Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
The foundations were being laid for the pods and were almost complete.
As I pushed through the turnstile onto the field, a figure in the distance pointed at me and then the man he was with turned to look. Jared. I waved. He hurried down the field toward me.
The closer he grew, the clearer his expression got, and he did not look happy.
Uh-oh.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“What are you doing here?” he bit out.
I flinched at his snappy question. “Why?”
He scrubbed a hand over his beard. “There’s just a lot of work going on.”
“Okay.” I didn’t understand. “Well, I’m at a safe distance if that’s what you mean?”
Jared shook his head impatiently. “What is it you need?”
Shock clamped my lips shut for a moment. After last night, I would have thought Jared would be in a great mood and, actually, kind of all over me. Instead, he could barely look me in the eye, his gaze darting around.
“We have dinner with my parents tonight. I just wanted to remind you.”
“I can’t go,” he answered before I barely finished the sentence.
Irritation zinged through me. “What happened between you three last night?”
“Nothing.” He took my elbow and tried to turn me away. “We’ll talk later.”
I ripped my elbow out of his hold. “Why are you being so weird?”
Jared glowered. “I’m not being weird. We just can’t talk here. We’ll talk back at the house.”
For some reason, panic started to rise. It made me furious. “No, we’ll talk now.”
“I’ll meet you back at the house around four. We’ll talk then.”
“Talk about what?”
“Allegra,” he blew out my name in exasperation.
“Don’t Allegra me.” Searching his face I saw only impatience. With me. “What happened between the early hours of this morning and now?”
“Nothing,” Jared gritted out, anger rising. “I just can’t talk right now with men behind me building foundations.”
“Well, I’m not waiting an entire day, anxious about your weird fucking mood, until you have time to tell me why you’re being an asshole to me this morning.”
My husband squeezed his eyes closed and sighed. Heavily. When he opened them, remorse glittered in them. But still there was hardness there. A distance. A detachment. “I’m sorry.”
“What’s going on, Jared?”
“We really can’t talk here.”
“You’re scaring me, so you’re going to get in your car and drive back to the house. Now. So we can talk.”
He gestured behind him. “I really do have to be here for this. I promise. But I will meet you—”
“When they break for lunch.” I gestured up the hill to the men. “You will meet me at the house then.”
Jared gave a reluctant nod and I just as reluctantly got back in my Wrangler.
Jared never showed at lunchtime.
He didn’t answer my calls or texts.
There was a part of me deep down that knew. But the hopeful part of me was stronger and kept taking charge. That part kept reminding me that Jared wouldn’t have spent all night worshipping my damn body if he intended to end things.
No. My parents had clearly said something to upset him last night and he was just processing. We’d figure it out.
I was pissed at him for not showing when he said he would and for making me spend the whole day at the farmhouse, my stomach churning with anxiety.
When he didn’t show at six o’ clock, I had to call my parents and apologize for the no-show. My mother was full of annoying questions that I evaded like a champ until I could politely get off the phone.
By the time I heard Jared’s Defender come up the drive at seven thirty, I was ready to kill him.
My indignation grew like a ball of fire catching as I heard him come in through the mudroom and take off his boots. The bastard then had the audacity to walk through the kitchen into the living room where I was and say without looking at me, “I’m going to shower.”
“Where the fuck have you been?” I snapped, shooting to my feet.
Jared paused, expression annoyingly calm. “Don’t start, Allegra.”
I guffawed. “You stood me up. Twice! You ignored my calls and texts, and you think that’s okay?”
He turned to me, anger quickly blasting that stupid blank look off his face and honestly, it made me feel better. Anything was better than indifference. “I told you when you showed up that I was busy.”
“Too busy for me?” I asked, hurt.
“Allegra … a farm doesn’t wait for you. Sometimes it has to come first. You knew that when you married me.”
I ignored the pain of realizing that even after our relationship had morphed into something real, I still wasn’t his main priority. He’d said I was, but actions spoke louder than words. “So it’s okay for you to ignore me? What if there was an emergency? Did you forget all the shit that happened this summer?”