“Okay.Thanks.”
“Sure.So,” he said, waving his hand toward the rest of the flowers in the back of my van.“What else is on your agenda today?”
“Oh, um, this is it.After I’m done here, I’m gonna head over to Mountain Home.I promised someone a game of Go Fish.”
Kicking the toe of his boot into the gravel and staring at the scattering rocks, he looked very lost on his family’s land.
“What brings you out here?”I asked.It seemed today I would have to wring conversation out of him.“You said you had to work today.”
He nodded.“Already did.Went in at four thirty.The boss gave me a key, if you can imagine that.Anyway, I was done with everything by ten.I’ve gotta run back over there this afternoon to help with a big delivery, but he told me to enjoy the rest of the day till then.
“I met my sister-in-law this mornin’, Devo.Do you know her?”
“Yeah, she’s a lot of fun.”
“Yeah?I don’t know about that.She kinda scares the shit out of me.She told me if I break her wife’s heart again, she’ll beat me up.”
I laughed, trying to picture tiny Devo Mescal-Lee pulling Dixon’s hair and pummeling him with her itty-bitty fists.I didn’t doubt she’d get the job done though.
“Other than that, she seems cool.”
“She is,” I said.“I’ve met her at several Wisper events.You won’t find anybody more dedicated to her community.”
He nodded again and tucked his hands in his front pockets, then lifted his chin toward the inn.“It’s crazy that’s here now.”
“It hadn’t been built last time you were home?”
“No.That was almost five years ago.I came up once or twice to check on Stu, but I didn’t talk to my family or look around much.”
That had to have been hard, but I didn’t say so, and neither did he.
I wasn’t sure if he was uncomfortable around me today for some reason or if he just felt out of place here at Lee Valley, but I knew I could help.
“Have you seen inside?It really is lovely in there.People come from all over to stay at the inn.Your brothers and Bea are the bosses, but they have a few really great employees.And the rooms are downright luxurious.”
“No,” he said.“Haven’t seen it.”
Had he not been invited to?But maybe with him coming home unexpectedly, his family just hadn’t thought to give him the tour yet.I could rectify that.
“C’mon.If you’re not busy till later this afternoon, I could use your help with the flowers, and then you could come with me to Mountain Home for a few hours.I’d love the company.”
He must’ve recognized the olive branch, because something in his aura eased, and his whole body relaxed right before my eyes.He smiled, and even though the dark clouds still loomed above us, it felt like the sun had come out just to shine down on me.
“Sure,” he said.“Love to.”He looked behind him at his still idling car.“Let me just park real quick.”
With the El Camino locked in the little parking area on the north side of the inn, Dixon followed me to the entrance.His footsteps behind me sounded a bit tentative.There was that hint again, a hint of the angst I’d noticed inside him when he felt like he didn’t belong somewhere.It was just a hush, but I heard it, just like I had the first night he came to my house.
Didn’t he know?He had always belonged wherever I was, and he always would.
He rushed in front of me to open the heavy wooden door, and as we stepped inside, his eyes widened.“Wow.”
“I know, right?It’s really nice.”
Following his line of sight, I tried to see the inn the same way he was seeing it for the first time.
The whole place had been built and lit expertly to seem open and bright during the day, and you couldn’t help but notice how the outside world snuck in through big windows and doors.Nature whispered in an old language, its voice the rhythm of the sounds of our steps on the real, knotty wood floors.The coolness of colors and textures and the warmth and life force of live plants argued playfully, creating the feeling of home.
Elk antlers were the focus of the front room.Collected after their shed and hung above an overlarge fireplace, they were a reminder of how dangerous and untouchable the wild surrounding the inn could be.But my flowers and other décor lent beauty and familiarity to the danger and made the reception room, which also functioned as something like an old-fashioned parlor, feel rich and warm.And in the evenings, the lights darkened, shading corners and hushing conversations, and it transformed the whole place into a sexy, secluded hideaway.
