Page 24 of Forever After Fall

She winces at the idea. I’m not keen on Bo knowing about this either. Any of my siblings save for Cade would find a way to make this a mess.

“I’m not going to tell him why. I’ll just say we’re working on this thing for Hazel for the next couple of weeks.”

“Speaking of. We should make sure we do this before Hazel comes home. She’ll be back in town for Halloween. We might be able to trick everyone else, but if she gets even a hint of this, she’ll have us dead to rights before we know what’s happening.” Bristol makes a good point.

“Midnight on Halloween, then.” That gives me a few weeks to make this woman see reason where Chris is concerned.

“Then we go back to being normal.” Bristol grins. I don’t know if I can go back to anything resembling normal once I’ve had her, but I’m willing to make the gamble just to get a taste.

“What does your weekend schedule look like?”

“Ford’s football games don’t start until next Friday night. He’s going camping one last time this weekend before school with some friends.”

“I’ve got someone covering me this weekend. I thought I might need to spend weekends prepping, so we can be installing during the week.”

“What time does your shop close on Friday?”

“Six.”

“Think you could meet me at eight somewhere just outside of town?”

“I think so.”

“Good. I’ll text you the address.” The anticipation all week might kill me, but it’ll be worth it.

Like the universe knows I need a break, the alarm on my phone sounds. Bristol looks at the clock.

“Time to pick up Ford?”

“Yeah. Hop in the truck. I’ll drop you off after I grab him from practice.” And just like that, we’re back to our regular routine.

ELEVEN

Bristol

“Kell said he can grab the hay bales for us so we can mark the hayride route while we’re out. That way, he can get signage up later and take the horses through it once to make sure. My truck’s got a load in it, though, that I have to drop off. I was going to see if we could borrow Hazel or Ramsey’s truck,” Anson announces as he meets me out back of the ranch house.

“We can take my truck. Bed’s free. I just used it to haul antiques over this morning.” I’ve already brought it around in anticipation.

“This is your truck?” Anson looks at me sideways and eyes the beat up old truck that once belonged to Chris. It’s seen better days but it’s a classic. Chris loved it and trusting me with it felt like it meant something. At least before we imploded. Now it just feels like he made it my problem.

“It is now.” I drop the gate on the back so he can move the hay onto it with Kell’s help.

“What happened to the one you had?” He flashes one last look at me before moving to help Kell, the barn manager at Bull Rush Ranch and the head of the Inn’s outdoor programs and activities.

“I sold it.” I’ve been driving Mom’s car more often than not when I have to get Ford, so Anson didn’t notice. I didn’t trust this truck to get Ford and me where we needed to go, especially not safely. So I’d defaulted to taking him around in Mom’s car.

“And bought this one?” Anson’s started loading hay into the back along a silent Kell.

“No. I got this one from Chris.” I pretend to be too distracted by one of the horses to see Anson’s reaction. But I hear the sharp intake of breath. Thankfully, he doesn’t say another word about it because I don’t feel like airing my dirty laundry in front of Kell. Instead, we work quietly until the truck is loaded, and then we head out on the ranch’s trails.

Unfortunately, laying down the bales to make the ride route comes to an abrupt halt on one of the hills when the truck stalls out. A couple of attempts to turn the engine over fail, and the ominous clouds in the distance that we’ve been trying to outrun since we spotted them are closing in on us fast.

I can feel the chill of fall in my bones. That or it’s Anson’s icy demeanor. Whether he’s just in a bad mood or not a fan of being in Chris’s truck, I’m not sure, but our current marooned state isn’t helping matters. I’m starting to wonder whether we’ll even make it to our Friday night outing as strangers at this rate.

“Let me get out and take a look.” Anson unbuckles himself and moves for the door.

“Are you sure? I could see if I can get Kell on the line and have him come grab us.”