Page 70 of Wild For You
“You’ll probably need to take it easy tomorrow and let it rest.”
“Oh no,” he said sarcastically. “What will I ever do to occupy my time?”
“I’m sure your physical therapist could come up with a few ideas.”
“She definitely puts me through the ringer,” he added just as we got in line for the ride.
The current group began exiting the carousel, and I noticed Nicole immediately. She ushered four kids from the ride while she carried one on her hip. A nondescript man waited forher and strapped two of the kids into a double stroller while a sulky preteen strolled over.
“She met him in college in Chicago. They got married after graduating and stayed in that area for a while. When she had her twins, they moved back here.”
“I thought you didn’t keep up with anyone.”
“I don’t. Mom told me.”
The family moved past us, the kids pointing out a booth for a duck game as they went by.
“What happened to you two?”
Andrew sighed and dropped his arm from around me, immediately making me regret asking.
“You don’t have to tell me. It’s none of my business. It’s just… you never told me that night after the dress shopping. Of course, we did something much more enjoyable that evening,” I added, trying to change the subject so we could get back to the jovial mood from before.
“The older I get, the more I see how silly I was to get so upset. But I was infatuated with her. I was a football player. She was a cheerleader. We had always talked about going to the same college, graduating together, getting married, then making a home somewhere here. You know, the idealistic dream of puppy love.”
I nodded for him to continue as we moved up in line.
“Turned out, we weren’t on the same page. On the night of our high school graduation, I proposed. I spent the entire summer mowing lawns and, in the winter, shoveling snow to afford a ring for her. She turned me down and claimed she couldn’t spend one more second in Ashfield. And she certainly didn’t want to be married to a farmer.
“She’d accepted a spot at a fashion school in Chicago, when she had never even told me that was a field she was interested in. Nicole had only ever talked about being apsychologist to learn what makes people tick.” He shook his head. “That night, I was thrown for a loop, and with my teenage broken heart, I swore I’d never be in another relationship again.”
“She crushed your dream,” I said, reaching out to clasp his hand.
“Looking back, I should have seen it coming. She got really distant the last month of school. And anytime I asked what was going on, she claimed to be studying for exams.” He scoffed. “I can’t believe I held onto the anger all this time.”
“I can. Everything you planned together ended up being a lie. That’s a hard thing to overcome, especially as a teen. Most adults can barely deal with change.”
Our turn to board the carousel came up, and he lifted me onto the pastel-painted horse, then took the one next to me. It was extremely comical seeing this large man on a tiny horse. He caught me giggling as he settled into place, and instead of getting angry or shouting at me like Caleb would have, Andrew took my reaction in stride.
“Giddy up, cowgirl.”
My cheeks flamed as his meaning sank in.
There might be some riding in my future.
Chapter Fifteen – Andrew
Sunday dinners at the farm were a staple in our family. Sometimes, it was just the immediate family. Sometimes, if we were in harvest and had a full staff, the ranch hands and their families would join us. At one meal in particular, Mom served fifty people. She loved it though. My mother’s act of love was cooking.
As the family grew, my mother added more tables and chairs, but it still always felt as intimate as it did when it was just the seven of us.
I didn’t make it to as many dinners as I used to when I was in college. Then, it was a way to eat anything not fried or from a vending machine. But then I was usually traveling across the country for the rodeo if I found one I was interested in. I used my job as a procurement specialist for the farm as my excuse. Companies wanted to meet the people negotiating their contracts, and I was more than happy to fulfill that request.
Not only did it get me away from Ashfield, the place where I swore I wouldn’t return until I made something of myself to prove to everyone I could be more than just a farmer, but it gave me opportunities to fill that other void inside me with women I’d never see again.
But the one thing I hated most about the family dinners were the incessant questions. To be fair, I was the worst of the lot when my sisters brought a new beau into their lives, but it was justifiable, since I was their big brother. Yet when the attention turned to me, I felt like a fish trapped in a tank that was too small.
Kelsey had been itching to come to another dinner. She’d only had the chance to attend one so far. We missed others,because I was being an asshole and didn’t want to go, and then she had been sick.
