Page 73 of Silver Brewer

“I can’t ask you to do that. You already drove here in the middle of the night. Then we stayed awake most of the night.” My face heats, recalling the little sleep we had and the reasons.

“Letty, let’s be straight about this. I’d cross an ocean for you, if I needed to. This”—he points at his truck—“is nothing.” With a hand on my back, he leads me to the passenger side and helps me in. When he enters the driver’s side, he adds, “As long as you don’t mind that I’m still wearing yesterday’s clothes.”

“We can go back to the front desk and get you a toothbrush,” I suggest although I really don’t have time to go up to the room.

“No worries. I already used yours.”

My mouth falls open, and I stare at him as he starts the engine.

“What? You already had something else of mine in your mouth, Cricket. Sharing your toothbrush is the least of things to consider.”

I laugh with relief as he pulls out of the lot, and we begin the drive to Caldwell Woods.

I love how easygoing he is today. We talked, and I’m relieved we came to some agreements.

“How about we try for every two weeks?” he asked. It seemed too long to wait, but it wasn’t too much to ask. He’d never move to Chicago, and he was clear on that when he came to the wedding, but he seems okay with visiting. I wonder what it means for the long-term, but as he said, let’s just see where things lead. I couldn’t answer him when he asked, where did I want us to go? How do you tell a man you’ve known for a month that you want love and marriage, and children and happily ever after with him? Especially when you’ve just said I love you to one another.

Did it happen too fast? The fullness in my heart says it didn’t.

“I want to invite you to Thanksgiving.”

I was shocked at the invitation—and honored. He’s told me about his closeness with his family, which is the opposite of my relationship with mine.

“Are you sure?”

“My mother adored you when she met you. She’d love to have you. Besides, it will stop her from setting me up on more blind dates or dinner arrangements.”

My head turned to look up at him. “Does she do that often?”

“She did.” I waited for more. “But since I told her how much I like you, she stopped.”

“Like me? Aww…are we going steady?”

“Yes,” he teased. “Steady. Very steady.” Then his mouth crashed into mine, and I forgot all about his mother setting him up with other women. Committed, he told me. I was all his.

“So what do I need to know?” he asks, interrupting my thoughts. “Let me be your sidekick, your Marcus. What do I need to know to get him to sell?”

I snort at the reference to Marcus. Giant and he could not be more opposite, yet I love them both for different reasons.

“Well, the property is actually located on a small lake. There once was a resort there. A whole town opposite it at one point. A few buildings remain but not the physical town itself. All the homes are gone.”

Giant side-eyes me. “Wait. Caldwell Woods? Wasn’t that the location of an old electrohydraulics plant or something?”

“It was.” The town was built up around the waterworks business and consequentially destroyed when the company moved to a larger city. Most of the land was either still owned by the original plant or returned to the state of Tennessee to go wild. “The piece of property we plan to look at is managed by a recluse.”

Giant shifts to look at me before turning his eyes back to the road. “That doesn’t sound safe.” He pauses. “I don’t like that you were going to go there alone.”

“It’s fine,” I say with a dismissive wave, but I must admit meeting a man I didn’t know in the heart of the woods near an abandoned village doesn’t sound all that smart. Then I glance over at Giant. Well, it might have worked out a little bit once before, but Blue Ridge isn’t desolate. “Don’t want me shacking up with a stranger in a tent to obtain the land, huh?”

Giant scoffs. “Don’t want you shacking up, period. No tent unless it involves me. And yes, I’m a little concerned about your lack of stranger danger.”

I laugh. “What about me? I could have been the ax murderer.”

“Considering I’ve seen you throw an ax, that’s highly doubtful.”

“Hey,” I whine, but then I reconsider. “Why did you take me up that mountain without knowing me?”

“Honestly, I didn’t think you’d show.”