Page 9 of The Second Dance
Now the sparrows get to enjoy the view.
I tuck my hands into my canvas jacket and turn towards the sedan, stopping dead in my tracks.
It’s her.
I feel momentarily lightheaded. Confused.
The last time she and I were here was in high school…
And then it clicks. She’s the bird lady.
Hope flickers in my chest. Maybe we can still fix this.
Andy’s a reasonable girl. If I just explain why this ground is important to me, maybe she can help.
It’s possible she might even remember why it’s dear to my heart. I told her once, after all. But that was years ago.
She’s wearing a dress, an intensely feminine one with little flowers all over it. It’s wildly inappropriate considering we were supposed to walk the ground together. At least her boots are marginally acceptable.
I close the distance, marveling at how short she is. I get a kick out of it every time. “So, you’re the bird lady?”
She’s craning her head to look at me, a little wide-eyed. She gives me a weak smile. “Yeah. Sorry to say…”
“Don’t apologize. This is perfect.”
She tilts her head. “It is?”
“Yeah. We thought we’d be stuck dealing with an uptight tree hugger.”
“How do you know I’m not?”
“I know you pretty well, Andy.” My voice comes out a little huskier than I had intended, but that damn dress is throwing me off. Up close, I’m unintentionally getting a little peek of cleavage. I need to calm down. Turning away from her, I scan the pasture spreading out below us. “We have better pieces of ground than this one.” I turn back, gaze sweeping over the carefully leveled ground. “A few dry land fields that we haven’t torn up.”
“This one is perfect.” She says.
My gaze flicks back to her face. “How do you figure?”
She points at the creek. “Natural water source.” She steps away from the car, scanning the pasture. “You’ve already got some native grasses established. We’re partway there already.”
“We’ve got grass everywhere. You don’t want this field.”
She glances over her shoulder. “I don’t?”
I frown. “You know why this one is important to me.”
She tilts her head. I think I spot a flicker of recognition, but then her expression runs cold. “If you want to switch fields, you need to talk to your mom, not me.”
“So you’re colluding with her? Is this on purpose, Andy? Are you trying to make a point?”
She glares at me. “I didn’t know Heather was your mom, Bo. Not at first.”
“You could have recognized her from church.”
“She never went.”
That’s true. If it weren’t for my dad, us boys wouldn’t have gone, either.
Andy heaves a sigh, turning back towards her car. I catch her arm on the way by and she glares up at me. Those blue eyes, dark like sapphires, cut right through me, but I square my shoulders. “I’m not giving up this ground.”