Grace obeys. While she zippers up, I hear her voice in my head say,Everything I touch turns to gold. That’s what she told me earlier. Seeing her in just a cheap flannel shirt has her looking like a million dollars. Even when she touches me, I feel like a god. The fact that she’s even willing to attempt to help me lay grout or hang drywall has planted a little seed of hope in my heart. If someone like Grace is willing to put in the work to make my place a little better… then maybe Bear Creek Cabins has a chance to be saved.
“Come on.” I take her hand and go outside to the porch. “I want to show you something.”
Flurries fall as we head to my truck. Oscar hops in the bed, already anticipating the ride.
We set off down the dirt drive and I turn onto a lane that has tall grass and narrow tire tracks. “Seethat over there?” Grace looks out the window at what’s left of a treehouse I used to hunt in. “I got my first buck in that treehouse. Had my first kiss there too.”
“I’ve never been hunting.”
“Do you want to get into that?”
“I mean, I’ll shoot anything if the circumstances are right.”
Man, I love her responses. “Maybe I’ll take you next season.”
She flashes me a big smile. “Okay.”
It dawns on me a little too late that next season will be long after she’s gone from this place. Stop, Dean. Just pretend it can happen. Don’t piss all over this fantasy. “You’ll have to field dress the deer yourself though. That’s the rule.”
“You mean gut it?”
“Mmm hmm.”
Grace shrugs. “Okay.”
Imagining this pristine, posh creature getting bloody makes my dick hard.
I think I’ve got issues.
“See that bridge over there?” I point ahead of us. “My great grandfather built it and after he died, my grandpa made the roof.”
She grins. “It’s beautiful.”
“Every five years, we would pick a new color to paint it.” My smile hurts a little thinking about that being another project I have on my plate this spring. I don’t want to paint over his color, but I also don’t want to break tradition.
“What color do you think you’ll do next?”
“No idea.” Right now, the red reminds me of his favorite shirt that had a black lab embroidered on the pocket. “Maybe blue.”
“That would be lovely. Blue’s my favorite color.”
Then I’m definitely going with blue. Probably the shade of Grace’s eyes, if I’m willing to torture myself.
She turns to me, that sunshine smile of hers still blazing. “I’ll help you paint it.”
No, she won’t, but I’m not going to say that. “Not afraid of heights, are you?”
“No. I live in a penthouse just for the bird's-eye view. I’m used to heights.”
She says it so matter-of-factly, like anyone can have a home like that if they’re in the mood. I’m happy she has that luxury. “Bet your place is bright and sunny like you, isn’t it?”
“It’s boring, really. And messy since I let my maid go.”
“Why’d you do that?”
“It was time to start living like a boss bitch.”
I don’t get it. “Wouldn’t a boss bitch have a maid?”
