“All right,” Cherry said, holding up one hand. “Enough. Do I need to put someone on cleaning?”

  “No,” they all said together, Jed included. He’d rather figure out how to put all the pieces in the moving truck than clean underneath a couch or behind the washing machine. No, thank you.

  “Go on, then,” Cherry said, plenty of crossness in her tone. “There’s beds and dressers next. Put those muscles to good use.”

  Her brothers glared her down as they went by, and how she withstood that, Jed would never know. She was far stronger than she seemed, that was for dang sure.

  “They’re scary,” he whispered. She turned those eyes on him, and Cherry possessed a pretty powerful glare of her own. “Yikes. So are you. Where do you want me next, princess?”

  She frowned and flipped the towel at him. “Don’t call me that. Go help with something big. Lord knows He gave you the shoulders for it.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, and he went to help the Cooper brothers with the bigger items. Meanwhile, Cherry, Rosalie, and Clarissa kept moving out boxes, as did Ford and Autumn—any the kids could carry, at least.

  Gretchen and Shay stayed outside and organized things, helped direct traffic, and kept mothering Cherry’s cats, which she’d put in carriers before everyone had even arrived that morning. Her parents had come too, but they stayed inside and helped clean and direct people there too.

  His brother Easton had come, and Jed caught him helping Wayne and Chrissy more than moving much, but he didn’t mind. In fact, it seemed they needed someone to entertain them and chat with them, and Easton did excel at that.

  Cherry had sold her house that week, but the new buyers wouldn’t be closing until the New Year. She said, “I want to leave it clean, but it doesn’t have to be perfect,” so when everything was packed—and they totally had to use both Lee’s and Will’s trucks to get it all—Cherry closed her front door and joined everyone outside.

  She wore a look Jed had seen before, only a couple of times. He’d seen it when he’d first climbed the steps to the top of the hay bales in the corn maze only five weeks ago.

  She was lost.

  Lost, and alone, and afraid. He opened his arms, glad when she stepped into the space there and joined him. He didn’t look at Lee or Will or Travis or Wayne. They all knew he and Cherry were dating, and Jed wasn’t great at hiding how he felt. They could probably all see his adoration of their sister and daughter, and a slip of humiliation moved through him.

  Then he told himself it wasn’t embarrassing to want to help someone. Or to love them, he thought, and he relaxed.

  “All right,” she said. “Thank you, everyone.” She lifted her phone. “I’ll send you the address of my new place. I think I’ll beat the truck.” She looked up at Jed, who nodded. “I’m going to call for pizza too, so we’ll have lunch in Short Tail.”

  Everyone nodded, and Jed stayed out of the way as she hugged her parents, then stepped into Lee’s arms. Jed watched them for a moment, sensing their powerful bond. Then he switched his gaze to her mama and daddy, both of whom looked utterly exhausted.

  He went after them and helped Chrissy into the passenger seat of the minivan they’d driven. “You okay?” he asked her. Her face shone with sweat, and her skin bore the same tone as in the cement on Cherry’s sidewalk.

  “This just wore me out,” she said. She still had enough energy to cover his hand where he rested it on the interior door handle. “You and Cherry sure are sweet together.”

  Jed’s eyebrows went up. He looked past her to the driver’s seat as Wayne opened the door. “You think so?”

  “Yes,” Chrissy said. “She’ll try to push you out, Jed. It’s what she knows best.”

  He looked back at her, sure Cherry would be upset her mama was saying these things. “I…”

  “Chrissy,” Wayne said gently, and his wife’s eyes drifted closed.

  “Don’t you let her,” Chrissy mumbled. “Okay, cowboy? Don’t you let her.”

  Jed looked at Wayne, not sure what to do or say. He simply looked at his wife with great concern on his face, and then he nodded to Jed. “Will you lower her seat?” he asked. “She gets so tired so fast, and with the drive, and the unfamiliar bed…” He left his sentence there, though Jed felt certain there was so much more to say.

  He gently lowered Chrissy’s seat so she could sleep, and Wayne twisted to grab a blanket from the back seat. Jed helped to get it over Cherry’s mama, and Wayne gave him a pillow to wedge between the seat and the wall of the van. Jed did, then closed the door.

  He waved goodbye to them, and as they backed out, Cherry came to his side. “Thank you,” she whispered. Jed held very still, just wanting to be in this moment with her.

  “They shouldn’t come help unpack,” he said. “Your mama was real tired.”

  “I saw you with her,” she said.

  Jed kept what her mama had said to himself. For now, he thought. Cherry was already doing a stressful thing by moving, and he didn’t need to get her riled up for a long drive alone by saying something that didn’t need to be said.

  “I can’t come help unpack,” Easton said, and that broke Jed’s silence.

  He turned toward his brother and embraced him. “This was huge,” he said. “Thank you for doing this.” Four hours of driving in one day wasn’t easy for anyone, and Easton had work still to do back on the farm. Heck, Jed didn’t think he’d get out of evening chores either, now that his week off had concluded.

  He pounded Easton on the back and let his brother go. Cherry handed him a slip of paper with her neat handwriting on it as Easton walked away. “My new address,” she said. He didn’t even glance at it.

  Almost everyone had loaded up, but only her parents had actually left. They were all waiting for her, and Jed admired the love her siblings had for her. Clarissa would probably stop everywhere Cherry did, just to run in to go to the bathroom with her. The four of them wanted their sister back desperately, and Jed hadn’t realized it until this morning.

  His curiosity about what had driven Cherry away from her family burned through him hotter than ever. He reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear. “You okay?”

  “Just sad,” she admitted, turning to look at the house. “I’ve lived here for a long time.”

  “A new adventure,” he whispered, because Cherry loved adventures. Well, part of her did anyway. Another part of her thrived on routine, and while part of her was sad, another part had to be happy too. Relieved, even.

  “You’re going home,” he said. “Kind of. This is what you wanted.”

  “I know,” she said, slightly irritated with him. “It’s still hard.” She gave him a crisp look. “Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean I don’t want to do it. And it’s okay for it to be hard.” She started to walk away from him, and Jed blinked at her.

  Classic Cherry. Her mood could change faster than the weather. Even as he thought that, the sky overhead rumbled with thunder, and he looked up. “Lord,” he said, his mouth barely moving. He didn’t know how to finish his prayer, because there weren’t words for what he needed today.

  No rain?

  A sunny Cherry?

  Neither was going to happen, so petitioning the Lord for them wasn’t worth it. He looked at Cherry and called, “It’s okay for it to be hard, sweetheart.”

  She turned and looked at him, and he put a smile on his face. “Hey, it could be worse.”

  “How?” she challenged him, that sexy hip cocking out as she planted her hand on it.

  “You could be driving the truck,” he said as the first drops of rain fell. “In bad weather.” He didn’t wait for her to answer. He just ran for the moving truck, barely making it inside before the sky opened, and the rain really fell.

  Jed wished moving someone in windy, whippy, December weather was easy. It wasn’t. By the time he and Cherry’s brothers got everything she owned into her new house and set where she wanted it, the sky foamed with steel-colored clouds. Darkness hadn’t quite fallen, but nor was there any sunshine to be seen.

  “You can go,” she said, her voice filled with exhaustion. Lee, Will, and Travis had all just left, and Jed simply wanted to collapse onto her couch and fall asleep with her nearby.

  He looked at her and offered a smile. “I don’t know if I can make it back to the farm without falling asleep.” Not only that, but she had to take him, as he’d been in San Antonio all week with her and didn’t have a vehicle.

  “I should’ve gone with Lee,” he said, just now realizing it.

  “Oh, you can’t go,” she said, reaching for her keys. “Come on, I’ll take you.” The weariness on her face matched that in her voice.

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said, coming toward him. “What’s the alternative? You stay here? My bed isn’t even set up yet.”

  He’d mapped the distance from his cabin to her new house, and it was a seventeen-minute drive.

  “I’m not going to stay here tonight anyway,” she said, looking around. “I’ll stay with Mama and Daddy, and tackle this in the morning.”

  “Did you just decide that?”

  “Yes,” she said, moving closer to him. “And I want it noted for the record that I’ve said yes to you twice now. Just in this conversation.” She smiled up at him, and while she was tired, she was still breathtakingly beautiful.

  Jed felt lighter, and he smiled too. “I’ve noted it in the official record,” he said.

  “Good,” she said. “Now, let’s go, because I might fall asleep right where I stand.”

  “One thing first,” he said, taking the keys from her. “I’ll drive, okay?”

  She nodded, because she’d told him once, back when they’d dated over the summer, that she hated driving everywhere. That she thought one of the greatest pros to being married would be that she didn’t always have to drive.

  “Okay, two things,” he said, and then he turned toward the door. “I’ve got one more secret to tell you on the way back to the farm.”

  15

  Cherry leaned her head back against the rest as Jed drove through the night toward his farm. She’d done it. She’d left San Antonio and her perfect little house in the perfect neighborhood and returned to Sweet Water Falls.

  Kind of. Her new place actually sat just across the border of Short Tail, another sleepy little Texas town with great charm, an amazing diner inside the only store, and a single-pump gas station. She was actually closer to downtown Sweet Water Falls where all the shops, restaurants, and grocery stores were than anyone at the farm.

  He didn’t say anything about his secret, and Cherry didn’t have the mental capacity to ask. He pulled into her mama’s driveway before she realized it. “Oh,” she said and that was all.

  “I’ll come get you for breakfast,” he said quietly. “We can swap vehicles then.”

  Her first instinct was to argue. She’d been tired before. She could go another few minutes down the road to drop him off and then come back. At the same time, she just wanted to crawl into bed and go to sleep.

  “Okay,” she said. “Thanks, Jed.” She started to get out, and Jed met her at her door by the time she did.

  “I talked to Lady Jones,” he said, his voice too loud in all this country silence. He took her into his arms. “She said I could come talk to her about the farm in the New Year.”

  Cherry smiled up at him. “That’s great, Jed.”

  “I want you to come.” He swallowed, the movement catching her eye. “That’s the secret. I have this appointment, and I don’t want to go alone.”

  Again, she had to analyze her first instinct, which was to tell him no. Of course she didn’t need to go with him to this farm he was thinking of buying. He wanted her to, but it wasn’t necessary. They weren’t married.

  She blinked, realizing that Jed wanted to include her, because he was very serious about their relationship. I’m falling in love with you.

  “All right,” she said, deliberately choosing not to say yes. “I don’t even have a job yet. I’m sure I can go.”

  “You’ll get a job,” he whispered as he leaned closer. “I’m sure of it.” He kissed her goodnight, and Cherry melted into his strong arms and tender touch. He didn’t kiss her long, and then he walked her up to the door like he was her high school boyfriend dropping her off after the prom.

  He backed up, lifted his hand in a wave, and turned to go down the steps. Cherry watched him go, her back pressed into the wooden door behind her. “He’s a good man,” she whispered to herself. If he bought that farm, he’d work it. Day, night, holidays. He’d help animals—something he loved to do—and build new barns, fences, buildings, maybe even a new house. The cowboy was handy and handsome and everything Cherry wanted.

  A real prince, and while not that long ago, he’d told her she was no princess, she certainly felt like one on his arm.

  A few days later, Cherry finished taking out all the notebooks and pens she’d packed into one box, broke it down, and stashed it with several others she’d unpacked that morning. She put the notebooks—all unused, of course—in a cupboard in her kitchen and dropped the pens into the drawer below it.

  She loved stationery with her whole heart. She often bought fun notebooks of all shapes and sizes, never intending to use them. Every once in a while, she’d tear a page out to make a list, as she had earlier that day.

  Unpack six boxes got crossed off, and the next few items on her list were errands. Grocery shopping. Drop off one application and stop by City Hall to pick up another one. She actually had a meeting with the County Records Office after lunch, and she checked the time on her microwave to see if her sister was running late yet.

  Not yet.

  Rissa should be here any minute, though, and Cherry dashed out of the kitchen and into her bedroom to change her shirt. She went with something bright and pink, because she wanted to stand out at the Records Office. She was meeting with the manager there—just to ask about the job that had been listed last week and get an application if she felt like it would be a fit for her—and Cherry knew the value of first impressions.

  Rhonda Gappmeyer had to be close to Cherry’s age, and she ran her fingers through her dark hair, settled the hem of her shirt just right over her jeans, and turned as Rissa called, “Cher, I’m here.”

  She met her youngest sibling in the kitchen and immediately took her baby nephew from her. “Hello, Bronson.” She gave him a kiss and then leaned into Rissa for a hug. “Howdy, Riss.”

  Her sister pulled back, and while over a decade separated them, Cherry experienced a closeness to her she hadn’t in a while. “Are you ready for this?”

  “I think so.” Cherry took a deep breath, held it, and then blew it out. “Let’s drop off the application first.” She swiped her list into her free hand while holding the six-week-old baby in one arm. He’d pinked up, and his cheeks looked like his mother had stuffed them with socks. “Then we can go to lunch. Then I have that appointment with Rhonda at City Hall. Then groceries.”

  She looked at her sister. “Can we manage all of that? Do you want to drive separately in case you need to take Bronson home?”

  “No,” Clarissa said, swiping her son’s wispy hair off his forehead and giving him a smile. The infant flailed his arms and made a screeching noise, obviously thrilled to see his mama. “He’ll be okay. I might have to feed him, but I have a bottle or I can sit in the car while you talk to Rhonda.”

  Cherry nodded, a new part of her once again mourning some of the choices she’d made in her life. She’d let Charlie Hooper and Brandon Alcott drive her from her hometown, and she’d closed every door to every man who’d ever come knocking.

  Even Jed. He just hadn’t given up as easily as some others had. He was loud and brash and opinionated…and Cherry sure did like him.

  “Jed asked me to come look at a farm with him,” Cherry said once she’d strapped the baby in the backseat, taken her seat, and fastened her seatbelt.

  Rissa looked at her, her bright green eyes sparkling with shock. “He did? Where?”

  “Just right here,” Cherry said, her voice not as loud as Rissa’s. “It’s Betty Jones’s land. Her farm.”

  Rissa put her SUV in reverse and started to back out of Cherry’s driveway. “That’s great, Cher. Are you going to go?” The fact that she had to ask that question made Cherry look out her window.

  “Yeah,” she said to her dry and dormant front yard. “I am.”

  “So you like Jed.”

  “Yeah,” Cherry said, able to admit it now. “I like him a lot.”

  “Are you going to marry him?” Rissa asked.

  “You sound just like Mama,” Cherry said with a smile for her sister.

  Rissa giggled and shook her shorter hair back out of her face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to jump to that. When you first started your sentence with ‘Jed asked me’ I thought you were going to say he’d asked you to marry him.”

  Cherry studied her, but Rissa kept her eyes on the road. “Why would you think that?”

  “Cherry.” She flicked a glance in her direction, her tone slightly patronizing. “Everyone can see how much he loves you.”

  Cherry didn’t know what to say. “That’s…he hasn’t said that. And trust me, the man doesn’t hold back from sayin’ what’s on his mind.”

  Rissa laughed then, a full-on belly laugh. Cherry found such joy swimming in the sound that she did too. “I bet he doesn’t,” Rissa said, still chuckling. “But Cherry, that’s who you need.”

  “Is it?” Cherry smoothed her hands down her thighs as Rissa started to near the outskirts of town. She’d picked up an application for an office manager at the big music store in town. They held recitals there for a variety of instruments, had rooms private teachers could rent for lessons, and then all of their retail space where they sold everything from grand pianos to ukuleles.

  The office manager for a place like that would have to deal with dozens of moving pieces, which Cherry was very well-suited for.