Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 47222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
“Just pipe down and hear me out.” Darcy closes her mouth and crosses her arms across her ample chest.
Dammit, why is she so beautiful?
I shake my head and start again. “Just days after you left, my brothers came by, demanding the deed to the farm. They’re idiots. But when they found out I had it in my possession, well,” I shrug my shoulders, “they were none too pleased.”
“Let me guess: they wanted you to hand it over to them.” Darcy sits down on the edge of the bed, and clutches the delicate paper tightly in her hand.
“That they did.” I watch her carefully.
“But it still says my name on it.”
“It does.”
“What were they planning on doing?”
“Putting everything under the name McLaughlin,” I tell her candidly. “Absorbing it into the Lazy M.”
“Why didn’t you just give it to them? Isn’t that what you wanted all along?” Confusion and tears start to simmer in Darcy’s large brown eyes and it’s all I can do not to cross over to her and wipe them away.
“I almost did, a few times,” I confess. “I didn’t know if you were ever going to come back, and what the hell I was supposed to do with a farm this small?”
“Oh.” The sound is small and frail. To hell with it, I think and cross the room in a few strides to sit next to Darcy. I perch on the bed next to her, but don’t touch her.
“The thing is, my brothers wouldn’t let up. They just kept pressuring me. At first, they were careful but then they started to make threats about how they’d burn the place down and torch the crops.”
Darcy looks up at me with wide, terrified eyes. “They threatened you?”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle. The worst was when they got a lawyer involved, claiming all sorts of bullshit.” I chuckle. “Thing is, those asshats I call brothers forget that I worked in corporate for a long time. Lawyers don’t scare me. Bankers don’t scare me. Besides, they have no legal claim on this land whatsoever so I knew their actions were just bluster.” Then, I look at my wife, who’s utterly still. “But they’re still trying to get me to transfer the deed to the family trust.”
Darcy sits silently next to me, trying to process everything I’ve just told her. I watch her closely, looking for any hint that she might have changed her mind about me.
“So what then? The farm is… yours? Mine?” Darcy holds up the paper and shakes her hand at me. “What does this mean, Rock?”
I sigh heavily. “It means, Darcy, that the farm, all the land, and all the equipment, is yours. No strings attached, and no more threats. I stopped talking to my brothers,” I say in a heavy tone. “I gave them their comeuppance, along with some threats of my own, and I think it’s safe to say I’ve scared off the next three generations of McLaughlins from trying to take over this land.”
“You did?” Darcy clutches her baby bump, clearly thinking about her future. “This land is mine?”
“It’s yours, Darcy. All of it.”
I rise and walk back toward the doorway.
“Rock,” she calls to me. I pause mid step but keep my back turned away from her. I don’t want her to see the sadness in my face. “What now?”
It’s now or never.
Slowly, I turn back around to face Darcy. A spark of hope lights up her eyes, and I can tell that maybe, just maybe, she’ll hear me out. Maybe I did something right.
“What are you going to do?” she asks, still confused. The question is genuine, but I can also tell it’s a challenge. She wants to know if I’ll hurt her again. I brace myself for what I have to tell her, unsure if she’ll listen to me this time or not.
“I’ll go, if that’s what you want. The last thing I ever want to do is hurt you. And I know I’ve hurt you, Darcy. I’ll regret that until the day I die.”
I take a step toward her, testing her willingness to hear me out. Darcy remains postured on the bed, quiet and staring at me.
“I messed up. What you said about me coming here on false pretenses is nothing but the truth. But there’s more to it than that. When I saw you, and how good and generous and beautiful you are – I didn’t stand a chance, Darcy. I stayed that first week partially because I was trying to figure out how to get the farm, yes. But really, and I can only admit this now, it’s because I was starting to have feelings for you.”
Screw my pride. I stride back to the bed and kneel in front of Darcy so that I’m looking up into her face.
“I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you, but I did. I am. I’m completely in love with you and if you send me away, I don’t know what I’ll do without you.” Again, I don’t touch my wife, but in our closeness I can hear her heart pounding and I can sense her tenseness.