Jake shrugged. “I don’t forget so easily.”
The way he said it with that dashing smile of his made butterflies flutter in my stomach. It wasn’t something I should be feeling now. My focus had to stay on Max and Ben.
I grabbed my purse off the counter and held onto my coffee. “All right, let’s go look at these houses. I’m curious to see what your realtor found.”
Jake pointed out the window at his silver sports car. “There’s a folder in my car with all the prospects. I can drive us around to look at them and then drop you off at work if you want. That way, I can see Violet like I said I would.”
We walked out onto the front porch and I locked the door. Having him drive me around excited me more than it should. “Don’t you have other things you want to do besides chauffeuring me around?”
He jumped down the porch steps and laughed as he made his way to the car. “I don’t mind.”
When I opened the passenger’s side door and hopped in, it smelled brand new. “Okay,” I said, fastening my seatbelt. “If you want to drive me around in your fancy car, I won’t complain. Do you think the paparazzi will take photos of us?”
He turned on the ignition and it rumbled to life in that expensive, fast car way. “They were following me a lot after I ended things with Daphne. They thought I was seeing someone else and wanted to blast it all over social media, mainly to make it look like I cheated on her.” He reached behind my seat and pulled out a folder. “They lost interest when they realized there wasn’t a scandalous story they could exploit. I doubt any of them will show up here in Blowing Rock. Besides, I think it was Daphne’s PR people pushing the cheating story to get her more publicity. Now that she’s moved on to an NFL player, the paparazzi don’t mess with me.”
“Wow,” I said, completely flabbergasted. All of that happened because I said different things to him last Christmas Eve and changed his course. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
He shrugged it off and handed me the folder, his green gaze serious and determined. “In all honesty, it helped me. I know what I’m looking for now.”
“And that would be?” I asked.
All he did was grin and tap a finger on the folder. “I’m not going to bore you with that. Let’s just focus on finding me a house.”
“You could never bore me, Jake,” I assured him, opening up the folder. “But yes, let’s find you a house.”
Jake slowly drove us down my winding driveway to the main road. Inside the folder, there were about ten sheets of paper, allwith pictures of the houses and their specifications. I looked at them all but couldn’t see him living in any of them.
It only took a few minutes to get to the first one and Jake slowed down. It wasn’t a house; it was a mansion. All the houses his realtor gave him were ginormous.
Jake pulled into the driveway. “This one’s vacant but fully furnished for whoever buys it. Nobody will say anything about us sitting here.”
The house was gorgeous with its elegant rustic charm and stone exterior. It sat on almost four acres of land and had an amazing mountain view. According to the listing, it had five bedrooms and six bathrooms. What would one guy need with all of that?
“Jake, this isn’t you,” I said, nodding toward the house. Then, I held up the entire folder. “None of these are.”
He averted his gaze to the house and sighed. I could tell by the look on his face that he knew I was right. “I know. I thought that when she gave them to me.”
I closed the folder and placed it between our seats. “Tell your realtor that just because you can afford a multimillion-dollar house it doesn’t mean that’s what you want.”
He leaned back and sighed again, gazing at the house before us. “I’ve tried looking for what I wanted and couldn’t find anything. That’s why I hired a realtor.”
“What are you wanting?” I asked curiously.
A chuckle escaped his lips, and he turned to me. “Your cabin.”
I lifted my brows. “Think again, Jake. It’s not for sale. I don’t care if you offered me ten times the value.”
He stared at me incredulously. “I know, Lydia. I’m just saying that something like your grandparents’ place is what I’m looking for. It’s secluded and has one of the best mountain views around. It’s just the right size for a family.”
His words caught me off guard. “A family, huh? I was wondering when you’d want to settle down.”
“What about you?” he questioned. “I figured you would’ve been married and started having kids a long time ago.”
I snorted. “Believe me, I would’ve loved that, but the universe had other plans for me. However, it seems my luck has changed.”
“That’s right,” he said. “You have two dates this weekend. Do you think one of them could be theone?”
“I don’t know,” I ended up saying. “Guess we will see.” One of them had to be, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. “So, what are you going to do about your realtor?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
