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“DANG YOU,” LEXIE SAID. She pushed and shoved, groaning loudly.
Bracing her back against the Black Angus, she leaned all her weight on him, pushing into his muscular side, but he wouldn’t budge. He stood in the middle of the road, unaware of the cramp in Lexie’s side or her fatigue after two long hours of trying to wrangle the rogue cow.
She glanced at her watch and grimaced at the time—twelve o’clock in the afternoon. Lexie had returned to the house after being dismissed from the Dodson Market only to find one of their Angus cows had somehow managed to get loose.
Spotting a car in the distance, she stepped back from the road. Like the others, the car slowed almost to a complete stop and steered around the giant cow with a wave and sympathetic smile.
“I wish you’d just run over the darned thing,” she yelled as the car drove out of sight.
She was angry, not only at the cow but at her mother for treating her as if she was incompetent, incapable. Or rather, maybe it was her situation that she was angry with. Her pregnancy rendered her incompetent (at least in her mother and father’s opinion), and, obviously, she was incapable of changing her condition.
She was tired and cranky. Her appetite was insatiable, and this morning, her feet had begun to swell in the late-June heat.
She stepped closer to the cow, reaching for him, but he dodged her. She stumbled forward and launched herself at the animal once more, this time grabbing him around the neck, and pulled with all her might. Nothing.
Lexie whistled, like Timmy calling Lassie, then softened her voice, trying a new tactic. “Come here, baby. Come on, boy.” She tugged lightly, but the stubborn cow still wouldn’t budge.
“Ahhhh.” Lexie beat her curled fists on the cow’s side, but he just looked back at her, ears twitching, with a bored expression, like she was nothing more than a pesky fly. like she was an inconvenient fly. His big, brown eyes blinked back at her in question.
“You stupid thing!” Lexie stomped her foot. “Fine. I’m going to leave you here. I don’t care. You’ll be roadkill in no time.” Lexie crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m serious. I’m leaving.” Lexie stuck her chin out and turned around, ready to walk back toward the house when she halted in her tracks, coming face-to-face with a grinning Elliot.
His truck idled on the side of the road, indicating that he must have been standing there for several minutes, which meant he witnessed her little tirade. Great.
Lexie’s face flushed. She straightened her shirt and tried to compose herself.
“Hey, there,” Elliot said. “Looks like you could use some help.”
Lexie screwed up her face and glanced back at the stubborn beast. If looks could kill, the cow would’ve been dinner.
She turned back to Elliot, who chuckled and said, “How long have you been trying to get him?”
“Two hours.”
Elliot raised his brows. “Let me see if I can help.”
With a nonchalance that Lexie both envied and hated, Elliot walked back to his truck and retrieved a rope from the bed. He formed a loop with it, moved to the cow’s side, and slipped the rope over the cow’s neck with the dexterity of a regular farmhand. Then he gave the animal a soft pat, made eye contact and said, “Let’s go.” Slowly, he began to walk across the road.
The slack tightened, and at the gentle tug of the rope, the cow began to move forward, with Elliot leading. Lexie gaped.
Once they both moved completely off the road, she hurried after them, her hands balled into fists. They walked swiftly, but that didn’t stop Lexie from hurrying to catch up. But trying to keep pace with Elliot, meant doubling her effort, considering her bulging stomach.
Her breath came out harder than she would have liked. She imagined she looked as large as the cow but continued to walk alongside them anyway.
She peered up at Elliot, tentatively, her hands still clenched into fists. “How did you do it? You were here one minute, and all you have to do is say, let’s go, and the cow just moves along as if it were nothing?”
Elliot shrugged, which only annoyed her more. Gritting her teeth, she narrowed her eyes at him, eliciting a chuckle from his full lips. “Your parents have problems with the fence from time-to-time. It’s not the first time they’ve had one of the cows or horses get lose. It’s all about how you talk to them though that gets ‘em to do what you want.”
“No. I tried talking nicely to him. It didn’t—”
Elliot shook his head. “There was an underlying tension in your voice. You just need to be natural. If they sense anxiety or tension, you’re done for.”
Lexie rolled her eyes. “What are you? The cow whisperer?”
Elliot said nothing, just smiled.
They stared off into the distance while they walked, the ensuing silence between them deafening. Lexie continued to follow Elliot, stopping by the barn while he put the cow back to pasture. He secured the fence and returned to where she stood.
Staring down at her, his eyes brightened until they were the same shade as the sky. Unsure of what to say, she realized how badly she wanted him to stay and how glad she was to see him.
Elliot broke the silence first. “So, what are you doing up here by yourself wrangling cows? Shouldn’t you be resting?”
Lexie cursed the heat that rose to her cheeks at Elliot’s indirect referral to her pregnancy. Wishing away her the baby inside her womb, she glanced down at her stomach, the child within a constant barrier between herself and the world. “I was working on the farm, but Mom sent me home. She said that I shouldn’t be on my feet all day, which is nonsense. They need the help.”
The truth was, Lexie needed the distraction more than they required the help. The first week at the market, and the pick-your-own berries had gone off without a hitch. Everything was running smoothly and between the locals, tourists, and others passing through to areas such as Lake Erie and the trailing vineyards, sales were steady. The Dodson’s were set to make a bigger profit than ever.
Elliot nodded. “I actually just came from there. The place looks great. Phil did a really nice job of setting everything up.”
At the mention of her brother’s name, Lexie bristled. She wondered if he and Elliot talked, and if they did, what kind of things they had to say. The way Elliot said Phil’s name, so comfortable on his lips, left her wondering if they had become friends in her absence. Did they have reams to discuss? Did they talk about her disappearance? Her unwanted return?
“What were you up there for? Shopping?” she asked.
Elliot’s gaze found hers, boring into her and freezing every muscle in her body. She tried to focus on the steady in-and-out of her breath but found focusing at all, difficult. “No. Actually, I came looking for you.”
Lexie’s stomach dipped, and her head spun. Even though his words sent a jolt of electricity down her spine, she tried to ignore it.
But he came for me...
Last week’s conversation, the barrage of questions he confronted her with, flashed through her mind, disheartening her. He hadn’t forgiven her for leaving, and who could blame him? But whatever he wanted from her, it was probably nothing more than another quest for closure.
“What do you want from me? I already told you why I left. You want more?” she asked, her voice shaking with repressed emotion.
“No.” Elliot pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “I mean, yes. I want to know more about why you left. But I don’t need to know right now. I just want...I don’t know what I want.” He shoved his hands in his pocket and stared at the ground as he began to pace in front of her. Then after a moment, he stopped, looked up and said, “When you left, I didn’t just lose my fiancé or my future wife. I lost my best friend. A piece of me went with you...” his voice trailed off.
“Elliot,” Lexie warned, because she couldn’t listen to this. Not now. She had enough on her shoulders. How could she explain that she had lost her best friend too? All the things Elliot felt, she felt as well. But leaving was something she had to do—she had no choice.
He reached out and trailed a finger across the side of her face. Fire blazed a trail everywhere he touched. “Can we just spend some time together? While you’re here? For however long, can I just see you? Please. I need to see you, Lexie.”
Lexie’s heart thudded, a hollow ached behind her ribcage, and her pulse echoed through her ears. She wanted to say yes. Standing before him, she felt safe, something she hadn’t felt in a long time. Like nothing bad could possibly happen while in his presence. But suddenly, she didn’t trust herself. She didn’t trust the truths she may discover if she spent time with him. She feared the feelings for him that lay in wake, but most of all, with the tumultuous state of her life at present and her fragile state-of-mind, she had no idea what her future held, and she didn’t trust herself not to leave and hurt him all over again.
“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.” She barely heard her voice over the beating of her heart.
Elliot stepped closer. Slowly, he reached a hand out and touched her stomach. He placed his palm, tender on the side of her bulging abdomen, a thin sheet of cotton and flesh, the only barrier between him and the life within. When his eyes widened in surprise, as if discovering some secret Lexie was not yet partial to, she swallowed, barely able to breathe.
“Yes, I’m sure,” he answered, meeting her gaze, and the warmth of his hand seemed to sink right through her, hot into her bones. “I want to get to know you again. All of you.”