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  “Is it for sale?”

  Chase smiled. “Went up yesterday. It’ll go fast. It’s in good shape.”

  Harley winced and pressed his lips together.

  Chase noticed and frowned. “What was that look for?”

  “You haven’t heard the news, have you? Beatrice Watson was in the bank when K’s mom and dad applied for a loan. The office door was closed, but I swear that woman can hear through anything.”

  Keagan turned to Chase. Gossip whizzed through his bar, but he rarely shared it. “A loan for what?”

  “I can’t help you, haven’t heard about it.”

  Harley didn’t look happy to share the news. “Beatrice is going from place to place telling everyone. Their tractor’s down. They wanted to buy a new one.”

  Chase looked relieved. “The harvest’s done. They can wait till next spring.”

  They all looked at Keagan. “They won’t have any more money in the spring. I’ll go talk to them when I leave here.”

  Axel gripped the arms of the wheelchair. “Don’t you bail them out, boy. You hear me? You’ve saved for years to buy your own place. Don’t throw it away.”

  Keagan frowned, irritated. “When the Bransons’ acres went up for sale, Dad didn’t want to buy them, didn’t want to overextend. He called a family summit. We all thought the tractor would last a few more years. I cast the deciding vote. We all knew it was a risk.”

  “Doesn’t mean you have to give them your money.”

  Keagan shook his head at him. “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “Damn right I do. You’re being a damn fool.”

  “That’s my choice.” Axel’s blanket had fallen off his shoulders. Keagan tucked it around him again. “Time to get you inside the house before you catch a cold. I’ll get you back in bed.”

  Karli stayed outside to wave everyone off, then went in to check on Axel. Keagan lifted him into his bed and got him settled. Then he started for the door.

  She trailed after him. Mixed emotions washed over her. Would he really draw out all of his savings to help his family? Would she do that for hers? “You’ve worked hard today, and you just got bad news. Want to stay for a beer?”

  He took a quick step back from her. “No, I’d better get going. I want to get to my folks’ place. I’d like to get this settled tonight.”

  He was pushing her away again. She’d seen the desire in his eyes when they were inches away from each other, but he was retreating to a safe distance. He was back to serious mode, worried about money and saving again. That would take years. She wasn’t ready to wait that long. She wanted him now.

  Chapter 24

  On the short drive to his parents’ place, Keagan’s mind felt muddled. He’d wanted to kiss Karli so much today, he would have done it if Brad hadn’t accidentally saved him. What had he been thinking? Duh! He obviously wasn’t thinking. Chase and Harley would never let him hear the end of it. Gossip would have spread through Mill Pond faster than a tsunami.

  She’d wanted it, too. She’d parted her lips, and he could feel her desire. But if he gave in to that urge, he’d be playing with fire. He already liked her more than he wanted to. If they got closer, intimate, he’d fall hard. And she wouldn’t. That was the hell of it. She’d drive back to Indy and stop in for booty calls until she met the next guy who interested her. Not what he needed.

  And then Harley had told him about his parents, and reality had smacked him in the face. If he’d played with the idea of being footloose and fancy free, he’d been mistaken. He’d voted for his parents to buy more property. He was partially responsible for their money problems. And once he helped them, what would he have to offer a woman? His charming personality? Like he had one! Karli could do better than that.

  He pulled into the drive and took a minute to steel himself. Offering to help them was going to be a hard sell. He could show no signs of weakness.

  When Keagan knocked on his parents’ door, his dad only opened it a crack. He studied Keagan’s face and shook his head. “No.”

  “You have to let me in, Dad.”

  “You heard, didn’t you?”

  Keagan nodded.

  “Damn that big-mouth Beatrice! I don’t want to talk about it.”

  Keagan took a deep breath. “Do I have to go around the house and knock on windows until someone lets me in?” It was dusk. Lights blazed in Marcia’s house, a little farther down the drive. “I can go to Marcia’s and talk to her.”

  His dad sighed. “Your sister and Stuart are here with the kids. They stayed later this Sunday than usual.” He opened the door wide.

  Warmth surrounded him when he entered the living room with logs burning in the fireplace. The evening newspaper sprawled across Dad’s well-used leather recliner. Stuart sat in the big easy chair across from the recliner. Kids’ voices squealed in the finished basement, and he heard Mom and Marcia in the kitchen.

  “It’s close to suppertime. Why don’t we set another place at the table?” Dad asked. “We’ll eat first, and then we can talk.”

  Keagan nodded. He was starving. Besides, he didn’t want to ruin everyone’s appetites. He went into the kitchen to see if he could help his mom.

  She raised an eyebrow when she saw him. “I hope those are old jeans because you’ll never get the paint off them.”

  He motioned to the frayed hems at his ankles. “My work pants. They come in handy.”

  Marcia looked wary. “You’re not mad at me, are you? Mom and Dad didn’t want you to know.”

  “I thought we didn’t keep secrets. If I was invited to break the tie vote, I should have been let in on this news.”

  Mom waved that argument away. “We wanted to wait until we knew if we could get a loan or not.”

  “You’ve known for a while and Beatrice is spreading it all over town.”

  Marcia pulled breadsticks from the oven. “That woman’s a hazard. Someone should staple her tongue to the top of her mouth.”

  Mom drained the spaghetti in the sink. “Now, Marcia.”

  It was all Keagan could do not to lick the sauce off Mom’s wooden spoon. He loved her tomato gravy. Not that she was Italian, but her next door neighbor was when she was growing up. She’d learned to cook from her.

  Marcia asked again, “Are you mad at me?”

  “It wasn’t her fault,” Mom said. “We made her promise.”

  Keagan shook his head. “Who can rat out Mom?”

  Marcia looked relieved. She opened the cupboard and handed him a plate. “You’re staying for supper, right?”

  “Of course he is!” Mom handed him silverware. Then she stirred the pasta into the sauce and said, “Let’s eat!”

  There was already a tossed salad on the table. Mom carried in the huge bowl of spaghetti, and Jenna and Jack hurried up from the basement. When the twins saw him, they came to hang on him.

  “You can pester your uncle later,” Marcia told them. “For now, find your seats.”

  Stuart helped settle them, and they began to pass food.

  No one brought up the tractor during supper. After the meal, they all helped with clean-up, then the twins clamored for Keagan’s attention. At four, they still thought he was special. He’d been warned to enjoy that while he could.

  He got down on all fours and let them plow into him, trying to knock him over. Then they climbed all over him until Marcia said, “Quiet time. Put in a movie and settle down. I don’t want you wound up for bedtime.”

  While they sprawled on the floor to watch TV, the adults gathered around the dining room table again. Dad said, “There are other places to get loans. We’re looking into that now.”

  “They charge horrible interest fees.” Keagan leaned forward on his elbows. “Dad, I voted for you to buy the Bransons’ property. If you hadn’t, someone else would have snatched it up, and we knew we were g
ambling that everything would go smooth for a couple years.” His dad had argued that they’d made a good living off the farm all this time. There was no reason to expand, but Marcia said that farming was getting more and more competitive, that small farms had a harder time surviving than they used to. That’s the way business seemed to be going. Bigger was better.

  “We’ll figure something out, K.” His parents had called him K for as long as he could remember, their nickname for him, and a lot of his friends had picked up on it. He couldn’t think of a time his dad ever used his full name, and Mom only did when he was in trouble.

  Keagan looked at his mom. “Can you afford a high-interest loan?”

  Mom wiped a hand across her face. “We’ll cut back on a few things.”

  Keagan shook his head. “You guys make frugal look like a religion now. I have fifty thousand dollars saved. Is that enough for a tractor?”

  “We’re not taking your money.” Dad’s shoulders went rigid.

  “If I rent for two more years, your money will be in good shape, and you can help me make monthly payments on my own place. It’s only two years, Dad.”

  “It’s not happening.” His dad crossed his arms over his chest.

  Keagan was every bit as stubborn. “Either take my money and buy a tractor, or I’ll buy one for you.”

  Stuart looked alarmed. “You don’t know anything about them.”

  “That’s why it would be smarter if you picked your own.”

  Dad said, “We won’t take it.”

  “Fine.” Keagan laced his fingers together. “I’ll park it in the front yard of our rented house.”

  He’d do it, too. They knew it. Once he made up his mind, there was little chance of changing it. That’s how it had been when he left the farm to take a job as a mailman and when he started his own dinnerware business.

  Mom tried again. “We’d rather you bought your own place.”

  “I know, and I appreciate that, but a farmer can’t turn over his fields without a tractor.”

  “I said no.” Dad was just as bullheaded as he was, probably who he got it from.

  “Okay then, I’ll quit my job as a mailman and drive the tractor to the farm every day to work your fields.”

  His dad stared. “You’re not a farmer.”

  “I know how to plow.”

  “You love delivering mail.”

  “I know, and you love farming.”

  His dad pushed to his feet. “All right. You win. We’ll look for a used tractor, save harder, and you’ll look for a place in one year.”

  “Deal.”

  Marcia sighed. “In the meantime, what if Dad and Stuart add on to your studio, make it twice as big? Can they do that?”

  He grinned. Marcia was offering a compromise. “I’d like that.”

  Dad and Stuart looked at each other. They knew they’d lost and might as well make the best of it. Dad nodded. “One year,” he said, “and then we find you a house and some property.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Chapter 25

  Karli took a shower to wash paint out of her hair and changed into sweats before she made sandwiches for supper. Axel was fine with the same thing for lunch and supper. Kurt took whatever he could get. She was cleaning the kitchen when the phone rang and Keagan’s mom introduced herself and invited her to supper on Monday night. “Keagan will be here, too.”

  Had Keagan suggested that? Did he want to see more of her? Introduce her to his family? Excitement fluttered in her stomach. “I’d love to come. Can I bring something?”

  His mom had a pleasant voice. “Just yourself. I didn’t give you much notice.”

  “What time?”

  “Five-thirty.”

  “I’ll be there.” Hope zinged through her veins. Maybe Keagan wasn’t retreating. Maybe he’d just been thrown off stride when he’d heard about his parents’ loan. She went straight to the refrigerator and took out a chuck roast to thaw. She’d throw it in the slow cooker for the men tomorrow.

  Everything ready, she went to her room to call her mom. It was too soon to talk about Keagan, but she wanted to. Instead, she said, “I e-mailed you a picture of the house now that it’s painted. Did you get it?”

  There were some clicking noises, then her mom gave a small gasp. “It’s beautiful.”

  “It looks like an old picture of the place Keagan found.” She told her mom about all of the people who’d come to help with the work.

  Mom sounded surprised. “I wish I’d have met more people when I lived there.”

  “They’re really nice. Keagan’s mom invited me for supper tomorrow. What have you and Dad been up to?”

  Talk turned to her parents’ upcoming trip to Milwaukee over Thanksgiving. By the time they hung up, Karli was in an especially good mood. The house was beautiful, her parents were happy, and she was eating with Keagan and his family tomorrow. She slept well that night and didn’t have as many aching muscles as she expected in the morning.

  She took her time getting ready to meet Keagan’s family. Would his sister be as attractive as he was? He wasn’t handsome or gorgeous, but she liked everything about him. Would they look at her and think he could do better? She was a little overweight. She decided to dress a little conservatively—a pair of black Dockers and a loose, burnt-orange sweater. She carefully applied her makeup. She wanted to look natural but to show off her features. She got the feeling Keagan didn’t like black eyeliner and lots of blush.

  The chuck roast was done at five o’clock, so she dished up Axel’s food before she left. She got to Keagan’s parents’ farm about five minutes early. Keagan’s SUV wasn’t there yet. When she knocked, his mother pulled her inside to introduce her to everyone.

  “You’re Donna’s daughter. We’re so glad you came. Donna was such a sweet person. How is she?”

  “Very happy. She has a great career, and my dad’s a keeper.”

  “That’s wonderful!” His mother motioned around the room. It screamed comfort with its worn, leather sofa and chairs, heavy wooden side tables, and fringed lamps. “I’m Joyce, and this is my husband, Abe. Our daughter, Marcia, and her husband, Stuart, help us farm and live close by with their four-year old twins, Jenna and Jack.” Screams came from the basement and Joyce smiled. “They’re playing downstairs right now.”

  Marcia stood and came to greet her. “I hope you’re hungry, because Mom went all out. She made her pork goulash with buttered noodles and roasted vegetables.”

  “Pork goulash?” Karli could smell the rich sauce, heavy with paprika.

  Joyce shrugged. “I wanted to play with the recipe a little, and we like it better with cubes of pork.”

  “Sounds wonderful to me. Can I help with anything?”

  Joyce looked at the clock. “We can dress the salad. Keagan should be here soon.”

  At that moment, there was a quick knock on the door and Keagan stepped into the house. He looked surprised when he saw Karli. There went that fantasy. This clearly wasn’t Keagan’s idea, but attraction flamed in his eyes. He quickly hid it, but Karli had seen it. Hope tingled through her again. Keagan smiled and looked at his mom.

  “I should have dressed up a little. I didn’t know we were having company.” He glanced down at his old jeans and loose, black sweater.

  The man looked good to her. Edible. “No need to get fancy. You look great in anything.”

  He blushed under his tan, and his mom smiled at him.

  “We’re ready to eat,” she said. “Come help us set the table.”

  The twins came up from the basement and took their seats. Jenna stared at her. Finally, she blurted, “Is your hair real?”

  Karli laughed. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but it wasn’t that. “Why? Does it look fake?”

  “You have a lot of it, and it’s curly on the ends.”

>   “My dad’s part Italian, part Romanian,” she said. “I get my coloring from him. He’s tall, though. I didn’t inherit that.”

  “Does he like kids?” Jack asked.

  “Loves them. He loves most people, a friendly guy.”

  “What does he do?” Jenna asked.

  “Owns a pizza parlor. I’d be thinner if he worked at a gym.”

  Jenna’s eyes went round. “We like pizza.”

  “Then you’d probably like my dad, but you have to be careful. He’s always trying out new recipes and testing them on me.”

  “You’re so lucky!” Jack licked his lips.

  “Quit grilling her,” Keagan’s sister said. “The food’s on the table. Let the poor woman eat.”

  Karli spooned the pork goulash over the noodles and took a bite. The pork was tender. The onion and garlic mingled with the ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. “I’ve never had goulash like this.”

  Marcia smiled. “It’s not family style. It’s Hungarian goulash. There’s a difference.”

  “It’s wonderful.” Karli noticed that Keagan had piled his plate high. It must be one of his favorites. For being lean, the man could eat. Maybe he burned a lot of calories jumping in and out of his mail truck all day.

  His mom arched a brow at Keagan. “We thought Karli should see more of Mill Pond than Axel’s farm, so we invited her over. You should take her to Ralph’s some night for supper. And she should see Harley’s winery, too.”

  “I took her to Joel’s brewery.”

  His mom put another helping of roasted vegetables on Jack’s plate. “A girl needs to get out more than that. You should give her a grand tour of the whole area.”

  Keagan leveled a look at his mom, but she put on an innocent face. Karli decided she liked this woman. He studied his mother a second, then smiled. “I’d better get to it then because she’ll only be here another couple of weeks.”

  His mom’s smug look faded. “Is that all?”

  Karli nodded.