Probably checking some other piece of equipment. The refrigeration unit in their storage facility had been on the fritz for the past month, and Will had finally gotten Daddy to approve the funds to fix that. They ran all of their milk through that fridge, and if it went down… Their losses would be catastrophic.

  “The Smith’s are here,” someone yelled, and that was Will’s cue to get moving again. Taylor and Bryant Smith owned one of the larger organic grocers in the state of Texas, and they’d been expanding their stores into Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas for the past year. They were the third largest client that Cooper & Co supplied milk for, and they came personally to pick up their weekly milk supply.

  Will expected to find Lee out in front of the massive storage facility, and he did. All three men hovered under umbrellas, but Will simply walked through the rain. Maybe it would wash off some of the grime, the grease, and the gunk from the actual down-and-dirty milking operation.

  “Here he is,” Lee said. “I’ll take Taylor to sign the paperwork. Bryant, you can go with Will and start filling your bottles.”

  Will put the friendliest business smile he could muster on his face, shook Bryant Smith’s hand, and turned to lead him into the storage facility. It smelled like dairy and dirt inside, a scent Will was extremely familiar with.

  Pure exhaustion flowed through him, and while Bryant went to load the first pallet of empty glass bottles they’d then fill with organic whole milk, he pulled his phone from his back pocket.

  I’m so sorry, he typed out quickly. But today has gone from one bad thing to another. The rain hasn’t helped. Can we reschedule dinner tonight?

  He sent the message as Bryant backed the truck right into the facility, and Will started to close the doors. His phone rang, and irritation spiked within him despite Gretchen’s name on the screen.

  “Hey,” he said quickly. “I’m with a client.”

  “Do you want me to come out there tonight? I can bring pizza or something.”

  Bryant dropped down from his truck, looking for Will. He raised one hand, his smile flying right back into place. He turned his back on the man before barking, “No.”

  “Will, it’s not⁠—”

  “I’m not in the mood,” he said, and he really didn’t have time for this. He didn’t know how to say goodbye. He didn’t know how to soothe feelings. He shivered from the cold wetness that covered his whole body, and he really just wanted to get Bryant Smith’s order fulfilled and the man on his way.

  Then he needed to eat and shower, and he had zero mental bandwidth for Gretchen. Because of that, he said, “I have to go,” and hung up. At least he thought he said that much. As he turned to go help Bryant, Will wondered if he’d really spoken that last sentence or not.

  The probability that he’d just hung up on Gretchen Bellows like a great big cowboy beast intensified, and Will’s shoulders sagged under the weight he carried.

  “Everything okay?” Bryant asked, real concern in his voice.

  No, Will wanted to rage into the sky. Everything is not okay.

  Instead, he smiled and reached for the first bottle. “Yep. Let’s get you gentlemen on your way. I don’t think this rain is going to let up until next week.”

  With Bryant chuckling, Will’s heart turned to stone because he was certain he’d just ruined everything with the only woman who’d sparked anything inside him in years.

  8

  “Who’s that who keeps texting you?” Karyn Harlow looked at Gretchen with surprise and curiosity in her eyes. She reached for another pod of edamame, but that didn’t mean she didn’t hear the buzzing of yet another text.

  And then another one.

  Gretchen swiped her phone off the table beside her and put it in her pocket. There, it could only rumble against her bones, making her weary from the inside out.

  I’m not in the mood.

  Will’s words from two days ago still cut through Gretchen. She’d apologized via text for calling him when he was busy, and he hadn’t responded—until now. Now, it seemed his fingers were on fire and his mind stuffed full of guilt, because he’d texted her at least fifteen times in the past sixty seconds.

  “No one,” Gretchen said, shooting Karyn a look she hoped told the older woman to drop it. She’d come to Karyn’s for lunch today, because she’d taken a much-needed break from the candy shop. Jon was a wizard with guests, and they didn’t need more truffles for their cases. They’d be out of brownies and pecan spiders by morning, but Gretchen didn’t much care.

  Not today, anyway.

  “Sure,” Karyn said as if she believed her. “I have no one text me five hundred times a minute too.”

  Gretchen let out all of her breath, the macaroni salad she’d been about to eat falling right off the fork as her arm sagged. It was too good to waste, but she couldn’t bring herself to care right now.

  “It’s William Cooper,” she said. “He asked me out last week, and by some strange occurrence I don’t understand, I said yes.” Gretchen looked across the table to Karyn. She’d stopped eating completely, and for once Gretchen was glad they were just at her house. Her two-year-old was down for a nap, and her older boy was at school.

  “Then, there was this weird muddy hug, and a really hot cheek-kiss, but also cops, and the most delicious contraband ice cream.” Gretchen tossed her fork onto the table. “We were supposed to go out on Tuesday, and he was grumpy about the rain and all the work going on at the farm. I called him, and he said he wasn’t in the mood.” Her chest heaved, and it hurt, and she just wanted someone to make it all go away.

  Karyn blinked a couple of times, as if Gretchen had strung together a bunch of words in another language. “Let’s circle back to the cops and the contraband ice cream,” she said slowly. “But start with what happened after the call on Tuesday.”

  “I sent him an apology. He hasn’t responded until now.”

  Karyn started waggling her perfectly manicured fingers. “Give me the phone.”

  “Karyn,” Gretchen said, suddenly so protective of her device. “You can’t text him.”

  “I’m not going to text him,” she said fiercely. “I’m going to screen his texts to see if you want to read them or not.”

  Gretchen took out her phone and passed it to Karyn. “You like this man?” the older woman asked.

  She didn’t look up at Gretchen, which made it easier for her to say, “Yes,” accompanied by a long, swoony sigh.

  Karyn’s eyes flitted back and forth as she read, only getting wider and wider as she did. She met Gretchen’s gaze silently, and she handed the phone back. “You’ll want to read those.”

  “All of them?”

  “Quickly,” Karyn said, her smile growing on her face.

  Gretchen took a breath and held it as she looked down. Will had been sending a lot of texts, and Gretchen warmed with each one she read.

  I’m so sorry stuck out to her.

  I was just in such a foul mood hit her squarely between the eyes. I get grumpy sometimes.

  I want to see you. No, I need to see you.

  Please tell me I didn’t fatally mess up.

  And those were just some of the messages. She looked up and met Karyn’s eyes. “Do you think he’s sending all of these?”

  She shrugged one shoulder as her toddler started to fuss through the speaker on the baby monitor. “I don’t know, but he did win a contest once for fastest texter in Texas.”

  Gretchen sat very still, trying to absorb those words. “You’re kidding.”

  Karyn stood and wiped her dark hair back off her face. “I’m not kidding. I have to go get Lucy up, and you need to go call your cowboy.” She grinned at Gretchen, who stood too. She embraced Karyn, her heart pounding in a new way.

  She still had to get out to Daddy’s at some point today, but maybe she could make a little stop by Sweet Water Falls Farm first. Karyn detoured to go upstairs while Gretchen went out to the porch.

  She waited until she was seated behind the steering wheel before she called Will, who was still sending her messages. The line connected, but he didn’t say hello. More than one voice came through the line, and Gretchen heard, “Say hi, you dolt,” in a woman’s voice.

  “Howdy,” Will yelled into the phone. A big exhale followed, and Gretchen wasn’t sure what to say next. She blinked, seeing a Will-less future in front of her, and while a lot of their interactions hadn’t gone terribly well, she didn’t want to be Will-less.

  “Will,” she said diplomatically. “I took today off, and I was wondering if you might have a few minutes this afternoon before I drive out to my daddy’s to visit.”

  Whispering came through the line, but Gretchen had a hard time distinguishing full words or phrases. “Yes,” he finally said. “That should be fine.”

  Gretchen put her car in reverse and backed out of Karyn’s driveway. “Are you with your sister?”

  “Yes,” he said again.

  “Is she going to coach you through everything to say once I get there?”

  “N-no,” he said.

  Gretchen smiled to the sky around her. The rain had moved on, but Sweet Water Falls was still wet. The farm would be, that was for sure. “Did you mean the things you texted, or were you just typing what Clarissa said?”

  “Both,” he said.

  “Are you going to talk to me in more-than-one-word sentences?” she asked. “It’s a long way for a yes or no answer.” She came to a stop at the end of the street, once again presented with a left or a right that would take her to two very different destinations.

  “Rissa’s gone,” Will said. “Listen, Gretchen.” He cleared his throat. “I really am so sorry. I have these redheaded genes inside me, and sometimes they just come erupting out. My mama sat and listened to me whine all night last night, and you know what she said to me?”

  “I have no idea,” Gretchen said, making the right turn that would take her to the farm and not her father’s.

  “She said, ‘William, it sounds like you like this woman a whole lot, and you better figure out how to apologize and then tame your inner grump.’”

  “Texas Mommas,” Gretchen said with a smile. “They’re usually right. Mine used to tell me not to go kissin’ boys on top of water towers. She said nothing good comes from a kiss on top of a water tower.”

  Will let a beat of silence come through the line, and then he burst out laughing. Gretchen joined him, glad all the tension between them had shattered. “I have missed talking to you,” he said. “Did I hang up on you the other day?”

  “Yes, sir,” she said. “You sure did.” She twanged out the words like they didn’t sting at her, but his abrupt end to the call had needled her for over forty-eight hours.

  “I sure am sorry, sweetheart,” he said softly, and she caught a glimpse of the non-grumpy Will even though she couldn’t see him. “How far out are you?”

  “Fifteen minutes,” she said. “I think the farm is about the same distance from my house as the candy store is, and as my daddy’s place.” She had no idea how she’d be ready to face Will in only fifteen minutes. Then she reminded herself that he was the one who should be shaking in his boots.

  “I’m going to go grab the skillet cake Lee made last night, and I’ll be at my cabin, okay?”

  “Yes, sir,” she said again.

  This time, he said, “Okay, I’ll see you soon, Gretchen,” before the call ended, and then Gretchen only had to focus on not strangling the steering wheel for fourteen more minutes.

  By the time she pulled up to the quaintest, most darling cabin in the world, her nerves had frayed all the way to the center. She didn’t have to wonder if she’d found the right place, because Will sat on the front steps with a guitar across his lap.

  He looked up as her tires crunched over the gravel in front of his cabin, and he practically threw the guitar to the side as he stood. He came jogging down the steps and the front sidewalk, and she’d barely had time to put the car in park and open the door before he arrived.

  She put her hand in his offered one, the touch of his skin against hers sizzling hot. Their eyes met, and Will said, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” before he enveloped her in a hug. Gretchen wanted to be held by this man for a long time, despite his stressed-out, grumpy words from earlier in the week

  “I shouldn’t have called,” she said against his shoulder.

  He pulled back. “No,” he said, his eyes blazing with energy. “None of this is your fault, Gretchen. I just…it’s me. Trav told me he asked Shayla to tell him when he’s being this horrible person, and I guess I need that too.”

  Gretchen shook her head. “You know.”

  “Yeah.” He slung his arm around her. “I do know. I’d had the worst day ever, and I really wanted to see you, and I was so upset I had to cancel. I didn’t want to think about having to see you that night, and I didn’t want our first date to be you bringing me pizza out here.”

  She drifted closer to his side as he took her up the sidewalk. The wind gusted, and he nearly lost his cowboy hat. He saved it by pressing down quickly on his head. “Tonight? Can I take you to dinner tonight?”

  She shook her head. “I can’t, Will. My daddy has a doctor’s appointment in an hour, and we get sandwiches at this place in the mall every Thursday.” She gave him a smile, but he didn’t return it.

  He stopped walking and cupped her face in his hands. “I’m sorry I made your life harder. I won’t do that again, I promise you that.” He dropped his hands, stealing his warmth and his affection from her. “But I understand if you just want to walk away now.” His jaw jumped, and he looked over her shoulder and into the distance. “Might be best for you.”

  She let the wind tug at her hair and jacket without resisting them. “Will,” she finally whispered, and that brought his attention back to her. “You’re not like the other men I’ve dated, that’s true. I worked for a bull of a chef in Dallas, and I had to close up my candy shop in New Orleans when my business partner-slash-boyfriend stole from me.”

  She took a deep, deep breath. “When I look into the future, I don’t see either of them. I see Sweet Water Falls, and I see Sweet Water Taffy.” She gripped the front of his denim jacket, wondering how a man could make such a thing look so sexy. “I don’t know about you and me yet, because we’re just getting started, but I know I don’t want to walk away right now.”

  He nodded, those blue-green eyes like hot fire in her soul. “How long can you stay?”

  “Only a few more minutes,” she said, thinking of the drive to get her dad and then get to the doctor.

  Will looked up into the sky. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s go inside, because it looks like it might rain again.”

  Gretchen went with him, because she liked being at his side. She liked the sound of his voice in her ears, and she liked being able to share her day with someone with human DNA and who hadn’t served in the Army fifty years ago. She could take a little bark from Will Cooper, and as he served her a piece of gooey chocolate cake, her world got a whole lot brighter.

  “One of my goals this year,” he said as he slid onto the barstool next to hers. “Is to take more time off. I need a break. I work too much.” He took off his cowboy hat and tossed it on the counter. “Then I’m grumpy as can be, and I don’t like being like that.”

  She took a bite of her cake, everything sugary and rich exactly what she needed. “Me too, Will. I work too much at the candy shop. We can work on working less together.” She grinned at him, and this time, he did smile back.

  He leaned toward her and swept his lips across her cheek again. Gretchen leaned into his touch this time, his kiss a brand against her skin. “Tomorrow night,” he whispered in her ear. “Can we go out together tomorrow night?”

  He pulled back, and Gretchen caught the desire and hope swimming in his eyes. She wondered what he’d looked like when she’d called on Tuesday, and what color his eyes would be when he finally kissed her.

  She nodded and forked up another bite of cake. “Yeah,” she said. “We can go out tomorrow night.”

  9

  Will threw the tie on his bed in complete irritation. “I don’t have time for this.”

  “You don’t need a tie,” Trav said from the doorway. “Shay’ll be here any second, and she could tie it for you though.”

  “No.” Will glared at his brother in the mirror. “I should’ve left fifteen minutes ago.” Someone had stopped by the office to talk to him right as he was getting up to leave. Of course. That was the story of William Cooper’s life.

  He turned toward Travis, feeling naked from head to toe. He hated it and reminded himself one more time that he wanted to go out with Gretchen. He liked her. He liked spending time with her and holding her hand, and he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about kissing her tonight after dinner. He had mints in his pocket and everything.

  “Are you sure I don’t need a tie?”

  “You don’t need a tie,” Trav said, a smile touching his face. “I haven’t seen you like this since—” Thankfully, he stopped talking, but the name hung in the air.

  Tara.

  “Yeah,” Will said. “I just feel like a fool.” He looked down at his shirt, which bore a collar and the color of lemon juice. “This shirt isn’t right.” He started undoing the buttons and flung it on the bed too. “It needs a tie.”

  “I’m coming in,” Shayla Nelson called, and Will lost Trav’s attention to his fiancée.

  “In Will’s bedroom,” he yelled. “Come help him get dressed.”

  “Don’t ask her to do that,” Will grumbled, pulling a couple of polos out of his closet. These wouldn’t require ties, and he wondered if he should change back into jeans too. He turned toward the door as Shay filled the doorway. Trav beamed at her and slid his arm around her waist.