Page 27 of There's Pumpkin About You
As I let the darkness quell my pending overstimulation, my mind continues to drift to thoughts of a stubborn woman with brown curls and a testing attitude—without my permission, might I add. I don’t want to think about her. I don’t want to acknowledge her unmatched beauty, or her chest-tightening smile. It’s an inconvenience.
She’s annoying, she’s a smartass, and for some reason everyone seems to like her even though she’s a demon in disguise.
I try and remind myself that having the barn redone will be good for business. It’s a chance to pull in more money which, if I’m being honest, I’m down-playing how much more we need.
It’s partly my fault, I’ve accepted that. My inability to say no to an animal in need of rehoming is pitiful and my attitude towards the customers that are based in Eaglewood could maybe do with some work. I’m not stubborn enough to fool myself into thinking that I run this place perfectly. My Autism gets in the way at times, preventing me from making changes that need to happen until it’s too late and making it so that everything needs its sometimes unexplainable reason.
But I try my best. I try because so far no one else is showing that they want to. My father may be a piece of shit, but my grandfather deserves to have the one thing he dedicated his life to be treated with respect.
“I’m trying to think of something witty to say.”
I groan loudly when I hear her. Of all the things I don’t need right now, her particular brand of shit makes the top of the list.
“What do you want?”
“I want to talk to you about the barn. You never gave me a reason.”
“I never gave you a reason for what?” I know exactly what.
She leans on one leg and folds her arms, a thick but perfectly shaped eyebrow rising in defiance. “For why you worked so hard to make sure we could meet the deadline.”
I groan once more and give my hair a rough tug. “Why are you so keen to know?”
“Because it’s unusually nice of you, so I’m suspicious.”
“If there’s one thing I can promise you, it’s that I wasn’t trying to be nice when I did it.”
She scoffs. “That I can believe.”
She steps closer to the desk and my stomach tightens at the lack of distance between us. She leans on the desk and bends over until she’s level with me. “So tell me why.”
God, the things I would do to her, bent over like this.
“What did I tell you about my desk?”
“Has nobody ever told you that it’s rude to comment on a woman’s weight?”
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a pain in the ass?”
Wren sighs and lifts herself making the desk groan slightly. Her glare still remains fixed on mine, and for the next few minutes we stay trapped in our awkward silence, locked in a battle of wills. Once I realize that she’s not going to back down, I surrender with an eyeroll and exit the office into the open space of the farm.
I take a deep breath and push up the free sleeve on my plaid shirt. I hold my shoulder and slowly lift my arm, keeping my elbow bent. A twinge of pain flares up from my elbow to my shoulder and I wince, the stiffness from lack of movement making my muscles and bones resist the action. I can feel the muscles slowly withering and losing the mass that I’ve tried really hard to build over the years.
“How did you do that to your arm?” Wren asks behind me.
I shrug and move towards the field, already knowing that she’s going to end up following me.
“There was a puppy.”
“A puppy?” I can hear her struggling to keep up, and, as if of their own accord, my legs slow their steps.
“A puppy,” I repeat. “It’s an animal. A name for a baby dog?”
I can all but hear her roll her eyes as she follows me. “Thank you for that,” she says sarcastically. “What do you mean that there was a puppy? Are you trying to tell me that a baby dog somehow managed to break bones that are sat underneath your million and one layers of muscle?”
I pause walking, shoot her a puzzled look, and continue on. “No, idiot. There was a puppy stuck on the cliff at the edge of our land. I fell onto the next ledge trying to reach it.”
ChapterThirteen
