Dirty: The Complete Series (Secret Baby Romance Love Story) (23 page)

I tried not to let myself think of what I
would have, how my life would be different, if Titan had never gotten me
pregnant. If he’d just abandoned me while we were engaged and I hadn’t had
anything holding me back, I wouldn’t have followed him…but I might have left. I
might have gone to Oklahoma, Virginia, or almost anywhere else in the country
and started over.

Titan and I talked, all told, for almost a
full hour, and I sent him pictures of his daughter and answered his questions about
her development. I was supposed to take Addie to the doctor again soon to get
more vaccinations, and Titan said that he was glad that I wasn’t one of the
crazy anti-vaccine people.

I told him about the new expansion on the
farm, and he said that he was pleased for my father and pleased for me to have
more disposable income.

For the first time, it actually felt weird to
talk to my ex. Even when I’d been badgering Titan for some kind of contact with
his daughter, it had never felt weird to me; it had always felt straightforward
and correct.

But talking to him now made me feel like I was
doing something wrong, something almost shameful. I wasn’t interested in him,
at least, not in any romantic way. I had grieved over the way he’d abandoned
me, and I had cried over the fact that I’d been left for a woman that Titan
hadn’t even met until after he’d decided to leave me, but I had come to terms
with the way that things were.

I wasn’t weak enough to want him to come back
for my own sake, but if he was interested in getting to know Addie, in being a
father to her, then I owed it to my daughter to make the effort to get him on
board and to encourage him to get to know her. She would thank me later, even
if I had to put in hours of discomfort to talk to the man.

After the hour, Titan messaged me to tell me
that he had to turn in; it was an hour later on the east coast, if not more,
and I could understand that he wanted to get rest, eat, and shower before he
had to go back into work. I needed all of those things myself, and I was
working a job I’d been doing for most of my life.

As I told Titan goodbye, I wondered to myself
once more what had spurred his sudden interest in Addie. It didn’t make any
sense to me and the message that he had sent talking about how settling in had
made him curious, I couldn’t make any sense of it at all.

This was a man who only maybe half a year
before had told me he had no intention of coming back into town, and no
interest in having anything to do with his daughter. For him to go through such
a massive change in his outlook, I had to wonder if something had changed, or
if something had occurred to him somehow. I put my phone back into my pocket
when I heard my mom calling out for dinner, and tried to put the idea of Titan
out of my mind for the rest of the night.

Chapter Thirty

Cade

We were only a few weeks away from harvest,
and the days were the hottest that I could remember them being maybe in my
entire life; certainly they seemed hotter than they’d been the previous summer.
I was pretty sure I’d sweated through every inch of my clothes at least twice,
and as I started gathering up the tools I’d been using at the end of the day,
all I was thinking about was how good a cool shower would be, along with a
nice, cold beer and a good meal.

Watermelons were coming in droves, and I’d
bought one the day before, cut it up, and put it in the fridge.
A little grilled chicken, some
watermelon...sounds good.
The thought of dinner made my mouth water, and I
took a swig of water to control the rumbling of my stomach.

I checked to make sure everything I’d brought
out to the field with me was on the cart, and then started back towards the
house. I’d put everything away, get whatever input Bob Nelson had for me, and
then I’d shove off for the day. The week was about half-over, and I was looking
forward to seeing Autumn that weekend; we were supposed to be going swimming
together, maybe beat the heat a little bit with Addie in tow.

I had just barely reached the edge of the
field, closest to the house, when Tuck came flying out of the shed where the
Nelsons kept their equipment and tools. “Thief!” I stared in shock as Tuck
descended on me, stalking forward, his face set in angry lines. “We do you the
favor of hiring you and you thank us by stealing?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I held
up my hands, stepping away from the cart.

“You stole from us!” Tuck stopped maybe a
couple of feet short of me and put his hands on his hips, staring me down. “You
know, I really shouldn’t be surprised. You lied about your intentions and then
you stole from us.”

“I haven’t stolen anything!” I crossed my arms
over my chest, glancing at the cart. “You can check. Everything I took out is
on there.”

“Oh, trust and believe I’m going to check your
cart and your truck,” he said, nodding firmly. “I’m going to be looking for the
sprayers and the irrigation hose you took.”

I frowned; more than angry, I was completely
confused. Tuck and I had been working on the irrigation system earlier in the
day, but the thought of stealing anything at all
—
much less from the Nelson farm
—
had never occurred to me. I had no idea where
he could have gotten the idea that I would steal from his family, much less
that I already had.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Why would I
steal equipment
—
why would I steal
anything
from you?” I shook my head, in disbelief.
Was it because Tuck knew about me and
Autumn, and wanted to do something to get me fired before anything more could
happen between me and his sister? Or was it just more of Tuck’s resentment
towards me?
“You’ve been trying to start shit with me from the beginning,
and I’ve never given you a reason.”

“What’s wrong with me? You come in here, and
you get a job with my dad that we don’t even have to offer, and you steal
equipment to sell it to… I don’t even know who you plan to sell it to-”

“Hey, now. What’s going on?” Bob Nelson strode
up to where Tuck and I stood, and I felt a quick rush of relief, followed by
even more anxiety. I knew that there was nothing to Tuck’s accusations, but Bob
would be inclined to trust his son over a stranger.

“He stole from us,” Tuck said, looking at his
father but pointing at me. “You need to fire him as soon as we find out where
he’s got our equipment hidden.”

“That’s a mighty heavy accusation, son,” Bob
countered. “What’s your evidence?”

“I was just in the storage shed, and a bunch
of the irrigation hosing and the sprayers are missing,” Tuck said. “You know he
could sell those off for cash easy, Dad.”

“Pretty limited market to that,” Bob said,
giving me a quick, almost amused look that made me feel a little better about
the situation I found myself in. “But missing equipment isn’t necessarily
stolen equipment.”

“You know he stole it!” Tuck glared at me.
“He’s just been waiting for the opportunity-”

“To sell second hand farm equipment?” Bob
shook his head. “You were both working with the irrigation system and the
spreaders today.” He turned and looked at me. “Where was the last place you
were working?”

We walked out to the part of the fields where
Tuck and I had been working; Tuck looked sulky, but I felt nothing more than
anxious to prove that there was nothing to the accusation that Bob’s son had
thrown at me.

Bob searched my cart, and didn’t find anything
that shouldn’t be there, and then we wandered around the area where Tuck and I
had been working on the system; after a few minutes, we came to the part of the
field that was Tuck’s responsibility. There, Bob spotted a pile of hosing and a
few spreaders settled on the ground near a chair that Tuck used to take a break
during the day and a few of the tools that Tuck had used to repair the
irrigation system.

“This seems to solve the mystery,” he said
mildly, picking up the items and looking at his son. “Unless you think there’s
more hose and more spreaders that we’re missing somehow.”

Tuck’s face contorted, and he looked like he
was about to scream. I saw his nostrils flare as he tried to get control of
himself, and I didn’t dare look at Bob or change the expression on my face. It
was as obvious as the sun that Tuck was on the verge of a total meltdown.

“You maybe ought to consider apologizing for
making such a serious allegation against someone you have no cause to hate,”
Bob told his son.

“I don’t need an apology,” I said quickly.
“It’s been a long, hot day-”

“I’m sorry I accused you of stealing,” Tuck
interrupted. His voice was barely under control. He turned on his heel and
stalked out of the fields, back towards the house.

Bob let him walk away without any further comment,
but I watched Tuck, pretty certain that at any moment I would see him turn
around, his anger overcoming his better sense. He disappeared past the fence,
and Bob shifted his weight on his feet, and turned to look at me.

“I wanted to thank you,” he said.

“Thank me?” I shook my head, confused.

“You’re a hard worker, Cade. I know my son is
being an ass towards you more often than not, but I see how you are. You’re a
more mature person than he is.”

“He’s got a lot on his mind, it seems to me,”
I said, embarrassed that Bob felt the need to defend his own son or to say
something negative about Tuck, no matter how much Tuck had earned it.

“He’s got his head in the clouds,” Bob said,
shaking his head. “Obsessed with what’ll happen to the farm after I’m gone.” He
smiled slightly. “He thinks you’re showing him up on purpose. I think you’re
just a decent, hard-working person.”

“I appreciate you saying so, sir,” I said,
nodding at the compliment. Bob gathered up the misplaced equipment and we
headed back to the shed in silence together. I put away the tools I’d been
using, made sure that the cart was in good shape, and started back towards the
house where I was parked.

“I was thinking, Cade,” Bob said, stopping
just short of the front porch.

“Yes?” I found my keys, but I didn’t move away
from the old man.

“I know I originally contracted you for the
season, but do you think you’d be interested in some off-season work, as well?
It won’t be as many hours, but it’d be a nice bonus for you.”

“What would you need from me?”

Bob shrugged. “We’ll be burning out the
fields, turning down the soil, getting everything ready for fall and winter.”

“Doesn’t sound like too much work,” I said,
feeling a little doubtful. “How long would you need me for?”

He shrugged again. “Maybe another couple of
weeks. The burning is the real challenge: we don’t want to set the whole county
on fire, after all.”

I grinned in spite of how stressed I still
felt at Tuck’s accusations. They hadn’t come out of nowhere, but I could hardly
accuse him of trying to set me up.

“I’ll think about it,” I said. “I’m happy to
work for you a bit longer. I just need to make sure that I have some work lined
up to get onto after you don’t need me anymore.”

Bob nodded approvingly. “Let me know if you
think you can swing another couple of weeks after harvest,” he told me. “Get
home safe. I’ll have a chat with Tuck about what happened today.”

I shrugged off the situation. “I’m sure it was
just a matter of heat and forgetfulness. No harm done.”

Bob gave me a long look, but smiled slightly.
“I’ll see you again tomorrow, Cade,” he said, turning towards the front door. I
gave my keys a toss and caught them, and then walked over to my truck. I
unlocked the door and climbed in, wishing that I’d had a few minutes with Autumn
instead of talking to Bob about Tuck coming down on me with a false accusation.

I couldn’t help but wonder what was behind
Tuck’s attack; he had made lots of comments about how friendly I was with his
sister, and he had made no real secret about the fact that he resented my
presence on the farm as his father’s employee. I’d heard from a few of my
friends in town that he was bad-mouthing me to whoever would listen to him,
though I had no idea why.

I started up the truck and pulled around,
headed away from the farm. I would have to square things with Tuck before the
end of the season, whether or not I stayed for off-season work with Bob. If I
had any intention of having a life with Autumn beyond what we’d been up to so
far, I would have to make peace with her brother.

I hoped that once the work was over, Bob would
trust me enough that he wouldn’t be angry with me for dating his daughter. If I
took the extra work in the off-season, it would delay us being open for that
much longer
—
I was pretty sure that Bob would have the same attitude towards me
getting involved with his daughter as he’d already shown.

I shook off the thoughts of Autumn, Tuck, and
Bob, and focused on the road home, stretched out in front of me. I’d take the
chance to talk to Autumn about continuing to work for her father, but the
opportunity was a good one
—
and I could use the extra cash.