Once I get out of the main part of town, it’s nothing but lush, green trees reaching their mossy branches into a canopy overhead. The afternoon sunlight is dripping with humidity and warmth and the breeze in through the windows only accentuates the smell of sun laden grass and fresh air. We only pass a few other cars the entire way to Tanner’s. It’s just us and the bumpy road.
“Remember,” I call back to Winnie. “We need to be on our best behavior, because we are?—”
“Girls?”
“No, I mean we are, but guests. We are Tanner’s guests, and we want to be respectful.”
“Okay. And manners, right?”
“Yes. And manners.”
The first building we pass in a while is Morton's Bar, where Rhett’s sister, Gwen, works. It hardly constitutes as a building, but even this early in the evening, the parking lot is packed, and the neon sign glows like it’s the midwestern pearly gates.
Just past a small blue ranch with big flower baskets hanging over the porch, my phone points me up an almost hidden gravel road. Each side of the narrow path is covered with thick brush and trees. The sound of crackling gravel and sticks snapping under my wheels follows me as I wind my way up the hill.
After a final curve, the property comes into view, and I slow my car to a stop. Up to the right is a small white house with a deck that stretches from corner to corner and homes two rockingchairs. Wind chimes hang from the ceiling alongside some young bright green ferns that are still too small to really provide any shade.
The house faces the yard and I’m imagining an evening spent in a rocking chair looking out at this property. I’m sure the bugs are loud up here and the sky is clearer. It feels like the sun has settled in the trees, keeping an extra eye on this little hilltop. Just beyond a bunch of wild-flowers, I see a chicken coop and free roaming chickens. Broken fences, empty water troughs, animal stalls, and flowers. Flowers everywhere. The sun casts golden beams across the grass, flowering bushes and the old, rusted farming equipment.
“Mommy what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I shake my head. “It’s just so pretty.”
Winnie slips out of the car and dashes up to the front door. When Tanner and I talk on the phone at night, I'm not exactly sure what I was imagining, but I don’t know if a place this magical could have been dreamt up. It’s open and bright and warm all the same. The years have worn it down, but they have been kind in doing so.
“Hey, you.”
I look up and find Tanner on the front deck, holding the screen door open. He has a towel over his shoulder, and though Winnie runs ahead and ducks under his arm, my feet remain stuck to the ground.
“This is…” I try to speak but my voice trails off as I look back at the land.
“A work in progress,” he finishes with a low laugh.
“Unbelievable.” I get my feet to move, and cross the driveway over to him. “It’s beautiful, Tanner.”
“Dollie wanted to offload it and just keep her little blue ranch down the road. I don’t think anyone else saw the potential.”
When my eyes find his again, I catch them raking up and down my body.
“That dress.” He shakes his head.
“No truce, no peace,” I tell him and begin to walk past him.
He reaches out for me, gently grabbing me by my elbow as I step by him. He pauses then nods his head. “Hm.”
“What?”
“You smell good.”
I force my heels into the deck, so I don’t lift myself up to meet his lips.
“Come in.” He steps back, making the tiniest bit of space for me.
Wordlessly, I slip past him into a narrow hallway with white plank-paneled walls and old, natural coarse-grained hardwood floors. Each step creaks as I move through the hallway and into the kitchen that looks half as ancient as it does restored. Everything is in the process of being loved.
The living room to the right has an old leather couch that has seen better days, with a beige serape blanket flung over the back. There’s no T.V., but there is a half-completed puzzle on the coffee table that Winnie is inspecting with Lauren. The home smells of rain, cedar, dinner, and Tanner.
“You okay?” He comes up behind me and his words are soft, just for me to hear.
