Picnic in Someday Valley (Honey Creek #2)(56)

Chapter 35


Jesse


After dropping his children off for breakfast at his mom’s house, Jesse decided to stop by for one of Adalee’s scones. He told himself he just wanted to see how her kid sister was doing, but the truth of it was, he just wanted to look at her. He’d spent so much time dreaming about her, he wasn’t sure she was real.

He parked his old pickup, half full of feed, on the side street beside the bakery.

When he walked in, the woman who’d bewitched him smiled at him and pointed at a table closest to the counter. By the time Jesse took off his coat and got comfortable, she delivered his order. She hadn’t even asked what he wanted. Proof she was a mind reader.

“Who is the new help?” he asked, thankful the old woman he’d run into last time wasn’t hanging out behind the counter.

“Her name is Wallis. New in town. Came to live with her grandmother.”

Adalee poured herself a cup of coffee, but didn’t sit down. She just stood at the end of the counter, ready if needed. “Because of the trouble with my sister, I decided I might need someone to take over from time to time. My help in the kitchen doesn’t like the public. The feeling is mutual. I had a few regulars say they’d run for the hills if they saw her again.”

Jesse grinned. “How is your sister doing?”

“Star got into more trouble. The sheriff found out she was drinking in a car full of underage kids. The drivers were racing and had a wreck.”

Jesse saw tears in her beautiful eyes, which she was fighting not to let fall.

“I threatened to send her to my brother. He’s a cop in Houston and swears she needs to go away to a camp where they straighten out out-of-control kids. I don’t know what to do. I don’t think I can send her away, so that means I’ll have to work less.”

The urge to touch Adalee’s hand was so strong, he had to keep a death grip on his cup.

Her summer-day eyes let one tear fall. “Sorry I’m dumping my problems on you.”

“You’re not.” He wrote his cell number on a napkin. “Call me anytime after nine if you need to talk. I may not be able to help, but I can listen.”

She borrowed his pen. “And you do the same.” When she passed him her number, their hands touched a moment longer than necessary.

One small smile and she was gone. The bakery was busy. Jesse stood and nodded when he caught her gaze; she nodded back. No one noticed, but they made an agreement, a promise to be there for one another if only on the phone.

Somehow they’d find a way to stay in touch. He’d be home with his kids and she’d be watching over her sister, but they could talk now and then on quiet nights. It’d be nice. The bond between them might only be a thread, but it was there.

As he pulled into the barn twenty minutes later to unload, he smiled at another lucky turn of events.

He scanned the horse stalls. Three hundred and sixty dollars a day was dropping into his bank account, thanks to the horses people had brought over to board during the stormy weather. Yesterday, one came to pick up his horse, and two people who’d heard about the horse “hotel” brought in their not so loved pets.

Half of the horse owners had already asked to extend their arrangement because they were cleaning up from the flooding and didn’t have time to mess with a horse. One even said he was moving and simply didn’t want to worry about his wife’s horse.

Subtracting the feed, and all the other things that go with taking care of animals, he figured he’d still clear over six thousand this month. All it would cost him was time, and since growing season was over, he could make the time.

Something rattled on the other side of the pickup, ending his mental calculations.

If an animal had somehow gotten into the barn, that could mean trouble. Jesse grabbed a rake and rushed behind the truck, hoping to shoo the animal out the open doors.

Just as Jesse raised the rake, a mop of red hair crawled out of the hay. For a moment dark green eyes flashed fear and then anger. “What are you going to do, kill me with a rake?” She looked around. “Where in the hell am I? Who are you?”

Jesse stared at the kid for a moment. Girl in boys’ clothes. About fifteen. Red hair. Green eyes. She had to be Adalee’s little sister. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you care, mister? Where am I? When I jumped in this smelly truck, I thought I was going to Arkansas.”

“You’re on my farm, about fifteen miles from Honey Creek.”

“Great. My luck is nothing but a pile of shit.”

Jesse put down the rake, trying to make sense of the kid. “Why’d you think you were going to Arkansas?”

“Your tags. Don’t you even know what state you live in?”

He noticed the tags he’d forgotten to change when he’d bought the truck from his cousin six months ago. “Why are you going to Arkansas?”

“I’m not, thanks to you!”

He swallowed down his anger at her scornful tone. “What’s your name?”

“Star, and that’s all I’m telling you. I have places to be, and it isn’t in this dumb barn. You know, it’s illegal not to change your plates!”

Jesse didn’t want to make this become his fault. “You’re running away. You hid in my truck so you could get out of town. Right?”