Page 13 of Charm Me
“Leave.”
I dropped my head and rubbed my eyes. I didn’t want to leave. She didn’t look well, and it worried me. But if I pushed her too hard, too fast, I’d lose her for good. “Okay. I’ll leave you.”
She shifted her eyes to mine. Her expressionless stare worried me more than her sick appearance. It was as if she didn’t care about her family anymore, and I couldn’t for the life understand why. Whatever happened to her killed a part of her soul, and the Abigail I grew up with and loved was no longer in the woman before me.
Defeated, my shoulders dropped, and I walked toward the door. I stopped next to her. “I’ll be out of the city most the week, but I’ll be back on Saturday. I’d love to see you again if you’ll let me.”
She stood motionless and didn’t respond. Sighing, I nodded and walked out the door. “I love you, Abby.”
I’d barely stepped onto the landing before the door shut behind me without another word. I heard a heavy sob from inside her brownstone and it took all my strength to walk away.
***
AFTER HOW POORLY MYmeeting with Abigail had gone, I needed good conversation.
I’d picked Zoe up right at seven as promised and hoped she’d be open to talking. Despite my efforts to strike a conversation, she didn’t say much on the car ride over to the airport. Even now that we were settled on the small private jet I’d rented, she kept her distance. I understood her reluctance to enter into any kind of romantic interactions with me, but not talking at all wasn’t going to work. Not for me at least.
Zoe had waited until I settled in a seat before she sat down. She chose a seat as far away from me as she could. She was determined to halt anything from happening between us. I debated for a moment on staying put but avoiding each other only made the sexual tension between us worse. The air hung so thick, and I could almost cut the tension with my hand. I needed to suck it up, be a gentleman, and push my desire for her aside. I told her I would try, and I would honor that. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t get to know each other better.
The plane had taken off quickly and within a few minutes the pilot announced it was safe to get up should we need to.
I gathered my things and transferred myself to the seat opposite her. She shot me a worried look before she turned her attention back to whatever she was reading on her phone.
“Thank you for doing this,” I said.
She sat her phone on her lap and squeezed her eyes closed before she looked up at me. “You’re welcome.”
Her lips turned up in a gentle smile and I hoped that was a sign we could make this trip more enjoyable. “So, how did you end up down your career path? Why finance and planning?”
“It was an accident really. My plan was always finance, but I took several agricultural science classes as electives. I took a progressive class on agricultural planning and management in my second year and was hooked. We talked about all the ways farms and ranches could diversify their properties to increase profitability and maximize the use of their lands through sustainable practices. It was exactly what I wanted to do to help my parents’ farm. So I double majored after that and well, here I am.”
“Your parents have a farm?”
She wrinkled her brows and cocked her head to the side. “Didn’t Glen tell you? Coming Home Farms is my parents’ farm.”
My heart dropped in my chest at the look of concern on her face. Had I known this bit of information; I wouldn’t have insisted. “I’m sorry, no he didn’t. If this is a problem, we can cancel the trip.”
“No, it’s okay. If we canceled now my parents would be upset. I don’t get home to see them nearly as often as they’d like.”
She relaxed her shoulders and sank back in the seat. I could tell by the look on her face that a million thoughts were running through her mind. I just wish I knew what they were. “Regardless, I’m still sorry. I’d chosen this farm because it was the one close to bankruptcy before your changes were implemented. If this is too painful for you, we don’t have to do this.”
“It’s not painful. Everything I’ve done has been to save my home. It’s the least I could do to pay them back.” Her face dropped, and I sensed a tinge of regret. “I did that and now I want to help other struggling farmers and ranchers do the same. Not that Strong Valley Ranch is struggling, mind you, but you get the point.”
Our smiles connected and her eyes met mine for the first time since I picked her up. “We’re doing okay, but we could do better.”
“Everybody could, I suppose.”
We had about an hour until I expect us to land in Ithaca. Now that she was talking, I hoped to learn more about the woman who invaded my mind and refused to leave despite all my efforts. “So what did you mean by its the least you could do to pay them back?”
She cringed. I must’ve struck a nerve. “I did say that, didn’t I.”
“You don’t have to answer that. I shouldn’t pry.”
She shifted her eyes to the window and remained silent. The regret I thought I sensed a moment ago turned to sadness and my hands itched to reach out and comfort her. The last thing I wanted to do was dredge up sad memories for her. I’d much rather deal with her smart, sexy mouth and fight my inner desire, than make her sad.
She turned back to me, her eyes glassy from moisture. “My parents always dreamed of having a huge family. They wanted lots of kids, like your family. But fate had different plans. They couldn’t conceive. After a few years they turned to in vitro. It took them three tries before I was born. They’d gone into so much debt to pay for the procedure that they spent my entire childhood and teenage years struggling just to put food on the table. That’s the sacrifice they made so that I could be a part of this world. I had to repay them by saving the farm.”
Her expression was vastly different from the outspoken and direct woman I’d seen up until now. She looked sad, almost beaten. Not unlike how Abigail looked this morning. Zoe’s motivation and drive were out of gratitude, and maybe even a bit of obligation, to her parents. I admired her for that, and it made me like her even more.