Her Country Heart Read Online Free Page B

have any questions. I guess the general store still has paint. If I can get Granny’s old Volvo station wagon started, I’ll go into town and get the paint while you get the room ready. You’ll have to tell me what to buy to stop the drip in the sink. I don’t have a clue about plumbing. Or paint as far as that goes.” She shrugged and yanked her gaze away from his pecks and up to his eyes.
    A bemused expression spread over his face. “You misunderstood.” He drank last of the ice water set the glass on the counter.
    “Misunderstood what?”
    “I’m not a handyman.”
    “But yesterday you said you were Granny’s handyman.”
    “I said you could call me that. If I didn’t you weren’t going to get in the damn truck. Everyone was waiting for you at the court house.”
    “But you said and I thought…”
    “I helped your grandmother because she didn’t have anyone else and she let me use her barn to store my equipment. That’s all.”
    “Uh—I’m so embarrassed.”
    “Look Amy, I’ll help you get the room ready for your kid and take care of the tile and the drip in the bathroom. And a few other things that need to be done around here. I promised Granny I’d help you. But you have to work too. Deal?”
    “Uh, yeah. Deal.”
    “Good.” He pulled his cotton shirt over his head and down his chest covering his physique.
    “Thank you.”
    “For what?”
    She wanted to say for covering your distracting body, but instead she cleared her throat. “For promising to help me.”
    “Besides getting your kid’s room ready, you better line up someone to harvest the apples. Granny usually called Manuel Gordon and his crew. They’re popular and get grabbed up fast. And they may not have time, but they’re the best. His phone number must be around here somewhere. It needs to be done before you sell the farm.”
    “Uh—about that. I planned to put the place on the market, but now that I’m here—” Seeing his expression, she hesitated.
    “This morning I walked in the apple orchards.” Eager to make him understand, she continued. “I felt the soil between my fingers, smelled the apples still on the trees. I picked one. I’d forgotten what it tastes like right off the branch. When I bit into it juice ran down my chin.” She grinned. “I was a kid again eating fruit for the first time. It was awesome. Suddenly, Granny was there, standing next to me, telling me to keep and run the farm.”
    He rolled his eyes and she noted his Amy is-a-crazy-person expression.
    She stepped closer. “Wyatt, I’m not insane. I know Granny wasn’t really there. But I’ve seen her walk the orchards so many times, it was as if her essence was next to me telling me this farm is my home. I haven’t felt like I belong anywhere since I left Sierra Creek. Can you understand that?”
    Before he could answerer she said, “For the first time in my adult life I’m truly a part of something, the land. And for the first time I understand the meaning of the word “home”.
    She crossed her arms and moved just steps from him. “The farm is Bobby’s heritage and I’ll do whatever I can to nurture and protect his legacy.”
    “All by yourself?”
    “Yeah.”
    She noted the skepticism in his features as his eyes narrowed.
    “To honor my grandmother, I’m calling the company Granny’s Organic Apples.”
    “It’s easy to name a business, but running a farm is hard, dirty work. I see your pale skin and perfectly manicured fingernails. What job did you have in San Francisco?”
    She quickly put her hands behind her back.
    “Well?”
    “I was a bank teller until they closed the branch and replaced it with an ATM machine. Now I want a job that can’t be outsourced or off shored. I have a chance to do something that matters. Give people organic food. So they don’t have to worry about pesticides in the apples and juice they feed their kids. You can’t have any idea what that means to a mother to watch her baby eat and drink and