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He did, sometimes, miss the glitz. Red carpets could be fun. The roar of the crowd after a particularly good tackle made him feel alive in a way nothing else did. The women were beautiful.
Although none had made him forget to breathe like Camden had the other night at the Slope.
And he wasn’t going to spend another day thinking about Camden Harris. She was a childhood friend, that was all. He had no business wondering about her appearance in Slippery Rock. Or thinking about what she’d look like out of that designer gown.
Wedding dress, dude, wedding dress. He was not going to get hung up on a woman who ran out on her own wedding. Back to pondering football. The things about it he’d liked. The exhaustion after a particularly grueling workout.
An image of Camden, face pinkish with exertion, body naked, popped into his mind. Levi gritted his teeth and refocused on football.
Signing autographs for kids had been fun. Visiting them in the hospital.
An image of Camden in a nurse’s costume popped into his mind, and Levi angrily sank the shovel he was holding into a pile of manure and hay. He barely knew Camden Harris. He’d talked to her for all of five minutes. What the hell was she doing in his head?
Football never failed to distract him, so Levi ran back through the things he’d liked about the game. The exhaustion that made his mind blank—he wouldn’t mind a bit of that right now. The one-on-one interactions with kids, the roar of the crowd on game day. The bullshitting in the locker room.
Fifty-three sweaty men, some with questionable hygiene to begin with, were definitely better than the two hundred cows he cleaned up after twice a day.
Levi sank the shovel into another pile of manure and hay in the milking parlor. Mucking out the stalls after the herd of dairy cows had done their morning session was one of the times he missed the relative cleanliness of football.
A clump of manure landed on his boot.
In some very specific instances, football was better than being a dairy farmer. Definitely better.
He flicked the clump into the pile in the back of the ranch truck. Brilliant November sunlight peeked over the trees, turning the sky a brilliant blue. Under the smell of manure, there was the scent of dew on the grass, and the leaves were finally beginning to turn. All along the lakeshore, the trees would be laden with deep red and orange leaves with a bit of gold thrown in for good measure. He’d missed the turning of the leaves for four long professional seasons, and for the four before that, when he’d played at the college level.
The few things he missed about football life didn’t compare to the beauty of a country sunrise or getting to watch the slow change of the leaves or knowing that the products that came from his dairy were wholesome and healthy for the people who consumed them.
Football was fun, but the best part was that the money he’d made playing the game ensured the stability of Walters Ranch.
Levi put the last shovel full of hay and manure into the truck bed. He’d drive the load to the composting area. It would be ready for the local home and garden store by spring. He should check with Collin to see if they needed more compost at the orchard, too.
Then he needed to check on the cattle over on the Harris property. He’d been renting several acres from the older couple since making the dairy an organic operation; the cows couldn’t mix with the organic cattle, but that didn’t mean they had no value. Of course, they didn’t have much monetary value, but that was beside the point.
And while he was at the Harrises’, he’d probably run into Camden, could maybe learn why she was back in town after being gone for so long. Maybe seeing her again—hopefully wearing something other than that dress—would get her out of his head.
Another image of Camden, naked, popped into his head. Levi rapped his fist against his head, hoping to dislodge thoughts of Camden—in the wedding gown and out of it—from his mind.
He turned on the hoses to begin the rest of the cleanup.
“I still say you should install a sprinkler system in here so you can do away with the shoveling altogether.”
Levi turned to see his sister, Savannah, in the doorway.
“Yeah, because what everyone wants to breathe are minute manure particles.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Maybe a vacuum and sprinkler system then.”
“If you aren’t going to be helpful, you can just leave.” He took the sting out of the words with a smile. Not that he’d intended any sting to begin with. Savannah could be sensitive about things, though. He hadn’t known how sensitive until she returned to Slippery Rock last summer. She was settling in now. Practically living at the orchard with Collin, and in another few weeks would be married to him.
Levi couldn’t have picked a more perfect man for his sister. It was good to see her so happy lately.
She was dressed for the orchard today, in old jeans and a fleece hoodie, with gloves poking out of the big front pocket. The ripped big front pocket. He tilted his head to the side. The sweatshirt had to be about three sizes too big for her. She looked like a kid with the hoodie hanging past her hips and her skinny legs clad in ripped jeans.
“Is that my sweatshirt?”
“I don’t know. I found it in the mudroom. Collin said to dress warmly. We’re pruning today.”
Another change in his life. Savannah pruning apple trees. Savannah working, in general. She’d waited tables in town for a while then run off to sing in a talent competition. But before returning to Slippery Rock, Levi had never seen her do agricultural work. It was interesting to see that now. Especially because she seemed to enjoy it. Whether it was football or dairy farming, no feeling was better than the knowledge he’d done a solid day’s work. It was good that Savannah had that now, too.
“Do you want it back?”
“Nah, you can wear it. As long as you don’t mind that it’s been covered in cow dung too many times to count.”
Savannah gave the hoodie a side eye, wrinkling her nose.
“It’s been washed just as much,” he added. “You know Mama Hazel wouldn’t let anything hang in her mudroom unless it had been thoroughly cleaned first.”
“True.” She put her hands in the back pockets of her jeans and rocked back on her heels. She wore rain boots today, the rubber kind that reached almost to her knees, with a plaid design on them. “Anyway, I wasn’t just here to talk about the sprinkler system. I was wondering what you’re planning for the old cows. The ones on the Harris property?”
“Not really planning anything. We’ll feed them, make sure they’re comfortable. Let them live out their lives in peace over there. Why?”
“I was thinking a few of them might be a nice addition to the camp when it’s up and running in the spring. They’re so gentle. It might be nice to have... I don’t know, not a petting zoo, but actual farm animals that the kids can interact with.”
“I thought this camp was a musical one?”
She’d had the idea to form a program like the one she’d volunteered with in Nashville. A music program for kids in the foster care system—kids like she had been before Bennett and Mama Hazel adopted her at the age of seven. Police officers had found her, abandoned and dirty, on the steps of their precinct in Springfield, and Levi vividly remembered her quiet demeanor and how skinny she’d been when they first brought her to Walters Ranch. How she’d jumped at loud noises for a while. That early beginning had left scars on Savannah he hadn’t realized until she came back to Slippery Rock last summer. Seeing her blossom like this, planning a camp for kids like her, it was something he wished he’d thought of.
Still, to add dairy cattle? That seemed a little...off.
“It is. I was talking to one of the therapists who has agreed to spend a few days each month at the farm. She told me about horse therapy and mentioned that having other animals around could give the kids more responsibility. You know, feed the cows, clean up after them.” She wrinkled her nose again at the cleaning part, and Levi bit back a smile.
“And you’re going to teach them this cattle feeding, cattle cleaning stuff?”
“Ah, maybe?” She looked around the milking parlor. “I did learn how to milk them, after all.” Levi raised an eyebrow at his sister. She laughed. “Okay, so it took me a while to get the hang of it, but I did. If I can do it, the kids in the program can figure it out. Especially if one former star defensive back from the NFL is around to encourage them.”
And the other shoe dropped. She wanted him to be part of the camp. Levi shrugged. “Sure, I’ll pick out a couple of the really docile cows.” And he’d volunteer as much time as Savannah wanted. After all, wasn’t that what family was for?
Savannah rewarded him with a big smile and reached up on her tiptoes to press a quick kiss to his cheek. “We can talk it through more whenever you have some free time. Hey, you’re coming to the downtown lighting tonight, right?”
“Do we know yet why Thom has called, emailed and texted everyone in town to be there?”
“Do we ever know why the mayor does something?” Savannah asked and shrugged. “He invited the TV stations from Springfield to come, too, because most of them covered the Branson lighting on Thanksgiving. My guess is he’s trying to drum up more winter tourism. You know, tour the small-town lights, drink hot cider, spend your money in our town. That kind of thing.”
“But we don’t have anything for people to see. Only lunatics hit the lake at this time of year—the water’s too cold.”
Savannah shrugged. “Thom always has his reasons. Listen, I need to get to the orchard. We’ll save you a spot tonight, though,” she said, looking at her watch. She hurried out of the parlor, and he heard one of the ranch four-wheelers start up and then fade into the distance.
Her plan wouldn’t hurt anything, Levi told himself as he got into the truck and turned it toward the compost area. The camp wasn’t set to open until the spring, and cows were adaptable. Adding another thing to his calendar wouldn’t be a bad thing, either. With Aiden, James, Collin and Adam deep in relationship heaven, he was kind of the odd man out.
Levi liked people. He liked conversation and camaraderie. Those were two of the things he’d loved about football. There was never a lack of backslapping or talking on a football field. There had been plenty of both here, too, before his buddies started dropping like flies under Cupid’s bow. He didn’t want to be a third wheel to any of them, so he needed to find something else to do with his time. Savannah’s camp was a good starting place. The new product lines for the dairy would take up more time, too.
At the compost area, Levi began shoveling the manure onto the smoking squares. By spring they would have a good amount of compost for the local home and garden store, and probably enough for the orchard and a few other local businesses, too. He shoveled another pile into one of the compost squares.
It wasn’t that he envied his friends falling in love. He wouldn’t mind falling like that himself, if he could find the right woman.
The problem was most of the women in Slippery Rock were taken—a hazard of small-town living. If he didn’t make the time to either meet someone from a nearby town who fit the bill of farmer’s wife or head to Little Rock or Tulsa to find someone to at least take the edge off his physical needs, though, this restless feeling he’d been trying to shake since the summer would keep bothering him. The daydreams about Camden were only the fruits of his too-long celibate streak.
Until he could fit one of those two plans of attack into his schedule, he would just keep himself busy in other ways. The less time he had free, the less time he’d have to brood over...things. Like his lack of a love life.
Like the pretty girl he remembered from childhood wandering back into town looking like a drop-dead-gorgeous woman, complete with a wedding dress.
Finished with the compost piles, Levi tossed the shovel into the truck bed and got behind the wheel. He’d go check on the old cows. His father, Bennett, would have already fed them today, but Levi could check the salt licks. Maybe make some notes for Savannah’s new project.
He pointed the truck to the rutted path that led to the fence between Walters property and the Harris farm.
Nothing was wrong. Everything was fine. He’d made the right choice to come back to Slippery Rock, to gracefully back out of football. This was just part of the adjustment period. So it had taken more than two years to get to the questioning phase—that didn’t make his decision wrong.
He wanted to be here. Here, he had a purpose. Plans for the future.
Camden Harris was just a distraction. One he would start ignoring right now.
CHAPTER FOUR (#uc6693e7b-8c6d-5898-b756-2db4849375d0)
LEVI STOOD ON the crowded dock in the Slippery Rock Marina. Two remote broadcast trucks from Springfield news stations were parked on the road, their cameras trained on the Slippery Rock mayor, Thom Hall, as he made a speech at the makeshift podium.
Thom was going on about the resilience of Slippery Rock, how neighbors had pulled together this year and how that togetherness would make this the best holiday season in memory.
Levi shoved his hands into the pockets of his denim jacket, willing away the nip in the air. It didn’t work, but at least his fingers didn’t feel as if they would fall off now.
People he’d known all his life surrounded him. Buddies he’d grown up with, women he’d watched fall for those buddies. His parents were somewhere on the crowded dock, likely closer to the shore because his mother was afraid of water. It wouldn’t matter to her that this part of the lake was no more than eight feet deep, that she could actually swim or that she had spent time on a big ocean liner while in the Peace Corps.
“That’s why I invited you all here tonight, to celebrate the rejuvenation of Slippery Rock, and to kick off this wonderful season of giving,” Thom was saying.
Levi held back an eye roll.
Thom wasn’t exaggerating, but he could use a better speech writer. After a tornado had torn apart the downtown area, leaving several people wounded and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, the town had come together. Neighbors had put new roofs up, and locals had banded together to build the new grandstand area and rebuild the farmer’s market. Still, Thom was talking like some kind of character from It’s a Wonderful Life.
This was Slippery Rock, Missouri, not Bedford Falls, New York. This wasn’t a black-and-white movie. And he was freezing his butt off out here on the dock, where Thom had insisted everyone stand for the lighting ceremony of the inaugural Slippery Rock Holiday Festival.
He’d hired a carnival to come to town every weekend between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. There were street vendors, and live music would be in the grandstand that had been erected after the tornado.
The festival would definitely bring in crowds of tourists, and that was good, but if the man didn’t stop pontificating about the town, they were all going to freeze to these wooden dock boards.
“Is it just me, or does the temperature keep dropping despite the amount of hot air coming out of Thom’s mouth?” Collin whispered.
Savannah shushed them. Levi gave her the eye roll he’d been holding back.
“It’s sweet how he’s going on,” she insisted.
“All he has to do is throw a switch. We’ve been out here for thirty minutes while he talks about us like we’re living in some kind of cross between George Bailey’s Bedford Falls and Captain von Trapp’s prewar Austria.”
Savannah shot him a confused look. Levi shrugged.
“I was going for two heroic dudes.”
“And you didn’t think John Wayne or Denzel Washington?” Collin asked.
“I was going for heroic and Christmassy.”
“The Sound of Music isn’t a Christmas movie,” Savannah offered.
“Then why is it only shown on TV between Thanksgiving and Christmas?”
“Arnold Schwarzenegger was in a Christmas movie, remember? He beat up Sinbad over a children’s toy,” Collin offered.
Arnold Schwarzenegger probably would have been a better choice. But both Jimmy Stewart and Christopher Plummer had been on late-night TV in their iconic roles this week when he couldn’t sleep for the visions of Camden Harris dancing in his head. There had been no sign of Arnold on TV.
“So was Bruce Willis,” Savannah teased. She wound her arm around Collin’s as she spoke, snuggling closer to him. Levi would never have imagined his baby sister would fall for his best friend, but the two of them were perfect for each other.
Levi rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. Why their perfection annoyed him he couldn’t figure out. But the more they snuggled and whispered, the more he wanted to toss them both into the lake. He’d leave them and join James, Slippery Rock’s recently elected sheriff, but James was canoodling with Mara at the other end of the dock. Same with Adam and Jenny, although they weren’t canoodling so much as looking as if, once they got their little boys back home and asleep, they’d start the canoodling.
Canoodling. What the hell was wrong with him? Levi Walters didn’t use words like canoodling. He didn’t watch sappy movies. He took care of his cattle. Played a little football every now and then with the guys. He threw darts and drank beer—all manly things.
So why was he so annoyed that Collin and Savannah were holding hands? That James had wrapped his arms and coat around Mara, holding her close to him? That Adam just kissed Jenny on her forehead when Thom said that line about the “best Christmas ever”? That Aiden and Julia were currently in a lip-lock, ignoring the speech and the crowd entirely?
He definitely needed to get started on either Plan A, find a local girl who’d fall for him, or Plan B, settle for a weekend of fun with a city girl. Maybe tonight.
The cattle weren’t in birthing season yet, and even if they were, his dad could handle a few deliveries. The cattle knew their routine, and the dairy was mostly mechanized now, anyway. Maybe he’d get in his truck once Thom stopped chattering on about Christmas and drive south until he hit the Gulf. Spend a few days with his toes in the sand.
Get away from Love Central and have a fling of his own. Carry around one of those souvenir cups filled with something highly alcoholic.
Someone jostled him.
“Excuse me, just trying to get a good shot of the lighting.” The woman, tall and slender, with her hair up in a ponytail that came out the back of her ball cap, pushed past Levi to stand closer to the edge of the dock. She had a camera up to her face, looking through the viewfinder as she moved around in the crowd, and she looked nothing like the woman who’d walked into the Slope the other night in a wedding dress. But this was definitely Camden. His heartbeat revved a little faster in his chest. Levi frowned. “Better,” she said, to no one in particular.
“So, let’s count it down, people,” Thom Hall said, raising his voice despite the microphone before him. Levi winced as the mic fed back through the speakers. “From five,” Thom called out.
Everyone on the dock joined in. “Five.”
Finally. They’d be off this dock and into the Slippery Slope in a few minutes, and maybe then he could feel his fingers again. Putting a few extra feet between his body and Camden’s wasn’t a bad idea, either. Levi’s entire body had clenched the moment she pushed past him, and he couldn’t get the muscles to release.
That settled it. He had to get out of Slippery Rock and into a fling of some sort. Pronto.
“Four,” Thom continued, leading the town through the chant.
Once the feeling returned to his fingers, Levi would make a list of things that needed to be done before he took that vacation.
“Three,” the town called out.
