“Grand babies,” Everly agreed.
Chapter 6
Barron pulled up and parked his truck beneath his raised house. “I’m’a come around and open your door,” he said as he took the keys out of the ignition and opened his own door, using his booted foot to keep it from swinging back toward him while he glanced in the backseat at the bags Emmalyn had brought. “Then I’m gonna grab your stuff.”
“I’m pretty sure I can handle my own door, if you could just help me get some of my stuff.”
“Alright,” Barron said. He reached over the bench seat of the truck and grabbed three of her five bags.
Emmalyn reached over the seat and shook her head when she realized he’d grabbed the three heaviest of the five. “I can get some of them, too, you know?”
“I left you two.”
“You left me my backpack, and my makeup bag.”
“And?” he asked as he kicked the door closed, one of her bags hanging off his shoulder, another in each hand.
“Nothing. Let’s just go inside,” she said as she started up the wooden staircase right beside the truck. It led up to the porch and the front door, and put them out just a couple of feet from the door. She shifted her makeup bag to her other hand to reach out and turn the doorknob, expecting it to open. But it didn’t.
“Sorry,” Barron said from behind her, nudging her out of the way. “It’s locked.”
“I see that. Is there a problem?”
“No,” he said, putting down one of her bags to fish a house key out of his pocket. “Me and Brandt live right here on the water. Anybody could easily come up and let themselves in looking for shelter or a bathroom or something. You can’ttell from the looks of it that it’s actually a development with multiple homes. It looks like camps out here by themselves. So, we started locking our doors,” he said as he opened the door, stepped inside and flipped on the light as he stood there, blocking the doorway.
Emmalyn stood impatiently behind Barron, now holding one of the bags that he’d put down, along with the other smaller items she’d carried. She couldn’t help but notice that he was intentionally blocking her entrance, his face turned up while his nose twitched as he scented the air.
“Alright,” he finally said, “come on in. Welcome. It’s your home as much as mine. Make yourself comfortable. There’s nothing you can’t do or see, so snoop all you want, change whatever you want.”
Emmalyn stepped past him. “I don’t snoop.”
Barron snorted a doubtful laugh. “Yeah, okay,” he said, smirking to himself as she walked past him and he grabbed the other bags and closed and locked the door.
“You gonna start already?” she asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
“No, ma’am. Not me,” he said. “You hungry?”
“Not really. I could eat, though.”
“Same. Let me see what I can find to throw together.”
“Where do you want me to put my things?”
Barron turned and looked at her. “Where they belong.”
“Where is that?” she asked.
“With mine, Emmalyn. In the master suite. It’s on the other side of the living room. Got a small guest room right here behind the kitchen, but ours is on the other side of the house.”
Emmalyn stood where she was, looking into his eyes. “I know where your bedroom is — remember?”
Barron nodded, turning away from her to walk into the kitchen. “I do,” he said, opening the fridge to dig around in it.
“You’re sure you want my stuff in there? I can just as easily take the guest room.”
Barron straightened up suddenly. “Are we trying to do this or not?” he snapped.
“We are,” she snapped back. She lifted the bags she still held to indicate her things being moved in to his house.
