The Reluctant Bachelorette (23 page)

Taycee yanked her apartment door closed with more force than
necessary. Broken glass shattered across the hardwood floor as the framed picture
of a bright red tulip hit the ground next to her feet.

“Perfect,” she muttered, dropping to her knees. “Just
perfect.”

A low whistle sounded from across the room, making Taycee
jump. Caleb’s head poked out from the arched opening of the kitchen as he tilted
one of the chairs back. When did he get here? And how did he get in?

“Methinks someone’s mad,” Caleb said.

“Shut it.”

Laughter followed—laughter that wasn’t Caleb’s. Taycee
groaned. Of course Luke would be in her apartment right now. As if her horrible
day couldn’t be complete without a visit from him—a major source of Taycee’s
current problems.

“So, uh, Sterling’s still in it, huh?” Caleb said. “I thought
for sure he’d be gone after the horse incident.”

Taycee glared. “Don’t you have anything better to do than
watch some lame bachelorette show on the internet? And why didn’t you tell me
you were coming again? I would have sprinkled itching powder all over the guest
bed.”

“Exactly why I didn’t tell you. I value my sleep and health
too much.”

“Ha. Ha.” Taycee could almost see him grinning from her place
on the floor. She picked up the broken frame and larger glass pieces, and then stalked
to the kitchen where she tossed them in the garbage can.

“Want to join us?” Luke asked, waving a handful of cards at
her.

“No.” She grabbed a small vacuum from the closet.

“She had a bad day,” Caleb said, as if it wasn’t obvious.

Taycee rolled her eyes and returned to the front room with a
hand vacuum, where she sucked up the remaining pieces of glass. This was twice
she’d broken something when Luke was around. Wasn’t that a bad sign? The
equivalent to breaking a mirror or walking under a ladder? Or maybe just
knowing Luke had destined her to a lifetime of bad luck—at least whenever he
was around.

Taycee returned to the kitchen and jerked open the fridge,
pulling out a can of Squirt. She popped it open and let the carbonation burn
her throat as she drank. Then she glared at Luke. “It’s all your fault, you
know.”

Luke leaned back in his chair and fanned out his cards. “Your bad
day is my fault? How so?”

“Greg was the winner, not Sterling. But because of your little
stunt, he decided he couldn’t date anyone with a police record.”

“Really?” Luke chuckled. “If you ask me, I did you a favor.”

Taycee dropped down beside him and plopped her drink on the
counter. “Remind me to send you a bouquet of flowers to say thanks for finding
a way to keep Sterling in the running.” Especially now that she had to “up” the
romance factor.

Her head hurt.

“Look on the bright side. At least Sterling doesn’t seem to
care that you have a shady past,” Luke said, resting an arm on the table as he
leaned toward her. “Speaking of which, do you have a copy of those mug shots?
I’d give anything to see them.”

Taycee’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve got problems.” But in reality,
she was the one with problems. Lots and lots and lots of problems.

“Just think.” Luke taunted her with his eyes. “If you hadn’t
sicced Missy on me, you might have been stuck with me instead. Isn’t Sterling
the lesser of two evils?”

A rude reminder that Taycee really only had herself to blame
for all of this. If she’d just stayed out of it and let things play out on
their own, Luke and Greg would most likely still be in the running, and Alec
and Sterling would not. “Let’s just say that I’d rather go out with Greg any
day over Sterling.”

“But not me?” Luke teased with a raise of his eyebrow.

“I’d even take you.” Over everyone else. In fact, Taycee would
love for Luke to swoop in and rescue her from all this.

Luke grinned. “Wow, you must really be dreading your date with
him.”

Taycee relaxed against the back of her chair. “He’s a nice
guy, he really is. We just have nothing in common. And I’m really sick of
getting spit on.”

Caleb’s hand covered hers. “Sounds like what you need is a
good game of Rummy to get your mind off stuff.” He wiggled his cards. “Sure you
don’t want in?”

Taycee bit her lip. She had two choices: Go hide in her room
and try to work up the courage to let Sterling kiss her. Or hang out with Caleb
and Luke.

“Deal me in.”

“Ahhh, see Luke? Told you,” Caleb said as he tossed some cards
her way. “All you have to do is mention cards and Tace can’t resist. She’s
predictable like that.”

Taycee picked up her cards and sorted them. “How many nights
are you crashing here this time?” Her eyes flickered to her brother, who looked
at his cards and not her. “I saw a listing for what sounds like a nice little
office space in Colorado Springs. We could check it out if you want.”

“Sorry, sis,” Caleb said. “I’m only here to do a couple
depositions and then it’s back to Phoenix.”

Taycee frowned—both at the news and at her lousy cards. “I’m starting
to think that you’re putting me off.” She shot him a worried look. “You still
want to move back here someday, right?”

Caleb looked meaningfully at Luke before glancing at Taycee.
“Sure,” he said. “But unless we can settle, there’s no telling how long this
case will drag on for. I’ll be back again in a few weeks though—after this
whole bachelorette thing is over. Hopefully then we’ll have some more time to
hang out. And to . . . you know . . . talk . . . about stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?”

Caleb shrugged. “Nothing in particular. You know, just . . .
stuff. Life. That sort of thing.”

Life? Since when did Caleb want to talk about life? A sinking
pit settled in her stomach. Especially when Caleb went back to examining his
cards without looking at her. Luke, too, avoided her gaze.

Something was up. Something Caleb wasn’t ready or willing to
talk about yet, which probably meant that Taycee didn’t want to hear it. But
why did Luke seem to know and not her? That bothered her more than she cared to
admit. Even though she was younger, she’d always thought of them as a trio—like
the three musketeers. But now, sitting here, Taycee felt something she’d never
felt with them before.

She felt like an outsider.

I
t didn’t take long for Taycee
to discover that Jessa had also chatted with the bachelors about upping the
romance. On Monday, Sterling took her miniature golfing in Colorado Springs and
felt the need to hold her hand after every hole and during the entire ten steps
it took to get to the next one. The doorstep scene was even more awkward. He
went in for a kiss, and she turned her head just in time to get a wet peck on
the cheek.

Gross.

But if Taycee had thought Sterling was bad, Alec was ten times
worse. He found every excuse to hug her or hold her hand, and against her
better judgment she let him. She even let him kiss her. But when he tried to
turn it into a full on make-out session, Taycee broke free and left him
standing on the doorstep.

Miles, thankfully, had been better. He held her hand during
appropriate times, and then left her with a light peck on the lips. She could
handle light pecks.

Now she was down to only one date left: Jake.

He picked her up from her apartment, his eyes a deeper blue
than ever as he grinned at her from beneath the rim of a blue baseball cap. He
had a natural way about him that made everyone feel like they were someone
worth listening to and spending time with—as though he looked beyond people’s
outside appearance and into their heart. And what he found, he liked. It was
his jpgt.

“So, I was thinking you could give me a tour of your town.”
His fingers laced through hers as they walked to his car.

A tour of Shelter? Hadn’t he already seen all there was to
see? “Okaaayy,” Taycee said as he shut her inside the car, where Megan was
already waiting in the back. Taycee waved before searching Jake’s face for any
indication that he’d been joking. “Are you serious? You really want a tour of
Shelter?”

He nodded. “Believe it or not, I’d love to check out some of
the farms and land around here. It’s a beautiful place.”

“It
is
a beautiful place,” she agreed. “But honestly,
if you’ve seen one farm you’ve seen them all.”

“So show me one.”

Taycee was glad that a city boy like Jake could appreciate her
small town, but she didn’t quite know where to take him. Which farm? One of the
few still in operation? Or one of the tired, dilapidated ones that had given up
the ghost years ago?

As Jake backed out of the driveway, she made a quick decision
and directed him to the old Meyer place. Ten miles outside of town, it had once
been the home of a good friend of hers. Now it was bank-owned with a tattered
“For Sale” sign planted out front.

They pulled up the drive, and a pit formed in Taycee’s
stomach. Twenty acres that had once thrived with so much life now sat dormant.
Well, not dormant, exactly. The weeds sure flourished. But the house and barn
had an unkempt, unlived in appearance, making Taycee long for the old days when
they used to play tag in and around the corn stalks and eat sugar snap peas
straight from the vine.

She swallowed the bittersweet nostalgia and reminded herself
that she’d chosen this farm for a reason. Before the show officially started,
Jessa had included some footage of the existing farms, along with interviews
from a few of the farmers and her aunt and uncle, but she hadn’t shown the
already damaged parts, like this farm. Whether it made a difference to the
viewers or not, Taycee wanted people to see what Shelter Springs would become
if something didn’t change. She wanted them to understand why she played this
part. This was so much more than a silly dating competition to her.

Megan followed them around as Jake examined the property and
the land that had once been used for farming. After their previous two dates,
where everything had been planned to the last detail, today was different. More
relaxed. Nice. Her life had been so packed full of structure lately that it
felt good taking each minute as it came.

Jake led her through the weed infested fields, and then bent
to examine the plants. He pulled a few from the ground, fisting a handful of
dirt before letting it strain through his fingers.

What was he doing? He couldn’t possibly be this interested in
weeds and dirt—or farming for that matter. Why were they even here? Maybe this
was Jessa’s idea, a way to generate more sympathy for the town. Or maybe Jake
wanted to see for himself the state of Shelter Springs, Colorado.

“Exactly what kind of business is your family involved in?”
Taycee asked.

“Agriculture.” Jake stood and brushed the dirt from his hands.
“About forty years ago, my grandfather started what is now called NWOPO. The
Northwestern Organic Production Organization. Basically, it’s a long title for
organic farming.”

During all of her dates, Taycee had tried to keep things
lighter and less personal. No one could get attached to someone he didn’t
really know. But this news caught her off guard, and she couldn’t help asking, “You’re
an organic farmer?”

Jake reached for her hand again, and they started wandering
through the field, mashing weeds under their shoes. “Not really, although I
feel like I know everything there is to know about it. I’m actually on the
corporate side of things and oversee distribution for a network of farms.”

“And here I thought you just wanted to play in the dirt for
our date,” Taycee said with a smile.

He gestured toward the field. “I’m wondering if some of the
producing farms might be interested in switching over to organic farming.”

Organic farming? Although Taycee didn’t know much about the
process, she knew that organic produce cost more at the grocery store, which
meant that there was a lot more involved in the farming process. She also knew
the local farmers were pretty set in their ways. “But isn’t that more labor
intensive and expensive?”

“Yeah, but it also pays much better. The farming market is
becoming so competitive these days that most of the smaller farms, like the
ones here, are finding that the only way to stay in business is for them to
make the switch.”

“What do you mean?”

“Only that organic farming is mostly done by the independent
farms. It’s a market with an increasing demand, creating a situation where the
independents are able to work together, rather than compete against the bigger
commercial farming organizations.”

Jake made it sound so simple. So easy. Like a minor change
could solve a very real problem in Shelter. But it couldn’t be that easy. “What
would it take to make the switch?”

Jake stopped, looked around one last time, and then pulled her
back in the direction of the car. “It’s more of a training and educational
process. NWOPO operates sort of like a franchise. Farms from all over the
country buy into it via an annual membership fee. Then we teach them how to
make the switch to organic farming, get them certified, and when it’s time to
sell we have a distribution channel already in place. It’s a pretty smooth
system actually.”