Page 14 of Daddy's Little Farmer

“If you want to make my life easier, get Judith off my back. Now, good night.”

She saw and ignored the way the sheriff paled. He didn’t like the fact people knew about the affair he was having with her sister. It was a small town. Everyone knew everybody else’s business.

They were halfway down the aisle when Rafael stopped her.

“Hey, you’re shaking. Why did that upset you so much?” Rafael asked.

“He’s never shown any interest in my life besides a hello now and then. He’s aware of the harassment I’m getting from the realtor who wants my acreage and the way Judith pesters me, but he hasn’t done anything about it. Let’s not talk about it right now. I don’t like people listening, and I guarantee they are.”

He chuckled. “Nobody’s around us, honey. They can’t hear anything.”

“If you bend down and look through the shelf to the other side, you ‘ll find someone’s been beside us the whole time.”

Rafael bent down. “Jesus Christ.”

“Yup.” Mara bent down a bit. “Hello, Carla. I hope you’re having a nice evening.”

There was a flutter of activity on the other side before the woman walked around to stand in front of them.

Mara had gone to school with Carla, and the girl had always been a nosy, horrendous gossip and a horrible flirt. The woman was pretty. She was several inches taller than Mara but had a little more weight on her bones. She wasn’t fat, but she might be considered big-boned. She had short brown hair and pretty eyes. Mara thought if the woman wouldn’t use all the cosmetics she did, she’d look better.

“Oh, my, I saw you in the store and wanted to stop and say hello.”

Mara bit her lip to keep from laughing when Rafael snorted.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your handsome man?”

“Um, yes. Rafael, honey, this is Carla. We were in the same grade together. Carla, this is my man, Rafael. We met through a friend and have hit it off.”

“You look like a handsome couple, but isn’t he out of your league?”

Mara exhaled. She knew the snipes would start sometime. Before she could reply, Rafael interrupted.

“Actually, I think she’s perfect for me. She’s incredibly sweet, a hard worker, smart, and gorgeous. I can’t keep my hands off her.”

It took a herculean effort not to gasp and blush. She did okay with not choking, but she’d failed to prevent herself from not turning beet red. It felt like her face was on fire.

Rafael chuckled and hugged her tighter against his body.

Carla’s eyes were wide as they went back and forth. “Oh, well, yes. She is very nice.”

“I’m sorry, Carla, we need to get this done so we can go home,” Mara said.

“Oh, yes. I hope to see you again.”

“It was a pleasure meeting you,” he said.

They made it a few more aisles.

“I forgot to get bread. Can you get us a loaf? Any kind of wheat will do,” she said.

“Sure.”

“It’s in the last aisle we were in.”

She watched him walk off and suddenly felt very alone. She had a sick feeling that her heart would be broken by the end of the week because if she felt this strongly for him after just a few hours, what would several days feel like?

Chapter Seven

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