“Take care of this for me?”
“From the very beginning, I told you I would protect your water wheel. And while this might not have been what I had in mind, I want to make good on that. You run yourself ragged taking care of this place. Let me take on some of the burden.”
I blink, my gaze stuck on his. “Okay.”
“You’re going to let me help you?”
“Just a little. Just with this.”
He grins. “You like me.”
“You’re alright,” I say with a noncommittal shrug that earns me a kiss on the cheek.
“Can I help with the barn before I head out?”
I shake my head. “No, you’ll probably just slow me down.”
“Well, I’ll at least carry all this over for you. You look like you’re about to topple over,” he says.
I give him a flat look.
“Not that you would because you’re a little mini Hulk, but can you please let me feel like I’m not ditching you to take care of the barn all on your own despite the fact that I’m actually ditching you to take care of your water wheel all on my own?”
I narrow my eyes, debating this. “Fine.”
He gives me a grin and a kiss on the cheek as he takes everything out of my arms. “Thank you.”
I let out a long sigh. “I wish everyone begged me to take on my work.”
He gives me a cocky nod. “I’ll let you beg me later.”
I roll my eyes, trying and failing to suppress my laughter as I gesture for him to lead the way. We head down the dirt road to the barn, cutting through the first floor, and climb the stairs to the loft. He leaves the cleaning supplies on the small kitchen counter and the linens on the armchair by the water wheel outlet.
And before I can process what he’s doing, he strips the bed down and gathers the blankets in his arms. “I’ll take these back to the house and start a load?”
I nod, pressing a kiss to his cheek before he leaves. “Thank you.”
I finish cleaning up the barn and make it back down to the road just as Sana and Rohan pull in the driveway. I beckon them forward, abandoning the sheets and cleaning supplies on the ground by the stairs and meeting them at the car.
I lead them upstairs, running through my normal spiel of amenities that guests can use. Remind them that they can always come knock on my door. Insist that they pick a few bouquets of sunflowers to take back with them before they go.
And as I head toward the tub, waxing poetic about sunsets over the fields, I see something out of the corner of my eye. Movement, up on the hill by the cabins.
I can’t tell if it’s a trick of the light or if I reallydidsee someone walking around the side of the cabin, but I find myself taking a step closer, squinting in an attempt to get a better look.
But unless I’m going to clean the glass and press my face to it, I’m not going to see anything more than I already did.
And if it’s a person, like I thought I saw, chances are good that they’re already gone.
37
RYDER
Iplug the first address from Sana’s report into my GPS. As much as I want to take the information I have and get Evie’s water wheel fixed, I feel like it wouldn’t be right to charge forward without thoroughly investigating every piece of information Sana was able to give me. She did her detective work from a distance, but now that I’m here, it’s time to take a look at what she could only glance at from satellite imagery.
My GPS tells me I’m seventeen minutes away, so it’s likely on the opposite side of town.
But as I follow the route, entering narrower and narrower roads that aren’t taking me anywhere near the center of town, I start to wonder where the bounds of Sunflower Hill really lie. Because I can circle it on a map. Tell you the exact highways that split Sunflower Hill from Lavender Springs or Daisy Lake or Poppy Valley, but these roads take me somewhere I’ve never been before.
