My hands went cold. “TheBlossomtree?”
“Amazingly, that lot is untouched, but getting to it is a total mess. I nearly got stuck trying to reach it.”
I stared at him. “Marcus.”
He met my eyes. “Who else would’ve had a reason?” he said, his voice low and sharp. “Who else would know exactly what part of the farm mattered most right now?”
“What does this mean for the committee visit?”
“It means I’m going to spend the next three days trying to clean up something that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. And even then, I don’t know if we’ll be ready.”He scrubbed his hand down his face. “It looks like we hosted a tractor pull in the middle of it.”
My fingers tightened around my tablet until my knuckles turned white.
“This is my fault,” I said hoarsely. “If I hadn’t pulled you away helping me—if I hadn’t?—”
Chase instantly crouched beside me until we were eye to eye. He took my hand in both of his, steadying me. “Remember what you told me? To ‘lay it down?’ This is not on you,” he said firmly. “Marcus made his choices. You didn’t cause this.” He gave my hand a gentle squeeze. “You’re the best part of this place now.”
I offered him a wry smile. “You’re right. But what can we do?”
He sighed, his eyes clouding with frustration. “Maybe we should call the whole thing off. Reapply next year.”
“No.”
He blinked, surprised at the sharpness of my voice.
“We are not letting Marcus win,” I said, anger creeping into my voice. “He did this to punish you. To take the award from you. Then he tried to takemeaway from you. He failed at the second. We willnotlet him succeed at the first.”
He sat for a few minutes, a slow smile spreading across his face. “Okay.”
“Good. I’m ready to work. Doc Beth came by earlier and said I’m healing fine.”
He reached up and brushed his thumb gently along the edge of my temple, where the bruise was dark green and purple. “You know, most people would’ve curled up and shut down after what you’ve been through. But not you.”
I gave a soft shrug. “Curling up didn’t fix much before.”
“God, I loveyou, Anna.”
“I love you, too. Now let’s get cracking.”
He shook his head. “Oh, no, Blossom. You can help with ideas, but you still need to take it easy. I’m going to head down to the fields and make sure everything is under control there, then I’ll head back up there and try to organize a plan.”
I scowled, but nodded. The longer he sat here arguing with me, the longer it would take him to get started.
I had too much nervous energy to sit still. No one said I couldn’t go for a walk, and maybe the fresh air would be the best way to clear my head from the events of the past thirty-six hours. I called for Jack and headed for the trail behind the cabin—bear spray tucked in a small pack.
The day was warm but breezy. Just getting out of the house, I already felt more ready to tackle our new challenge. From what Chase said, there was so much to fix. Maybe the committee would be more understanding than we gave them credit for, especially if we impressed them in other ways. Chase explained they would look at more than just the tree that Chase had submitted. They would consider the farm as a whole.
Besides getting ready for the dance, we’d already made sure the sign at the foot of the driveway was cleaned. With Jordan’s help, the flower beds around the house were weeded and mulched. I just needed to finalize how we’d welcome them. Maybe a little gift bag with something from the farm. I wished I had more soaps, but not one had been left behind after the barn dance. Maybe Chase had some seeds for his flowers that I could package nicely, or maybe he had something from the nursery he could spare.
I was halfway around a bend when Jack barked. I scanned the woods and nearly stumbled backwards as a tall figure slowed to a sudden stop in front of me.
Trey.
He bent slightly at the waist, catching his breath, sweat darkening the collar of his T-shirt.
We both stared at each other for a beat, startled. Then, almost in unison, we laughed.
“You know,” I said, my hands landing on my hips, “if we’re going to keep running into each other like this, we might want to set up a schedule.”