Delivery to the Farmhouse (Havenwood Cowboys Romance #4)

Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

I t wasn’t fair. Colton had promised me a week. He’d taken me on a trip he didn’t need to. He’d taken time away from his farming to be with me.

I couldn’t ask him to turn around and sneak me away again.

I wondered how Dorothy and Harold were doing. But I might need to find somewhere else to live. That basement was too dreary.

My unease wasn’t only because of their basement; I didn’t want to return at all, and I didn’t fully understand it.

“Do you feel better about things?” he asked as we slowed and pulled into Bridgewater. We crawled past The Elkhorn, The Mercantile, the insurance agency and the few other shops making up Main Street.

“I…”

The road curved around The Square and the abandoned grocery store that had been stagnant for as long as I could remember.

I wasn’t sure if I did or not. If anything, I felt more adrift than ever. Probably much like Kyler had felt. While I was on good terms with my siblings, I wasn’t about to turn to them for help and advice the way Kyler had .

Instead of heading toward my street, Colton turned down one I recognized all too well. The tall post office I’d grown up in, with its old stone structure and the large sign above the main doors, came into view.

“What are we doing here?” I asked.

“I wondered if you would mind checking something out with me before I take you home.”

“At the post office?”

He pulled around to the back and parked parallel to the street, just before the turn-in where Mom and Dad used to park their cars. I saw the metal stairs climbing up to the apartment I’d grown up in. I saw the door leading into our old apartment.

Surprisingly, the sight gave no tugs to my heart whatsoever. I’d moved on from that life, and I was okay with that.

A small pot full of bright flowers sat on the top of the landing just beside the door. That hadn’t been there, but it was a cute addition.

“Do you know what I want to do?” Colton asked.

“What?”

He didn’t want to walk around Bridgewater, did he? Or stop by and meet Tad and his wife or something? What was he possibly doing here?

“I want to see the footprint you told me about.” Colton’s eyebrows bobbed.

I laughed. The sound served to unravel the tightness inside of me, a tightness I couldn’t shake. I had all kinds of objections about going home.

What was wrong with being in Bridgewater? What had me so unsettled?

“You up for it?” he said.

“Sure,” I said.

It shouldn’t take long. If the new postmaster and his wife wondered what we were doing, I’d just show them my footprint as well. Then we’d be on our way .

The evening air was cooling. Colton met me on the sidewalk, waiting for me to lead the way.

“It’s just up here,” I said, indicating the small parking lot, the patch of grass, and the cement enclosed within the chain-linked fence that then led up to the metal staircase and the apartment above.

“I can’t wait.”

“It’s really not that…”

My feet stopped. The last person I expected to find here stood at the mouth of the chain-linked fence. He rested his hand on the top of the metal fence and stared up at the apartment above.

I’d recognize those broad shoulders and the scruff of too-long hair bunching at his neck anywhere. The same watch he always wore was recognizable on his wrist, too.

I used to play with that watch when we sat in one place together for long periods of time. It got caught in my hair once…

The memory was anything but pleasant. In fact, it smacked into me with the force of a truck, stealing my breath and sending prickles down my back.

I gripped Colton’s hand and pulled him away.

“Let’s go,” I said under my breath.

“What’s wrong?”

I shook my head, not wanting to go any farther. But it was too late. The sound of our short discussion was enough to make Jensen Cummings turn to face us.