Just Want Somebody to Love (Bella Warren Book 1) (27 page)

Whitney rubbed the back of her neck. “It’s not a good sign when my best two friends are here out of breath with their jaws tight and staring at you.”

“It’s not as bad as they’re trying to make it.”

She touched over one of the chairs in front of her desk. “I hope not.” She gave him a smile, but it wasn’t that full-on sexy smile he’d come to know. This was reserved. “I just told them about thirty minutes ago that you asked me to move to Dallas and that I wanted to go.”

He rocked back on his heels as the wind left his chest. God, it was true. He couldn’t breathe. Tasha and Kara had said it was true, but hearing the words of his dreams in Whitney’s voice giving him everything he wanted…. If he could hold on to it. “That’s great.”

She stared at him. “You don’t sound sure anymore.”

“You surprised me, that’s all. I had hoped, but I wasn’t sure you’d leave your family.”

“It was a lot to think about.” She stood in front of him. Her hands clasped in front of her chest. “The farm is all I know. I love it here, but maybe I want more. And there’s no reason why I can’t go with you to see. I can always come back.”

He gathered her hands in his and left a kiss on her knuckles. He closed his eyes. He couldn’t look at her and risk watching this light fall. “When I came back to town, it was to see Brandon about business.”

“I know.”

“I haven’t been honest with you on everything.” He let out a breath and couldn’t stand it anymore. He had to see if she still leaned close or if she was worried.

She’d fallen back a step, head tipped, and some of that light dimmed.

He wanted to chase after her, but he gave her space. “The reason Brandon won’t sign my papers is because he thinks I don’t have anything real. No real relationship or life, and he’s afraid I’m wasting my chances with my sole focus on the restaurant.”

“He cares about you.”

He nodded and swallowed. “So we made a little deal. It just sort of happened.”

Another step away. “What kind of deal?”

“Since Brandon was concerned I didn’t have a serious relationship, I told him I’d get one.”

She eased away more until backing into a chair where she sat. Her hands covered her chest. “I’m your bet to get money?”

“No.” He lowered to a knee in front of her. “You’re so much more than that.”

“But that’s part of what I am.” She leaned away. “What were the terms of this bet?”

Sickness tumbled through him. “That I would get into a serious relationship.”

“Then why have you been here with me?”

“You’re the one I wanted. When this happened, your name came to mind.”

“Excuse me?” She pushed out of a chair, and he narrowly dodged her knee. “Your brother said get in a relationship, and you just thought, that Whitney girl will do.”

He didn’t have an answer that didn’t make him sound like an ass. He didn’t need one, as she kept going.

“This doesn’t make any sense.” She fisted her hair. “You need a serious relationship, and instead of looking in Dallas, you look here and bother me and—” She gasped and spun back to face him. “Oh my God. The moving in.” She rubbed at her temples and shook her head. “You’ve been putting that idea in my head since the beginning. That’s the goal, isn’t it?”

He turned away, wishing he could un-see the hurt filling her face.

“Answer me.” Her voice was loud, strong, and shook all the way into his chest. “Moving in. That was the goal.”

He faced her. He wouldn’t be ashamed. If all this hadn’t happened, he wouldn’t have started looking forward to the day she would be in his apartment. “Brandon said it had to be real. When it came up, I thought of you. I had seen you minutes before, so you were still on my mind. But Brandon also knew you, and he knew you’d never leave unless we had something real.”

Tears wet her eyes into pools that threatened to overflow as she shook her head. “But it wasn’t real.”

“It was completely real.”

She turned away and brushed off tears. “No, it wasn’t. It was just one big joke since you came back. I wanted to teach you a lesson, and all along, you were playing me in return to win this bet. I don’t know anything about you.”

“Yes, you do. You know more about me than anybody.”

“Everything about you has been based on a lie. Everything you’ve done and said. Everything that’s motivated you since you’ve been back has been about a lie. How am I supposed to know what part of all that isn’t fake to get what you want?” She shook her head and looked away from him.

“Whitney.”

“It shouldn’t be this hard,” she whispered.

“It’s not. It’s just complicated. I wasn’t expecting you and I like you. I still want you to come with me. I still want—”

She put her hand up to him. Her eyes were clear. “Get out.”

Wait. He grabbed her, but she jerked away. “Whitney, please. It started that way, but it’s not like that.”

“How am I supposed to believe that?” She searched his face with tears rimming her eyes. “How?”

Words. He needed so many words. He didn’t have them. Not that knew what to do with them if he did. He gaped at her and strung something together. “I wouldn’t be standing here.”

She turned away. “Because if you’re not standing there, then you wouldn’t get your papers, right?”

The bitterness in her tone struck him hard. “Those papers are important to me. You’d know I was lying if I tried to deny that, but that’s not why I’m here. I never wanted to hurt you.”

“Then you should have left me out of your stupid plans. You should have just left me alone like I asked. You wouldn’t listen. You’re still not listening.”

“I’m listening now.”

“Then why are you still here?” Her voice echoed in the small room. “I said get out.”

“Whitney.”

“Go.” She turned away from him. “Leave before I call Wade to make you leave.”

He turned and left. Fine. By some blessing he didn’t run into Tasha and Kara. Wherever the hell they went, they should be happy. They wanted him gone, and he was gone.

Not just from the farm, but as soon as he got to the bar, he was packing and getting out of this hellhole.

He went in the back door of the bar and straight up the stairs. Time to pack and get out of here. He had shit to do that couldn’t be done here. There was no point in staying longer.

Just as he got in his room and had a bag out of the closet, his brother walked in. Brandon leaned on the doorway. “How’d it go?”

“About as I expected.” He pushed his clothes into his bag.

“Are you leaving?”

“Yep.”

“That’s fast.”

“I have stuff to do, and she made it clear that I’m unwanted here.”

“Give her a couple days. She likes you and you like her. She’ll forgive you.”

“I like her. She used to like me.” He pushed his last wad of clothes into his bag and grabbed his toiletries from the bathroom. Thank God he was neat with his things. “If I forgot something, you can mail it. Or keep it. I don’t care.”

“That’s it then.”

“Not quite.” He lifted his computer bag and pulled his papers from the inside pocket. “Sign first.”

Brandon looked between the papers extended out and Justin. “You’re kidding.”

“You said a real relationship. You just said she liked me and I liked her, and you heard her friends say she was planning to move. I can’t help she found out about this plan ahead of time. The heart of the deal was that she’d fall for me. She did enough to plan to move. It was real, that’s what you wanted, so sign.”

Brandon shook his head and took the papers. He didn’t walk off with them or sign them. He just took them. And pointed at him with the stack. “I sign these on one condition.”

“Done.”

“You don’t even want to know what it is?”

“Don’t care. This is what I want.”

Brandon pulled a pen from his shirt pocket, held the papers against the wall, and initialed and signed in all the flagged spots. He handed the stack back. “Don’t ever come back. It’s a disaster every time you do, and I’m tired of cleaning up your mess.”

Justin tucked the papers in his bag. “When your life isn’t a shit hole, I’ll consider your advice. I’ve been your little puppet, and all the while your life is a wreck. Your wife that you don’t even talk to lives hours from here. You bailed on your brother and left him hanging with your half of the business, then act like a shit when it’s time to do something. In the meantime, the only person you seem to give a fuck about is Mom and Dad who treated us like we didn’t exist. So yeah, don’t worry. I won’t be back, because I’ll pass on life advice by you.”

Whitney readjusted in her seat, typed in another row of numbers, then tabbed over while it calculated a final total. She cross-checked it against her printout and saved the document. One thing for certain, Justin lit a fire under her butt, and she managed some work for once.

It was easy when she had nothing else.

She filed fuel receipts and picked up the final statement of reports for planting season. The very last one. As in, from now until harvest season, her work was going to be light, and dependent on equipment breaking or extreme weather.

She hated to cross her fingers for a drought so they’d have to be concerned about irrigation at all the fields. Or worse, hope for a rainy year with worries of the fields flooding. She needed something else to occupy her mind.

She had three numbers keyed in when her front door opened and closed. She leaned back in her chair and waited for someone to walk in.

“Hello?” a voice called from the hall.

Tate? Was that Tate? She pushed away from her desk and hurried around the corner. “Tate?”

“Yeah?” He appeared in her office doorway before she got across the room. “Where the hell is everyone?

She crossed the last of the distance and hugged her oldest brother tighter than she had before. “Wade and Kara’s.”

“Hey, there, I need to breathe.” He patted her back. “Don’t squeeze the top of me off. I just saw you a few weeks ago.”

She laughed. “More like months.”

He rubbed the side of his head and then shrugged. “It’s been busy.”

She pinched his stomach. “Too busy to come see us.”

“I’m here now, aren’t I?” He looked around. “I can’t believe how quiet it is here.”

“I know.”

“Do you have anything to eat or do we have to go next door?”

“I’ve squirreled away some leftovers.”

“Good.” He started down the hall.

She stayed by the front. “But if you want to see Mom and everyone, we can go next door. I imagine she’s ready to get her hands around your neck.”

He chuckled and stopped at the other end of the hall by the kitchen. “That sounds like fun, but I came to see you.”

He disappeared into the kitchen. Oh crap. She went down the hall, ready for whatever was ahead. Someone had called Tate on her. She sighed and stepped in the kitchen and found him half in the refrigerator. “Who sent you?”

“I think everyone. Even Kara called. Mom was the last one, and she didn’t let me say no.”

“Should I be offended that your arm had to be twisted to come see me?”

“I don’t know why.” He pulled a bowl of fruit salad out and dug two spoons from a drawer. He handed one to her and started in the bowl with the other. “It’s not like you and I ever talk about your dating life. I’m not sure what they thought I could do for you, but they said you were acting like a knot on a log, and nobody knew what to do about it.”

She chuckled and eased on the stool. “Thanks. I’m fine. Just trying to stay focused on work to keep me busy.”

He leaned on the island and rested on his elbows. “I’m sure you don’t want to talk about it, because I sure wouldn’t. But what happened?”

She poked at a hunk of pineapple covered in cream. “I flirted with the idea of falling in love and got my heart broke all the in same day.”

“Sorry.”

She lifted a shoulder. “Lesson learned. Don’t count on the guy who already let you down one time.”

“Mom said you were ready to pack and leave for this guy.”

That sounded nuts to even think back to and consider now. “I was.”

“I lied to you a little when I came in.”

“Great. I haven’t had enough of that.” She shot him a look to try and add some bite on her sarcastic words. She probably failed.

He lifted a shoulder. “You already didn’t want me here, but now I’m here and eating your snacks, so I figure you’re not going to kick me out.”

“Don’t bet on it.”

“Mom wanted me to talk to you, since I’m the only one who ever left the farm.”

“You always knew you wanted to leave.”

He nodded. “For as long as I can remember, I knew I wanted to get out of here.”

She did more poking than eating and gave up the bowl. “And I didn’t. Still not sure I want to. The idea of going to Dallas, I think, was more of an idea for a long vacation instead of something forever. Mom had the opinion of why not give it a try. So I jumped with that thought. It was no big deal if I tried it. I could always come back home.”

“You sound sure that you wouldn’t have liked it.”

She sat back. “I think I loved the idea of it.” She glanced around the old kitchen and rubbed her fingers on the worn corners of the counter. “But this is home. This is where I want to be, but it’s…”

“It’s…?”

She sighed. “I haven’t told anyone this.”

“Then it won’t go past me.”

“I was happy until Kara came back.”

He blinked.

“I mean, I’m happy she’s back. I love her. I love that her and Wade are happy. But that’s when life changed for me. And it sounds terrible.” She leaned over and dropped her head on the counter. “When she came back, everything changed, and it’s still changing. I don’t understand how I can be so happy for them, jealous, and sad all at the same time. Going to Dallas would have meant I got to run away from here and maybe find what they have.”

“Sorry, Whit.”

She sat up and pushed hair away from her face. “I keep thinking things will get better, but then more keeps changing. Like the house is so quiet. Everything is happening at Wade and Kara’s, and it’s like I’m an outcast.”

Tate was down to poking at the salad now. “Funny, isn’t it? When you were a kid, you hated the traffic through the house the most. And now you want some activity.”