Dirty: The Complete Series (Secret Baby Romance Love Story) (18 page)

As soon as I was ready, I headed into town,
trying to find my way to the bar we normally met up at. It was a little
hole-in-the-wall dive with the best burgers in three counties, according to one
of the newspapers. Just then, burgers and beer sounded like the best possible
thing in the world to me.

I wondered what Autumn was doing with her
friends
—
was she getting the manicure she had talked about, or had she gone shopping?
It was too early for her to have gone home, at least I thought so, but I had no
idea what she might actually be doing.

Since I was going to dinner with my buds, I
thought it was possible she might have grabbed dinner with her friends, as well.
I pictured her in my mind, seated at a table somewhere in the mall, at the food
court, maybe having Chinese, or Chik-Fil-A, talking to her friends about Addie.
If I’d been there,
I told myself,
I would just have been in the way of that.
Even if she had invited me.

Stop thinking about her and focus on the night out.
I pulled into the parking lot at Dave’s Last
Resort and spotted Drake’s beat up old car already parked in one corner. We
were a bit before the dinner rush, which was good; we’d have time for a couple
of beers, maybe a couple of shots, and then we could head over to the laser tag
place. I parked and walked around to the front of the building.

“Cade! Brother, it’s good to see you,” Skinny
Pete said, as soon as I walked in.

“You, too, man,” I told him. He slapped my
shoulder and led me over to the table.

“I hear you’ve been working out at Bob
Nelson’s ranch,” Max said.

“All season,” I confirmed. A waitress came and
I looked over the specials; there was a deal on Jameson with a beer back, and I
ordered it, along with the bacon cheeseburger and fries. Drake had already
ordered a basket of deep fried pickles and some mushroom caps for the table.

“I didn’t know they were hiring,” Joe said.

I shrugged. “I saw an ad in the paper and
answered it. It’s been a pretty good gig. They might bring on someone else next
year if I work out.”

“Autumn Nelson is easy on the eyes,” Skinny
Pete pointed out.

“Ah, let’s not talk about her,” I told him. “I
made a promise to Bob Nelson that I wouldn’t get distracted by his daughter. It
was his condition for hiring me.”

“Good man,” Drake said, smiling slightly. “I’d
do the same thing if I had a daughter who’d just had a kid less than a year
before, with a guy who ran off on her
—
don’t want her heart getting broken again.”

I shook my head. “Come on, guys. No more talk
about her. I want to spend the next five hours not thinking about the farm, or
the farmer’s daughter. Just guy shit, beers, and laser tag. Okay?”

“We can talk about that fine waitress over
there,” Max said, nodding in the direction of one of the other bar maids. I’d
known her in high school
—
hell, I’d known almost everyone in town who
was between the ages of twenty-five and thirty in high school
—
but I had to admit that Max wasn’t wrong.

“Not bad at all,” I agreed. “Heather Johnson.
Man, it’s been ages since I saw her.”

We chatted about Heather for a while, and then
my beer and shot came, and then the burgers. I put Autumn out of my mind and
tried to focus on spending time with my friends.

I started to relax a little bit and got into
the spirit of boys’ night. I told myself that I was going to enjoy laser tag, I
was going to get just a little bit drunk, I was going to ogle pretty girls, and
I was going to pretend like I didn’t have any feelings that would make my life
complicated.

I knocked back my shot of whiskey and drank
down a few gulps of beer. “I heard that they have a hot girl working at the
laser tag place,” Max said.

“That sounds promising,” Skinny Pete told him.

I laughed. “Not like you’re going to ask for
her number, anyway,” I pointed out.

“You might, though,” Drake said, pointing at
me.

“Probably not.” I shrugged off the idea. “I’m
focused on my work these days.”

“All work and no play makes Cade a dull boy,”
Drake countered. “You should play the field. Get your rocks off while there’s
still women interested in hooking up.”

I shook my head; it was going to definitely be
a guys’ night, but I didn’t think I was going to have all that much luck
getting Autumn out of my head.

Chapter Twenty Three

Autumn

I had been avoiding Tuck, or at least being
alone with Tuck, ever since he’d come to my place on the property and accused
me of trying to form some kind of bizarre conspiracy with Cade to keep Tuck from
inheriting the farm from our dad one day.

Since Tuck seemed to be functioning just fine
in every other sense, Mom had thought
—
and I’d agreed
—
that it was best to relieve some of the
tension.

I shouldn’t have taken it so much to heart
that Cade had apparently lost interest in me, especially since Tucker had had
such bizarre ideas about Cade and me colluding together. But Cade didn’t know
about the incident between me and my brother; therefore, there was no real
reason for him to avoid me, other than lost interest.

I knew that I should be relieved at least as
far as my relationship with my brother was concerned that I didn’t have
anything anymore with Cade, but I couldn’t make myself feel good about it. I
thought I deserved more than just Cade’s avoidance. I deserved to hear from him
that he had simply lost interest.

Mom had decided to take over bringing the guys
lunch and snacks out in the fields. I needed to avoid Tuck, and I didn’t want
to see Cade, so she had been more than happy to do it for me, in exchange for
me covering some of her usual chores around the farm. I still cooked dinner
half the time, but I didn’t have to deal with either of the two men who were
causing me so much trouble in my mind.

I stood outside hanging laundry, thinking
about what I would do the next time that I had an opportunity to go into town
just to amuse myself. Mom and Dad both had told me that it was a good practice.
I came back from my little outings refreshed, more energetic, and more
positive. I had to admit that I felt better after my dates with friends.

Maybe we could go to Andrews Park,
I thought to myself.
We can put together a picnic, hang out at the lake, maybe do a little
sunbathing…
It sounded nice; but it would have been nicer still if I could
do it with Cade instead of my friends.

I shook off the thought. It wasn’t any use to
think of how nice it would be to do something with Cade. I wasn’t going to be
doing anything with Cade in the near future.

“Autumn.” I looked over the clothesline and
saw Tuck walking towards me. My heart beat a little bit faster in my chest, but
I made myself keep working. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of
knowing that I was still a bit shaken by his random attack on me.

“Hey, Tuck,” I said, straightening the sheet
on the clothesline and grabbing pins out of the hanging bag on the rope.
“Something up?” I swallowed against the tightness in my throat.

“I wanted to talk to you,” he said, stepping
under the clothesline and coming to a stop a few feet away from me.

“About what?” I wiped my damp hands on my
pants and crossed my arms over my chest.

“Stop looking at me like that, Sis,” he said,
looking away from me. His cheeks were pink with more than just the sun.

“Like what?”

“Autumn.” He met my gaze and frowned. “Look, I
know I was an asshole to you the other day.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “The other day?
Whatever are you talking about, brother?” I held his gaze until he looked away
again.

“I shouldn’t have accused you of having some
kind of scheme going with Cade,” he said, sounding more than a little sheepish.
“I’m just…I guess…paranoid about what my future is going to look like, and I
took it out on you.”

“Oh?” I kept my face neutral. “Refresh my
memory if you would.”

“Autumn, don’t be like this,” Tucker said.
“I’m trying to apologize to you.”

“So apologize,” I told him. He took a deep
breath and exhaled slowly, closing his eyes and then opening them again.

“Okay,” he said. “I’m sorry I went off on you
like that, especially because Addie was in the next room. I was an asshole and
it was uncalled for.”

I finally let myself crack a smile. “Thank
you,” I said. “I appreciate the apology. I accept it.” I shook my head and
uncrossed my arms.

“Cade’s not a bad guy, you know,” Tuck said,
kicking at the grass under his feet.

“I don’t know,” I told him. I turned back to
the laundry basket on the ground and plucked a towel out of it to hang up.

“I mean, he’s a decent worker and seems mostly
like a good guy,” he continued.

“I’m glad you and he are able to be friends again,”
I said. “I just…” I shrugged. “I think I was mistaken.”

“Mistaken how?”

I glanced at my brother. “I thought he was
interested in me,” I admitted. “There were some times, when we hung out... But
he’s been avoiding me for the last couple of weeks. Even more than I’ve been
avoiding you!” I gave my brother a little grin.

“So, you think he’s lost interest? Why would
he?” Tuck frowned and shook his head. “There’s no reason why he should.”

“I figure it was just one of those things,” I told
him. “He was into the hunt, not into me.”

Tuck kicked at the grass again. “I don’t know
about that. I mean, he did promise Dad that he wouldn’t get involved with you,
right? Maybe Dad noticed things were getting a little more hot and heavy
between the two of you and had a word with him.”

I shrugged again. “Either way,” I said. “I
probably should just let it go. Either he’s lost interest in me, or he isn’t
going to be able to act on any interest he does have in me until after the
season is over. Why should I wait around to see which answer it is, when I can
just get on with my life?”

Tuck considered that, and I hung another towel
and a few washcloths. “If you think you’ll be happier just letting it go, then
you should do that,” Tuck told me. “Otherwise… I mean, I know you’ve got this
incredibly active social life and all, but maybe you should give him the
benefit of a few months to see if he’s just keeping away to keep his job or if
he’s actually not interested in you.”

I looked at my brother doubtfully. “You know,
I’m not sure whether you’re more annoying when you think I’m colluding with
Cade to cut you out of your inheritance or when you’re trying to advocate for
him,” I told my brother. Tuck laughed.

“I need to get back out there,” he said,
coming in closer to me to give me a quick hug. “We’re okay, right?” I shrugged,
but I paused in hanging up the laundry to let him hug me.

“I’m still annoyed at you, but I accept your
apology,” I told him. “I’m mostly just glad you’re apparently not losing your
mind.”

Tuck grinned. “Not yet, anyway,” he said,
before pulling away from me and ducking back under the clothesline to head out
to the fields. I shook my head to myself and watched him until he disappeared
into the tall, growing corn, beyond the fence that separated the yard from the
acres of cultivated land.

I thought about what Tuck had said. He was
right in the fact that I didn’t know for sure what reasons Cade had for
suddenly not wanting to hang out with me, for avoiding me. I didn’t actually
know for sure that he’d lost interest.

If I were a more patient woman, I might have
been tempted to wait it out, and see what happened once Cade didn’t have a job
riding on whether or not he dated me.
Why
did Dad even make that a condition in the first place? It’s so silly. It’s not
like it would actually distract anyone all that much to be in love with me.

Even as I thought that, though, I realized
that it would; after all, I was around all the time. For a lot of people, it
would be distracting to work out in the fields, only yards away from the woman
they were interested in.

But even after we’d had sex, I hadn’t noticed
any sign of Cade losing focus on his work. When he was working, that was all he
was doing, and when he’d been with me, that was all he was doing in those
moments.

But I knew my dad. It wasn’t just that he was
worried about Cade getting distracted from his work; he had given the farm hand
that ultimatum because he was worried about me
—
about how vulnerable I was, and how lonely,
and how much it would break my heart to fall for a guy only to be abandoned
again. It was kind of him, but at the same time I couldn’t help but resent my
own father, even if just a little bit, for trying to coddle me that way.

No matter the reason why Cade had given up and
started avoiding me, I decided that it was best for me to do like I’d told my
brother I would: let it go and move on with my life.