“Good to know,” David said, obviously trying to make light of it.
He saw his quip had missed the mark. To his credit, David took her hand.
“Hey. Look at me,” he said and waited until she did as he asked. “I’m with you.”
“But …”
“No, I get it. They can be an intimidating group when they want to be. Even Brook was insecure for a time.”
“I would never guess that. She seemed so … I don’t know … competent when she helped you with Cassidy,”
Crystal said.
“Talk to her. She’ll put your mind at ease. I’m with you now,” David said and then continued, “Ask her what that means to me.”
Crystal nodded. Talking to Brook and some of the others might be exactly what she needed. It was just that they all knew him so well and were solid eights or nines. In fact,
Halle James and Kara Tasman might be the mythical tens guys sought out.
What had Crystal on edge was his soap opera. The girls on it were smoking hot, and it looked like a lot more was going on in some of those scenes than David had admitted to. It made her realize that she wasn’t the catch in the relationship this time around; he was. People might start saying she had ‘a great personality’—code for he could do better.
◊◊◊
First thing in the morning, David had gone to Granny’s West—his restaurant—for cinnamon rolls. He loved Monical’s pizza, but Granny made the best cinnamon rolls in the world.
Chloe and Alex had joined him and Crystal.
“If you want to make a name for yourself, you should promote this,” David said as he took his first bite.
Nirvana! They were even better than he remembered.
His tablemates all tasted theirs.
“If I lived here, I would eat here every day and weigh 800 pounds,” Crystal said.
“My mom says that half the calories fall out if you cut them in half,” David said.
David’s niece came running up and jumped into his lap.
“What’s up, Mac?”
“We get to go horseback riding!”
They were going to the farm this morning, and he was sure that Zoe would be around and let them ride horses.
His niece had been wild about them since she was a toddler. He saw Greg and the rest of his family come into the restaurant. His nephews, Kyle and Nate, ran over to see Uncle David.
“No running!” Greg called out to no avail.
“He’s taking me horseback riding,” Mac told her brothers.
“We have to ask Miss Zoe. If she says it’s okay, then we can go riding,” Greg said.
“Uncle David will make it happen,” Joey, Greg’s girlfriend, said.
David gave her a sideways look, but Joey dared him to say it wasn’t so to his niece.
“Maybe you should move back so Mac could go riding every day,” David fired back.
“Can we?” Mac asked her dad.
“Your uncle is about to get a time out for telling fibs,”
Greg said.
“Shouldn’t be naughty,” Mac said to her uncle.
“Go eat your breakfast so we can go to the farm,” David said.
Mac led the way to their table as Mary, his business partner and the restaurant’s manager, appeared.
“Care to meet all our guests?” she asked.
“Of course,” David said and then introduced her to his friends.
“David suggested I do a video on your cinnamon rolls for my social media channel. They might be the best thing I’ve ever eaten,” Chloe said.
“We’re making a new batch. Want to come into the back and see how they’re made?” Mary offered.
Crystal and Chloe went to make the video while David greeted everyone and thanked them for coming. He timed it so that their food arrived by the time he was done.
“Is there anyone you don’t know?” Alex asked as he sat back down.
“There are some, but that means there’s someone new to potentially become a friend.”
Alex mimed gagging.
◊◊◊
David felt himself relax as he drove them on the winding park road on the way to the Mennonite farming community.
“When I retire, I plan to move to this farm. I have the perfect spot for a house picked out.”
David pulled in on the walnut-shell-and-gravel drive. The shells were full of a chemical that inhibited the growth of many plants, making it sort of a weed barrier. For the walking trails, they used the straight stuff. But where cars, trucks, and tractors were driven, the gravel was needed to handle the weight.
David got out of the car and took everything in. The farmhouse had been renovated, and all the barns and new stables looked to be in good shape. He could hear the goats and horses that were making it smell like a farm or compost pile. His grandmother had always said that it smelled like money.
Yelena came out the front door and smiled.
He’d originally met her through his friend Yuri. Yelena was Yuri’s grandmother, who grew up in Russia. She was a no-nonsense, tough old bird. When David’s grandmother ran the farm, Yelena had moved in with her to help run it.
Now she was helping Zoe and Johan while they went to college.
“Good. You’re here. I need someone to tell me if my apple strudel is okay.”
“Are the apples in season?” David asked.
His orchards were mainly Braeburn apples. He did a mental calculation and realized they should be ready soon.
“Some,” Yelena said. “Come. I feed you.”
“We just ate,” Crystal said quietly.
“If Yelena’s cooking, there is always room for more,”
David announced as he led everyone inside.
They gathered around the kitchen table as Yelena caught him up on Yuri and Jan Duke. Yelena had all but adopted Jan when she discovered the girl’s home situation. At the time, Jan and Yuri had been dating. Jan had gone to
Southern Illinois for college, and Yuri was at State, which ended their budding romance.
While they were finishing eating, Zoe and Johan came home from school. They were both at State. Zoe wanted to become a large-animal vet, and Johan was getting an Ag degree. The plan was that eventually, they would take over the farm for David. He’d also become a partner with Zoe to breed horses.
“You young people go. Show off what you’ve done,”
Yelena said.
“I need to run over to my dad’s place. He needs help with a tractor,” Johan said. “I’ll leave you in my wife’s capable hands.”
“Lead the way,” David said to Zoe.
◊◊◊
As they were wrapping up the farm tour, Greg and his family arrived. Zoe had been able to repurchase Bolt, the horse Mac had thought was hers. Zoe’s dad had made her sell him because he didn’t have time to care for horses while she was off to college. When she and Johan got married, and she and David started her business, Bolt was one of her first acquisitions.
It was worth it when Mac realized who the horse was.
For David, seeing his niece’s tears of joy was enough for him.
Zoe made Greg help her saddle horses while David took his friends on a walk to the river. He could see that they’d harvested some of the walnut trees for their wood. New ones had been planted, and within five years, they would start producing nuts, with full production in ten years.
David took them to the bluff overlooking the river.
“I plan to build a house here someday.”
“It’s so peaceful,” Chloe said.
You could hear the wind in the trees, a squirrel chattering a warning, and a woodpecker tapping away off in the distance.