“Yeah, he does know me too well.”
BANG BANG BANG!
I startle at the sound of heavy knocking and fall off the edge of the borrowed bed where I’ve been sleeping. I land on the carpet in a crumpled heap of warm blankets and fuzzy pajamas. It’s dark outside.Someone is going to die.
I scramble to my feet with all of the grace of a person who was in a deep sleep moments ago, and stumble to my bedroom door, swinging it open. “What—”
And there’s Joe, sporting my favorite look: plain gray t-shirt stretched over his shoulders, hair slightly damp from a recent shower, and a crooked grin that will forever make my knees weak.
“Get dressed, Fox. I’ll wait outside.” He presses a kiss to my forehead and spins toward the front door of Mercer and Sunny’s condo.
I’m frozen in place, staring after him as he goes.What is happening?My brain is still booting up. I need to get dressed. That’s what Joe said. My sleep-foggy brain can follow that one direction. I throw on a simple sundress because it’s easy, brush my teeth, and comb my hair with my fingers, letting the auburn waves swing around my shoulders. Eight minutes later I’m buckled into Joe’s Bronco, where he has a cherry Coke waiting for me.
Man of my dreams,I think, taking a long pull of the drink so that my brain can start firing on all cylinders.
“What’s up, Obbs?” My voice is still rough from sleep.
“Not much, just wanted to see you and thought we could go for a drive,” he says as the Bronco roars to life.
The side eye I give him has the strength to knock him through the driver’s side door. “At 6:48 in the morning?”
He shrugs. He’s smiling a lot. I take another long drink of my soda and squint my suspicious eyes at him over the rim of my cup. The bubbles and caffeine are starting to wake up my brain.
We pull onto a road I’ve never seen that leads away from civilization and into the desert. There are sheer coral cliffs to the north and miles of sagebrush. We take a dirt road that opens to an area with a dry creek bed lined with tall cottonwood trees.
“Give me one minute,” he says after parking the Bronco under the trees. There’s a nip in the air when Joe opens his door and I realize I should have brought a jacket. Fall in the desert sneaks up on a gal.
The sky is turning pink on the horizon when Joe leads me around to the back of the Bronco. The tailgate is down and covered with a few blankets, a stack of papers rolled into a tube, and a picnic basket. I’m not sure what Joe is up to, and these clues leave me feeling more confused than anything. Except the picnic basket—Joe knows me well enough now that he usually includes food when he surprises me.
“What are you on about, sir?” I ask in a truly awful English accent that I pray masks the hope in my voice. I can guess what he’s on about, but I’ll feel silly if I’m wrong.
One side of his mouth tips up. “I think you know.” He squeezes my waist with his capable hands and lifts me onto the tailgate in one quick motion. We’ve had many picnics on this tailgate and my heart skips a beat every time he pulls this move. He wraps one of the blankets around my shoulders and tugs the sides together in front of me, holding me in place. He stands between my knees, leaning in until our lips are inches apart. “Warm enough?”
I nod and he settles beside me, opening the picnic basket. “First thing’s first,” he says, removing a simple breakfast from the basket.
“Smart man.” I sigh as I bite into my breakfast sandwich. Joe makes the best fried-chicken-on-a-biscuit, and the view from this spot is incredible. It’s the perfect combination. I sigh again out of pure contentment. We eat in silence for a few minutes as the sky grows bright around us. The sun will be up soon. The suspense is terrible. I know he has more planned and I’m gulping down my food so he’ll get on with it.
“I love your biscuits.” I swallow my last bite and catch him holding back a grin.
“Oh, I know you do.” He winks and wraps his free arm around my shoulders. “But I didn’t bring you up here for breakfast. I’m trying to butter you up.”
“Consider me buttered.”
“Okay.” He puts our napkins in the basket and digs around. Evidently he finds what he’s looking for and turns to face me. His dark eyes flicker over my face and land on my lips. He shakes his head slightly and his eyes find mine. “First, I have something to show you.” He unrolls the long tube of paper and I see architectural drawings. They're house plans.
“What is that?”Is that what I think it is?!
“It’s a house. My mom’s not going anywhere, and I’m going to need a bigger place now. So, I bought this land and I’m building this house on it. What do you think?”
“What do I think? It’s… I love it.” Because the house is beautiful. It has a wrap-around porch and dormer windows. It’s not even built and it already looks like a home I’d envy. “You bought this land? As in, the spot we’re sitting on?”
“I did. Do you like it?” He seems nervous.
“Well, the view is mediocre,” I say, as the sun bathes the red rocks in golden morning light. “But you can make it work.”
He chuckles, “I hope so, because there’s more.”
I nod, encouraging him to go on.
