The Whole Valley Called Her the Plain Fiancee, So She Let the Banquet Read the Deed novel · Chapter 4 of 24
Chapter 4: Mr. Wheelwright
The scale house sits at the end of the Touchet River road, where the gravel turns to blacktop at the grain elevator.
It is a small cinder-block building with one window, a counter, a steel scale deck as long as a truck, and a coffee maker that has not been cleaned since my mother died.
I love it more than any room in the valley.
Monday at dusk, the last truck of the day had gone out over the deck, and I stood at the counter in my canvas jacket writing the final weight in pencil.
Eleven thousand four hundred pounds of soft white wheat, off the Moreno place.
The door opened behind me.
I did not turn around.
"We're closed," I said.
"The sign says six."
"It says six," a man answered, "and it's six-oh-four."
I knew the voice before I looked.
It was lower than it had sounded on the microphone at the banquet, and slower, as though each word came to him by a small effort and was weighed before he let it go.
I turned.
Rhys Wheelwright stood in my doorway in a dark wool coat with the collar turned up.
The last orange light of the day on the elevator turned the edges of him gold.
He was taller than I remembered, and he had to bend his head a little under the lintel.
"Miss Aldahl," he said.
"Mr. Wheelwright."
"I wanted," he said, and stopped.
I waited.
The coffee maker ticked.
"I came to apologize for the banquet," he said.
"For what, exactly?"
"For all of it."
"That's a long list," I said.
"Start with the part where you didn't touch my hand."
His face did not change, but something moved behind it.
"I could not," he said.
"My mother was watching.
"If I had touched you, she would have known that I..."
He shut his mouth.
I saw him breathe in through his nose, slowly, and set his shoulders.
"She would have known I was not indifferent," he said.
Keep reading free with an account. Start The Whole Valley Called Her the Plain Fiancee, So She Let the Banquet Read the Deed from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 3 · All chapters · Chapter 5 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend