Stick a
fork in her. She was done. She was ready to quit. She couldn’t take it anymore.
If it wasn’t the bank hounding her, or Trannon Weston badgering her to sell her
property to him…
Now
this.
Meomi
stared at the old pump. The tears rising in her eyes quickly turned it into a
watery haze. Sniffing, she swiped away the wetness at her eyes and nose with
the sleeve of her flannel shirt.
She was
tired. Tired of fighting. Of being hungry. Worse, she was thirsty. There’d be
no crops this year, thanks to the busted pipes that fed water to the fields.
Without a harvest, she’d have no money to pay her taxes on the farm. And now
that the pump to the house had also gone on the fritz…
“I can’t,
Daddy. I can’t anymore,” she whispered. “I tried. Heaven knows I tried, but
it’s too much. It’s…too m-much.”
She knew
she was on the verge of breaking down. Again.
A hard gust
of wind blasted her back. Shivering, she zipped up her down vest and turned to
go back into the house. No sense staying out in this weather any longer than
she had to. Besides, there wasn’t a thing she could do anymore.
She’d
almost reached the rear kitchen door when a movement from the corner of her eye
caught her attention. It took her a couple of seconds before she recognized the
red pickup coming down the road. As if reading her mind, it turned onto the red
clay trail leading up to her place.
Quickly
wiping her face again with her hands, she cleared her throat and forced a smile
on her lips. It wasn’t until the truck pulled up behind her twelve-year-old
Chevy that she walked over to greet her visitor.
“Good
morning, Meomi!” Cove Brodney greeted her as he climbed out of the cab.
“Morning,
Cove. What brings you to my neck of the woods?”
“Just doing
the neighborly thing. Checking to see how my favorite neighbor’s doing after
that hard freeze last night.” He flashed her a grin that was almost dazzling.
If she wasn’t so down-hearted, she would have been delighted to see him. Today,
she was touched he’d come by, but she was too ashamed to let him know just how
dire her straits had become.
“Cove, I’m
your only neighbor down this stretch of road.”
He parked
his hands on his hips, and she could tell he was studying her. She
reciprocated, once again appreciating his muscular stature. He wasn’t a tall
man. Less than six feet. But he was well-proportioned, with a kind face that
reminded her of the profiles on the busts of Greek gods.
“Mind if I
invite myself in for a cup of coffee?”
She sighed.
“I’m sorry. If I could, I would, but my pump’s froze up. I can’t get any water
into the house.”
“Oh?” He
gestured toward the pump. “Mind if I take a look?”
“Be my
guest.”
Going over
to the device, he examined it. Even pulled a screwdriver out of the back pocket
of his jeans to undo the screws bolting down the cover. She watched, arms
crossed over her chest. He seemed to know what he was doing, but she knew it
was a gallant if futile gesture. He finally verified it when he hung his head
before looking up at her.
“I think
it’s fried.”
“Thanks for
checking anyway,” she told him.
He got to
his feet. “I don’t know if Eldridge’s will have the parts to fix it, but they
can probably order them.”
“Doesn’t
matter. I don’t have the money to get it repaired anyway.” The moment the words
were out of her mouth, she regretted saying them, and hung her head. “I’m
sorry. I shouldn’t have…”
“Shouldn’t
have what? Told me the truth?” He advanced toward her until he stood directly
in front of her. “What’s going on, Meomi?” he softly demanded.
She opened
her mouth to say he was kind to ask, but that she’d rather not burden him with
her problems when another hard gust of wind tried to knock them down.
Cove
reached over, placing a hand on her elbow. “Let’s get inside before we freeze
out here.”
Reluctantly,
she led him inside so he could see the dirty dishes piled up in the sink.
“Sorry. It’s the maid’s day off.”
“Don’t
worry about it. It happens if you can’t get any water from your well.” He
glanced around. “Kind of chilly in here. How low do you have your thermostat
set?”
“I don’t,”
she admitted. “When it gets too intolerable, I start a fire in the fireplace.”
Before she
could stop him, he strode into the adjacent living room where he’d see the
rumpled blankets and pillow on the sofa and the remains of her meager breakfast
on the coffee table.
“You’re
living in your living room?” he verified, giving her an odd look.
Meomi gave
a little shrug. “That’s why it’s called a living room.”
She didn’t
expect him to walk back over and stop right in front of her to stare into her
face. There was true concern in his blue eyes.
“How are
you getting by, Meomi?”
She started
to say something flippant. Something that wouldn’t give her away. To her utter
embarrassment, she broke into tears. More astonishing, he pulled her into his
embrace.
“Tell me
all of it,” he gently demanded.
She did,
right down to the fact that she had less than ten bucks in the bank, which was
why she’d had to turn off the heat. But she still owed the electric company
sixty-one dollars or they’d cut that off, too, and then where would she be?
“It doesn’t
matter,” she finished. “I was about to call Trannon Weston to tell him I’m
ready to sign those papers.”
“Is that
bastard still egging you to sell him this property?”
She nodded
in answer. “The well’s gone dry anyway. It can’t pump enough to irrigate the
crops. Now, with the pump to the house burned out…”
He was so
warm. His chest was like a padded wall, all muscle and fragrant skin. She
couldn’t identify what cologne or aftershave he used, if he used any, but it
was pleasant. And comforting.
He let out
a heavy sigh. “Guess I’m just in time, then.” Holding her at arm’s length, he
smiled. “The real reason I came over was to let you know the good news. I just
had a surveyor confirm what I’ve been suspecting for some time.”
“Please
tell me you found a gold mine, and you’re willing to give low-interest loans to
close friends and neighbors.” She returned the smile, which made his widen.
“There.
That’s the Meomi I’m used to seeing,” he teased. “Actually, it’s better than a
gold mine.”
She
snorted. “What could be better than a gold mine?”
“There’s a
natural spring running under both our properties, and we can both tap into it
to feed our crops and our homes.”
Meomi gave
him her best you-gotta-be-shitting-me look. “Under both our properties?”
“Yep.” Cove
nodded once. “It extends underneath my back forty and about two hundred yards
under yours. Not only will you no longer have to rely on that well, or worry about
having to dig another, but drawing from it won’t be that much of a headache.”
She
continued to stare at him in disbelief. “You’re willing…to share…property
rights?”
“Yeah. Why
not?”
She shook
her head. “That’s so generous of you, but—”
He pressed
a finger to her lips. “No buts. If you were the one with the spring, and you
found it running under my land, you’d do the right thing and let me
know, wouldn’t you?”
“You know
you could’ve kept this all to yourself,” she told him.
“You’re
right. I could have. If it had been anyone else but you…” His voice trailed off
as he continued to stare at her. At that moment, she wanted to kiss him in the
worst way, but she feared his reaction.
Miraculously,
he made that decision for her.
It was too
brief a kiss. Soft, warm, but too damn short. Almost like a friendship kiss.
Almost.
When he pulled away, she waited for
him to apologize. Or for her to. Neither of them did, and that felt right.
“Okay. So
that solves my irrigation problem. If I can get Joe Ackerman over here to start
laying out lines, I just might have a cash crop ready in time for harvesting.”
“Don’t
worry about it,” he assured her. “I’ve already called him, and he and his
crew’s set to arrive first thing Monday morning.”
“But until
then, there’s the matter of me getting water into the house.”
He let her
go and started for the back door. “I got just what the doctor ordered.”
“What?”
He didn’t
respond. Instead, he strode out the back door. She followed him out into the
yard, then stopped to watch as he went around to the bed of his pickup.
Lowering the tailgate, he hefted what looked to be an old-fashioned clay jar
onto his hip. She continued to watch in numb silence as he took it over to the
pump where he set the jar on the ground beside it.
“What are
you doing?” she finally inquired.
“Just
wait.”
He returned
to his truck to retrieve a toolbox and took it over to the pump. There, he
removed a small shovel from the kit and proceeded to dig into the frost-crusted
ground. When he reached the depth he wanted, he placed the jar into the hole,
then began digging in another spot about a foot away.
Eventually he reached what he was
looking for and pulled up a length of the hose leading from the pump to the
house. Unscrewing the hose from the pump, he blew on the end before inserting
the hose into the jug. Several strips of electrical tape to secure the hose to
the jug so it wouldn’t slip out, and he was finished.
“All right! You should have plenty
of water now until you can have that pump fixed.” He dusted off his hands as he
grinned at her.
She didn’t try to hide her look of
disbelief. “Are you telling me that jar’s got enough water in it to last me
for…for at least three or four months?”
“It could last you for as long as
you want,” he answered solemnly. “Or rather, for as long as I want.”
She pointed to it. “But that looks
like it can only hold maybe five gallons at the most!”
He walked up to her and, to her
surprise, placed the tips of his fingers of one hand on her left cheek. “Meomi,
listen very carefully. This is between just the two of us.”
She stared at him, waiting.
“What if I was to tell you I’m an
Aquarian?”
“An Aquarian? You mean Aquarius?
Like the zodiac symbol?” She narrowed her eyes. “What does your birth sign have
to do with this?”
“A lot.” His lips pressed into a
thin line before continuing. “Meomi, there’s not many of us, but we do exist.
We have for over a thousand generations. You could say we’re the reason that
zodiac symbol exists.”
Her first instinct was to write him
off. Call him a quack and separate herself from him as quickly and as far away
as possible…until the image of the pottery jar floated in her mind.
“You’re a water bearer?”
“Sort of. We have this ability to…
Let’s just say water to us is our lifeblood. We always have access to it.”
“How?” She glanced back at the
half-buried jug. “Are you telling me that container will never run dry?”
“It’s a lot more complicated than
that,” he admitted, dropping his gaze. “It’s a long story.” He pivoted around
and went back to retrieve his toolbox, which he took over to the truck.
Fearing he was about to leave,
Meomi called out to him. “Cove?”
He stopped by the passenger side
door and glanced over at her.
“I…I’d like to hear more about
Aquarians.” Throwing a thumb behind her, she gave him her warmest smile. “How
about you tell me over a cup of coffee?”
He hesitated for a moment, then
gave her a beaming smile of his own. “I’d really like that.”
She remained by the back door,
holding it open so he’d enter first, then closed it behind her.
And sometime later during their
discussion, her wish was granted when they exchanged their second kiss. It left
her believing they would eventually share more in the coming days.
