her is the last thing I want to do. I had so many preconceived notions about her the first time I set eyes on her, but she’s been proving over and over that perhaps a leopard can change its spots.
“You’re not selling to Bryce?” I blurt out without thinking. “That could make up for losing your trust fund.”
What the hell am I saying?
Her smile slowly fades, her excitement morphing into something else—something that stems from pain, and regret…a lifetime of believing she isn’t enough, of being told she isn’t. But she is enough, and she damn well needs to know that. I open my mouth again but slam it shut when a loud knock sounds on her door. She lifts her head, glances past my shoulders.
“Oh, hell no.”
Chapter Nineteen
Alyson
I jump from my chair, and it nearly topples backward as my gaze goes from the front door to Jay back to the door again. Jay slowly turns, his brow furrowed in confusion, not that I can blame him. I’m as jumpy as Cluck at the crack of dawn.
“What’s going on?” he asks, turning to see a man dressed in a suit and a woman with a flamboyant hat on—clearly not from around here—both staring at us through the window.
“My folks.” My stomach clenches. Dammit, I never should have gone to the hospital, and I should have answered their phone calls instead of texting back. No doubt my lack of communication has worried them, and they jumped on the next plane to check up on me. The last thing I need is for them to see me with Jay, dressed in a skimpy robe, no less. I know what they’d think—that I wasn’t taking any of this seriously. That I’m still just a party girl with no focus. I gesture to the back door. “Maybe you should…”
His muscles ripple as he squares his shoulders. “Maybe I should what?”
God, how can I explain this without sounding like I’m embarrassed by him? “My folks. You. Me. I don’t want them to get the wrong idea.”
He angles his head and grips the back of his neck. “You want me to sneak out the back door?”
“I just… If they see you here, they’ll think…”
“They’ll think what?” He jumps from his chair so fast, it tumbles backward and clatters to the floor.
“They’ll think—”
Before I can tell him that they’ll think I flaked out again, that I’m here just partying with the hot honeybee farmer, and that I didn’t succeed at this on my own—which I didn’t, because I couldn’t have done any of this without the help from my neighbors—my door opens.
“Were you not going to invite us in?” Dad says in a joking manner that belies the stern look on his face. My stomach tightens even more, and I mentally prepare myself for one of his lectures.
“Sorry, I was just—”
“Hello,” my father says, turning his attention to Jay. “Who might you be?”
“Richard, is that any way to greet your daughter?” My mom steps around him and opens her arms to me. “Darling, I’ve missed you.”
My gaze travels back to Jay, and he scrubs his chin as my mother embraces me.
“I’ve missed you, too, Mom.”
“Mr. Reid,” Jay says, holding his hand out. “I’m Jay. Alyson and I are…” His words trail off, like he’s waiting for me to finish the sentence, but my brain is spinning on hyperdrive and can’t slow enough to focus on one thought. An awkward moment passes, and his shoulders slump when he finishes, “…friends.”
I search his face, hoping he’s only saying that because he can read me and understands what’s really going on here. Yes, I get that I called him a friend earlier, but he’s so much more to me than that, and I was hoping I was more to him. This last week, everything in his touch, the way he looked at me, spoke of something deeper. My God, I need to talk to him, but with my parents standing over me, judging as always, now is not the time or place.
“Yeah, we’re friends. He’s my neighbor. He runs a farm and an apiary,” I say.
“Oh, well, then, if you don’t mind,” my dad begins, dismissing Jay like he’s nobody. “We traveled from New York to… Wait, what is the name of this place again?” He makes a face and glances around.
“Farmington,” Jay supplies.
“Here I thought it was called the middle of nowhere.” My father gives a derisive snort, and I open my mouth to correct him, to tell him