and Kelsey narrowed her eyes in my direction as he stepped away.

“Am I supposed to act differently around you now?”

I blew out a puff of air and relaxed back against my seat, stretching my other leg out so that my calf brushed against hers. She immediately stiffened, and that rosiness I loved so much blossomed across her chest and cheeks.

“I sure as hell hope not.”

“Okay, good. Because even if you’re rich, you’re still an asshole most of the time.”