Dirty: The Complete Series (Secret Baby Romance Love Story) (4 page)

“Thank
you very much, Mr. Nelson,” I said, shaking his hand again. “I appreciate you
taking a chance on me, and I will make sure you don’t regret it.”

“Do
you want to head inside for a bit? I could get a refill on that lemonade for
you.” It was still pretty chilly outside, in spite of Spring being in the air.

“I
think I’m set on lemonade for the moment,” I told Bob. “And, I should let you
get back to your day of rest.”

“Not
much rest,” he admitted with a rueful laugh. “But I’ll take that glass from
you, if you’re ready to head out.”

I
shook his hand again and headed for my truck, relieved that I was more or less
guaranteed the job. I didn’t think Bob would change his mind after interviewing
the other one or two guys on the list—he wouldn’t have told me he was ready to
offer me the position if he had any serious thought of giving it to one of the
other applicants, even one of the ones he hadn’t met with yet.

I
got in and thought briefly about Autumn. She was definitely more beautiful than
I would have expected, and Adelyn was already starting to take after her, with
the same big eyes and—I thought—the same kind of smile. But I’d been honest
with Bob: I didn’t think there was any real chance that I’d get distracted by
his daughter while working on the farm. After all, it wasn’t as though she’d be
out there with me—she had a baby to take care of and things at the house to see
to.

It
had been a while since I’d done farm work, but I felt more or less comfortable
with what Bob had in mind, with the equipment he’d shown me and what he’d
talked about in terms of the workload. There would be days, I was sure, when I’d
be out in the fields from morning until night—the farm wasn’t huge, but it was
plenty big enough that during harvest the work would be intense. But I wasn’t
afraid to work hard.

I
drove back to my place the long way, thinking about the job ahead of me. What
really was there for me to worry about, in terms of hard work? I had been
single for so long I wasn’t even sure I remembered what being in a relationship
was like, and I’d been working long hours for more years than I had been
single—there was no one back home to miss me if I stayed late, no one to
complain that I was gone from morning until night.

At
the rate that Bob Nelson was paying, I would actually be able to put some
aside, maybe take a vacation and go over to Montana or Dakota for a week of fishing
or camping after the season was over. I thought to myself that it would be a
nice break—if I could keep my expenses low through the growing season, and get
through harvest.

Bob
hadn’t said anything about after the harvest, but I assumed at least he’d want
me to be around until everything had been shipped off the farm and the ground
cleared for the next year. If I was lucky, I could maybe turn it into a regular
gig—work construction in the late fall and winter and be back on the Nelson
farm in time for planting.

But
that would only come about if I were good enough to be re-hired. I would have
to prove I could get the work done reliably and make myself absolutely
indispensible to him.
How hard could it
be to be a good employee? It’s no harder than construction work, and it’s not
like anything will get in the way of work.

I
pulled into my driveway and parked, and thought again about the promise that
Bob had extracted from me: that I wouldn’t fall in love with his daughter
Autumn. I shook my head thinking of it. Autumn Nelson was a beautiful
woman—there was no question of that—but I couldn’t help but wonder what it was
that made Bob so sure that his daughter would be a target for the affections of
anyone he hired.

I
supposed it was a good sign that he had considered me at all, since he could
have picked from more than a few married men from the town. I went into the
house and began to pull together something that I could call dinner, from some
leftover chicken in the fridge, and frozen rice and vegetables.

I
would have to remember to check my email later and make sure that I got the
documents that Bob had mentioned—I wanted everything all set for myself by the
time I started, with no loose ends.

Chapter
Five

Autumn

It
was the Friday after Cade had started at the farm, and I was getting ready to
head into town to pick up a few things for dinner and for the weekend. Since
the farm was out of the way, Mom or I tried to make the most of any trip to the
supermarket, so we wouldn’t have to go as often and use up gas. Mom had given
me her list and sat down to watch one of her shows in the living room while
Addie played on the floor.

I
checked what she’d asked for against what I knew I needed and what I’d noticed
the house was running low on: flour, sugar, bleach for the laundry room, bread,
beef—steaks as well as ground—apples, noodles, and some cheese. I wanted some
of the yogurt-bites that Addie seemed to like, diapers, a four-pack of the supplement
drink she preferred, a bottle of wine for myself, and a few other odds and
ends. Mom had given me cash to cover the stuff for the household; I would pay
for Addie’s stuff out of my own money.

I
headed outside after giving my mom and my baby each a kiss goodbye. I spotted
Dad, Tuck, and Cade out in the fields and decided that since I didn’t want Mom
to have to make another run, I’d check in and see if there was anything else my
brother or Dad needed. There was also dinner to consider; since it was a
Friday, my dad had invited Cade to stay after they finished up for the day to
eat with us.

I
had—or at least I told myself that I had—gotten used to the presence of the
good-looking man on the farm every day. He was easy on the eyes, friendly and
polite, but I could ignore him while I went about my own chores, and it wasn’t
that often that my chores brought me out into the fields, so I didn’t have to
talk to him much.

I
strode over to where the guys were taking a break, drinking some water. “Hey,
Dad; hey, Tuck. Hi, Cade,” I said, trying my best not to blush. “I’m headed out
to the store to pick up a few things—do either of you need anything in
particular?”

“I
could use some more of those coffee packets you bought the last time,” Dad
said.

“And,
I’m out of jerky,” Tuck told me. I made a mental note of both of the things to
add to the list.

“Anything
else?”

“I
think my razor’s out of replacement blades,” Tuck told me, I shrugged and made
a note of that, as well. Dad wanted bananas, Tuck needed batteries and
Gatorade.

“Any
thoughts on what you might like to have for dinner, Cade?” I looked at the farm
hand and my heart stuttered in my chest.

“It’s
free food,” Cade pointed out. “I’ve got no grounds to be picky.”

“I
didn’t say for sure that I’d make what you want,” I countered. “I just wanted a
good pool of ideas to choose from.”

“I’ve
been craving my mom’s fried chicken lately,” Cade told me. He shrugged. “But
you aren’t my mom—so it’s not likely you’d be able to take care of that
craving.” I raised an eyebrow at that.

“I
may not make it the exact same way that she does, but I could probably make a
fried chicken dinner that would satisfy,” I told him.

“Fried
chicken is supposed to be for Sundays,” Tuck said, though his voice sounded at
least a little excited at the prospect.

“That
was back in the day,” I told him tartly. “Now that we live in the 21 Century,
we could have fried chicken every day if we wanted to. Ain’t modern life
grand?”

I
made a mental list of what I would need if I wanted to make fried chicken. I’d
need to buy a chicken—none of ours were worth having their neck wrung just yet,
and anyway I didn’t feel like doing the extra work. I was getting flour and a
few other things anyway. Ideally, I’d want to have an extra day to make fried
chicken happen, so I could brine the pieces in buttermilk—but Cade’s comment
about his mom’s fried chicken made me want to rise to the challenge, even if he
hadn’t intended to issue one.

“I’ll
be on my way,” I told the three men out in the field, walking back towards my
mom’s SUV, which she let me borrow to go shopping since my own car didn’t have
enough room in it for groceries. “Y’all stay hydrated out here.”

I
glanced over my shoulder for just a second when I came to the fence at the end
of the field, and saw that Cade hadn’t quite gone back to work, but he was
obviously getting refocused on the task at hand. My heart beat a little bit
faster in my chest at the sight of him in his long-sleeved tee shirt and jeans,
sweaty and gorgeous. I calmed myself down and found my keys in my purse,
reminding myself to focus on making a decent dinner everyone would enjoy—not
get distracted by Cade, no matter how hot he was.

I
turned the car around and went up the long driveway from the house out to the road,
doing my best to focus on something other than the new, handsome farmhand my
father had hired. I needed to make the most of my trip into town, not be
distracted and fantasizing.

“It’s
not like it’d work out, anyway,” I reminded myself, talking over the radio. Mom
liked to keep it on NPR, and I hadn’t bothered to hook my phone up to the sound
system to listen to my own music. “You’re a single mom—not many guys would be
into that, and anyway, you shouldn’t even be looking at guys.”

Ever
since Titan had left me, I’d felt more than a little lonely—especially at
night, taking care of Adelyn more or less by myself.
You should have known better than to get involved with Titan in the
first place,
I thought glumly.
But
then I wouldn’t have Addie. Just because he’s useless...

I
stopped myself short of completing that thought. I had promised myself that I
wouldn’t say anything negative about the father of my child—and while thinking
it wasn’t exactly the same as saying it, if I let myself get away with thinking
about Titan negatively, I knew I’d end up eventually saying something.

I
pushed all thought of him out of my head and reminded myself that all things
considered, I actually had a very good life: my parents were more than happy to
have me around, even with Addie, and Mom gladly helped me take care of my
little girl. I had money coming in from my share of the farm, and my daughter
was healthy.

There
wasn’t very much at all that I could say I truly regretted—though the
loneliness was sometimes a bit much. But I knew I’d probably have to wait until
Adelyn was a little older before I could find someone who’d be willing to take
on the baggage she represented in my life. I tried to tell myself every time I
felt a little left out of the world that it was for the best—but sometimes it
was hard.

I
got to the store finally and took out my lists, determined to spend no more
than maybe thirty minutes getting what I needed; if I was going to make fried
chicken, I needed as much prep time as possible. I knew the grocery like the
back of my hand—I’d been coming to the same one ever since I’d been a child, at
my mother’s side, and they hadn’t changed very much over the years.

I
started with the dry goods and non-perishables, since that stuff could sit in
the cart and wouldn’t spoil on the way back home. I grabbed Tuck’s razor
cartridges and the few other things he’d wanted and Dad’s stuff, all the while
thinking of what I would make to go with the fried chicken I was going to cook
up for Cade and my family.

Almost
as soon as I got to the produce section, the answer jumped out at me: mashed
potatoes, of course. I’d make mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans. Nothing
too fancy, but absolutely satisfying and delicious.

I
grabbed a five-pound bag of potatoes and a pound of green beans—we could eat
the leftovers on Sunday with a pot roast or something like that. I knew we had
bacon in the house; our neighbors, the Knowleses, kept pigs and had given us a
couple of slabs at Christmas that we still hadn’t worked our way through just
yet. I grabbed buttermilk and sour cream form the dairy section, and picked up
some things to make a quick relish to go with the meal.

I
did another lap through the store, checking my list again to make sure that I
wasn’t forgetting anything. I did have to pick up one or two things that I had
missed during my first walk through. I divided up my purchases at the cash
register, separating my parents’ purchases, my own, and my brother’s so that I
could pay for them with the different cards I had in my keeping.

I
loaded everything up and got it out to the car, and thought about how good it
would be to see the look on Cade’s face when he tried the chicken; it wouldn’t
be quite as good as I normally made it, but I was damn sure going to make it
better than he’d be able to get from any fast food place in town.

I
drove back home, tingling a little, my heart beating a little faster as I
thought about the evening ahead. I knew it was a bad idea—I knew that nothing
would ever come up between me and Cade—but I couldn’t help but feel excited at
the prospect of cooking dinner for a good-looking man.

There
was something that I guess had been missing from my life since Titan had left
me; not just companionship, but doing for someone else, having meals with them,
sharing a bed with them.
Stop thinking
about sharing your bed with anyone,
I told myself firmly.
You’re only going to be sharing a bed with
Addie until she’s old enough to go to school—you don’t need to even think about
anyone else being there.