“Anytime,” Nadine said. “We’re here for you, and I’m sure Mabel is, too.”

Jennie Sue stood up from the sofa and glanced around the small living room. She liked a small house so much better than that huge thing out there in the country. When she built her own place, it was going to be just a house, maybe with a creek running close by. “Good night, ladies. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon, and thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”

“It’s been our pleasure, darlin’,” Nadine said.

Lettie nodded in agreement. “If you need anything or can’t sleep tonight, you just call me, and we’ll get out the cards or dominoes.”

“If you do that, y’all better come and get me,” Nadine fussed.

“Sure thing.” Jennie Sue waved goodbye, knowing that if she couldn’t sleep, she’d call Rick before she called anyone.

When the lawyer, Justin, had laid out the basics of the will, he’d eyed Jennie Sue like she was a piece of ripe fruit. Several times Rick had caught his eyes roaming from her toes and going all the way up to her eyebrows. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that he liked what he saw. And it sure didn’t take one to know that every man in West Texas was going to be on her doorstep when they found out just how rich she was.

That was what was on his mind as he parked the truck beside the Cadillac at Lettie’s place. Just seeing the car sitting there reminded him she was out of his league, no matter what she’d said about them being in the first stages of a relationship. That could simply be grief talking—the need to have someone to hang on to until she could get past it.

An ironclad guarantee for happily ever after did not come with life. Life simply happened. A person accepted his fate and moved on. Those were his mother’s words, and that day as Rick got out of his truck, he understood the meaning more perfectly than ever before.

“Isn’t that Frank’s truck?” Cricket asked. “I didn’t know they were going to be here.”

“Yep, guess the party grew a little bit,” Rick said.

“Are you okay? You’ve been pretty quiet all mornin’.” Cricket tucked the crutches under her arms, and he shut the door for her.

“I’m fine, just a little worried about Jennie Sue,” he said.

“Hey, Rick, come sit on the porch and join me and Frank while the ladies put the finishing touches on the food,” Amos called out.

He hung back and let Cricket crutch inside the house before he sat down on the top porch step. “Looks like it might rain.”

“Be a good thing for the crops, wouldn’t it?” Frank asked.

“Oh, yeah! We never complain about rain this time of year.” Rick glanced up at the kitchen window to see Jennie Sue.

He waved, and she returned the gesture. They’d been up until almost dawn, talking on the phone because she couldn’t sleep. He’d offered to come to her apartment and had asked her out to the farm, but she’d said just hearing his voice was enough.

“Are you lookin’ at Jennie Sue?” Amos asked.

“Yes, sir, I was, but she’s disappeared now,” he answered.

“Did you hear that she might sell the company and the house and run off to some third-world country to set up clinics for the needy folks?” Amos asked. “Someone told Lettie that she would be leaving by the end of the month. I’d sure hate to see that happen. She’s such good help at the bookstore and, well . . . ,” Amos sighed. “I’d kind of thought maybe I’d sell it to her, and carry the note myself. I think Iris would be proud for her to have it.”

“You goin’ with her on that crazy trip?” Frank asked. “Me and Mabel wouldn’t worry about her so much if you was around to protect her. You never know what might happen off in them places. You hear about kidnappin’ and such on the news all the time.”

“Jennie Sue hasn’t mentioned anything like that to me,” Rick said. There was no way he could go with her, even if the rumors were really true. Before he died, Rick’s father had made him promise that he would take care of Cricket. But then, he couldn’t see his sister leaving Bloom to go halfway around the world, live in a hut, and work with underprivileged people.

“Lettie is going to try to talk her out of it. I figure she’d be more likely to go back to New York City if she goes anywhere,” Amos said.

“I doubt that happens—not for a little while, anyway. She’s got a lot of stuff to settle before she goes anywhere,” Rick answered.

“Nadine says that she’s goin’ into that meeting tomorrow, and turnin’ it all over to her lawyer and then she’ll be gone by the end of the week,” Frank said. “Me and Mabel are goin’ to miss her so much.”

“I wouldn’t put too much stock in rumors. They’re about as trustworthy as that weatherman who said today was going to be sunny and hot,” Rick said.

“Well, he got half of it right. It is hot and humid. Hope them clouds comin’ in from the southwest ain’t just teasin’ us,” Amos laughed.

Rick felt like a stone was tied to the bottom of his heart. But if Jennie Sue had confided in someone that she had a desire to do something meaningful with her life, like help out overseas, it might make things easier for him. Seeing her about town and knowing that they were worlds apart would be tougher than remembering the amazing time he’d had with her.

Something wasn’t right. Jennie Sue could feel it in her heart, but she couldn’t put a finger on what it was. She paced the floor in her tiny apartment and finally went out onto the balcony and searched for constellations in the sky.

She went back over the day and finally pinpointed the exact time that things began to go downhill. It had been when Rick came inside the house after sitting on the porch with Frank and Amos. From then on, he’d been standoffish and quiet.

Finally, she picked up her phone and sent a text: Are we all right?

A reply came back immediately. Are we?

She hit the icon to call him.

He picked up on the first ring. “What’s goin’ on?”

“Are you mad at me for something? You hardly spoke at the lunch, and then you and Cricket left, and you didn’t even say goodbye, much less give me a hug or a kiss. And when I told you that I wanted to go to the garden with you, you said that you had it covered,” she said.

“I couldn’t kiss you in front of all those people,” he stated, almost as if he were reading from a speech, it was so flat.

“Are you ashamed of me?” she asked.

“No, I am not, but think about it, Jennie Sue. We can’t live in a pipe-dream bubble our whole lives. I am who I am and you are who you are. We can’t change that.”

“Why would either of us want to change?”

“Think about it for a few days, and then we’ll talk again. Good night, Jennie Sue,” he said, and the phone went dark.

She went inside, stripped out of her clothing, and took a long, cool shower before she crawled into the middle of the bed and sat cross-legged. “Think about what?” she said aloud.

Her decision to sell the company. Suddenly, she had misgivings about that. Should she try to keep it and learn the ropes? Percy had put a fear into her that she couldn’t do anything right. What would happen if she made mistakes that cost the company millions, or worse yet, cost people their jobs? Could she live with that?

The rumors about her leaving Bloom—the only difference between one place and another was the population and terrain. Desert? Mountains? Prairie? Rolling hills? What made one area better than the other was family and friends. She liked her new friends, and she had no intention of leaving Bloom.

She was rich now and Rick was still a farmer: That was what she was supposed to think about, wasn’t it? She should have seen this coming.

She fell back on her pillow and pulled the edge of the chenille bedspread around her body. When she opened her eyes the next morning, she picked up the pillow she’d been hugging and threw it across the room, knocking a can of hair spray and her makeup bag off the dresser.

“Dammit, Rick! I don’t like waking up without you,” she muttered as she got out of bed and retrieved the pillow. “If you’re being stubborn because of money, I’ll give away every damn dime to charity.”