Page 61 of Covington Acres

A nurse poked her head out of the emergency room. “Charles is back. A couple of you can go in.”

Roe, Jackie, and their mom headed for the door. Colby was surprised to see Dennis lingered back with him. “I’m worried about Dad.”

“He’s strong. He’ll be okay.” Colby squeezed his brother’s shoulder.

“It’s not just the foot and concussion. I work with him more closely than you do. He’s slowing down more than he wants toadmit. I see him wincing in pain more than he wants to let on. He’s been hard on his body all his life. I just…I think we’re going to have to consider that it might be me and you heading up the bulk of the work sooner than we’d like to admit.”

Colby’s stomach tightened, but he ignored it. This was his family. His farm. Plus, he could keep brewing beer as a hobby. And the traveling…it wasn’t as if most of his family were well traveled. Why did Colby think that was something he needed? “I’m ready to do whatever needs to be done.” And while he knew it would be a family effort, he noticed that Dennis was having this conversation with him and not Roe. Their oldest brother had his own life, his own career, and Colby wanted him to have that, but he wished it hadn’t always been assumed that Colby wouldn’t want the same for himself. But then…would he have left the farm to the others to figure out? It was his family legacy. What kind of asshole did it make him to want less responsibility in it all?

He knew that if Roe was needed, he would drop everything to do what the family needed, and damned if Colby wouldn’t do the same. Roe already had his business, his life. Colby had…nothing.

But now you want Vince…you have Vince.

“Good man,” Dennis said. “I knew I could count on you. We worry about you sometimes. You’re…I don’t know how to put it…different.”

Colby bristled, that word playing on the insecurities he wished like hell he didn’t have. “I’m not any different from you.”

“Shit. That came out wrong. I didn’t mean…”

But he was different. And he was learning to be okay with that. At least, he wanted to. “Come on. Let’s see if it’s our turn to visit Dad.” Colby walked away from his brother, feeling too many emotions to settle on just one.

All he knew was, he wished Vince were there with him.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Vince

They’d been workingthe farm night and day since Charles broke his foot. Colby had been quieter than usual, singularly focused on the farm and what needed to be done before the wedding—and for all he knew, maybe even after that. In the small amount of downtime they’d had, Vince had tried to get him to brew beer or do something fun, but Colby hadn’t seemed interested. Vince had a feeling there was more going on inside Colby’s head than he was sharing, but anytime Vince tried to bring it up, he just said he was fine or changed the subject.

Vince was struggling with that. He didn’t like to see Colby suffer, didn’t like feeling as though the man was holding things back from him. That wasn’t how they worked. They talked. They were honest. But then, Vince hadn’t been completely honest about some of his feelings lately either, had he? Maybe that wasn’t the right way to put it, but he hadn’t told Colby how often he was thinking about them. That every waking moment he was this mixture of want for Colby and the fear he felt because of that want. It was one thing to admit they liked each other, but Vince could scarcely think of anything other than Colby.

And so just like Colby, Vince ended up losing himself into the work at the farm to help distract himself. It wasn’t a hardship. He was aware he loved it even more than Colby did. Vince could be happy doing this every day of his damn life—working the farm and coming home to Colby.

He turned to watch Colby across the field, where he was talking to his mom. What technically should be their work hours was almost over, but they’d been staying later most days.

When his phone rang, he pulled it out to see it was his aunt. Vince smiled. It had been a while since they’d spoken, but it meant the world to him that she always tried to check in. That even after all these years and how her life had changed because she had to raise him, she didn’t just let him slip out of her life.

“Hey, you,” he answered.

“Hey. How are you doing?”

They chatted for a few minutes, she catching him up on her life and what had been going on with her and his uncle.

“What’s new there?” she asked when she was finished.

“Mostly just getting ready for this wedding. Colby and I have been working our asses off at the farm. We’re dead on our feet every night when we get home. It’ll be nice when the wedding is over so we can get some more time back to ourselves.”

“Big wedding, huh?”

“I think half of the damn county will be here. Roe is a Covington and one of the nicest guys around. Everyone wants to be part of their special day.”

His aunt chuckled. “You sound happy over there.”

He turned to look at Colby, who was still talking to his mom, and warmth spread through his chest. His heart sped up. Sometimes Colby talked about how it felt to have his first crush as a forty-year-old man. Vince had too many of them to count over his lifetime, but somehow, with Colby, it was like his first one too. It was bigger…more. “Yeah, I am.”

“The two of you still coming to visit soon?” He’d texted his aunt about the trip out there and told her Colby would be coming too.

“Yeah, he’s really looking forward to meeting you. Plus, Colby hasn’t done much traveling, and he really wants to. We have a whole list of places we want to go.”

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