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Tate chuckled. "Don't tell my mom. She'll bring a moving truck down and fill it full."
"Oh, my God, that's a great idea."
His dad shook his head. "No. Luna, no. Please, don't fill our shed with furniture."
His mom stood on her toes and kissed his father's cheek. "I'll share it with Sophie, Yvette, Bridget, and Isi. I promise."
She turned and skipped off to the bedroom and his dad shook his head. He looked at Tate, "Better plan on a barrage of women coming soon."
Tate laughed. "It'll be good to see everyone. And, I'd love to see my parents again."
Hawk groaned and Henry laughed. This could be great fun. Also, it would be good to get them all planning on working in the house. Painting, cleaning, fixing. He'd make it an all-out GHOST project.
Tate chuckled as he left the room and Henry turned to his dad. "Sorry, Dad. But not really that much."
His dad circled his shoulders with a big beefy arm. "It's all good, Henry. This makes your mom happy, and I love her most when she's happy. Plus, I suspect you'll get some benefit out of having them all help you clean the place out."
He threw his head back and laughed. "I was just thinking that same thing."
His dad squeezed his shoulders and stepped back. "What were you off to do?"
"Oh, build a fire. Want to join me?"
"I'd love to. It's one of my specialties you know."
Laughing, Henry responded, "Oh, I'm aware. It's who I learned it from. Come on out and we'll set up the chairs and get the fire going. We can have a beer or two while we wait for the others to join us."
His dad chuckled. "That sounds like a plan."
14
Everleigh jotted questions she wanted to ask Carson Simek, then closed her notebook and tucked it into her laptop case. She hefted the strap over her shoulder and exited her room. She was excited to get to the meeting with Simek. But she was more excited to see Henry. Despite her sister's cautions to the contrary. Stepping off the elevator she sauntered into the breakfast area and made herself a bowl of oatmeal and picked up a ripe banana. Filling a cup of coffee, she set them all on the table closest to the window looking out over the woods in the back.
There were a couple of horses playing in a paddock not far away. Youngsters, jumping around and teasing each other. She laughed out loud as she watched them. A grown horse stepped between the playing foals, and they stopped jumping at each other and fell in line alongside her.
She wondered what Henry's horses would look like. She could imagine sitting on that generous wraparound porch on a warm summer evening watching them play. She'd always thought horses were graceful and sleek animals. Had her childhood been one like Henry's, she'd have had a horse growing up. Marina would have too.
"Looks like you're ready for the day."
She swiveled her head toward him at the sound of his voice. His deep, throaty, sexy voice. He looked...handsome. He wore black jeans, a black three button placket shirt, the sleeves stretched tightly around his biceps. His deep blue eyes set against the black eyelashes was picture worthy.
She blinked and masked her sigh. "I am. Just let me toss my empty bowl."
Standing, her knees shook slightly as she scrambled to the garbage can to toss her trash. Laying the tray on top of the can, she squirted hand sanitizer from the bottle hanging on the wall above the can. She hurried to her table and picked her laptop off the chair back and slung it over her shoulder as she neared him. She'd been acutely aware that his eyes followed her everywhere she went. She'd been watching him from the corner of her eye as well.
As he escorted her to his truck, she felt his hand press lightly at the small of her back and butterflies spun in her tummy. When he leaned forward to open the door for her the fresh scent of his aftershave circled around her, and she closed her eyes to memorize the scent. It was slightly intoxicating.
Moving toward the exit, she remembered his parents. "Did you have a nice night?"
His grin showed that dimple in his right cheek and she stared at the dazzling little divot. How could something like that make him sexier? She didn't know, but dammit, it did.
"We had a nice time. My mom let it slip that I'd bought the farm..." He turned and looked into her eyes. "So to speak." He chuckled, "So my entire company now knows. And the other women are planning a trip down to pick up the furniture inside."
Her stomach grew hot and heavy at the mention of the other women. It was a direct reminder that she didn't know anything about Henry, like, did he have a girlfriend? More than one?
Her voice sounded hoarse when she asked, "How many other women are you talking about?"
She cleared the lump in her throat and stared as he grinned again. "I guess four. I'm not sure if Elena will come with them, since it's safer for her here now. But, with the new baby, I doubt she'd make the trip."
