Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
“I could do this,” I told him as we walked back to the house.
“Do what?”
“I could feed and water the chickens. Look after them. It would take one more chore off your plate.”
Jared shook his head. “You’d need to be up at this time every morning to do it so I could run them to Morag’s in time.”
“I could do that too. Take them to Morag’s. I know Morag, you know. I’ve practically been living here for four years.”
“It’s fine, Hollywood. I don’t expect you to help out on the farm.”
Hollywood? I scowled at the nickname. “I think it would sell our story better if I did help in some way. I’m not lazy. I’m not used to sitting around doing nothing, and early mornings don’t bother me. I don’t sleep a lot, anyway.” It was true. When inspiration struck me, I’d often forget to sleep while I worked on a project.
“I didn’t say you were lazy, just that you don’t need to help out. You’re not used to this kind of life, Allegra.”
What did that mean? “Well, I think it would look good if I was the one to take the eggs to Morag,” I insisted stubbornly.
Jared stepped into the mudroom, holding the door open for me. I held his gaze, wondering what thoughts were hiding behind his. “You want to look after the chickens?”
“Yes. I am capable of looking after another living creature.”
“I never said you weren’t. Are you always this defensive?”
Irritation flushed through me. “When I feel like I’m being judged, yeah.”
With an aggravated sigh of his own, Jared grabbed his car keys off the hook by the door. “I’m not judging you. You’ve just never experienced work like this. On a farm. It’s constant and tiring and as far from the world you’re used to as it gets. Farm life isn’t glamorous. It’s not art and art shows and galleries and all that champagne stuff. I just don’t want you feeling pressured into changing your life any more than this scheme already has.”
Thinking of his night at the pub last night, I wondered if he didn’t want me feeling pressured or if he didn’t want to feel pressured? And I was getting kind of tired of him making assumptions about me based on what he thought he knew about me. Was this why I was so unattractive to him? Because he thought I was a spoiled, Hollywood princess who la-la-la-ed her way through life with art and art shows and galleries and champagne stuff.
I stepped into Jared’s path as he moved back toward the door. “I know we don’t know each other very well, Jared, but I’m going to tell you a few things that might stop you second-guessing me in the future.” I leaned into him a little, his cologne tickling my senses. “One: I never do anything I don’t want to do. Two: I’m not some Hollywood princess whose been protected in bubble wrap her whole life. I’ve almost died, I’ve shot someone, and I’ve been to rehab. And that all happened before I was eighteen years old.”
His nostrils flared in surprise at my confession.
“Life is hard, Jared. And painful. Not even money can protect you from that. I’m not who you think I am, and I’d like it, if going forward, you could just treat me … as a person and not as Chiara and Wesley Howard’s daughter.” I tried to keep the bitterness out of those last words, but I wasn’t sure I succeeded.
For the first time since we met, Jared looked at me. Really looked at me. Those spectacular eyes roamed my face as if he hadn’t seen me until just then. My heart rate escalated as the silence between us stretched.
“Okay,” he said on a heavy exhale.
I deflated with something like disappointment, but I wasn’t sure why. What had I expected Mr. Monosyllabic to say?
“Okay.” I nodded and turned on my heels. “Let’s go sell some eggs.”
Twelve
Allegra
There were no words between us as we drove into Ardnoch. Jared parked his Defender behind the buildings on Castle Street, the main thoroughfare of the village. Morag met us at the back door of her grocery store, her eyes widening at the sight of me.
“Allegra, what brings you here this morning?” Morag asked, friendly and warm as always. Every other month she changed the color of the rinse in her hair. Today it was purple.
A familiar knot tightened in my stomach as I prepared to tell her about our marriage. I really had underestimated how much it would suck lying to this community of people who had become my home. It was especially horrible with Morag because she was the first person to hear the news and be delighted by it.
“That’s wonderful!” she exclaimed, pulling me into a tight hug.
Stupid tears pricked my eyes, and I blinked rapidly to stop them falling. My gaze caught Jared’s and he looked as torn up as I felt.