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She smacks a playful kiss on me, wiggles out of my arms, and leads me down the trail.
Is it any wonder that I’m completely in love with her?
“Oh, look!” Summer points down the trail. “This path empties out down by the lake!”
“Yes, it does.” I grin, excited about what I have to show her next. I haven’t brought her out here since before Rem’s wedding, and there have been some changes. Actually, a lot of changes.
“That view is just so great,” she says. She’s panting a little from the exertion of the hike, but her eyes are bright with happiness, and being with her today has been amazing.
Of course, every day with Summer is the best day of my life.
We come out of the woods near my property, and Summer props her hands on her hips while she tries to catch her breath.
“We’re going to have to check for ticks later,” she informs me.
“I can’t wait.” I laugh and take her hand, leading her toward my piece of the lake. “I have more to show you.”
“Are those…is that a foundation?”
I’m all smiles as I guide her to the concrete foundation, and we stop, looking it over.
“This will be the shop,” I inform her. “I’m hoping to have it framed in before the snow flies.”
“You poured a foundation.” She frowns up at me, blinking in surprise. “I didn’t even know that it had been surveyed.”
“That was right before the wedding,” I confirm. “I forgot to tell you, with everything going on. I’m sorry about that. Then, this week, the concrete company had a break in their schedule, and I had them come out. It’s just the shop, but?—”
“But it’s what you wanted,” she says, finishing the sentence for me. “It’s gonna be a big shop.”
“Thank God,” I reply with a grin. “I need a lot of space. But there’s something even better to see.”
“If you tell me that you already built the house, I’m going to be peeved because that’s the fun part, and I want to know all the things. Mostly because I’m nosy.”
If I have my say, she’ll be making a lot of the decisions about the house because she’ll be living there with me.
“It’s not invisible, so no, not the house.” With her hand in mine, I lead her down to the lake and point. “A dock.”
She stops short and covers her mouth with her free hand. “You built a dock. I was too busy checking out the shop to notice this.”
“To be fair, my brothers and my dad helped. Hell, even Brooks and his brother, Blake, helped a bit.”
Brooks has a big family like mine, and there’s always a brother to spare to jump in and help with a project.
“I can’t believe you kept this a secret,” she says as she takes the first step onto the wooden dock and then shivers in the cooler air, so I pull the flannel out of my bag and wrap it around her. “This is gorgeous.”
“I wanted it to be a surprise, and it really didn’t take that long.”
Her eyes are pinned to the last of the surprise that’s sitting on the end of the dock. It’s a table set for two, with candles, flowers, and a cooler where the food for dinner is stored.
“Who was in on this with you?” she asks and reaches out to touch the forget-me-nots in the vase.
“My mom.” I grin down at her. “I managed to get a couple of texts down to her so she’d know when we would be here.”
“And so she’d know to pick these flowers. This is—” Summer swallows hard and then wraps her arms around me and holds on tight. “This is really great.”
“Keep that in mind when we start getting bit by mosquitos.”
“Too late. That’s been happening all day.” She laughs as I hold her chair for her, and then I sit across from her and pour us each a glass of wine. “What’s the occasion, by the way? It’s not my birthday.”
