triumph that she’d shut him up, and then a twist of...something not so nice in her stomach.
“Naw, I just sit around my farm twiddling my thumbs.” He stepped away from her, a weird energy in the tense shoulders and the hard line of his mouth. “See you ’round, Pruitt.”
Mia frowned after him. She had no idea why she felt...kind of guilty and like a jerk. She hadn’t said anything too terrible to him, certainly not any worse than him calling her Queen of the Geeks.
So the weird twist in her stomach was out of place, and Dell was out of place for making her feel it. She was about to stomp into the store, but Dad’s voice sounded from behind her.
“That boy bothering you?”
Mia snorted, couldn’t help it. She turned to Dad, who’d obviously come out of the feed exit. It was nice Dad felt protective, but she did not need to be protected. Or comforted. Not anymore. “First of all, Dell Wainwright isn’t a boy any more than I’m a girl.”
Dad harrumphed.
“Second, I’m not... That stuff doesn’t bother me anymore.” Possibly because it wasn’t the same. Going toe-to-toe with Dell was less like being made fun of, being called names. It was more like battle. One she was more than equipped to fight.
It was weirdly invigorating. It made her feel capable and strong. If she could take on Mr. Prom King, she could take on anyone. If she could ignore the random bouts of misplaced guilt. Which she would.
She was going to take him on and win, and the more he poked at her, the more he’d find she didn’t roll over and hide anymore.
“Let’s go home.”
It was tempting. Tempting to put off what she’d come for so she wouldn’t have to run into Dell in the aisles, but not tempting enough to agree to.
“You can wait in the car if you want. But I have a few things that need picking up.” Because she was not a wimp. Not anymore.
* * *
DELLHEFTEDTHE tarps he needed onto the dolly, trying to ignore the fact he could see Mia at the end of the aisle doing the same.
He’d been kind of a dick, and it wasn’t his proudest moment, but she’d sure landed the knockout punch.
I’m guessing you wouldn’t know what that’s like.
As if farmwork could ever be anything but hard. As if he didn’t work his ass off every day trying to compete with her.
Her very fine ass.
Yeah, he didn’t want to be noticing things like that. So she wasn’t a social mess anymore? It didn’t mean he had any right or reason to be attracted to her. He didn’t have time to be distracted by stuff like that. Not with Dad breathing down his neck for profits. Proof that his ideas could stand the test of time.
Dell looked down at the tarps. It was another expense he didn’t need, but if he started cutting corners it would affect his crops. With both the weekly farmers’ market and five families getting community-supported agriculture portions from him, he didn’t have the option of risking product.
Life sure had been easier when he didn’t care about this stuff. No one and nothing depending on him. Then again, if he hadn’t been quite so laid-back, perhaps he wouldn’t be in this position now.
If he’d been like Mia and gone to a tough school and worked hard and come back with all As, would it have mattered?
There was no answer for that. Nothing he could do to change what had happened. All he could do was focus on the present and the future and doing everything in his power to make Dad sell the farm to him.
Mia Pruitt was a competitor and distraction he would not let get in his way. He started rolling his dolly toward the cash register, realizing belatedly she was doing the same and they were now in line. Mia right in front of him.
So much for not being a distraction. Her baggy sweatshirt was pushed up to her elbows, revealing elegant forearms and delicate wrists. At least they looked that way, until she hefted a sack of sand as if it weighed nothing.
Her gaze landed on him and she rolled her eyes. “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she said under her breath, tossing her sack of tarps on the conveyor belt.
“You’re telling me.” He crossed his arms, determined not to say anything else to her. Karl rang up her purchases and she stared resolutely at her dolly.
Karl rattled off a price and Mia dug a credit card out of her back pocket, and even while he was expressly ignoring her, it was kind of hard to ignore her ass.
Yes, he was a dick.
She blew out a breath, fidgeted as the ancient machine slowly printed out a receipt. Finally, she spoke. Because as much as she’d changed, there were still pieces of the old Mia in there.
“For what it’s worth, I...” She raised her chin and looked him straight in the eye. Pretty green eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said resolutely.
He was taken completely off guard, so much so he could make only a kind of “Huh?” sound.
“Holy moly, why am I doing this?” she muttered, snatching the receipt from Karl. She glanced at Dell, expression full of self-disgust. “I have my issues with how you sell stuff, and I’m going to use everything in my arsenal to beat you, but...I don’t want to insult you in the process. It doesn’t feel good to me.”
“Are you insinuating it feels good to me?”
Her brows drew together. “No! I’m trying to be nice and apologize. Leave it to you to make that complicated.”
“Leave it to me? Isn’t that an insult?”
She grabbed the handle of her rolling tray. “Dell, you are the most annoying man I have ever met.”
He had to work really hard not to smile. Something about riling her up was way too enjoyable. “Also an insult.”
“Go to hell.” She smiled faux-sweetly. “Please. Now it’s an insult, but at least I’m being polite about it.” Much like at the market last week, she sauntered away.
It made no sense he was smiling after her. Then again, he was beginning to think nothing about Mia Pruitt made any damn sense.
“HOWBADLYDO you want to beat Dell at the farmers’ market?”
Mia looked up from the row of carrot seeds she was planting. Mia’s youngest sister stood with Kenzie, Dell’s little sister. Anna and Kenzie had been inseparable since kindergarten and Mia had never once felt weird about that.
Until now.
“Um.”
“The jerk told my parents he caught me making out in the barn. I want him to burn,” Kenzie said vehemently, clutching a book to her chest.
“Um.”
“It’s nothing all that bad,” Anna explained, always the cool head wherever she went. “We just have some pictures of him, and we came up with this idea where you could post on the farmers’ market page that you have pictures of the Naked Farmer in his underwear if people came to your booth Saturday morning or whatever. It would get you some extra customers, no doubt.”
“You have pictures of Dell in his underwear?” Mia squeaked. “Not that I...” She closed her eyes against the embarrassed flush spreading up her neck. “I have no idea what you two are trying to accomplish here.”
Kenzie opened up the book, revealing old photos in an album. Mia squinted. “Is that Dell?”
“Yes. In diapers. Underwear. It’s a little harmless embarrassment.”
Mia finally stood, trying