I had to get ready for my trip and pretend that I knew what I was doing. Because frankly, I didn’t.
Not even a little.
I pulled into my driveway, my mind going in a thousand different directions as I tried to keep up with the fact that I didn’t know what I should do.
Should I stay with the Wilders? I had the money to buy in, I thought. I’d glanced over the paperwork during my workday, though I still needed to study it more, and with a lawyer. But I could buy in reasonably. I could have my hands deep in the process and make us grow. It was something I didn’t know could ever be on my plate, but I loved the thought. It could be amazing. I just didn’t know.
And then there was Ivy Wines, which was a whole new opportunity. It would be basically Elijah’s job, something I hadn’t done before but felt confident I could do.
All of this at once, including the festival that we would have to plan at our place, as well as the road trip. I just needed to go home, make a list, take a bath, and have a glass of wine. Because wine fixed anything.
I got out of my car and waved at Martha next door.
Martha was a widow who had lived in her house for as long as I could remember. She was sweet and baked amazing snickerdoodles. She also loved baking fruit pies and did her best to teach me, though I wasn’t the greatest at pastry. Her kids had moved far away with their own families, but came out to visit her often.
“Did you have a good day at work, darling?”
I smiled, warmth sliding through me at her words. We might not be related by blood, but she felt like a kind aunt who always cared about my day.
“I did. A long day but a good one. I’m going on a trip soon, though. I’ll give you the details so you don’t worry when you don’t see me. How was your day?”
“Oh, I hope you have fun with your young man. And my day was pleasant as always, darling.”
She’d never met Nathaniel. In fact, she’d never met any of the men I’d dated. The only man she’d met was Elijah, but to dissuade her of that notion was like pushing a boulder up a hill. It wasn’t happening.
“I’m glad you had a good day.” Martha had some health issues and was sometimes forgetful but was always very sweet. She waved at me and went back to her knitting, staring at the sunset that always brought hope to my heart. There was nothing like a Texas sunset. At least to this Texan girl.
I walked inside, grateful for the time to think, and hoped that I knew what I was doing.
I had a few decisions to make, but first, I needed to come up with a plan on how exactly to deal with the road trip with Elijah.
And ask myself why that was first on my list.
Chapter Four
Elijah
Why did I feel as if I were wrapped in a cocoon of awkwardness and dunked in a vat of what the fuck?
I had been in a car with Maddie before, of course. This wasn’t the first time we had ridden together for any period of time, but it felt different for some reason. As if this was a first time, as if I was supposed to be saying something other than what I was.
We had at least a four-and-a-half-hour drive to the place where our visiting part of the festival would occur. Depending on traffic, construction, and other humans, it could take longer.
I was the one driving this time, and I tended to go around ten miles over the speed limit. I liked driving in the middle lane, so people who wanted to go eighty or ninety or faster—the insane individuals—could. And then I could go around the tractors, the tourists, and the people who wanted to go fifty-five in a seventy-five.
“I will never understand South Texas drivers,” I mumbled.
I hadn’t realized that I had said the words out loud until Maddie snorted.
“Just South Texas drivers? Or all Texas drivers?”
I tapped my fingers against the steering wheel and pointed to the road. “Do you notice that the further north we get on I-35, the faster we’re going?”
“Perhaps it’s because the speed limit’s increasing?”
I shook my head and turned on my blinker, going around an SUV that happened to be illegally lifted for some reason, going sixty-five miles an hour in the center lane.
“No, it’s still seventy-five miles an hour like it was in the Forum corridor where we live. No, it’s because where we live, people think that speed limits are just that. A limit. So they take their Sunday drive on every day of the week and never go near the upper limit.”
“You’re still mad about that truck going thirty-five miles an hour, aren’t you?”
I held up my hand, that familiar rage sliding through me. “Thirty-five miles an hour in a fifty! There was a line of at least thirty cars behind that man, and he just lazily puttered along. I’m pretty sure the horse next to us was going faster.”
“In the pasture? No, I don’t think that’s possible,” she singsonged.
She had her tablet in her hands while going over work things. We had enough time to talk over our festival plans, as well as how we were going to approach this meeting. But right then, talking about traffic sounded a little easier. Or perhaps I just needed to get it out.
“Seriously though, I do not understand it. They just take their time. Even on the highway when it’s seventy-five fucking miles an hour, they go fifty-five. And they are all in the middle and right lanes. Nobody gets over at the on-ramps, so people bottleneck getting on the highway. The left lane is full of people wanting to go ninety but stuck behind people going the speed limit because they’re passing the people going forty. And the access roads are even worse because they’re wondering when they’re supposed to turn, so they go twenty-five in a forty-five.”
“Then there are those people that like to go ninety on both,” Maddie added, and I grinned.
“That’s not me, but sometimes I want to. It’s why I’m glad that this baby has the big engine.” I patted the dashboard. “Although my next car’s going to be electric. We’re getting the infrastructure now. It’s time.”
She leaned toward me, our conversation feeling like it used to. Simple and easy. “I was looking at one, and there’s a charging station in between my house and the Wilder property. It could work.”
“I know many people have charging stations in their homes, too.”
“Or at least the adapters. I’m looking into it. It’s on my long list to research. You know, the Wilders should invest in one.”
I smiled. “It’s on the list. East wants to go over the mechanics of it so he understands it, rather than us just plugging in a car and accidentally shutting down the entire complex.”
“I don’t think that’s how it works.”
“But I don’t know how it works. I need to do research. We already have solar panels on most of the buildings that we can, and East is wondering if we should put a whole new section in the pasture area.”
“That section that no one ever goes to, and nothing grows because they over-farmed it before it was turned into a venue?”
“Exactly. It’s just sitting there collecting snakes and other creatures. I don’t know, East has ideas, and maybe he can turn it into a bigger garden for Kendall.”
“The garden on the property is getting quite small for the amount of farm-to-table she’s using.” She paused. “Don’t use the phrase farm-to-table in front of her. She gets a little snippy about it.”