Delivery to the Farmhouse (Havenwood Cowboys Romance #4)

Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

B y the time I stepped inside the townhouse and found Jo, I wondered if I looked as flushed as I felt. Jo’s hair was pulled into a twisted bun on top of her head. She wore baggy jeans that were shredded all down one leg, and as she swept her trowel across the sheetrock on the wall, she prattled on mid-conversation.

“Yeah, I just wish my dad would get over it already,” Jo said. “I can’t wait for my semester to start. I’m getting as far away as I can—for as long as I can.”

Another young woman sat with her, propped on a stool and folding her arms as if she didn’t know what else to do with them. She was dressed a little too nicely for a site like this, with lighter-colored jeans, a pink shirt, and white shoes. Her blonde hair tumbled down her back, and she even wore bracelets on one wrist.

She definitely wasn’t here to work.

I wasn’t sure, since I hadn’t spoken with her in person ever. I’d only seen Cambry around town.

What was Cambry Bennett doing here? I thought she was on ISU campus. I supposed it was a Friday—maybe she was home visiting for the weekend. She was younger than I was, but it was weird how turning eighteen made age not matter so much anymore.

“You’re not coming back?” Cambry asked.

“I don’t know,” Jo said. “I need some room to breathe. He’s just so controlling. Any time I have a date, Dad freaks out. It’s not my fault Camille got pregnant and the guy ditched her.”

“How’s she doing?” I asked.

Camille had been older than me. She and I hadn’t hung out much, but we’d been friendly to one another and had sat together during a few classes back in high school.

The two women startled. Jo made a little noise and turned, gripping the trowel and placing her hand on her heart.

“Natalie!” she said, smiling as pink filled her cheeks. “I didn’t even know you were in here.”

“Sorry, I should have announced myself,” I said, doing a side wave. “I’m here.”

“You’re back from your trip? How was it with Colton?” I’d never thought the term “waggling your eyebrows” was a thing, but Jo pulled it off.

“You went on a trip with Colton?” Cambry asked, turning on her stool to face me.

Hm. Why did she seem so interested? Was she just out for gossip, to be in-the-know, or did this have something to do with her newly ended relationship with Colton’s youngest brother?

“It was incredible,” I said, feeling the excited flutters build inside my chest at the mere mention of our excursion. “We went to see Mount Rushmore.”

“Because?” Jo prodded.

Cambry tilted her head toward me.

“Because I told him I wanted to take a trip, and he wanted to come with me?” I said, lifting my shoulders. “You got another trowel?”

“Yeah, it’s by the door. So tell me. Did anything happen between you two? Don’t mind Cambry. She’s hanging out while she waits for me to get off. Bad breakup.”

The conversation had shifted away from my question about Jo’s sister, but that was okay. I wondered if I could pry about that breakup.

She didn’t mention at all that she’d been the one to initiate it.

I wasn’t close to Cambry Bennett whatsoever, but after hearing Kyler’s side of their conflict—and his account of her breaking his heart and leaving him hanging—I was curious to hear her take.

Why had she ended their relationship?

“Spill,” Jo prodded. “You and Colton. Colton and you. Is there a Colton and you?”

“Yeah,” I said, bending for the trowel on the wooden floor behind the door. I smiled and felt my cheeks heat at the admission. “There’s a Colton and me. We’re a thing now.”

And he’s incredible. He makes me laugh. He’s kind and sweet and more patient with me than I deserve.

And don’t even get me started on the way he kisses.

Jo’s squeal filled the room. She bunched her hands together in front of her chest. Her friend smiled but stayed quiet. I wasn’t sure how much to divulge right now because in all honesty, there was more going on than I wanted a perfect stranger to know about.

“But what about Camille?” I said, changing the subject. “You said she got pregnant?”

“She’s okay,” Jo said, slapping some plaster on the wall and smearing it with her trowel. “She’s sicker than a dog, but she’s okay. I’m sad for her—she thought Wade was the one, you know? She said she would never have gone so far with him otherwise. But the minute she found out she was pregnant, he ditched town.”

“That’s really pathetic,” I said.

I couldn’t imagine going through anything like that. How devastating. Her life would never be the same now, and to have someone she thought she could rely on completely ditch her when he’d had a part in creating this new responsibility?

It was awful.

“Lame,” Cambry added. “I’m glad things never went there with Kyler. I mean, don’t get me wrong, kissing him was amazing and we had some close calls, but it never went that far.”

“I still can’t believe you guys aren’t a thing anymore,” Jo said, smearing more plaster to create a jagged texture on the wall. “You’ve been with him for as long as I can remember.”

“Me, too,” Cambry said. “I miss him sometimes, you know?”

“What happened?” I asked, bending to scrape some plaster on my trowel, too.

I made for a different wall and began slathering it on, and the act made me think of Colton. Of how cute and goofy he’d been when he’d asked me out and planted his hand right in it.

“It was just too much,” Cambry said. The stool she sat on squeaked as she readjusted again. “Once college started, everything was so new. So different. And it seemed like the more Kyler and I tried to keep things the way they were, the more forced it felt.”

Forced? I remembered his heartbroken tone, how dejected he’d looked at the thought of losing her.

Maybe he’d been more into their relationship than she had. He might have sensed her pulling back and tried to keep things how they were or something.

Maybe.

“Not cool. He was like forcing himself on you, you mean?” Jo brushed a hair out of her face. “What do you mean by ‘forced’?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “He’s…I mean, he’s Kyler, you know? He would never. All the Holdens are disgustingly polite, and he’s no different.”

The two of them laughed. I couldn’t join them. While they may have had ample experience and time spent with him, getting to know him, getting to know them together, I didn’t .

Even so, it didn’t take a lot of interactions with the Holden men to know just how cordial they were. Kyler had been distraught when we’d visited him, but not angry or unhinged. Did she have any idea how hurt he was right now?

Did she care?

“So what’s wrong?” Jo asked.

I bent for more plaster and listened intently as Cambry rose from the stool and faced the window next to where Jo worked. She folded her arms over her chest once more.

“I really thought I loved him,” she said. “But once we left home, once everything changed, I didn’t know how I felt anymore. And that just got worse because every time we saw someone we knew from back home, everyone was like, ‘When are you getting married?’ It’s like they already had our lives planned out for us. I just didn’t want that kind of pressure.”

Okay. So there was a chance I was making hasty judgments here.

I’d painted the worst picture of her in my mind after seeing Kyler so heartbroken, but this was different. This was understandable.

She was young. They both were. And if she wasn’t sure about what she wanted just yet, who could hold that against her?

“It’s a big decision to make,” I said.

“Yeah,” she said. “I love him, but I felt so suffocated by all the expectations for our future. My future,” she corrected, shaking her head. “I just want some time to meet new people. To live a little before I grow up too fast, you know?”

“I get that,” Jo said, brushing the same errant hair out of her face again. “I can’t wait to get to ISU and meet guys, to not have my dad breathing down my neck.”

Was her dad really that controlling? Even now that she was eighteen?

“That’s the other thing,” Cambry said. Her face brightened. “There are so many cute guys on campus. I just felt so restricted. I kept having to tell them no. ”

Like she was getting asked out left and right.

Maybe she was, but my cynical side flared just a bit.

“Anyway, I shouldn’t even be talking about this,” Cambry said, “not with Natalie dating Kyler’s brother.”

I set my trowel beside the plaster tray. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to tell him anything you’re saying if you don’t want me to. In fact, I’m headed out of town again soon.”

“You are? Where to this time?” Jo bent for the water bottle on the wooden floor beneath the window and tipped it to her mouth.

“Are you going with Colton again?” Cambry asked, propping her foot on the rungs of the stool she’d been sitting on.

“Not this time,” I said, wishing I had thought to bring my water in from my car. My mouth went dry at this shift in topic.

“I get what you’re saying Cambry,” I told her. “This is the kind of thing where I want my freedom. I just feel like I need to go on my own.”

“Yes!” she said, gesturing toward me. The bracelet on her wrist jangled. “You have your own path to forge. That’s exactly how I feel.

“But hey, if you see Kyler,” Cambry went on, “tell him to call me, okay? He’s avoiding my calls, and I’d really like to talk to him.”

“About what?” Jo asked, lowering her water bottle to the floor.

“How weird it is to be home without him. I still care about him. I thought maybe we could still be friends. He’s the one I always went to for everything. No offense, Jo.”

Jo waved this off.

Cambry rested her hands in her lap. “It’s just, I still consider him my best friend.”

My brows lifted. She thought she could break up with him, date other guys, and still have a close friendship with him? How could she possibly think things could be the same between them after this?

No guy I knew wanted to be friend-zoned. Especially not one who’d given himself completely to her only to realize his feelings weren’t reciprocated. There was a point where things just didn’t work, and she’d crossed that line, whether she realized it or not.

“He’s pretty broken up right now,” I told her.

“He is?” Her eyes went wider than that pleading emoji. “You’ve talked to him?”

I couldn’t believe she was this clueless. Then again, maybe she didn’t yet have much experience with what a broken heart felt like.

“Yeah. I’m not sure how much you want to know, but he’s pretty crushed. He loved you, and he’s feeling a little lost. He’s leaving school.”

She nodded. “He told me.”

“So if he doesn’t answer for a little while, maybe let him be. Maybe give him time. You meant a lot to him. You still mean a lot to him. It’s probably hard for him to talk to you right now.”

Her expression wilted. “You think he needs time?”

“Yeah, I do,” I said. I wasn’t sure how much Kyler or Colton would want me to say. Didn’t she have any idea how hard it was for him to see her on dates with other guys?

Tears welled in her eyes. “Did I…do you think I made a mistake?”

Jo chewed her lip. She flicked a glance at me that very much had an S-O-S look to it. Cambry’s lower lip trembled.

I set down my trowel and crossed the room to her. I placed my hand on her arm.

“I can’t tell you if you made a mistake or not,” I said, trying to find the right words. “From what it sounded like a few minutes ago, you had good reason for wanting to step back.”

She inhaled a jagged breath and a tear slipped down her cheek. “I never wanted to hurt him. I never wanted him to pull away for keeps.”

“But what do you expect him to do?” I asked, trying to keep my voice as gentle as possible. “Do you think he’ll be okay hearing about your life now that you’ve pushed him out of it? ”

Her lower lip trembled. Jo set down her trowel and joined us, putting her arm around Cambry.

“It’s what you wanted,” she reminded her friend. “Remember?”

Cambry nodded, throat strained, eyes closed. Her shoulders rose and fell as she worked through her jagged breaths.

“Time,” she said, her voice weak. “I can give him that.”

Jo and I exchanged a worried glance. “Are you sure you don’t want to try getting back together with him?” Her voice tiptoed to her friend.

Cambry shook her head vehemently. “No—I’m not ready for that. I’m sure about this. It’s just…you’re right. I have to let him go for good.”

She exhaled long and slow from a part in her lips.

Watching a breakup from the outside looking in was vastly different from experiencing one yourself. I couldn’t understand all sides right now, because from what it looked like to me, they both still loved each other.

But it was like dried, hardened clay. When something was out of shape, trying to mold it back only caused pieces to crumble and break.

There was no easy way to do things sometimes.

“And you know, it’s important to not care so much about what other people think,” I added, remembering my conversation with Colton. “If you want to be with him? Be with him. Let them think what they want. Their expectations don’t matter, not if you’re happy just dating him for a while.”

Cambry chewed her lip, and she didn’t respond. In fact, she remained pensive and quiet for some time after that. Jo changed the subject to the program she’d been looking at studying once she left for school.

She talked about how much fun it would be to room together with Cambry, and while Cambry’s responses were bright, her energy was different. Her shoulders were slumped. Her head hung just a little lower than before. It made me suspect she was still mulling over bits of our conversation.

I hoped so. Maybe it was stupid, but a small part of me hoped she might see things differently and want to get back with Kyler again.

But if not, I hoped the two of them could work things out in other ways. I hoped he could move on. That he could find someone who treated him as wonderfully as Colton treated me.

Something told me Cambry didn’t know how good she’d had it with him.

We finished mudding the bedrooms and moved out into the hall. By the time we finished with the upper level and made our way down the split stairs, the light streaming through the windows had grown significantly hazier.

It would soon be quitting time.

That thought had more weight than I planned.

Just as Cambry had her own reasons for the choices she made, so did I. And once two weeks were over, my life was taking a completely different turn.

The Grand Canyon awaited. It was time to go find myself.

But first, I was meeting Bex’s new baby.