Page 70 of Harvest Moon

I’d spent a long time not hearing it, and then too damn long being convinced it wasn’t real at all. That Ridge didn’t want me.

But he did.

Right?

I mean, that was what last night had meant. Ridge wasn’t the kind of guy who slept around, unless he’d changed a lot more than I thought while he was off in college.

Fortunately for my sanity, Ridge paused in the middle of sitting down, met Claudia’s eye, and nodded. “That’s right, ma’am. Me and Lex, we’ve always been... something. And maybe I didn’t do quite right by him when I got home from college. I’m sorry for it, and I had my reasons, but they don’t matter as much as he does.”

I let myself fall into the chair between him and Claudia to mask the way the breath whooshed out of me in sheer relief. They didn’t matter as much as I did.

I mattered.

Ridge, watching Claudia like she was a feral dog he expected to lunge for him at any moment, slowly sat down beside me.

Claudia stared at him, speculation in her eyes as she raked them up and down his tense form. When her gaze landed on his plate, Ridge looked between his and hers for a moment, then snatched it up and held it out toward her. “Did you want more bacon?”

He must have thought she’d already eaten hers. I almost choked on how adorable it was.

Something in Claudia softened at the offer. She gave him the tiniest smile, and did indeed reach out to his plate, but stole a slice of melon instead.

The relief on Ridge’s face would have been comic if the situation hadn’t been about our whole future together. Absently, I wondered if he was relieved that she’d accepted his offer, or that she hadn’t taken his bacon.

She nibbled on her ill-gotten melon slice, then turned surprised eyes on it. “This is really good. What is it?”

“Cantaloupe,” I said, grinning. “So I should get more?”

“Well, it doesn’t taste like Skye’s torture diet,” she said, then took another delicate bite. After a moment, she nodded. “Yes. Yeah, more would be good.”

Birch’s sigh of relief was so loud that everyone in the room turned to look at him.

“Don’t be such a drama llama,” Claudia told him, but contrary to the words, she reached out and squeezed his hand tight with her free one. She gave him a tiny smile, but a moment later, turned her attention back to Ridge. “So, Mr. Paterson. Would you care to tell me what your intentions are toward our dear little Alexis?”

Ridge choked on a piece of bacon, and I was just grateful she hadn’t called me “dearinnocentAlexis.”

It could have been worse.

40

Ridge

If I could survive the morning explaining my intentions to Claudia Wilson, I could survive just about anything.

I didn’t think she’d asked me for any purpose other than making me trip over my own tongue, and I’d done plenty of that. But I’d also answered her seriously—my intentions with Alexis were to make him as happy as I could for as long as he’d let me.

She’d seemed satisfied with that. And I was satisfied, too—satisfied to eat a big ass plate of bacon and keep my mouth shut as soon as she let me.

Birch asked me some about school—where I’d gone and what I studied. He seemed real interested, even suggested that in the springtime, it’d be nice to bring his students out to the farm for a field trip.

It was a great idea—some hands-on learning about where food came from and how to take care of the land. More people needed that, and I liked the idea of showing little kids the way of things. I promised I’d run it by the Hills and see what they thought, but I couldn’t imagine them saying no to a thing like that.

After breakfast, Claudia insisted on watching TV in the living room, and I’d never been much into sitting around and staring at screens. TV was great and all, but right then, I was supposed to be working. I couldn’t leave the farm waiting all day.

So I went and grabbed Banjo, and Alexis walked me out to my truck. Weird thing was, even after putting the cat in the cab, I didn’t want to get in and drive away, even with a full day’s work ahead of me.

But Claudia and Birch needed him around, and there was no sense dragging him out to the farm to watch me work all day.

I just didn’t like leaving. He smelled real good and looked even better, and now that I had some hope of keeping him, I wanted to tangle myself up in every bit of Alexis Mena for good.

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