She frowned at him, caught off guard by the sudden shift in the subject.
Her breaths were still ragged from his proximity.
She forced herself to tame it.
They were friends. Best friends. He’d reiterated that fact so many times she knew there was no chance for them to be something more.
“What do you mean?”
He kind of shrugged. “I don’t know. Once you leave this town. Where do you see yourself?”
“Watching you play football in college?” She tried to say it light, but it was the truth. She wanted to be wherever he was.
His laugh was low, and he reached out and brushed a piece of her hair from her face. “Obviously. But beyond that. What do you want to be?”
She hadn’t really allowed herself to contemplate that. Or maybe some of her little girl dreams had died when her mother did. The grief blotting out everything else.
But she’d started to feel…different.
Better.
Hopeful.
“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll grow organic vegetables and fruit and sell them in a market.”
She once loved helping her mom tend to her garden. Both peaceful and nourishing. She wanted that again.
A smile tweaked the edge of his mouth. “And where would you have this market?”
She tried to picture it. Where she would be in ten years. “A small town maybe? In the mountains so I can live in a cabin.”
His grin grew. “It sounds like my Little Wallflower is still trying to hide.”
“I won’t be alone if you’re with me.”
Softness filled his features, those eyes flitting all over her face. “You want me to live in that cabin with you?”
“Who else is going to bring me Red Vines?” She rolled her eyes and tried to play it light while her pulse careened through her veins.
She wanted him to look at her that way again. The way he had just a moment before.
Not as a friend. But like…like he might kiss her.
“Guess I’ll have to build us one then.”
“You’re going to build it?”
He grinned and gestured at himself. “Built with love by Heartbreaker Cunningham LLC.”
She giggled. “You’re such a goober.”
His laugh was light before he asked, “What should it look like?”
Giddiness filled her spirit. “It’ll be simple. Out in the middle of nowhere. A pitched roof with a porch out front. Three bedrooms at least.”
“One for you, one for me. One for your sister?” he hedged.
Her stomach soured a bit. Hadley had been struggling. But not the way that Daisy had been.
