Delivery to the Farmhouse (Havenwood Cowboys Romance #4)

Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

A gog wasn’t generally a word I made much use of on a day-to-day basis, but it was all I could think of to describe my surprise.

I was—agog. Could I really take the week off? Could I really leave—just like that?

And what about funds? I supposed I had enough in savings and had planned on putting some road behind me, but still.

“I can’t just… go on a road trip with you,” I said.

“Why not?”

A noise escaped my throat. The green demon in my chest went berserk, kicking bricks in every direction.

I waited for all the reasons why this was a terrible idea to surface. Yet, those pesky reasons stayed right out of my grasp.

The truth was, there was no reason not to do this.

Are you so sure? a thought prodded.

Colton was gorgeous, ruggedly charming, and every bit as good of a listener as he promised he would be. And traveling meant time together. Rumors in a small town like Bridgewater would fly like seagulls over a crop in their search for mice.

“There’s a lot of country out there,” he said, placing his hat on his head, “and I intend to take you to see some of it.”

I couldn’t wrap my head around this. I stared out at the fields visible beyond the backyard. A tractor in the distance rumbled down a row of potatoes. Which then got to me.

Tractors. Colton FARMED.

Though I had little experience with the profession, I was sure that was something he needed to tend to on the daily. How could he just leave that behind?

“But—you just said you need to thin your crops. What about your farms?”

He waved this off. “Bryce can handle it. Or I’ll call Hoss and tell him to get his butt here and watch over things while we’re gone. I never take days off—they’ll be more than happy to help out.”

He never took days off—but he was for me?

I wasn’t going to read too much into that. I couldn’t.

Colton watched me expectantly. “What do you say? If you’re leaving, can I come, too?”

“You’re serious?”

“As a heart attack.”

He didn’t rescind. He didn’t make any jokes. He didn’t backtrack in any way.

Slowly, my smile broke free. “What the heck?” I said. “Let’s go.”

Colton grinned and reached for my hand. His touch seared straight up my arm, a fact I did my best to hide. “Let’s go.”

We stared at each other while the sudden euphoria swarmed between us. After going back inside, we said our goodbyes to the rest of the Holdens. Belle, Bex, Allie, and Debra all hugged me. Debra held on a little longer than the others.

“Don’t be a stranger,” she said. “You know where I live now.”

Smiling, I assured her that I would keep in touch. And then Colton walked me out the front door .

“Oh, wow,” I said on a breath, stopping and staring before we reached his truck.

This house had an impeccable view. The sky had turned a mesmerizing shade of orange as though the clouds had caught on fire.

He walked me to his truck and got my door—and didn’t mention anything else about the road trip the whole short way.

I was gobsmacked. (There was another word I rarely used but seemed fitting.)

Was he for real? Part of me didn’t want to trust him.

“This isn’t a trick is it?” I asked as he backed up toward the dirt road that would lead past the townhouses and out to the street.

“No trick.”

Hm. That was a brief response. Too brief.

“You’re not going to back out on me, are you?” I said. “I can’t afford to get my hopes up and have you pull them out from under me.”

He had no idea just what an emotional risk even wanting this trip was for me.

“Not backing out,” he said, rolling past the townhouses. The crew was gone for the night, and the site was a little too empty. “Don’t you get second thoughts on me now.”

“Where will we go?”

“Where the road leads us,” he said. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

Speaking of roads, the rest of the way bumped up and down until we made it to the paved main road. Every bump only amplified the game of Whack-a-Mole taking place inside of me. My hopes were the moles. And every time they popped up, doubt dodged in with its hammer, smacking them down again.

Colton took it slow through Bridgewater. He pulled up the alley behind The Mercantile and stopped at my house.

I kept my hand on the handle and stared down at the leap out of his truck .

And it was a leap—the guy had this thing jacked up.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I just feel like we should set a few things straight.”

“Go ahead then.” He shifted into park. “Lay them on me.”

I swear someone was playing ping pong inside my chest. “We’re going as friends, right?”

I mean, he held my hand a few minutes ago, but that was a friendly gesture, wasn’t it?

“Friends.” He said it like it was a four-letter word in church.

Come on. Was he going to make me spell it out?

“You’re not—you don’t have any other—” I couldn’t bring myself to say intentions. But he wasn’t planning on getting anything from me, was he?

That was reserved solely for marriage, buddy.

“I’m not going to sleep with you.” There. It had to be said.

“Whoa,” he said, lifting his hands away from the steering wheel. His face rivaled the red heels I hadn’t yet unboxed. “I didn’t expect you to.”

“It’s just—we’re going to be staying wherever we’re staying on this road trip for a week . I just wanted to make sure you didn’t have any ideas.”

Colton stared at his hands for several moments and then shook his head. There it was. I knew better than to get my hopes up. I’d just have to take the trip on my own?—

“I have no plans to steal your virtue, Miss Natalie,” he said, cutting into my thoughts. “Frankly, I’m insulted you’d think I’d do anything like that.”

“You mean, you don’t want to steal my virtue?” I couldn’t help teasing him just a little.

I’d made him squirm.

He narrowed his eyes and rubbed a hand across the scruff on his jaw. But he didn’t tease back. He leaned toward me, hammering into me with that all-too-serious stare he had.

“Not until we say the vows and there’s a ring on your finger and mine. Until you take my name. And since we’re not to that point, you have nothing to fear from me. Jesus is my homeboy, Nat. I care about His opinion more than I do about anything else. And He said save it for marriage? So that’s what I’m doing. You can trust me. I’m a man of my word.”

I loved that he just referred to Jesus as his homeboy. It was the kind of goofy thing a man like Colton might say. He was really good at making awkward and cheesy…still be awkward and cheesy but sound legit, too.

And…there was no second-guessing in that explanation. He wasn’t backing out.

He was really doing this?

I held his gaze ten seconds longer. Ten seconds. That was long enough for conscience to kick in—wasn’t that how the saying went?

Or was that courage?

Maybe the pause was for me instead. To grapple my ten seconds of courage.

“Okay,” I said when he still didn’t back out. “Thank you. Sorry, that got a little…straightforward there. Do you still want to go with me?”

I had to be sure. I couldn’t move forward with him from here until then.

“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t. And besides, no worries. It’s a fair question. Traveling implies sleeping. But trust me, sweetheart, we’ll be getting separate rooms.”

“Separate rooms,” I said, trying to act unruffled by the fact that he’d called me “sweetheart.” I wasn’t sure why the notion made me feel like one of those kid toys where once it got turned upside down, all the colored bubbles began to chug through little contraptions to get back to the other side.

“How about South Dakota?” he said. “Mount Rushmore. You ever been?”

“It’s not in Utah or Idaho, so that’s a no.” The prospect got me excited. I hadn’t included it in my Anywhere But Here binder, but what did that matter?

I’d get to those other places one of these days.

“I went when I was a kid but haven’t been back since. Jackson Hole is on the way, so I was thinking maybe we could stop there. Maybe hit up Yellowstone on our way back.”

“Yellowstone,” I said on a breath.

I’d gone as a kid, but it’d been years. Yet another section in my binder was dedicated to that particular national park. There was so much more to it than many people realized—including me. Hence the research I did on it.

“What do you think?” he asked. “You’ll get some time to think. To hang out with yours truly. In separate rooms.”

My mouth twisted. This was so sweet of him. He was giving up so much for this.

And really, that made no sense. I’d rejected him—multiple times. Kept him as far from me as I could. This was only our first date.

What could he be thinking jumping into this with me? Just like that?

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

“I’ve just been itching for a road trip, that’s all.” His eyes twinkled.

That look sent off the horde of butterflies in my stomach all over again. How could that look, and those words, pack such a punch?

“You in?” he asked.

Did that mean he doubted me?

A sense of impulsive adventure I’d never experienced before swept over me like wind through a superhero’s cape. I’d never done anything like this before.

“I’m in,” I said, feeling the words clear to my toes.

His grin flared. “Good. I’ll get a few things settled, and we’ll leave in the morning.”

The morning?

The MORNING!

I checked myself, pressing my hands to my stomach and drawing in slow, deliberate breaths. Keep it together. Stay cool. Do not act like a spaz.

“Sounds good. Colton?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

He tipped his hat toward me. More excited than I thought, I made the leap from his truck, and then as Colton drove away, I dashed toward the Eriksons’ basement door only to pause. I hadn’t heard how Harold was doing. Taking a quick detour, I swept around to her front door and knocked.

Minutes passed. And then more minutes. Just when I was getting ready to abandon the effort, a voice called to me from across the street.

“Natalie!”

I turned and found Steve crossing the street toward me. He wore a long-sleeved button-up shirt and tie, making me wonder if he’d just gotten off work. Then again, he was retired. Maybe that was how he always dressed.

“Hey,” I said. “Are they home? Do you know? Is Harold okay?”

Steve’s wife, Millie, stepped outside with a grand baby on her hip. She smiled at me.

“They’re with one of their kids in Twin Falls,” Millie said.

“Their daughter called earlier. He’s doing okay,” Steve added. “They’re just keeping a close eye on him for now, which is why they went to their daughter’s, so Dorothy could get some help.”

“That’s good,” I said.

“They’ve been together a long time,” Steve added. “It was a good thing you came to get me when you did. If you’d waited any longer, I’m not sure they’d be having such a good turnaround right now. ”

My nails dug into my palms. “He was that bad off?”

Steve looked at his wife and then back at me again. “He would have been. If you hadn’t been there and acted so quickly. You have a good night, now.”

“You, too,” I said, watching him as he put his arm around Millie and led her into their little yellow bungalow.

But I wasn’t able to move for several moments. The notion that anything I did made that much of a difference was hard to grasp. At that moment, my phone buzzed. Belle Holden’s name was on the other line.

I swiped to answer, turning to head back around the Eriksons’ house and to their basement.

“Hey, Belle,” I said, bracing myself. I knew the Holdens were close, but would Colton really have called them all to tell them what he and I were up to? Already?

Besides, what was she calling for? We were friends, but we weren’t that close.

Then again, we had connected when she’d helped me during the mud incident.

“Hey!” she said. “I know we didn’t get the chance to talk much earlier, but I just wanted to say how good it was to see you tonight! Mom Holden can’t stop talking about how nice you were and how much she loved that you stepped in to help her. I think that meant a lot to her.”

My defenses lowered. She was talking about Debra. That was safe ground.

“She’s so sweet,” I said.

“She is. She also loved that you were there with Colton.” Belle’s tone took a little dip into hinting territory.

She was hinting . Implying that she thought there was something going on between us.

Wasn’t there? Traveling together was kind of a big deal.

In that moment, I wanted to open up to her. I wouldn’t call my mom and tell her about my plans. Or my own sister. But Belle…

She wasn’t like Emily Stone. If I were to call and confide in Emily Stone about my trip, the whole town would know all about it before we even left. I liked Jo, but even though we got along great and had fun together on the site, she didn’t feel as comfortable to me as Belle did.

“Yeah, that was our first date,” I said.

Belle squeaked. “So I was right?”

My smile had a mind of its own. “You were right. He asked me out.”

More squealing. “Luke! Luke, I was right!”

I couldn’t help spreading my smile. Roving through my bedroom, I began collecting shirts, pants, and socks—all the things I thought I’d need for our trip. And then I turned to the closet only to stop.

Shoot. No suitcase. Mom and Dad took all of those.

“On that note,” I said, cutting into her noise. “I wonder if I can ask a favor.”

“Anything,” she said. “As long as you fill me in. How’s it going?”

I sank onto the bed, cupping the phone between my shoulder and my ear. How was it going? He made me smile. He made me laugh. Every one of his glances made me feel like sap oozing down the side of a tree.

“Good, I think. In fact, I’m glad you called because I need a suitcase…”

Once she was done squealing, I filled her in. Of course, she agreed to let me borrow one. As I made my way out to her farmhouse to retrieve it, I hoped I wasn’t dashing off straight into regret.