Will held up his hands, the ridiculously flowered gloves plain to see. “I just came to see about some weeds back here.”

  “Sounds suspicious,” Daddy said. “Beth didn’t mind the weeds. She said it gave the garden character.”

  “These weeds are choking out her strawberries,” Gretchen said, doing her best not to roll her eyes. “Come on, Will. Let’s get it done.”

  “Wait,” Aunt Patty said, and Gretchen might just leave her here. She glared at her aunt, but she really needed to work on heating her gaze, because Aunt Patty didn’t care at all. She continued with, “I want to hear how Gretchen’s going to answer your question.”

  All eyes landed on her then, including Will’s and Howl’s. Gretchen heated from head to toe. She had no good reason to be attracted to Will, other than his physical looks. The man was a god, and he had to know it. He was single, and he had asked her out, and Gretchen would need a very good reason to say no.

  He’d been helpful at the tent event at Sweetspot, and at some point during all of their interactions, she’d caught glimpses of sweetness behind all of his rougher exterior.

  “It’s fine,” he mumbled, dropping his eyes to the ground. “It’s no big⁠—”

  “Yes,” she said over him. He raised his eyes back to hers, and Gretchen saw the hope and desire swimming there. “I’ll go out with you.” Her own surprise mingled with his, and they smiled together.

  “Great.” He cleared his throat. He looked from her to Daddy and Aunt Patty, then back to her. “I’ll go start on the weeds.” He walked away, leaving Gretchen with her family.

  All three of them watched him walk away, his hatted head held high. Gretchen sighed and said, “Not a word, either of you.”

  “I’m surprised you said yes,” Aunt Patty said. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

  “Yeah, well, me either,” Gretchen said, tugging her gloves on a little tighter. She tore her eyes from Will’s back and faced her daddy and his sister. “Please, try not to burn the house down while I weed your strawberry patch.”

  “Oh, go on now,” Daddy said with a hint of gruffness in his voice. “We’ll be fine here.” He turned away, dragging his oxygen tank with him.

  Aunt Patty shot stars out of her eyes, and Gretchen did let her eyes roll then. “It’s nothing,” she said. “I’m not talking about this on the way home. If you’re going to do that, I’m not taking you.”

  “You wouldn’t dare leave me here with Reginald.” Aunt Patty’s glee dropped ten notches as her fingers tightened on the top of the railing.

  Gretchen took a step. “I would, Aunt Patty,” she said over her shoulder. “I totally would.” After all, she’d just said yes to a date with a man she hardly knew. A cowboy she’d never really had a good interaction with. A handsome cowboy she also couldn’t stop thinking about, despite the hiccups between them.

  Maybe she had something to smile about too.

  The following evening, the bell on the door rang at the sweet shop just as Gretchen slid another tray of double chocolate brownies into the case. She wasn’t working the counter for the nightly sweet tooth rush, and she turned to head back into the kitchen. She could monitor the status of trays from there.

  She happened to glance up, catching sight of the cowboy hats who’d just entered. Just about every man in Sweet Water Falls wore a cowboy hat, but somehow, Gretchen recognized one of them.

  The man wearing it was Will Cooper. That cowboy seemed to have only North Pole magnets in his body, and they were all attracting her South Pole ones.

  She stalled, and their eyes met. He reached up and touched the brim of his hat. Gretchen smiled at him, her feet carrying her further behind the candy counter, right to the very end. “Howdy, Will,” she said, her gaze stuck on his. “Travis.”

  “Ma’am,” Travis said, but she didn’t even look at him. She jolted, realizing how very much she was giving away, and she dragged her eyes over to Will’s brother. He grinned like he’d just found out he held the winning lottery ticket, and Gretchen’s face heated.

  He indicated himself and Will, who hadn’t said hello yet. “We heard you had some new treats in the store today. Grasshoppers?” He scanned the trays of candy in the case between them.

  “Yes,” Gretchen said as professionally as she could. “Those are Jon’s creation. He has them over there, on demo, today.” She nodded toward the other half of the store, where Jon had a small group of people around him.

  Mostly women, but Gretchen wasn’t going to tease Jon about his charm. If it brought in customers—male or female—and his candy was delicious, Gretchen didn’t care why the people came.

  Travis turned and said, “Thanks” over his shoulder as he walked away.

  Will leaned against the candy counter, his eyes on his brother’s back. “He has a real sweet tooth.”

  “Mm. But you don’t.”

  The cowboy looked at her, his teal eyes blazing and bright. “I did, once,” he said. “Got right addicted to sugar, and I had to make some serious adjustments when the doctor told me I had pre-diabetes.”

  Gretchen’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to tease you.”

  Will grinned at her. “Sure you did.” He looked back over to his brother, who held up a small package of grasshoppers and then a big one. “He’s going to kill me one day.” Will chuckled and pushed away from the counter. “Real good to see you, Gretchen.”

  He took a step away and then another one, and Gretchen couldn’t believe he was going to go. Just like that? They hadn’t made plans for their date. He didn’t even have her number, as far as she knew.

  “Will,” she blurted, and he turned back to her.

  Travis came up behind him. “The big one or the small? What do you think for dessert tonight?”

  “I’m not going to eat any,” Will said, his expression darkening. “I don’t care.”

  “You’re the one who wanted to stop here,” Travis said, his voice as black as Will’s usually bright eyes. “Did you not get her number?” He looked over to Gretchen, and she wasn’t standing behind a steel wall, but a chest-high case made of glass.

  “Travis,” Will hissed out of the corner of his mouth.

  Gretchen reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear. “He didn’t get my number,” she said, deciding to lean into the humiliation. It came often enough that she might as well. “Because he didn’t ask.”

  “You were supposed to ask,” Travis said. “Hurry up. We have to get back before Lee figures out we’re gone.” He bustled off toward the register, and Will watched him for a breath of time.

  “Better get the big one,” he called. “To appease Lee.” He turned back to Gretchen, his smile timid and a bit trembly on his lips. “I wanted to text you last night about our, uh, date.” He cleared his throat. “But I don’t have your number, so…”

  “So…can I have your number, Gretchen?” she asked, flirting with him. He didn’t seem to get that she was, and she could admit she’d never been great at letting a man know she was interested in him.

  “Yes,” he said with a chuckle. “I’d love to have your number, Gretchen.”

  Only if you say my name like that again, she thought, but thankfully she didn’t have to go into full-blow mortification mode as she didn’t say it out loud. Instead, she read off her number, and Will put it in his phone. Their eyes met again, and the world did that thing where it stopped.

  At least until Travis said, “Stop staring at her like that. It’s creepy. And we have to go.” He nudged Will, and the trance broke.

  Air rushed into Gretchen’s lungs, and she dropped her chin, sure her face was a flaming red ball of fire.

  “I swear, Trav,” Will bit out. “You’re the worst brother ever.” He started for the door without saying goodbye. Yesterday, as he’d left her father’s house, their goodbye had been stilted and strange, but it was better than not getting one at all.

  “I’m the worst brother?” Travis called after him. “I drove you here to get your girlfriend’s number, because your back hurts. How am I the worst bro—?” The door closed behind them as they exited the shop, and Gretchen could only blink into the silence left in their wake.

  “Girlfriend?” Gretchen asked only herself, and the refrigeration unit that kept the candy from melting in the Texas heat kicked on as her answer.

  That evening, Gretchen paced in her house, Elvis watching her from the top of the couch. “I’m just going to tell him when he texts that I can’t go,” she said, looking at the gray tabby cat for approval. “Whatever night he suggests, I’ll be busy.”

  She’d been thinking about Will for hours—nothing new—but this time, her thoughts had taken her down a more dangerous path. She didn’t know the man. He didn’t say goodbye to her. She wasn’t even sure they’d get along for longer than ten minutes.

  Every interaction she had with him seemed to get interrupted or ruined somehow, from her father and aunt overhearing him as he asked her out, to a strange half-hug goodbye while she still wore muddy gloves, to him storming out of the shop while his brother continued to spill secrets.

  “Meow,” Elvis said, and Gretchen went into the kitchen. She worked in a frenzy to get the cat fed, chopping up last night’s leftover salmon and mixing it with some wet cat food and some dry kibble.

  She added a couple of cherry tomatoes and put the bowl on the floor. “Here you go, sweetie.” Elvis jumped down and joined her in the kitchen, his tail held high. She slumped down the cabinets next to the cat as he started noshing on his dinner, wishing she could calm her racing mind.

  “You’re right,” she said to the feline. “He was probably just embarrassed at the pharmacy that one day. Then a little awkward at the mall, because Travis said he was particular about his shirt.”

  Her brain started to quiet. “He was frustrated at the Beach Bash, and maybe he blurts some things out sometimes. He didn’t know Aunt Patty and Daddy were going to be right there, eavesdropping.”

  In all honesty, she should’ve warned him that her aunt had such a tendency. “And his back hurts, so he asked his brother to bring him to the shop to get my number.” She sighed then, because it was romantic that Will wanted her number.

  She closed her eyes. “Maybe he hasn’t dated in a while. He’s just out of practice when it comes to saying goodbye.” Heaven knew Gretchen wasn’t great at anything when it came to men, and she had plenty of stories to tell too. Elvis had heard them all already, and she was pretty sure the only reason the tabby stuck around was for the salmon bowl Gretchen had just made for him.

  Her eyes flew open. “Oh, no.” She moaned as she got to her feet. “What if his back hurts because of the weeding?”

  Elvis didn’t even look up from his bowl, the glutton. Gretchen reached for her phone next to the cutting board to call Will and demand to know why his back hurt. She couldn’t be responsible for that.

  As she stared at her device, she realized she didn’t have his number. He only had hers, and he hadn’t used it yet.

  “He will,” she said, refusing to remove her eyes from her phone. “He’ll text or call any second now.” Her stomach grumbled, and she should make herself some sort of salmon bowl out of the leftovers, but she didn’t.

  Darkness had started to fall, so surely Will couldn’t still be at work. He’d text or call any minute now…

  5

  Will stole out to the back deck the moment Travis said he was going to go shower. His phone lit up the night, and he cursed the fact that he’d been at the farmhouse for dinner for so long.

  Everyone wanted to hear about those grasshoppers, and not a single one of them didn’t get claimed. Lee had given Travis a cock-eyed look and said, “Is that where you two went earlier today?”

  Travis had simply grinned at their oldest brother and shrugged one shoulder with a mouthful of crispy rice, caramel, and chocolate in his mouth. Lee’s pretend ire had disappeared the moment he’d taken a bite of the treat too.

  None of that had helped get Will away from the family dinner sooner, and he didn’t want to call more attention to himself than had already been done. Travis knew of his insane crush on Gretchen Bellows, but no one but Cherry knew he’d asked her on a date.

  “You’re not going,” he told himself as he lifted his eyes from his phone. He couldn’t see anything now, as the bright rectangle imprinted on the backs of his eyelids every time he blinked. The war that had been raging inside him since he’d left the cute little house in Short Tail yesterday continued.

  He’d never had a normal interaction with Gretchen. Just when he thought he might be able to pull that off, something happened to twist things sideways. Yesterday, he’d acted like an idiot when it was time to say goodbye. Instead of just saying the word and waving like a normal person, he’d done some weird lunge at her to hug her. She’d patted him on the back, which might have been fine had she not been wearing muddy gloves.

  Another shirt ruined, though she hadn’t offered to pay for it this time. He’d run away from her too fast for that.

  He shook his head, which only made him dizzy in the darkness, what with his eyes closed and everything. He breathed in as he opened his eyes, saying, “Nothin’ goes right when I’m around her,” in a quiet voice. It still shouted in the country stillness. “I don’t see how I can go out with her.”

  Will wasn’t one for spotlights, and he felt certain that any café, restaurant, or bistro he took her to would end in disaster. So he wasn’t going to go. He was going to cancel the date.

  One arm of his strategy yelled about simply not texting Gretchen. She didn’t have his number, and maybe if he simply never used hers, that would be that. His heart fought against this strategy, because it would hurt her. The last thing Will wanted was to hurt a woman.

  “Arrogant,” he cussed at himself. Who did he think he was to think his non-text would hurt Gretchen? At the same time, he’d seen the interest in her eyes yesterday, as well as in her shop today. She flirted with him. If he didn’t text her to set up their date, she would get hurt.

  He couldn’t do that.

  He frowned at his device again, cursing Travis this time. His brother’s mouth had gotten Will into hot water for the last time. And not just hot water with Lee, but boiling, scalding water laced with humiliation with Gretchen Bellows.

  Stop staring at her like that. It’s creepy.

  Did you get her number?

  You were supposed to ask for her number. Hurry up.

  Will had never wanted to cut out someone’s tongue as badly as he had at Sweet Water Taffy today. Maybe he had been staring at Gretchen creepily, but she’d looked steadily back into his eyes. That was how he knew he couldn’t just ghost her.

  No, he’d have to text her and tell her with concise words that he’d had a change of heart and didn’t want to go out with her. He couldn’t make himself do it, because Will wasn’t one to lie, and he was dang tired of lying to himself.

  Hey, Gretchen, he thumbed out, his fingers moving fast over the phone. He’d once won a contest for the fastest texter, and he told himself to hurry up and get these messages sent. She wouldn’t be able to respond fast enough, and then he could silence his phone, take his turn in the shower, and go to bed.

  It’s Will. Listen, sorry about my stupid brother’s mouth in the shop today. I swear he lives to embarrass me.

  He sent that message and immediately started typing out his next message. It’s really busy around the farm right now, and I don’t think⁠—

  His fingers stalled when a return message came in. It’s fine. Can I call you?

  “Call me?” he asked, as if he didn’t know what those words meant. Gretchen didn’t wait for an answer, as his ringtone cut through the silence on the farm in the next moment, and her name and number came up on his screen, covering the texting app.

  Somewhat dumbfounded, he swiped on the call and lifted the phone to his ear. “Hey,” he said.

  “How did you hurt your back?” she asked. Demanded would be a better descriptive word, and Will turned in a full circle, trying to make sense of the question.

  “What?” he finally asked.

  “Travis said he drove you to the shop because your back hurts,” she said. She could probably win a contest for fastest speaker for how quickly her words flowed from her mouth. “Tell me it’s not from the weeding.”

  Relief rushed through Will. “It’s not from the weeding,” he said with a chuckle. “I mean, that sure didn’t help, but that’s not the reason.”

  “William Cooper,” she said, plenty of snap in her voice. “Why didn’t you say something yesterday?”

  “I just said it wasn’t because of that.”

  “You said it didn’t help.”

  Will stared out over the pond, the moon casting a silver line across the surface of the water. “Remember I told you about the pre-diabetes?”

  “Yes,” she said, really drawing the word out.

  Gladness moved through him, because her Texas drawl gave him another few beats to think. “I started working out pretty hardcore when that came down the line,” he said. “I cut out all sugars. I lifted weights religiously. I hurt my back doing that.” He supposed there could be worse ways to injure himself, including weeding her father’s strawberry patch.

  “Oh.” Gretchen took an audible breath through the line. “Does it bother you a lot?”

  “Not a lot,” he said, hesitant to say much more about what yesterday had cost him. Daddy hadn’t been happy at all by the time Will returned to the farm. He’d worked until nearly ten p.m., and he’d gotten the early morning shifts for the next ten days straight. He wouldn’t be mentioning any of that to Gretchen.

  He was forty years old, and a punishment for leaving the farm without asking or telling anyone where he was going—for almost four hours—made him feel like a fifteen-year-old who’d snuck off to see the girl he liked.

  Of course, that was exactly what Will had done, so he’d taken his tongue-lashing and awful schedule like a man.