“Maybe not,” he admitted.
“Well, like I said, I have to be on a plane tomorrow afternoon anyway, so I can’t keep playing this peculiar game even if I wanted to.”
She smiled, but Rowdy could see the trouble she was having in curling her lips upward. “You’ll be happy to know that I’ll be out of your life tomorrow—and you’ll never have to see me again.”
True to her word, Angelica took Toby and left Serendipity the next day. But by Friday afternoon, she had returned to her hometown without the slightest idea of what she was going to do next.
She had been telling the truth when she’d informed Rowdy that she didn’t plan to pop back up in town anytime soon—or ever—but once in Denver she’d found that she couldn’t set her time in Serendipity and with Rowdy aside as easily as all that.
In her heart of hearts, she wasn’t sure she had done the right thing by returning to the big city and proceeding with selling Granny’s ranch.
Not for herself, and not for Toby.
The whole envelope-deliveries-and-cryptic-messages thing felt like unfinished business. She’d left town without fulfilling Granny’s request, and that really bothered her.
She hadn’t fed any sheep yet.
Instead, she’d run away from the obligation. Just as she’d done before.
When the going got tough, Angelica bolted.
It was her modus operandi.
She hated to think that after all this time and experience, she hadn’t changed. Worse yet, what she did affected Toby.
Was Toby really better off in Denver? Or was she just trying to take the easy way out?
No. She couldn’t repeat her mistakes.
Not again.
Not even knowing Rowdy wouldn’t be thrilled to see her. She’d simply have to explain her reasons for returning and hope he’d understand.
And she didn’t even want to think about how the rest of the town would perceive her return, particularly driving a moving van filled with what little furniture she had, with her car hooked up behind.
Maybe that was part of the reason she had to go back. To prove to herself and the people of Serendipity that she had changed. That she was no longer the rebellious teenager and young adult, but that the Lord had touched her heart and altered her world. And that becoming a mother to Toby had made a substantial difference, as well.
She was putting Toby’s crib together in the guest bedroom, Toby gurgling in the bouncer by her side, when the doorbell rang. She started in surprise.
She wasn’t expecting anyone.
“Guess I’d better get that, yeah, little man?”
She moved Toby, bouncer and all, into the living room and opened the door to find a beaming Jo on the other side, her arms laden with a large box of prepared casserole dishes.
“What is all this?” she asked.
“You should have told me you were coming back,” Jo chided, weaseling through the door and into the house without waiting for an invitation. “I had to hear it from the three old men that sit in their rockers outside Emerson’s Hardware. They said they saw a moving van passing through and I knew it would be you.”
Angelica didn’t ask how she had known.
“I’m sure you have more than enough to do getting your furniture into Frances’s ranch house all on your own. Give me an hour and I can round up some fellows to do the heavy lifting for you.”
“Oh, no. That’s okay. I’ve got most of it already done—or at least what I need for now. I had no use for the furniture I was using in my small apartment in Denver, so I sold it off. I’ve already unloaded everything I need for Toby.”
She relieved Jo of the box of food, which was surprisingly heavy, and placed it on the kitchen counter.
“What is all this?”
Jo chuckled with glee.
“I simply mentioned to some of the ladies of the church that you’d been seen entering town with your moving van, and before I knew it, casseroles were coming in right and left.”
Tears burned in Angelica’s eyes.
“But I—I—” she stammered.
This was the last thing she’d imagined would happen—her neighbors, especially anyone from the church, offering their support.
“I know what you’re thinking, dear.” Jo wrapped her in a motherly bear hug. “It’s going to be okay. Let it go, honey.”
Try as she might, Angelica could no longer hold in her grief. This act of charity from people who had every reason to turn their backs on her broke her emotional dam wide. Sorrow for all she had lost, and all the mistakes she had made, flooded out of her. Jo simply patted her back and made quiet, reassuring shushing noises.
At length, she had no tears left to cry. She pulled back and brushed the tears from her eyes with her palms.
“I’m sorry for blubbering all over you,” she said with a hiccup.
“That’s what I’m here for, dear. Anytime you need a hug, or just to talk, I’m your woman.”
“I know.”
“So, it looks like you’re moving in, then.” It wasn’t a question. In fact, Jo sounded as if it had been her idea in the first place.
“I am. I decided I needed to finish what I started here. I need some time to figure out what I’m going to do next.”
“What about your job in Denver? Are you taking a leave of absence?”
Angelica laughed, but it sounded more like a snort.
“My boss at the hotel was none too crazy to hear I needed to be in Serendipity to work out the wrinkles in Granny’s estate. I believe his exact words were, ‘Don’t expect a reference.’”
“Oh, no, dear. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s for the best. I had hoped for better, since I gave him the news face-to-face, but I suppose I can’t blame him. When I asked for extended leave without notice, I put him short one banquet server, and the hotel was hosting a dinner for an enormous Fortune 500 company conference that was arriving for the weekend.”
“He’ll live. Sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do.”
“Truthfully, I’m relieved to be rid of the high-stress job. Trying to keep the dishes flowing and the diners happy while management constantly looked over my shoulder isn’t my idea of a good time, but I managed to get by on the wages I earned, at least until Toby came into my life.”
“Babies are expensive,” Jo said. “Diapers, clothes, supplement formula. And that’s to say nothing of his crib and car seat.”
“So true.” Angelica had shifted most of her food budget to covering Toby’s needs, and there were many days when she only ate one meal. Not ideal for a nursing mother.
But Granny’s passing had changed everything, and Angelica knew Granny would be happy she had given her granddaughter a way out of the rat race, even if it wasn’t quite what Granny had in mind.
A sheep farmer she was not.
Still—that