Page 10 of Loving Decker

The rearview mirror showed a picture-perfect view of him, leaning up against his truck, watching her drive away.

The beating of her heart was ready to call her a liar, but she kept telling herself she’d be fine.

Chapter Four

Faithy Haws was one beautiful woman.

Decker hefted the next bale of hay and chucked it up onto the higher loft. His muscles strained, sweat dripped down his chest. And it felt good. Being asked to sell his family’s land and all of a sudden realizing his longtime friend was a smoking hot faith-filled wonder tied up in a package just like he’d always wanted in a woman, not to mention getting offers to work out in New York, was messing with him. And he needed to work, hard. ’Cause what was wrong with Faithy being beautiful all of a sudden?

Nothing.

But he was still unsettled.

He reached for the next bale, feeling the strain as he swung it up into the air and onto the upper ledge next to the previous one. Must. Figure. This. Out. He wiped his forehead.

Mama came out with a glass of lemonade.

“Oh, you’re an angel.” He reached for his towel and wiped his face and head. “Thank you.”

She smiled, but there was no getting away from the searching expression in her eyes.

He knew she wanted answers. She knew he was struggling. But he didn’t know what to tell her. Because he didn’t know what the problem was.

Then Nash stepped into the barn. “What’s eating you?”

Decker laughed. Hand it to his brother to just get right to it. “I need a workout.”

Nash crossed his arms over his chest.

But Decker ignored him. He didn’t have anything to say. “Thanks for the lemonade, Mama.” He handed her back the glass. “I’ll just get the rest of the stack up there and organized, and then I’ll be in. We can go over the books like we talked about.” Mama wanted to understand what had been going on with the finances over the last few years. She had some specific questions, and he’d offered to show her.

Nash pulled off his shirt and put on a pair of gloves.

“You’re blinding me.”

He reached for the next bale.

After a minute, working side by side, Nash grunted. “You gonna make me do this all afternoon before you start talking?”

Deck laughed again. “Dude, you don’t have to help. This feels good. I need it.” But he took pity on his brother. “I don’t know if we should sell. I don’t know what to do about New York. And Faithy is beautiful all of a sudden.” There. That was all of it.

Nash grunted as he threw the next bale up. He had to hand it to them. The Dawson brothers were strong. Nash was more wiry than the others, but the way he chucked hay around like it was nothing told Deck not to underestimate his youngest brother.

Nash reached for the next bale. “Glad you finally have eyes for Faith. Every guy in Willow Creek has wanted to date that woman.”

Thinking about anyone trying to get close with Faith suddenly sent his blood simmering. “Why didn’t they?”

Nash shook his head. “Cause you two were a thing.”

“We weren’t.”

“Not really. You never said anything. You never took it to the next level. But everyone in town knew you were together, or should have been.”

Decker froze for a moment. People had stayed away from Faith because of him? A part of him, the jealous present-day Decker wanted to say, “Good, they should back off.” But then the more reasonable side, the man who knew he hadn’t been pursuing her all these years, felt like a bit of a dufus for not seeing what was so obvious to everyone else. “So I’ve been an idiot?”

“Nah. Just maybe blind.”

He nodded. Couldn’t argue with that. A man would have to be blind to not see how special Faith was. He threw the next hay up high enough that it landed on top of another bale in the loft.

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