He blew out a big breath and came to sit at my desk. “I do know what you mean.”
“Let Mom know I'll be over?”
He narrowed his eyes on me. “I know you love Amelia, but you cannot interfere with their relationship.”
“I’m not interfering, just protecting her,” I hedged, suddenly annoyed with the whole thing. It was a shit thing to say, but sometimes I wished Bev would just leave and never come back. “I’m sorry I’m not optimistic like you are.”
“Give it time,” he said but his voice was thin as if he didn’t believe what he was saying. “What about the man you’ve been seeing? What is his name? How is he doing?”
“Jake.” I couldn’t help smiling, knowing I was giving everything away. “It’s going.”
“Good. We expect to meet him soon,” Dad said.
“Yeah, I’d like that. I’ll run it by him some time.” I was going to drag my feet on it. Jake was just getting comfortable with me. No way was I going to overload him by meeting the parents.
For now, I wanted to savor him nice and slow like he deserved.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
JAKE
I parted the car window and got a big breath of fresh, chilled air. Most of the trees had shed their leaves, but a few still held on, the splashes of oranges and browns painting a nice picture against the rolling land of barren crop fields.
For the first time in forever, I didn’t mind the cold. I tried to imagine the fields and trees covered in fresh snow. Perhaps I disliked winter so much because I’d had the perspective of cold concrete buildings and dirty street slush all my life. Now that I had someone to keep me warm, the cold didn’t seem as bleak. Funny how one person can change your perspective.
I rolled my head against the headrest and looked at Gabriel. He was gorgeous today in a gray wool sweater and plain khakis. His hair had been sculpted and he was freshly shaved. He smelled great too. How I’d landed this sexy, sweet man eluded me. My luck was not that good. I supposed I was still waiting to wake up. It was as if he’d walked out of a dream, perfectly tailored to my desire.
He noticed me staring at him and offered me a smile. “Almost there.”
“Could you ever live on a farm?” I asked.
“Hm… Maybe. Probably. I mean, you’d have access to all the fresh tomatoes you could ever want. But then there is the maintenance. I’d just pay someone to do it for me, I suppose. Yeah, I could see myself living on a farm.”
“I think if I won the lottery, I’d buy a farm. I’d invest in greenhouses and vertical farming so that it would grow organic produce year-round to feed the needy. I’d also want an animal sanctuary. Dogs. Cats. Maybe some horses. I never had any pets when I was a kid except a little house mouse that I snuck crumbsto. They got caught in a glue trap a few months later and I had a funeral for them.”
I kept it to myself that the reason I’d never dared keep a dog or cat was because my mother’s boyfriends were the abusive sort, and I didn’t want my pets to suffer.
He pulled my hand to his lips and kissed it. “What about chickens?”
“Well, of course. Fresh eggs and all.” I gasped. “We could have an orchard too. Apples or peaches.” I realized I’d implied doing the farm thing together. Was I really making plans for our future? Not that having a farm was a realistic prospect, but… “In grade school, before… We went on a field trip to a farm. We got to see baby chickens hatch. It was the neatest thing.”
I wasn’t sure why I was so chatty. Normally, I preferred to keep my thoughts hidden.
“Yeah, I did something like that too. I always liked petting and feeding the goats,” he said. “If we have a farm, goats are not optional.”
Grinning, I returned my attention to the window and fantasized about waking up in his arms. We’d have breakfast, get dressed, and feed our animals all before the sun rose for the day. It was a nice dream. Certainly not as exciting as traveling the world, but I’d always preferred the quiet life. As long as I had the few people I cared about, I’d be happy.
He pulled us into a gravel parking lot and found a spot. He took my hand and kissed the knuckles again, the sensation of his warm lips on my skin sending a zinger through me. It was little things like that that made me all warm and fuzzy inside.
He smiled brightly. “Let's have some fun.”
Rejuvenated, I teased, “You better hope they don’t have any games here, because I’ll kick your butt again.”
He leaned in, his eyes hooding. “It’s so hot when you do.”
A flush crept up my neck as he exited the car. He was right. I best not provoke the horndog-monster. I couldn’t say no much longer; I didn’t want to.
The walk to the fairground’s entrance was a distance away, hundreds of cars filling the gravel field. I took a big breath, smelling old hay, sugar and flour, and faint notes of manure. It wasn’t a bad smell, just one I wasn’t used to. The bleating of a goat sounded in the distance and excitement rose. I very much enjoyed going places and seeing things I hadn’t before. Gabriel being with me made it all the more fun.
