Page 113 of Once Upon a Fall

“Because you’re superhuman,” I say.

He just shakes his head at me.

“Is the farm up for sale?” I ask.

“It is,” he says. “The listing went up on Wednesday.”

“And how do you feel about it?”

His eyes drop for a second before coming back to mine. “I don’t know,” he says. “Not sure I made the right decision.”

This is the first time I’ve ever heard him doubt a decision he’s made.

“What was the other decision?”

“There really wasn’t one,” he says.

Right. Because what else would someone do with a burned apple orchard?

“What will you do when it sells? Buy yourself a place somewhere?”

I don’t know if I want to hear the answer to that. Maybe it’s the chicken soup or the remnants of the flu meds, but I ask it anyway.

I swear, if he tells me he’s going to put it in the bank and sit on it and not do something for himself, I’m going to get out of this bed and punch him.

Lightly, on the arm. I’m not a savage.

Dean’s quiet, like he’s deciding how he wants to answer it or whether he wants to at all.

“I’m going to use the money to help my mom,” he finally says.

“Oh?”

He lets out a breath. “The plan is to put it in a trust, so she can use it as needed, and hopefully husband number three won’t figure out a way to take it from her.”

“Oh,” I say, filling in the parts he’s left out.

Well, crap.

A very small part of me hoped Dean somehow wouldn’t sell the farm. I never pictured him living there, exactly. Maybe he’d rent it out, or keep it for some reason that I hadn’t thought of yet.

I knew it was unrealistic. But selling it feels so final. Once the farm is gone, there’s nothing left tying him to this town.

And now I can’t even want that.

Because if Dean changes his mind and keeps the farm, his mom gets nothing. After everything he’s told me about her, I think he wants to make sure she finally has something that’s hers.

So, I can’t wish that he’d keep the farm. Not anymore.

Strangely, it’s almost a relief to let that hope go. His mom needs this more than I need some reason for Dean to come back here.

I’d love it if Dean could be selfish just for once. But then, if he were, I don’t know if I’d have fallen for him like I did.

Because I’m definitely in love with Dean Alden. And it didn’t take him coming to my aid while I was sick. No, I knew before that. I just didn’t want to admit it.

I want to tell him. Maybe we could try. He could visit when he’s between jobs. We could talk on the phone.

But he hasn’t said anything about what happens after he leaves. He hasn’t given me any reason to think he wants there to be an after. For all I know, I’m the only one trying to turn the past six weeks into something bigger than it was.