We move over toward the homemade wooden shelves lining the room, each of them stocked to the brim with supplies like canned food, bottled water, vacuum-packed bags of rice andflour. There is also a meager amount of medical supplies which I plan to add to.
I’m not a prepper by any means but since we started sorting through this place and Gramps’s belongings, it feels like something I should do. My brothers and I have talked about it and we all agree that it’s about keeping up the tradition of looking after future generations.
“How old were you when you started coming here?” she asks as I let her and urge her to explore.
“Eight, I think. Will had already been here by himself a few times, then our parents decided Case and I were old enough to join him.”
“Leaving little Jude and Abby at home?”
I laugh at Jude being called little because he’s six foot four without boots on and has always towered over all of us. “I can’t wait to tell him you called him that.”
“I didn’t mean he’s smallnow,” she replies as she makes her way over to a rickety-looking bookcase and runs her fingers over the dusty spines. She stops when she sees the stack of seen-better-days board games, some of them older than I am.
“This place is something else, Sutton.”
“You mean it’s like a tomb?” I joke.
She whirls around and shakes her head. “No. It’s like a memory vault. I can sense your grandfather in every part of this place. You can tell it was done with love and his family in mind.”
I look around and realize she’s right. “A different kind of time capsule,” I say quietly, seeing the bunker in a new light.
It’s a strange mix of practicality and comfort. Gramps was preparing for the worst while hoping for the best and collecting mementos from his time here as he went.
“Wait. Is that you?” she says, pointing at the far corner of the room where there are lines scratched into the wood.
I smile at the sight, remembering our surprise and grief when Will and I first saw it again. We got Jude and Case to come down and see it too, then we spent the rest of the day sharing all of our memories about Gramps and our time here while toasting him. It was like we held our own private wake for the man who did so much to frame the men we grew up to be.
It was a good day. I think it gave us the final push we needed to decide to stay here for good and not just the two years stipulated in the will.
“Yeah,” I chuckle. “After this place was built, we’d come down and put our heights on that wall at the end of every summer.”
She gasps and she slowly looks over her shoulder at me with a wry smile. “You guys updated it.”
I laugh, moving to stand behind her and reaching around to trace the new lines we added.
I don’t miss the way her breath catches or how she relaxes back into me, lightly pressing her back to my front, a warm buzz spreading between us from where we touch.
“There may have been a few drinks involved,” I say, taking in the sweet apple smell of her shampoo.
“Well, at least now we have proof. Jude isn’t definitely notlittleanymore.” she muses.
Slowly dropping my arms, I rest my hands on her hips and smile down at her when she turns in my arms and tilts her chin up. “Thank you for bringing me here, Sutton. You’ve given me another piece of you and I know that’s something you don’t give just anyone,” she says softly. “I hope you know it means a lot to me.”
The connection between us feels strong in this moment. Before Blair, the intensity of the situation might’ve triggered me but right now, I feel more comfortable than I’ve ever been. “I like havin’ you here. It feels right.”
“At the ranch or in your secret superhero lair?” she whispers with a twinkle in her eye.
My lips twitch as I let my gaze roam over her gorgeous face.God, I wish I could’ve talked to her back then. We could’ve had years of this…
Blair reaches up and runs her fingers between my scrunched brows, her touch relaxes and ignites me all at once. “Every time you think too hard, you get these two lines right here, and every time I see it, all I want to do is smooth them out just like this,” she whispers.
If she can be honest, then so can I. “And when you say somethin’ sweet like that, all I want to do is kiss you.”
A soft gasp escapes her parted lips and it’s then I know there’s no fighting it. No fighting whatever is growing between us, not that I want to. Right now, all I want to do is prove that I’m a man of my word.
Before I do that, I remember what I was going to ask her. “Will you be my date to the weddin’?”
She pulls her head back slightly, her expression soft and warm. Placing her palms over my racing heart, she melts against me. “I’d love to.”
