Tucker stared at the carved initials. His smile spread into a lazy grin. “Jeremy turned into absolute mush after he met you.”
“I remember him carving this like it was yesterday.”
“The mind’s a funny thing. Sometimes you just need a reminder to open up the old memories. Hope you don’t mind we made a few additions to this place over the last couple of years.” He pointed to the furniture on the porch and deck. “One of the guys had those chairs and the wooden chaise. When he moved, he didn’t have room for them, so they kind of ended up here. Better than the dump, but if you want me to get rid of this stuff, I can do that for ya.”
“Mind? No. It makes it look homey. Thank you.”A fewbrightly colored pillows would do wonders.Something off near the trees caught her eye. “Is that your horse trailer?” she asked.
“No. That was Jeremy’s.”
“He had a horse?”
“He rode when he was a kid. Everyone around here does.”
“Hmm.” It was strange to hear things about him that she’d never heard him speak of.
She walked over and sat on the edge of the chaise. It faced the sun and had a spectacular view of a mountain. Tall, skinny trees sprouted from the top of the ridge, giving it the appearance of a crew cut. “What mountain is that?”
He sat in the other chair, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “That there is Bull Mountain. It’s kind of a famous place, actually.”
“How so?”
“Well, there’s about fifty acres on that mountain where you can find rare fairy stones.”
“I thought that was in Fairy Stone Park. Orene was telling me about them this morning.”
“Orene knows everything there is to know around here. She’s right. The park was built on Bull Mountain.”
She got up and walked toward the door of the cabin. “It’s safe up here on the mountain, right?”
“Yeah. Absolutely.” Then he turned and said, “Do you have a gun?”
“A gun? Heavens, no.” Not only didn’t she have a gun, she pretty much had nothing after what all Marc had stolen, but that was not a story she intended to share.
“You’ll want to get one. Guess I could lend you a shotgun.”
“I don’t know how to shoot.”
“You’re telling me Jeremy never taught you how to shoot?”
“He didn’t.”
“I might need proof you were his wife before I release this place to you.”
A jolt ran through her, but he started laughing, and she realized he was joking. “Funny.”
“Well, you might need to scare off a bear, or if God forbid some rabid animal happens along, you’re going to want to take care of that, pronto. There are coyotes up here. We get a bounty for ’em, so I could set a trap or two if you like.”
“Are you trying to scare me?”
“No. Nothing to be scared of, but you want to be smart about living up here. I mean, this is their home too.”
“Are there really bears up here?”
“Yeah, a few big ones. They don’t much bother anyone, but it’s been dry. If we don’t get some rain, they might happen down looking for food. Drought messes up their supply of berries, and they got to eat.”
Dread coursed through her, making her heart heavy. “I really want to make this work.”
“It’s doable. You’ll be fine here. Since Jeremy and I added the well and bathroom, it’s actually posh for a hunting cabin. I’m pretty sure he only did that for you, anyway.”
