Page 54 of Harvest Moon

He was hanging back, and likely, he didn’t know I was standing there watching him like a creep.

For the time being, I left the hoe out there in the middle of the field and crossed the dirt toward Alexis.

“Lexis!” I called when I got close enough to the house that I wouldn’t have to shout like a madman.

He turned toward me, a scowl on his face and a furrow to his brow. That wasn’t quite the way he’d looked at the alpha down at Chadwick’s that afternoon.

Steeling my nerves, I lifted my hand and waved at him. When he marched toward me, his quick steps covered the yard so fast it brought me up short, and he crossed his arms.

He didn’t have to say anything for me to know he was angry enough to spit. His pretty eyes were flashing, reflecting the sun hanging low behind my back.

“Something the matter, Lex?” I hooked my thumbs in my jean pockets to keep myself from fiddling.

The only thing I could think was that he’d seen me leering at him and the alpha that afternoon and had come to tell me to mind my own business. It’d be easy enough to tell him that no matter what it looked like, I wasn’t purposefully dogging his steps, but best to let him have out with it first.

“I want to know why you didn’t tell me about your parents’ farm.”

I blinked, standing a little straighter. “I’m sorry?” If he’d come up days ago, pissed about that, it would’ve made sense, but surely this wasn’t anger that’d been bubbling up in him for days, suddenly seething over.

Alexis huffed, his mouth an annoyed little line in the middle of his pretty tan face.

“You could’ve told me before I left, Ridge. You could’ve doneanythingother than leave me a freaking voicemail to tell me a thing like that!”

All the sudden, my brow hung heavy. I sucked in my cheeks, and across the lawn, I saw Ford coming back from the barn. He gave me a look, as if to ask if I needed help. I shook my head just a little, then scuffed my boot in the dirt.

“Well, I tried calling, and you didn’t pick up the phone...”

“You could’ve told me at the apple orchard,” he insisted. “Or any time, Ridge. Any time since you got back, you could’ve told me what was going on with you.”

His eyes were wide now, swimming with emotion that made me feel as lousy as ever.

“Lexis—”

“Did you not think I’d care? Or maybe you thought you’d be a big, strong alpha and handle it all yourself. Clearly, I’ve got nothing at all to offer, huh?”

That hit me like a sack of rocks. Alexis had everything in the world to offer. It was me that had nothing.

“That’s not it a bit, Lex. Not one bit.”

“Then what is it?” His arms flinched around his middle, tightening like he had to try and hold himself together.

When I inhaled, my breath shook. “It’s—it’s that I came home, and everything was different. Everything was worse than when I left. So far worse, that nothing I’d learned—everything I’d bought myself with eighty-thousand dollars’ worth of debt—nothing was gonna help me fix it. I abandoned that farm, so it abandoned me.”

Alexis was blinking fast, but he didn’t say anything. For the first time in my life, all the words I’d been holding in came bubbling up. This once, I didn’t try and force them back down.

“So there I was, in debt, with nothing. And Pa said he was selling the farm to the Sterling Corporation. I tried to talk him out of it, even went to the bank to try and get a loan. Didn’t pan out. Then you—”

I bit my tongue. Hard.

No part of me wanted to make Alexis feel sorry for doing what was best for him. Still, I was so damn tired of pretending like I could bear anything.

“I what?” he asked in a little, hurt voice.

I met his eyes. “You left, Lex. And I know—it’s for Claudia. You did the right thing for your family, and you never owed me a thing. But you said—you said you were gonna stay out here for good, and what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t ask you to stay when I had nothing. Not one thing to offer you.”

I swallowed hard and forced myself to keep going, spill it all for him. “I’d always thought, after I got back from school, I’d—we could—we’d give it a go, maybe. And then I messed all that up. Wasn’t gonna be a house on the property line by the trees for us, or anything. And—and I know you’re my friend beyond all that. You’re my best friend. And I should’ve told you about what was going on.”

I took another deep, shaky breath. I couldn’t stand to look into his eyes anymore. They were wet, and I’d put those tears there.

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