I can feel James’s heavy gaze but can’t bring myself to look at him and read his thoughts about my declaration. It’s one I made for myself last year, and I haven’t regretted it yet.
Tommy watches me for a long, silent moment, glances at James, then stands, smoothing out the wrinkles of his pants. “All right. A new bump in the road for me, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to give up yet.”
“Really?” Shock has to be written all over my face.
“Sure.” He grins. “I can woo. I can do old-fashioned romance.”
My chin rests against my fist. “And what if I’m celibate for another month? A year?! Just how long are you willing to woo me?”
“We’ll see, won’t we? I don’t owe you a time frame.” He winks and I swear I’d want to kick any other man. Tommy, though, is just harmless enough to pull off a comment like that and still make me laugh.
I put my hand over my heart. “I’m touched by your devotion.”
“Oh, just you wait. The best is yet to come,” he says, giving a final Tommy Smirk before pulling his glasses down over his eyes and pushing his hand through his rich blond locks. James and I follow Tommy out the back door and watch wordlessly as he speeds off down the driveway, honking several times with his middle finger out the window.
“There is really no one quite like Tommy, is there?” I say and James gives an annoyed grunt beside me.
And just like that, James and I are alone.
I look down, shoving my hands into my pockets, feeling awkward and unsure what to do next.
But the gravel crunches as James’s boots shift, facing me. “Madison May Walker. Are you ready to see your new place?”
And yes, that is my actual middle name.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Madison
“Close your eyes,” James commands from the driver’s seat of his truck before we go.
Apparently the greenhouse is within walking distance from the main house, but it’s a little far when also toting all my luggage . . . plus Sammy.
“Why do I have to close my eyes?”
“Because I want it to be a surprise. Come on, close ’em.”
I comply but also drape my arm out the window because I can’t get enough of the fresh air. Dogs have the right idea—I need to hang my body out and feel the wind tug at my skin.
As we amble down the gravel drive, I relax with my head against the headrest. “I didn’t think you were a surprises kind of guy.”
He’s silent for a beat, then, “One year at Christmas, when I was like ten years old, I snooped in my parents’ room and found all my Christmas presents because I couldn’t stand the wait. But then when Christmas rolled around, I opened everything and was sodisappointed because I already knew what they were. I got everything I wanted that year, but it ended up being the worst Christmas ever. That’s when I realized, I like the surprise more than the present. So yeah, keep those eyes closed.”
Against my best efforts, I’m charmed. How can I have known James all this time and also not know that he’s a little squishy on the inside? It makes me wonder how many other things I’m missing from the James Huxley essentials.
“So tell me about the greenhouse.” I tilt my face in his direction, eyes closed tight.
“What do you want to know?”
“The history? It’s old, right?”
He laughs lightly. “Yeah. We always just called it Granny’s greenhouse, which I think gives people the wrong impression that maybe it was some little hobby of hers. But actually the entire farm belonged to her first. She inherited it from her parents. My grandad only started working on the farm after he married her. So this greenhouse was actually the main growing hub for a long time. We only stopped using it after a storm came through and damaged it to where it made more sense to build a new one with a more modern design and better technology than to fix this one back up.”
“But you never wanted to knock it down?”
He huffs out a breath and I imagine it comes with a grin. “After Granny passed, none of us had the heart to do it. What does it say about us that we’d rather watch something crumble and rot than risk losing her memory by getting rid of it?”
“That you’re a family of sentimental softies.” Turns out, I’m one too. When I was in New York, I missed all those little reminders of my family’s history. They were keeping me warm all along and I didn’t even realize it. “I’m glad you’re bringing it back to life. What gave you the idea to do it?”
