“It was nice to meet you,” she said.
“Yep,” Lila said. “Nice to meet you, too,” Walker said.
He was definitely the one with the most in the way of people skills.
And she found that a little off-putting at this moment in time.
They walked out of the house, onto the porch, and she was stunned, yet again, by the gorgeous view.
“This is just incredible,” she said.
He cleared his throat and walked down the steps. “Let’s just walk down the trail to the barn. The truck is back behind there.”
“Oh. All right.”
The wind felt thin and cool, and she had to wrap her arms around herself to keep from shivering, even with her light sweater on, even with the sun shining like it was.
It was nice, though. Nice to feel something other than the riot of competing emotions inside of her. Nice to feel something that wasn’t quite so confusing.
At least for a little while.
“I can see why this is becoming such a popular tourist spot,” she said.
Even though the chilly air was a nice distraction, silence felt a little bit too uncomfortable. Because silence meant that it was far too easy to look at the broad line of his back, his shoulders, the way that his muscular body tapered to a slim waistand hips, and… Well, she was trying really hard not to look at his butt.
She was failing.
It was just so easy and so delightful to look at him like this. He had an easy gait, and she liked the swagger that he moved with.
And yet, for all that, he wasn’t cocky.
Certain, yes, but it wasn’t that overdone confidence that young men had, or men who didn’t quite have the courage of their convictions, whatever those might be.
She might not know what Cody felt about everything, like why exactly he wanted to do the resort, why this place mattered to him, why making money meant something, but she knew that it meant something to him.
There was an untamed quality to him, and yet even within that, there was something certain and settled, which was an odd combination of traits, but he wore both with ease.
She could see him easily disappearing into the wilderness and never speaking to another human being again.
She could also see that he was the glue that held his family together.
“Yeah, it’s funny. I’ve lived here my whole life, so I can’t say that I stop and look at the beauty of it all the time. But whenever I’m with somebody who hasn’t been here before, it forces me to look at it with new eyes.”
“Yeah. I’m from a beautiful farming community in Vermont. It’s gorgeous. So green and bright. Lovely back roads and trees that turned the most brilliant orange in the fall, but when I was younger all I could think was that it was such a boring place to live.”
Another thing that was a bit more complicated than that, but there was no use getting into it.
“I share that feeling. So, you’re from a small town?”
“Yes. Smaller than this one, as a matter of fact.”
“I had a particular image of you, since when we spoke, obviously, you were in New York.”
“Yeah. Well, not really a city girl. I’m not sure that I’m a country girl either, but I’m used to both. And other things in between. Obviously, being in tourism, I’ve been in places that balloon in certain times of the year.”
“We have a big summer crowd, and winter. It’s freezing in the winter, but there are so many outdoor sports. That’s the big draw,” he said.
“Unsurprising.”
