I pulled my head back in confusion.
“Is it Jax you really like, or the idea that she comes with a kid?”
It felt like my entire body had slammed into a brick wall. “No. No, that’s not it.”
He gave me a questioning look. “Lock the door when you leave.”
My phone buzzed in my back pocket again as I placed a stone on the new firepit Ken and I were building.
Ken had worked on the tree farm since we were in high school together, and he was the one who had talked me into working here one summer. Mr. Redmen had taught us both everything we needed to know about growing Christmas trees. From pruning them in the summer to when you needed to stop selling to ensure you had a good season the next year.
“Bishop, just answer the damn phone, will you?”
Sighing, I wiped the sweat from my brow. Even though it was cold and snowing, I was sweating from all the heavy lifting. I pulled my phone out to see it was Jax. My phone had gone off a few times earlier, and I had ignored it. I wasn’t sure why I was avoiding her, but something Kyle had said last night had clearly gotten under my skin.
Hitting her number, I walked a few feet away.
“Hey, how’s it going with the firepit?” Jax asked in a cheerful voice.
Glancing back over my shoulder, I replied, “It’s going. Sorry I missed your calls—I couldn’t grab my phone.”
“Calls? I’ve only called the one time.”
Frowning, I pulled the phone away from my ear and put her on speakerphone.
“I was seeing if you wanted to meet for lunch. My mom took Ashley back to Boston, so it would just be the two of us.”
Kyle’s words from last night rushed through my mind. Maybe you need to be with Jax on neutral ground.
My mind was screaming for me to say yes. Too bad my damn heart won out. “I can’t meet today for lunch. I’m sorry, Jax.”
A moment of silence filled the line before I heard an exhale of air. “You still love her.”
My heart felt like it skipped a beat or two at her words. “What?”
A soft laugh came through the phone. “Bishop, I’ve seen that look before. The one you had in your eyes last night. It took me a really long time before I stopped seeing it in my own eyes. Eight years, to be exact. It’s okay if you’re not ready to move on—”
“Jax, that’s not it.”
“Wait. Let me finish. My feelings aren’t hurt; I’m not upset. I know how much you adore Ashley. And I know a part of you likes me. But it was pretty clear to me last night, Bishop, that you’re still very much in love with your ex-wife.”
“It was just the house, Jax. That’s it.” When she didn’t say anything, I went on. “Listen, I’ll come over tonight and bring us some dinner. We can pick up where we left off last night.”
“Bishop, you don’t have to—”
“I want to, Jax. I’ve just got a lot to do around here before the season officially kicks off on Thanksgiving weekend, and I can’t break for lunch. That’s it, I swear.”
She sighed. “Okay. Come over for dinner. But don’t bring anything. I’ll cook us something. How about we say six?”
A strange feeling hit me right in the middle of my chest. Every single part of me screamed to tell her I just remembered something and I couldn’t make it. My heart felt like it was hammering in my chest, and I couldn’t figure out what in the hell was wrong with me. I wanted to have dinner with Jax. I needed to move on, goddammit. Tonight was the night.
“Six sounds good. Do me a favor?”
“Anything,” she purred.
“Wear that sexy-ass bra again.”
“Should I throw in the matching panties?”
I smiled. “Yes. I’ll see you later.”
“See you later, sexy man.”
The call ended, and I saw I’d missed three others. I hit my screen—and my knees nearly buckled when I saw her name.
Abby.
Why in the hell was she suddenly calling me out of the blue?
A shiver went through my body, and it had nothing to do with the cold weather outside. She was here. Not just in town, but here at the tree farm. I could feel it.
I slowly turned and looked down the hill toward the barn that held the gift shop. Abby was getting out of her car.
“Holy shit,” I whispered, my hand dropping to my side.
I stared at her as she walked over to Bryce and hugged him. He spun her around, and I could hear her laughter drift up the hill.
“Bishop? Bishop?”
At the sound of Ken’s voice, I snapped my head to the left.
He handed me my phone. “You, um, you dropped your phone.”
Absentmindedly, I reached for it, then turned back to look at Abby and Bryce talking.
I heard Ken’s intake of air before he asked, “Did you know she was in town?”
I shook my head. “No. That’s who kept calling. I mean, it was Abby calling.”
“You want me to tell her you’re not here?” Ken asked.
Shaking my head, I replied, “No.”
It took me a few moments to snap out of the shocked daze of seeing Abby on the farm.
My shock quickly turned to anger. “What in the fuck is she doing here? Why now?”
Ken laughed. “I’m telling you, women have radar. She probably sensed you were moving on.”
I looked at Ken. “What?”
He shrugged. “I’m just saying. Either that or someone told her.”
That made me look back down the hill. Had someone told Abby I was dating Jax? Greer? Arabella? From what I could tell, neither one of them had kept in contact with her. Her parents, maybe? I knew they knew. They’d seen me out with Jax and Ashley a couple of times. Crystal had smiled and been polite, but I could see the disappointment in Pete’s eyes. Not that I was moving on, just that I wasn’t with his daughter anymore.
After drawing in a deep breath, I exhaled slowly. “Well, the only way I’m going to find out what she wants is to go ask.”
Bryce pointed up the hill toward my house that stood on the highest point of the farm’s nearly two-hundred acres.
As I started toward my truck, Ken reached for my arm. “Bishop…I never said anything to you because it wasn’t any of my business. But I know Abby was pregnant, and I know she lost the baby.”
I looked away and clenched my jaw tight.
“When I was in college, my sister Kate found out she was pregnant. It was a one-night-stand kind of thing. My folks threw a fit; Kate wasn’t even sure what she was going to do. She was so scared. But I remember watching her with her hand on her stomach and this smile on her face. I knew she had fallen in love with that little bean growing inside of her. She lost the baby not long after she found out she was expecting. My folks were over-the-moon happy, but Kate…something happened to her. She quit school, withdrew from everyone—including me for a while. It fucked her up in the head, and she did some stupid shit.”
I looked at Ken and pulled my brows in. “What are you trying to say, Ken?”
He gave me a one-shoulder shrug. “I’m just saying, Abby didn’t act like herself after she lost your child. Her behavior reminded me of Kate’s. I don’t know…maybe I just thought you should hear that.”