and Etta had made different choices in her life. Still, she could not hold up the world, the unfairness of life, and all of her envy at the same time, and she started to crumble.
Aurora saw it, and she stepped into her and hugged her tightly. “Tell me why you’re so unhappy.”
“I’m worried August is going to break up with me,” she whispered, gripping the girl with everything she had.
“He’s not,” Aurora said, stroking Etta’s hair the way she’d done so often for the girl. “What did you used to tell me, Etta? I’ve seen the way he looks at you. He’s not going to break up with you.”
“His life….” She shook her head and stepped back. “Things are more complicated for us than they were for you and Ollie.”
Aurora nodded and didn’t try to say they weren’t. She glanced to her left as footsteps approached, and Etta spun away as Hailey came around the corner.
“Not a word,” she hissed at Aurora, who immediately stepped away and said, “Hailey, are you done with the all-stars already?”
“Yes, ma’am,” August’s daughter said. “My daddy asked me to find Etta. He said he has something for her at True Blue, and I said I knew right where she was.”
Etta could feel the girls’ eyes on her back, and she took another moment to make sure her face was completely dry before she turned. “He has something? What?”
Hailey grinned like the cat who’d just caught the canary. “It’s a surprise.”
Aurora’s eyebrows flew toward the sky, and Etta’s pulse fired through her like a twenty-one gun salute. She would not hope for a proposal. She would not.
He hadn’t even told her what the issue was, and things between them over the past couple of weeks had been…strained at best.
They’d been distant. Quiet. Etta hated distant and quiet when it came to the man she loved, and she reached up to brush her hair out of her face. “All right,” she said. “That was our last lesson for today, so I suppose I have a few minutes to go over to the barn.”
“I suppose you do,” Aurora said. “I’ll come by the homestead tonight to go over tomorrow’s lessons.”
“Yes, ma’am,” she said, just like Hailey had, and then she turned south. She could just barely see the roof of True Blue from the stables, and she took the first step in that direction. The scent of wood smoke met her nose, and as she came around the hay loft, she found Ward, Dot, and Glory getting ready to build a fire.
“Hot dogs tonight,” Ward said, tending to the fire lovingly. He loved this firepit spot with his whole heart, and he and Dot came out here quite often. “If you want to come.”
“Thanks,” Etta said. “I’m starving, and I’ll be back.”
“Ace and his family all coming,” Ward said. “And Judge and June. That’s all I’ve heard back from.”
“It’s last-minute,” Dot added, smiling at Etta. She saw something on Etta’s face, if the way her eyes widened was any indication. Etta nearly stumbled in the gravel, her panic influencing her step.
“You okay?” Dot came toward her, glancing at Ward and positioning herself between him and Etta.
“Do I look all right?” Etta whispered. “You looked like maybe I have an extra eye growing out of my forehead or something.”
“You look…upset.” Dot reached out and put her hand on Etta’s bicep. “Why are you upset?”
“You’re upset?” Ward asked, twisting from the fire. How he’d heard from all the way over by the crackling, dancing fire, Etta would never know. His boots crunched over the gravel as he strode closer. “What’s happened?”
“Calm down,” Etta said.
“Who do I need to talk to?” he asked.
Glory started to fuss, and Etta reached for the baby. Dot gave her to Etta, but the concern didn’t leave her eyes. Ward’s either.
“I’m fine,” Etta said, her focus on the dark-haired girl.
“Oh, she said fine.”
“We’re here,” Ace said, approaching from around the barn too. Etta glanced over to them and passed Glory back to her mother.
“Please, don’t make a big deal of this.”
“No one has the right to upset you,” Ward hissed. “You do more for everyone around here than anyone else. Was it Ace? Did he say something rude about the gluten-free stuff you slave over?” His eyes fired dangerously, and Etta quickly shook her head.
“Of course not,” she said. “Ward….” She sighed and shook her head. “It’s August, and you will not say a word to him about anything.” She held up one finger the