Chapter Eleven

Mia settled into Saturday night with approximately five loads of laundry that needed folding. Exciting evening, indeed.

She poured herself a glass of wine first. No reason she couldn’t have a little fanciness in her otherwise boring evening.

Since this was Cara’s third date with Kevin, Mia didn’t anticipate her sister coming home tonight. So it was just Mia and her laundry.

When someone knocked on the door, she jumped. It was so unexpected, some of the wine sloshed onto her hand. And then her stomach jittered a bit at the prospect of an unannounced visitor.

Maybe it was Dell. Between Cara, Anna, Charlie and Val all vying for her attention after the market was over, they hadn’t managed to get two words alone. So now she didn’t know where they stood.

Except that he’d been jealous over Sam. And she’d come up with the perfect exit line.

Ten points for Mia.

“Just a second,” she called, running her fingers through her hair, tucking her oversized T-shirt into her jeans so it looked less schlumpy. When she looked out the peephole her excitement deflated.

She undid the lock and opened the door. “Hey, Mom. Dad.” Since her dad never left the farm except for church and supplies he couldn’t send one of the girls for, anxiety replaced disappointment. “Is everything okay?”

Her mom stepped into the apartment, giving her a warm hug. “Of course, dear, but your father got this wild hair you absolutely had to have your truck back tonight.” Mom looked around the room. “See, Franklin, she’s doing her laundry.” She shook her head and clucked her tongue.

Dad poked around the apartment. Unusual for him. Normally he just sat on the couch itching to get back to his cows and solitude.

“Are you sure everything is okay?”

“So, you don’t have any company tonight?”

“What company would I have?” And then it dawned on her. Dad had seen her with Dell this morning. Mia glanced at her mother, who was poking around the refrigerator. Surely he hadn’t told her or she’d be lecturing Mia about the evil dangers of men she and Dad hadn’t approved.

Which was none of them.

“Where’s Cara? Her car is outside. And are you drinking? Alone? Oh, my Heavens!” Mom’s hands fluttered to her throat.

“Cara’s out on a date with Kevin. I am having one glass of wine. Neither is the end of the world.” Why did she bother trying? Mom was already halfway to anxiety-ville.

“Who is Kevin? I’ve never heard of him. What’s his last name? Do I know his family? What church do they go to? Oh, I am calling your sister right this instant.” Mom pulled her cell phone out of her purse. She barely knew how to use it, but enough to badger her daughters if she got a whiff of something she didn’t approve of.

“Cara? This is your mother. You answer this phone immediately.” Mom wandered down the hall, preferring privacy for her badgering.

Mia studied Dad, who looked at the floor scratching his bearded cheek. “Dad, what are you guys doing here? Really?”

“Brought your truck back.”

“I’m not stupid. You know I could have picked it up tomorrow. I could have had it fixed myself.”

Dad hunched his shoulders. “Can’t I do a favor for my daughter?”

“Daddy.”

“I don’t like that boy,” he grumbled.

“Who? Kevin?”

Dad scowled at her. “Dell Wainwright. Heard at church last week they call him the Naked Farmer. You’re a good girl. You shouldn’t be…” Dad cleared his throat. His entire face was red from the roots of his hair to his beard.

Mia smiled. Well, at least she knew where she got that from. “You don’t have to worry about me.”

“I thought I didn’t have to worry about you. Then I saw the way you were looking at him. Don’t like it. Not one bit.”

“I’m an adult. I make my own choices.” She reached over and squeezed his hand. “Trust me to make the right ones, okay? I can only stand one parent questioning my every move.”

He made a huffing sound. “You got the biggest brains out of all our children, but you also…” He cleared his throat, fiddled with his beard. “You’ve got the softest heart. Always did. You named all the cows and cried for two weeks every time we lost one or sold one or killed one.”

Mia wrinkled her nose. Okay, that was true. But her heart wasn’t involved when it came to Dell.

She didn’t think.

“I’ll make the right choices. I promise.”

“Well, you always do.” He slapped her truck keys on the counter. “Don’t let that boy change that.”

“Your sister.” Mom stomped up the hallway. “She’s ignoring my calls! Do you know where they went? I want to know more about this Kevin boy. I—”

“Come on, Sarah. We did what we came to do. Let’s go home.”

“Are you joking? Your daughter is—”

“Grown. Come on, now.”

Mom and Dad argued out the door, but before Dad closed it behind him he rolled his eyes. “Love you, pumpkin.”

Mia smiled. He hadn’t called her pumpkin since she’d lived at home. “Love you, too.”

Once the door was closed, she sank into a kitchen chair and then took a long, deep drink of her wine.

It was weird—everyone seemed to think of Dell as this bad boy. Someone to be wary of. She didn’t see it. Even when he’d been annoying her with the shirtless stuff at the beginning of the season, she’d never considered him mean or dangerous.

What was she getting so worked up about? At this point all her and Dell shared was one kiss, a few not-so-innocent touches, and not much else. For all she knew he’d pretend none of it had ever happened next Saturday. It’s not like they’d made plans otherwise. Even for sharing a ride next market day.

She thunked her head on the table. For once she was kind of grateful she’d never had a relationship. If this was what they were all like she was due for an aneurism by her thirtieth birthday.

Another knock on the door. Mia groaned, then downed the rest of her wine. If she was going to handle Mom the rest of the night, she needed something.

She opened the door, stopped short when she realized it wasn’t her parents.

It was Dell.

She coughed as her last swallow of wine went down the wrong way.

“Hey.” He’d looked grim when she first opened the door, but his lips curved upward. “Okay?”

She nodded furiously, eyes still watering. “Wrong pipe.” Holy crap. He was standing in her doorway, all impressive height and broad shoulders. He was dressed in nice jeans and had a leather coat on. No baseball hat to be seen, just wavy blond hair looking golden under the porch light.

And she was standing there in an old T-shirt and jeans. Well, at least the jeans were a pair of her new ones that actually fit. Cara had thrown out all the other ones.

“So, um, you busy?” He looked over her head into the apartment.

Mia swallowed and pointed vaguely at the laundry baskets on the couch and living room floor. “No. Unless laundry counts.”

His smile widened. “It doesn’t.”

“Right.” She looked down at her fuzzy purple socks. There was a hole showing off her big toe. Wow, she was a mess.

“You want to go to dinner?”

Her mouth dropped open a little when she looked up at him. Was he asking her on a…date? While she stood in her ratty clothes choking on wine and barely putting together sentences. “I’m…” She pointed to her clothes.

He took his time looking them over. Enough time that a blush started creeping up her neck. “You could change.”

“Oh, right. Um. Okay.”

“You could also let me in.”

“Right.” She stepped out of the way and when he stepped in she closed the door behind him. Weird did not begin to describe having Dell stand in her entryway.

“I would have called, but I don’t have your number.” He stepped into her living room. Dell Wainwright standing in her living room, casual as could be. “I thought we could go to that Edibles place, since you know the chef.”

Mia blinked a few times, realized her mouth was open, snapped it shut. Then realized she had to open it again to respond.

Dell was asking her out. On a date. Which, of course, was the natural progression here. They’d kissed. He’d been jealous. Why wouldn’t they go out on a date?

Mia took a deep breath, focused on saying something casual and normal. When she thought about Dell being jealous and wanting to go to Sam’s restaurant, it wasn’t such a hard thing to do. “Edibles sounds great. Make yourself comfortable and I’ll go change.”

She sounded like a reasonable, adult woman. Yay. When she turned for the hallway, though, she stumbled over her own boots.

Better start praying the reasonable, adult woman made it to dinner.

Dell poked around Mia’s living room. Family pictures, cow knickknacks, basketball trophies, which had to be Cara’s. He couldn’t see Mia being coordinated enough to play a team sport.

The place was kind of cluttered and girly, but it suited them. He wandered through the kitchen, then couldn’t quite contain his curiosity in moving down the hall.

Curiosity was what had gotten him here, after all. Wondering what she’d be doing on a Saturday night. What she’d be wearing. How would she react to him showing up? Was there anything extra going on with her and that chef guy?

After the backbreaking afternoon he’d spent trying to clean up the mess of his fields, darkness had descended. He’d spent the entire day mulling over contingency plans and where he could scrounge up some extra money, and then he’d turned his mind to much more interesting thoughts.

Since there wasn’t anything else to distract himself with at home, he figured he’d just show up and find out the answers to all those curiosity-driven questions.

Dell peeked through the open door of the first room in the hall. It was kind of messy, but he immediately pinned it as Mia’s from the stacks of seed catalogs all over and the barn paintings on the wall. Cowboy and work boots littered the bottom of her open closet, a few old, beat-up pairs of tennis shoes spilling out, as well.

Like the living room, cluttered and feminine without being fussy. It wasn’t lace and pink like Kenzie’s room at home. The room was a perfect reflection of Mia.

“Oh.” Mia stopped short in the door, swallowed. She obviously hadn’t expected to see him there.

“I like your room,” he offered.

“How did you know it was mine?”

“Well, I figured seed catalogs weren’t what Cara would consider bedtime reading.”

She’d changed out of her jeans and T-shirt. Skintight black pants and a long V-neck sweater. She’d pulled her hair out of its ponytail, looked like maybe she’d put on some makeup. Her eyes were darker, her lips redder.

She fidgeted in her own room’s doorway and he put two and two together. She was wearing Cara’s clothes—that’s why she’d come from the other room.

She looked really good in Cara’s clothes.

“I, um, just need to get my shoes.” She moved past him, and if he was reading things right, made every effort to keep a little physical distance as she did.

She bent over, pawing through the shoes at the bottom of her closet, and Dell sent up a little prayer of thanks for Cara. The pants did amazing things for Mia’s ass. Enough that he couldn’t help thinking about what it would be like to slide his hands over the curve, move his hands under her shirt, grazing bare skin.

Dell let out a long breath. He was definitely jumping the gun. He wasn’t even sure she’d want to sleep with him, let alone sure if he was up for such a…sensitive task. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t think about it. Only that he shouldn’t.

She turned, a determined smile on her face. “Ready?” Mia looked more like someone about to go into battle than someone about to go on a date.

He wasn’t sure if it was his pride or something else bothered by that. He wanted her to be excited or flattered or at least relaxed.

When she tried to walk past, he took her hand in his. He wanted to say something reassuring, give her an out. Maybe she didn’t want to go.

She turned her hand in his so their fingers entwined. When he met her gaze, she smiled a little.

Holding hands in the middle of her bedroom. It was all…a little close for comfort. Something strange flopped in his gut. Something like nerves.

Frowning at himself, he curled his fingers around her shoulder, the fabric of her sweater soft against his palm. Her head tilted back, lips pursed and expression uncertain.

“You look really hot.” Apparently Mia’s uncontrollable blurting was contagious. “I mean, you look good. You usually do.”

“Thanks.” She smiled, pleased and not at all shy. Apparently his being an idiot was a good old ego booster. She actually stepped closer.

His brain knew it wasn’t a great idea to touch her hair, but when she reciprocated by putting a hand on his forearm, his brain shut the hell up.

He lowered his mouth to hers. He made sure to be slow, careful. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her off.

He tasted whatever was on her lips. Something vaguely fruity. Her hand grasped his forearm tighter and then, hesitantly, her other hand moved to his cheek and her fingers rifled through his hair.

Though the desire to press against her was a beating, growing urge, he held himself back. He kept the kiss light, until the tip of her tongue grazed his bottom lip.

The kiss deepened. So lost in it, he wasn’t sure who initiated it, but Mia met him move for move. She opened her mouth, granting him entrance, and as his hands smoothed down her back, she returned the favor.

The distance between them was gone, maybe by mutual decision, and as his hands cupped over her ass he had the buzzing, disorienting realization things were moving too fast. Mia was not the sex-before-you-even-had-a-date kind of girl.

When he pulled away, he was surprised to find his own breathing as ragged as hers. She looked a little shell-shocked. Had he been too aggressive? “You just tell me if I need to back off, okay?”

“I will.” Her eyes held his and though her breath hitched a little, she looked absolutely sure. “I might be inexperienced, but I’m not Amish. Or about to let you or anyone push me into something I don’t want.” She tentatively slid her palm down his chest until it rested at his abdomen. Something about the mix of nerves and determination just about did him in.

Dell smiled, tracing his finger over the edge of her collarbone. Mia might be a lot of things, but she was no pushover. It was comforting to think she wouldn’t let him be an ass.

“So, maybe we shouldn’t be doing this in my bedroom.” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, then took her hand from him, creating some distance.

He let out a breath. “Yeah. Good idea.” He tried to adjust himself before he followed Mia out of her bedroom. It was going to be a long night.

Mia retrieved her purse and keys. Her hand shook just a little. Both from that kiss and from pride. She hadn’t freaked out. She hadn’t backed down. She’d kissed him back. She’d caused him to get aroused.

Her.

She wanted to do a little tap dance right there in the kitchen.

It didn’t eradicate the nerves or the what-nexts swirling in her mind, but it managed them in some weird way. Cataloged them away behind the giddy feeling of power and attraction.

Dell Wainwright had a thing for her. It validated something inside her she hadn’t realized needed validating.

When she turned, she found him studying the papers spread out on the table. They outlined her plan of action for the next months. What seeds she’d need to rebuy. Cost sheets. Field designs. A couple printouts about cold frames.

And just like that her excitement fizzled, because they were right back to where they’d been this afternoon. A glaring reminder they were each other’s biggest competition and there was a lot at stake.