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“You should be grateful your momma was hot.”
“Momma!”
“Where do you think you got your good looks from?”
“I think this conversation’s over,” I said getting up.
“It’s over when you bring some hot piece of something home to meet me. I was sneaking boys into my room from the time I could get them through my window. Why isn’t Marcus ever crawling out of your window?”
I turned to her. “I’m on the second floor!”
“Claude, you need to open yourself up to people. Everyone likes you. Just give someone a chance. You’re too young and good-looking to be a lonely, old man,” she told me as I took my coffee and headed upstairs to my room.
Closing the door behind me, I had to admit she wasn’t entirely wrong. I mean, she was wrong about the bisexual thing, and Marcus. He was just my coffee supplier. But she was right that something needed to change.
This was not the life I had pictured for myself when I graduated university. Sure, I had what was becoming a thriving business, and I worked with Titus. But that was only spring through fall. The rest of the year, having coffee at Marcus’s popup was the only time I didn’t feel empty. Something had to change.
Waiting for my usual five minutes before we had to go, I headed back downstairs grabbing the car keys. With my mother at school all day, we shared a car. It worked out well considering I never went anywhere at night. But driving her this morning with her picking up her lecture where she had left off, I second guessed our arrangement.
Dropping Momma off and heading to my new place, I pulled into the parking lot and sat. Staring at the small log structure, I was expecting to feel more than I did. Momma wasn’t wrong, having an office to run our business out of was a reason to celebrate. But with my business partner still finishing his spring semester, I was the only one here.
Getting out of the car, I walked the dirt path to our front door. The place was the ultimate cabin in the woods. Surrounded by perfect pines still damp with morning dew, I glanced through the trees at the shallow river less than a hundred feet away.
This place had been an excellent find. The only thing that it would never have was foot traffic. But with our tour’s path beginning less than a quarter mile away, it would allow us to fit more tours into our day. The rental made a lot of sense.
Unlocking the door and looking around, I felt its vacancy. Had this been a good idea? How much more isolation did I need? Could I spent the rest of my life working here in this town?
Quickly wiping a tear from my cheek, I straightened up and got sensible. I had wanted a business and now I had it. If I wanted to open up and let someone into my life, I could do that too.
I could no longer doubt that I needed it. There was a part of me that felt like I was going to crack without it. I just had to figure out how to unclamp the hands hiding my heart.
I didn’t know why I always withdrew from people the way I did, but I was going to break through that. I was going to let someone in and together we would be happy.
I could do this. I had to do this. And as I wiped another tear from my cheek, I heard a knock on the door that turned me around.
“Merri!” I said, shocked to see his steel-gray eyes once again looking back at me.
Chapter 3
Merri
“Hey Claude,” I said as if it hadn’t been two years since I had seen him.
God, did he look good. It wasn’t like I had forgotten how his gorgeous eyebrows framed his square jaw and full lips. It was more that, I had forgotten how staring at them made me feel.
Seeing him for the first time freshman year was the final thing I needed to convince me I wasn’t straight. The man’s complexion was the color of milk chocolate. How could someone not want to lick it?
Claude shook his head as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“What are you doing here?” He asked stunned.
“I was in the neighborhood. Thought I would stop by.”
“You’re in Tennessee!” He said still trying to piece everything together.
“What? Does Tennessee not have neighborhoods?” I joked.
“No, I mean, you live in Oregon.”
