Barefoot and Pregnant?. Colleen Faulkner

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СКАЧАТЬ she was a teenager with a red one. The tailgate’s rust matched the body’s quite nicely.

      Elise clutched the steering wheel of her imported sedan as the driver came into view again. He had the radio blasting to some old rock station that played hits from the seventies and eighties. The song “Ballroom Blitz” blared and he sang along. His dusty ball cap was pulled down low over his brow, one muscular, tanned arm rested on the open window as he tapped to the tune.

      The farmer looked like Zane.

      It couldn’t be Zane, of course. Zane drove a BMW sedan. Even though she didn’t know what he did for a living, she could guess from the kind of man he was. She was certain he was working in an office somewhere right now. Wearing a gray business suit, ordering employees around. At the very least he was having lunch with a client, sipping a nice wine and ordering Caesar salad with the dressing on the side.

      They say everyone has a twin, she told herself, trying not to hyperventilate as she let the truck pull away from her. She ignored the guy in the white car behind her who was tailgating in an effort to get her to speed up.

      That farmer was obviously Zane’s twin. Wasn’t that a funny coincidence? Right here in their own town of Nassateague Bay.

      Or maybe Zane had an identical twin brother and he just hadn’t mentioned it. Maybe the farmer was a twin brother, that was it. A black sheep of the family. Never made it to college. Worked on a potato farm. Planted and harvested soybeans for a living.

      Elise forced herself to loosen her grip on the steering wheel and take a deep breath. She put down the passenger side window so she could get some air.

      The tailgater passed her. “It’s the pedal on the right,” he shouted as he whizzed by.

      Elise slowly pressed the accelerator until she was once again doing the speed limit. The pickup turned right at the next intersection. Without thinking, she signaled and switched lanes quickly so that she could follow the imposter.

      It wasn’t Zane. She knew the farmer wasn’t Zane. He couldn’t be Zane. There was no place to indicate “farmer” on The Husband Finder checklist. She had clearly stated in the career category that she was looking for a professional, a man who would understand her devotion to her profession. She tried not to panic as she followed the truck down a narrow side street.

      Two blocks down, the truck made another right. She continued to follow at a safe distance.

      The farmer wasn’t Zane, and she was going to prove it to herself.

      The truck pulled into a gravel parking lot. She had never been on this side of town. A sign on the side of the tin-roofed cement block building read Smitty’s Seed & Feed. It was a feed store, for heaven’s sake. A store where farmers bought their…animal provisions and bird seed, she supposed.

      She slowed down, watching as the old truck lurched to a halt and the door swung open. As she drove by, she saw the farmer lift his head, raise a hand and call good-naturedly to a man standing in an open door on the loading dock.

      She knew that voice.

      She knew that bad-boy blond hair sticking out from beneath the ball cap.

      Elise drove by the store and kept going.

      She was afraid she might cry.

      A farmer? Zane farmed for a living? Now what? Career was a big heading on The Husband Finder checklist. It was even printed in bold. She’d already ignored the whole chemistry advice. Could she scratch out the career part, too? Would the list still work?

      Elise pulled into a parking spot in front of her client’s business and picked up her cell phone to call Liz’s extension at work.

      “Liz Jefferson.”

      “Liz,” Elise said, feeling a little silly for even calling about this in the middle of the day. Liz was busy; personal lives were supposed to stay out of the office.

      “Elise?”

      “You’re not going to believe this,” Elise said. “I just saw Zane in town.”

      “And he canceled your date? Excuse me, your nondate?” she corrected. “Jerk.”

      “No, no. I didn’t speak to him. I just saw him drive by.”

      “And he had a woman with him and a baby in a car seat in the back. The man’s married. Jerk.”

      “No, Liz, listen to me. I saw Zane and he…he was driving a pickup. An old pickup.” She took a deep breath. “Liz, he got out of the truck at a feed store wearing overalls.”

      “Sweet Mary, mother of Joseph,” Liz swore.

      “I don’t think he’s a doctor or a lawyer,” Elise said. “What do I do?”

      “What do you do?” Liz shrieked. “You cancel the date, of course. You were the top seller for Waterfront Realty last month. You don’t date farmers.”

      Elise gathered her client’s paperwork from the passenger’s seat. She should have known that’s what Liz would say. Liz was all about how things appeared. She didn’t even date men who were junior partners in a firm. “You think?” Elise said in a small voice.

      “Look at the book, peruse the checklist,” Liz said firmly. “It’s not one of the choices, sweetie. I don’t care how fine-looking the man is.”

      “I have to go,” Elise told Liz. “I’m dropping off Joe Carmine’s contracts on that warehouse.”

      “Call and cancel the date,” Liz insisted. “Just call, and leave a message on Zane’s answering machine and tell him you can’t meet him, but if he wants to talk about land, he can call the office and you’ll be happy to see him.”

      “Gotta go, Liz,” Elise said. “Talk to you later.”

      Elise climbed out of her car and delivered her client’s contracts. Half an hour later, back in the car, she picked up her cell phone and stared at it. Was Liz right? Should she cancel now before things went any further with Zane? Just leave a message on his answering machine? He wasn’t fitting the profile she’d laid out for herself. He wasn’t the kind of man she wanted for a husband. Her whole attraction, so far, had been based on sheer chemistry. Right?

      It was the right thing to do. Before she changed her mind, she hit the buttons on the phone, rehearsing what she would say as she waited for his answering machine to pick up.

      Did farmers even have answering machines?

      “Hello.”

      Zane’s voice startled Elise so badly that she almost hung up. He was there? How was he there? She had just seen him at the feed store. Shouldn’t he be out riding a tractor or something?

      “Hello?” Zane repeated.

      “Z-Zane,” Elise said, trying to find her voice.

      “Ellie.”

      She could almost hear his smile over the phone. “Yes, it’s Elise.” She paused. She knew what she needed to say now. She needed to tell him that she couldn’t СКАЧАТЬ