Should’ve Known It’s You (Not You Again #7)

Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

AUSTIN

B ack at Merrick Meadows for the weekend, I was once again floored by how much Jess had gotten done in just the last couple of weeks since I’d been here. After I’d arrived, she’d excitedly shown me all the updates they’d done, and the place was becoming more and more of what I knew my sister had always envisioned for it.

Not only was it a working farm, but she was determined to turn it into something for the surrounding community as well. She was trying to make it serve a better purpose. They’d already hired some local farmhands to help out and they were using local workers as far as they could for all the construction that was being done.

Just this week, they’d had their first tour of local school children who she’d taken through the farm, allowing them the opportunity to milk a cow and collect eggs from the chickens. Apparently, it’d been a hit, but for me, it was a lot of change in what had been a relatively short space of time.

I sat on the porch with Slate, drinking a beer later in the evening. Glancing at my brother-in-law, I couldn’t help but wonder how all of this had been for a him, a guy who, until less than a year ago, had been working on oil rigs and living in New York City.

“How are you holding up?” I asked, turning in the armchair to face him.

Only a single light was on out here, the orange glow from the old bulb mounted beside the front door barely enough for me to see his facial features. Despite that, it was like I could sense the relaxed happiness radiating from him.

He chuckled. “You want to know how it’s really going, huh?”

“Yep.”

After inhaling deeply, he took a sip of his beer and looked out over the moonlit fields of my family farm. “I know it looks like it’s been pretty intense around here, and it has been, but it’s also been pretty great. Jess is kicking ass and taking names in business, but also with the pregnancy. I’m just so fucking impressed with her every single day. She’s…”

“Relentless?” I asked.

Slate grinned. “Exactly. Eventually, she’ll have to ease up and let the rest of us help her, though. I’ve spoken to her about it, but she seems to think she can keep giving a hundred and ten percent even once she gets to full term.”

I smiled, knowing my sister all too well. “Don’t worry about it. Mother Nature will step in and force her to slow down.”

“Let’s hope so,” Slate said.

“Or Jess will give birth while milking the cows,” I joked.

Slate paled, which I thought was hilarious. Peering at him, I couldn’t help but keep pulling his leg a bit. “Happily, she’s helped birth many a calf in that barn. She knows exactly what to do.”

“Except that this wouldn’t be a calf,” he muttered, then took another, much longer sip of his beer. “It’s our kid . You don’t really think she’ll have it in the barn?”

I shrugged, struggling to keep a straight face but trying anyway. “Nah. It might not be in the barn. It could also be in the hayloft while she’s overseeing the construction of the bunkhouse or right here on the porch if she progresses too far with labor while she’s working to make it to the bed.”

His arm suddenly shot out to punch my shoulder. Hard. Pain streaked through me, followed by a numb tingling. I grimaced. “Ouch. What was that for?”

“You know exactly what that was for,” he said, smirking as he shook his head at me. “You’re an asshole. I’m glad you’re not here all the time.”

I chuckled and lifted my beer to my lips with my not-numb arm. “You miss me when I’m gone and you know it.”

“Maybe.” He grinned and settled back in his chair again, looking like he was completely at peace with all the world.

I flashed back to the suits and polished shoes he’d worn when he’d first gotten here, the fancy, huge watch on his wrist and the super-expensive sportscar that he’d since traded for a truck. Honestly, I couldn’t imagine that this guy, who now lived in jeans and T-shirts, had been that once upon a time.

He caught me staring at him and cocked an eyebrow. “What?”

“Nothing.” I exhaled deeply and sipped my beer before I glanced at him again. “You just look happy, is all. It doesn’t look like you’ve had to adjust to life here at all. You kind of just seem like you were born for it.”

“I feel like I was,” he said. “I just didn’t know it before, but this is where I belong. You thinking of coming back?”

“Hell no.” I shook my head. “It’s good to see you guys so settled, though. I was wondering if you were going to start missing the big-city life eventually.”

“You and me both,” he admitted, then turned back to the fields and smiled. “It definitely hasn’t happened so far. When I first got here, I’ll admit that it tripped me up a little bit. There’s only, like, five stores in town and only one place to buy clothes, but now that I’m used to the lack of options, it’s even starting to get a little overwhelming when I go into the city.”

I laughed. “You should’ve seen me when I first got there, man. I was like a deer in the headlights, but I loved every minute of it.”

“I used to love it too, but I guess people change. How’s work?”

I got him caught up a bit, purposely avoiding telling him anything about Kenny. If I told him, he would tell Jess and she would get all excited about it. I didn’t mind my family finding out I was working with her, but my sister?

She would wholeheartedly believe that this was all happening for a reason and that Kenny and I were meant to be. The girl is hot and all, but no thank you. Still not looking to settle down.

Once we finished our beers, Slate and I headed inside to find Jess had passed out on the sofa while my mother read and my dad flicked through the channels on TV. Everyone shared a knowing look as Slate smiled, striding over to my sister and gently waking her up.

“Come on up to bed, baby. You’ll be more comfortable there.”

Jess mumbled sleepily, sitting up and yawning before she rubbed her eyes and nodded, taking the hand he offered her. “Good night, guys. I’ll see you all in the morning.”

“Good night, sweetheart,” Mom and Dad said in unison, and I gave her a wave when Slate led her past me.

Once they were gone, Mom closed her book and pushed herself up on the sofa to look at me. “Are you going to be home for Thanksgiving this year, honey? We’ve been planning our usual big dinner, but I need to know how many people I’m catering for. Would you like to bring a date?”

“I’m not actually sure if I’m going to be able to come,” I said, giving her a slight smile and a pointed look about the date comment. “If I do come, I’ll be alone, though.”

She sighed but shrugged and returned my smile with an innocent one of her own. “I was just asking. No pressure. It would simply be nice if you’d bring someone home with you eventually. We’re pretty good people, sweetheart. We wouldn’t embarrass you too much.”

I chuckled. “It’s not about you embarrassing me. It’s about the fact that bringing someone home to your family to celebrate a holiday together means that things are serious. I’m not serious with anyone right now, so I’ll be stag.”

“One day, you won’t be,” Mom said knowingly, then laughed when I shook my head at her. “So what’s going on in the great big city that might keep you away from your favorite dinner of the year?”

“It’ll just depend how things fall,” I explained, hating the disappointed tightening on her features over the fact that I might not be here. “I’m giving up a lot of my free time in the coming weeks to help Kennedy Sweet with something. She’s been having some trouble and we talked a bit at the wedding. I might be able to give her a hand in getting her business started.”

At the mention of Kennedy’s name, Mom perked up. “Kennedy Sweet, as in Kenny Sweet? Your sister’s friend?”

“The little hellraiser who used to talk Jess into sneaking out at night to chase fireflies when they were kids?” my dad grumbled. “Didn’t they steal a tractor and tip cows together as preteens? What kind of business does she want to start, informative workshops for kids on how to be a troublemaker?”

I hid my smile. “That’s her, and we were all young and dumb once. Don’t hold it against her. She’s become a determined businesswoman and she’s got a good head on her shoulders now. I think she might just have something special that New York will want to see. We just have to work to make it happen.”

“If anyone can, it’s you,” Mom said as Slate walked back in after helping an exhausted Jess to bed. “I’m sure you’re going to do wonderfully, honey.”

“And if you can’t do it,” Slate added. “Ask your sister to help you. She can do anything.”

“Including giving birth in the barn?” I joked.

He blanched again, Dad frowned, and Mom blinked hard, as if she was alarmed by the possibility. “Dear heavens, why on earth would she give birth in the barn?”

I laughed under my breath, ducking my head to hide my amusement as my parents exchanged worried looks and Slate shook his head at me. Yep. It was good to be home. If Kenny can get anywhere close to recreating this for her guests, she’s got a definite winner on her hands.