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Lizzie
“Well…”Davidsays,as we watch the truck speed away. “He seems charming.”
I smile.
“Oh, he is. Just, rough around the edges.”
“Mmm-hmm.” The look of all-knowing-smugness on David’s face earns him another thump to the arm.
“Oh, shut up. Come on. I’ll show you the place.” I wave toward the house. “We can’t exactly have a full-blown reunion here on the sidewalk.”
“Ah! That reminds me. I have a housewarming gift.” He opens the door of his rental, and reaches across to the passenger seat. The tinted windows block the gift from view until he’s holding a bottle. “The second-finest red from your mother’s basement.”
I laugh.
“The second-finest, eh? I’m flattered. Come on, let’s get your bags.”
We move to the back of the sedan, pop the trunk and grab David’s small rucksack and wrapped suit hanger. Lord help us if David got a wrinkle in his Hugo Boss suit.
“You weren’t expecting her to bring open the best now, were you? This is Jocelyn we’re talking about.”
“True,” I snort. Mom didn’t break out the really good stuff unless the President was coming to dinner. Or grandma. “You’ve still been heading over there, then?”
“I’m not a brave enough man to turn your mother down,” David confesses as we head up the winding porch.
I prop a folded air mattress between the wall and my hip so I have a hand free to work the lock.
“Plus…” he adds, when we step inside. “It’s nice to do something that feels normal—oh, wow.”
“You like it?”
“Like? This place is awesome, Liz. Look at that staircase. Man, I’m having Scarlett O’Hara flashbacks, over here.”
“It’s not finished yet, but I’m definitely liking how it’s looking. I think we should put the mattress in the dining room. It’s the closest to being done.”
“You could stick me in that hole under the stairs and I’ll be a happy man.”
“A happy man with leg cramp,” I taunt.
“I’m not here for the slumber, I’m here for the company. Now… lead the way to this dining room. You gonna throw a blanket over the table and give me a tent?”
“Pfft. I wouldn’t get too excited. It’s a dining room in name only. No table.”
But there is a fantastic view. One that has David instantly transfixed. He’s drawn to the wide window like a magnet, his nose just inches from the glass as he stares out over the private acreage that came with the house.
After a few minutes of struggling on my own, I have to pry him away to show me how his damn mattress works. After attaching the electric pump to the mattress, he flicks the switch and the pump starts to whirr. Instantly, the mattress starts to uncurl.
“It’ll take a second.”
“In which case,” I say. “I’m getting some cups for that wine. We have catching up to do.”
“Starting,” David calls after me, as I head into the kitchen, “with that guy.”
I pretend not to hear him, checking the frontless cabinets for the plastic-wrapped cups Caleb and I had been using for water.
“Huh?” I call back, stalling for time.
“The guy,” David emphasizes. Even the whirring of the pump doesn’t mask his slick tone. “Mr. Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down out there,” he jabs a finger toward the front of the house, as I reappear with plastic cups in hand. “Did you have some kind of hottie tracker installed when you landed in the mountains? Just followed it out into the woods to locate the sexiest he-man you could find?”
