Page 55 of Falling for Autumn Again

Phillip: And she’s still into you?

Me: Well, she kissed me last night.

Me: She also pushed me away and called me an idiot, but I’m still calling it a win.

Phillip: Okay… So what are you going to do?

Me: Slow and steady. That’s the plan.

Phillip: Slow and steady what?

Me: Truths. I’m going to give her my truth slowly. I’m going to get hers. I’m going to kill her with kindness despite her prickly exterior.

Phillip: Truth? I thought she was the one withsecrets. She told you to leave but didn’t tell you why. Right?

Me: Yeah. But the more I learn, the less it feels like she kept secrets and more like it was a sacrificial offer. Her dad was sick. I didn't know. She never said anything because she didn't want me to stay here. Not with Mav.

My phone bounces with three thinking dots. Phil’s responding, but it’s taking him a minute.

Phillip: That changes things.

Me: It does. So, I’ve told her I’m jobless.

Phillip: What every woman wants to hear.

Me: And homeless.

Phillip: Nothing says attractive like living on the streets.

Me: And I’m going to tell her about Bre.

Phillip: I’m wishing you luck from afar. And I’ve got a couch for you if it all blows up in your face.

“Thanks, Phil.”

Opening my Amazon app, I type Harry Styles into the search bar. It’s the first thing that comes to mind. Something she loves, and while I’ve never understood why, I’ve never been bothered by it. I’ll happily embrace the obsession for her. I scroll and scroll, then add a budget friendly gold locket with Harry’s picture on the inside to my cart. I’ve already changed the address to my rental on the farm. By some miracle, Amazon tells me it’ll be here in two days.

Enough time for me to show her that I care, that I always have. Even without her confessions. I just need to show her that I’m back and I’m not going anywhere this time.

I shower,change, and put on my tennis shoes—rather than Don's boots. Those things are never touching my feet again. I am determined to beat Autumn out to the barn. We're clearing it out today, getting it ready for Dessie's shop. If things haven't changed, the field trips and families will start coming by for tours and shopping in just a couple of weeks. Tree sales usually begin at the end of October and explode the last two weeks of November.

The old red barn holds more memories than I can count. Autumn and I spent half our high school nights up in that loft wrapped in each other’s arms. We may have been kids, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t love her.

Or that I ever stopped.

That’s as clear as a summer’s day to me—now that we’re talking again.

The barn tends to accumulate a lot of things throughout the year. The back of the barn is for storage, the front for the Christmas shop and cider stand, and yet, somehow in the winter and summer months, when the shop is closed, the front section seems to accumulate a whole lot of junk that doesn’t belong there.

I’m the first one here and I’m determined to be working and easing her burden by the time Autumn makes it over to the barn. I haul a stack of shovels next to the door back to the storage room when voices inside the barn trickle back toward me. Okay, maybe I’m notthatearly. What time does the woman get out of bed?

“It’s a simple question,” Autumn says.

“And I gave you a simple answer,” Dessie tells her—she’s never been afraid of Autumn’s short temper.

“Maybeis not a straightforward answer. It’s a goose chaseanswer. You’re giving me the run around. Just like the other night.”

Dessie huffs and I stay hidden, rooted to my spot, trying to figure out what the two are talking about.

---