Stirred: A Love Story (7 page)

“Wait.”

Garrett stopped, hand on the door.

“I. . . don’t want to do this. I had too much to drink and I called—”

“Texted,” he interrupted and moved away from the door.

“Right, well, whatever. It’s not important.”

“It sort of is, because if you’d called, you would have heard my voice and probably would have hung up. We’d be in a different situation.”

Wow, someone was awfully technical this morning. “Okay, sure, good point. Irrelevant, but I’m glad you got that out. Anyway, my point is it’s one of those things, and I’d like to move past it and go back to being civil, friendly.”
Confident, moving on, good, this is good.

“Were we ever friendly?”

“Sure, I think we were.”

Garrett grinned and sat at the bar, leaning in on his forearms as if he were watching a game or trying to figure out a puzzle.

“Are you saying we weren’t?” Sage finally broke the silence. “Coffee?”

“Please.” He took his knit cap off, and his deep brown hair danced with static.

Sage slid the cup across the bar to him and brought up the sugar from the shelf below. She turned to get the cream out of the small fridge, because of course she knew he used cream.

“Yeah, I guess we were friendly.”

“Were?” She turned, still holding the pitcher of cream.

Garrett appeared to be choosing his words carefully. “I, yeah, things were said and I’m not sure how you want me to respond. If I’m completely honest here, it’s a little weird now.”

She couldn’t remember a damn thing in the book when he looked at her. If he was going to be honest, she’d try that too. “I. . . meant what I said, but it was still. . .”
Completely humiliating
, she wanted to scream, but didn’t.

“Embarrassing,” he finished her sentence.

Yup, he was a mind reader too. Sage laughed because laughing was easier than dying.

“I was being honest. Sometimes that’s embarrassing I guess.”

“You had too much to drink. It’s not a big deal.”

“True, but you still have great eyes,” she said, accepting the space she was in and enjoying the bit of freedom honesty allowed.

His mouth curved into a slow smile, and she wondered if he even knew the way he looked, the effect he had. “Thank you,” he finally said. “It was all very flattering.”

“I’m glad. See, there’s nothing wrong with being told you’re hot.”

“You didn’t actually say I was hot.”

“Didn’t I?”

He shook his head.

She laughed. “Oh, well, hot is sort of a general term. You can throw that in there, too.”

“Thanks again, it was nice.”

“Nice?”

“Yeah, you’re right. There are worse things. So, we’re good?”

Nice. It was nice and I was nice. Damn it.

“I’d rather be naughty,” she heard herself say.

Garrett choked on his coffee. “Excuse me?”

Sage, shocked at her own words and certain that was not what the book meant by “assertive flirting,” shook her head. “Nothing,” she said quietly. “I have some things, I mean I need to”—
Good God
—“bye, Garrett.” She all but crawled to the dishwasher station to pick up her shakers.

Sage took a psychology class her sophomore year in college. The instructor had been crazy, which was ironic considering the subject. He’d started off the semester breaking them into groups and asking them to “interact as if you are the produce section of a grocery store.” Sage had never quit a class in her life. It simply wasn’t an option in her world. But when he gave her a C on their first exam with the comment “not enough heart,” she’d reached her limit. Not enough heart? The test was multiple choice. That day she went straight to the registrar and dropped psychology. She’d cut her losses and moved on.

Garrett was like psychology class, Sage thought as she continued making chitchat with the dishwashers until she was sure he’d left. She needed to cut her losses while she still had a tiny bit of dignity left. She would continue practicing her naughty skills, but not on Garrett. She returned to the bar and wondered if she should take it as a warning that her psych teacher wanted his class to play produce section and her naughty book author had a fruit salad analogy. She should probably throw the damn book out because they were both nuts. “Are you looking for excuses to quit again, little sis?” Sage heard her sister’s voice in her head.

“Oh, screw you,” she said to no one as she selected Green Day on the audio system and cleared Garrett’s cup.

“What do you know about Sage?” Garrett asked Logan as they grabbed a booth at the Chicago Hamburger Company. It was early; they’d beaten the lunch crowd.

“She’s great, why?”

“Does she date often?”

“I. . . know she did the whole online thing with Kenna months ago, but other than that, I’m not sure. Oh, she did date the Twisted Tree Winery rep. I think they’ve gone out a couple of times.”

“Huh.”

“Are you going to tell me why you’re asking?”

“No reason. I don’t know much about her, and I’m sure you’ve heard about the New Year’s Eve pickup thing.”

Logan nodded.

“She said a bunch of things and I guess that got me thinking, but shit, I don’t know. Forget it.” Garrett shoved a straw into his Coke and wondered why this kept popping into his head.

“I heard she told you she loves you.” Logan wiggled his eyebrows and it was official, Garrett felt like they were seventeen.

“She was drunk.”

Logan sat back in the booth with a stupid grin on his face. “I don’t think that matters. She’s been looking at you for a while.”

Garrett’s brow creased. “Looking at me? What the hell does that mean?”

“Exactly what I said. She has a thing for you. Always has as far as I can tell. It doesn’t surprise me she told you. I’m glad she did. Sage is great.”

Garrett shook his head as the guy with the white paper hat put two red plastic baskets in front of them. “Very funny. She does not have a thing for me. She doesn’t even know me.”

“You don’t need to know someone inside and out to have a thing for them. Shit, have you been out of the game that long?”

“I’m not out of the game.” Garrett grouped some fries together and looked to Logan, who laughed and went to get ketchup for his brother.

“Last date?” he asked, setting the plastic cups of ketchup and extra napkins on the table.

“None of your damn business. I date.” Garrett dipped and ate.

Logan took a sip of his soda and waited.

“Like, last month, maybe a couple of months now. It was forgettable. That woman you set me up with who knows Kara—the florist. I can’t remember her name.”

Logan shook his head and bit into his burger. “Sandy? Yes, you’re right, she is a florist, but that date was before Halloween.”

“Was it? Shit, where does the time go?” Garrett wiped his mouth. “Anyway, I date. Actually, I saw her a couple of times after that too.”

“No, you had sex with her a couple of times after that date because she told Kara you were an asshole and dropped her, stopped returning her phone calls.”

Garrett shook his head. “A perfect example of why I. . . limit my dating.”

Logan laughed.

“Don’t you ever think about it?”

“Sex? Yes, it’s one of my favorite topics after the perfect pH-balanced soil.”

Logan finished chewing. “Dating, meeting someone. Starting a family?”

Garrett wasn’t sure why the question made him feel stupid and a little naïve. His first thought was—What the hell are you talking about? I have a family. But Logan’s definition of family had expanded. When Kenna got married years ago, Garrett barely felt the shift because they were all young and Adam kind of came into the fold. The two of them added Paige, who loved the farm, so not much changed. Then Adam was killed in a car accident and Kenna came home to heal. That was when Garrett realized what the farm meant, how important it was to keep their family intact. But this time, with Logan close to getting married and Kenna newly engaged again, Garrett could feel the shift. Even if he didn’t want to talk about it, he knew it was there. Logan continued looking at him for an answer, and Garrett suddenly felt like he did in precalculus during senior year. He had no idea what the hell was going on.

“No,” he finally said.

“No, that’s it? You’re thirty-four. Do you want to have children?”

Garrett shrugged. “What the hell? We sound like women. Are you going to ask me about my cycle next?”

Logan laughed and thankfully dropped it. “So when Sage told you she loved you, did you make your move?”

“She was drunk.”

“Right, well, are you going to make your move?”

Garrett kept eating his fries and tried to ignore the images of what that move would look like, feel like. “Probably not a good idea. Work is the priority right now. We’re making all these changes and planting. It’s not a good time. And I don’t think I’m her type when she’s sober.”

“What’s her type?”

He shook his head. “No idea. From the looks of her, probably some artsy guy. You know, the ones who hang out in that coffee shop she and Kenna go to. But, the other day I told her all the stuff she said that night was nice, and I swear she said something about wishing she was naughty.”

Logan almost choked. “Sage? She actually said that? Naughty?”

Garrett nodded.

“Well, that is new. I can’t say I’ve ever thought of Sage as. . . naughty.” Logan laughed. “Sounds like something’s up. You should talk to Kenna. She knows her best. I highly doubt Sage is going to tie you up.”

Garrett shrugged, not allowing that particular image in, and finished off his fries. “I’m not asking Kenna. It’s been a crazy few days, that’s all. One minute we’re passing each other in the mornings and maybe I see her a few times socially, and now I’m the love of her life and she wants to be naughty?”

Logan smiled big and sarcastic so Garrett threw a balled-up napkin at his face.

“Yeah, enough of this shit. Let’s get down to why we’re here.”

Logan gave in. “Okay. I was up at the farm last night. The new barn looks amazing.”

“Coming together. They’re sealing the floor today.”

“Great. So we’re all set for the dinner there? It’s going to be small and intimate. We’re sold out. Travis and I will cook. Sage is doing drinks. It’s our first one, so there’ll be kinks, but I think it’s going to be great.”

“Should be. Do these people need to see us actually pulling the stuff out of the ground to get the full farm-to-table experience? Is this like a field trip?” Garrett laughed.

Logan explained that the food only needed to come from the farm, that it wasn’t interactive. Garrett wasn’t big on “a day on the farm” events, but he couldn’t dismiss the notion that having people see where their food came from would benefit the greater good. If that meant he had to answer a few questions like, “So, do you guys still drive tractors?” then so be it.

“This will be our only one in January, and then the one in early February is going to be pretty special,” Logan said, as if he had a secret he wasn’t ready to share.

Garrett nodded, finishing his burger and washing it down with the last of his Coke. God, there was nothing like a good burger, he thought as his brother smiled at him.

“What? What’s that look?” Garrett asked, wiping his mouth.

“Nothing. I’m looking forward to this year.”

“Okay. . . me too?”

“Yeah, you should be, naughty boy.”

Garrett raised his brow and was about to raise his middle finger, but Logan continued with his “love smile,” as their father had taken to calling it, and Garrett wondered if he had some kind of surprise in February or if he simply enjoyed looking goofy.

“How’s Dad?” Logan asked.

“He’s good. Why?”

“I haven’t been out there that much lately.”

“Well, you guys are busy. We’re fine. Ramping back up after the holidays. You see him every week. He looks fine, doesn’t he?”

“Sure. I wasn’t saying something was wrong, but it’s different.”

“What’s different?”

“Garre, I’m getting married. Kenna got engaged. New people in our lives. I mean it’s all good change, but it still takes some getting used to.”

“I guess,” Garrett said, pulling out some bills and paying the check. There it was again, a twist in his chest and the feeling he was missing something. Maybe he was oversimplifying, as every woman he’d ever dated liked to point out. He supposed they were in uncharted waters here. It had always been the four of them. Garrett figured he would stay focused on keeping the farm running smoothly; it was all he could control. The rest would work itself out.

“Okay, so we’ll bring everything up Saturday night and then we’ll try to be cleaned up and out of your hair Sunday night.”

“Sounds good.” Garrett stood and threw their trash out.

“So, Sage,” Logan said, holding the door as they walked to the parking lot.

“Bye.” Garrett closed the door to his truck, leaving Logan standing in the parking lot laughing as he pulled away.

Once on the highway, Garrett replayed the part about starting a family. It was honestly such an odd thing to think about—the first time he’d thought of the word outside the family he had. He was sure some therapist would have a field day with that one. All right, he thought, things were changing. If he’d adjusted to taking his shirts to the damn dry cleaner, he could work a few extra people into his family.