“Tea it is.” I grab a glass and carry it back into the barn where everyone is waiting.
“Thank you,” she says, sitting down at the table. “Everything looks so good, I’m not sure where to start.”
“The corn muffin,” Ava suggests. “They’re my mom’s and they’re amazing!”
“So I hear!” Faith looks at me and for a moment I feel like my heart is going to explode out of my chest.
I watch as she picks up the muffin and takes a bite.
“It is …” I look around. “Amazing!”
We all laugh, and I take a seat next her. I am acutely aware of just how close she is to me. I wonder if she can feel my nervousness.
A few minutes after we sat down, I see my ex-girlfriend approaching us.
“Hi, I’m Amanda,” she introduces herself to Faith and sits down on the other side of me, forcing me to be even closer to Faith. “You must be the new girl I’ve been hearing so much about. Your parents bought the Shaker ranch, right?”
“The Shaker Ranch?” Faith asks.
“Once someone’s been living here a while, the land they’ve been on becomes known by their name. Like this will always be the Brooks Ranch because my family’s lived here for several generations,” I explain.
“Matt’s family has lived here for a long time,” Amanda informs her. “How many generations of Brooks have owned this land?”
I brush the question off. “Six? Seven?”
“Matt has had his foot on every acre.”
“Wow,” Faith smiles at me. “What do you do with all of this land?”
“Most of it is left wild, but we have certain areas sectioned off where we rotated the herds to give the other areas a rest for regrowth.”
“Are you in school?”
“I go to the community college to take some business courses like accounting and such. I’ll finish my four-year degree online. It’s important to my mother. But I have always planned on being a rancher, just like my father.”
“Is it hard work? Ranching?”
“It’s demanding work, but when you love something like I love this land and the animals and people, it hardly seems like I should call it work.”
“I understand. When I’m designing a home, it hardly seems like work at all. I love designing and building things.”
“Maybe one day you’ll design your dream home.”
“That would be wonderful,” she smiles.
“I hope I get to see it.”
I feel so at ease around Faith, but at the same time, my stomach is tied in knots. After a few minutes, I notice that she seems to be having trouble breathing.
“Is something wrong?”
She immediately stands up.
“I’m sorry,” she says, picking up her half-eaten plate of food. In her haste to leave, she stumbles and spills the contents on the floor. I can’t help but notice Amanda and Brittany barely stifling laughs. “I’m so, so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I assure her. Ava and Caleb try to tell her the same thing. It doesn’t seem to be helping.
“I need to find my parents,” she says, her voice edged with panic. “I need to go home.”
I was about to offer to help her find them, but she turns and rushes toward the open doors faster than I can get the words out.
“What did you say to her?” Amanda asks.
“I’m not sure.”
“She’s as nervous as a new colt.” This was from Caleb.
“Should I go after her?” Ava asks.
“I don’t think you’d be able to catch up to her.”
“What do you think got her so upset?”
“I don’t know,” I answer. “But whatever it was, I don’t think it has anything to do with us.”
Faith
It’s been a week since I made a spectacle of myself at the Brooks’ Ranch. I just want to bury my head in my pillows and never come out again. To be honest, that’s exactly what I’ve done for the last seven days.
My mother tries to make me feel better and asks if I would go with her into town today for a bite of lunch, but I’m so terrified of running into someone from that party, mostly because everyone from miles around was at that party, that I just want to stay home and not come out again.
“I don’t feel like going out,” I tell her. “I’m just going to stay home for a little while longer until everyone forgets.”
“You can’t just shut yourself up in the house and not come out again, Faith. It’s not good for you.”
“I won’t. I promise. I’m just not ready yet.”
My mother leans in and gives me a kiss before heading out with my father. She turns and heads back.
“I forgot to tell you, I’m expecting a package this afternoon. It probably won’t be here until we get back, but just in case.”
“I’ll keep an eye out for it. Have a good time.”
“You too,” she says before climbing in the truck.
I wave to them from the front porch and head back inside deciding to make myself a BLT. I start frying the bacon when the doorbell rings.
I remember my mother’s comment about the package, so I figure it’s something that has to be signed for. I turn the bacon off, my mouth already watering from the smell and head to the front door expecting to see a UPS or FedEx truck outside.
Instead, I see Matt Brooks.
My stomach flips.
I want to run back and hide but can’t because he’s smiling at me through the glass panes. Internally I curse my luck and force myself to keep walking toward the door.
“Hello,” I say as I open it.
“Hi,” he says back.
My heart is beating a mile a minute and I feel like I’m going to start hyperventilating. Not from attraction, but from sheer terror. I’m in the middle of nowhere with a man who I barely know.
No one will hear me if I scream. No one will be here to help.
“You want to come out here on the porch,” he offers. “I don’t need to come in. We can sit on the porch and talk.”
“I – “ I look around for an excuse.
“It won’t take long,” he promises.
I swallow down the lump of fear in my throat. “Okay.”
I step outside and walk to sit in the chair closest to the front door. He walks around me and takes the seat across from me by the table.
“How are you doing?” he asks.
I look at him.
“Ava says you won’t take her calls and when I called, your mom said you weren’t ready for visitors.”
“But you decided to come anyway?”
I can tell my icy response startles him. I didn’t mean to sound so hateful and cold. I’m just scared.
“I wanted to check on you. After the other night …”
My cheeks flame with embarrassment.
“I’m fine,” I lie. “I’m just a little …”
“Anxious? That’s okay. Ava and I have a cousin, Lara with bad anxiety. She even has a service dog that stays with her. He goes with her on airplanes, to school, everywhere.”
I give him a weak smile.
“I didn’t know they had those.”
He nods.
“If you want, I can give you the name of the trainer that helped her with her dog.”
Gratitude fills my heart and I nod my head.
“Thank you,” I smile. “That would be nice.”
“Also,” he clears his throat.
Oh no. Is he going to ask me out?
“Horses are supposed to be good for helping people overcome anxiety. They helped Lara. We have plenty over at our ranch. Some are really gentle. I’d be happy to have you come over and ride sometime.”
My face must say everything that’s going through my mind because he puts his hands up in surrender.