Chapter 4
A woman’s shriek startled Lincoln awake just as he was finally dropping off to sleep sometime around midnight. He was on his feet and over to the window in a heartbeat, pushing up the sash. He’d decided to spend the night next door to number37 in house number35, just in case Charlotte needed anything. Earlier in the evening, he and Nate had lugged over the mattress from Lincoln’s childhood bed as well as some bedding from his parents’ linen closet so she could spend a comfortable night in her potential new home. Luckily, the electricity and water had already been turned on to the houses in Lucy’s Corner because he and his brothers had been cleaning them in preparation for selling them. Lincoln had done his best to arrange the bed nicely for Charlotte and had run back for a bedside lamp, some towels and washcloths and anything else he could think of that would make the house more comfortable. Later, he’d found a sleeping bag and foam mat from his camping days and set up Spartan quarters for himself next door .
“Charlotte? You okay?” he called across the distance between their houses. He’d noticed earlier that she’d left her bedroom windows open and hoped she could hear him inside her room.
He held his breath, his heart racing, until her answer came. “Yes. Stubbed my toe on the way back from the bathroom.”
“Turn on your light.”
A moment later, the light came on and Charlotte appeared at her window. He made a motion for her to open it wider, and she did.
“I can’t believe you heard me from over there,” she said.
“It’s a warm night. My window was open, too. Is your toe okay?”
“Yes. I didn’t hit it that hard. I’ll be fine.” She sighed. “I can’t sleep, though. I was exhausted when I went to bed, but as soon as I turned out the light, I became wide awake. It’s being in a new place.” She craned her head as if to look in his window. “I thought you told me you lived in the house where you grew up. What are you doing over there?”
“I thought I ought to stay close by—just in case.”
“In case of what?”
“In case you got scared in the middle of the night. Thought it might be a little spooky with so many uninhabited houses around.”
“I don’t get scared that easy.”
“Glad to hear it.” He’d enjoyed his day with Charlotte. After their tour, he’d gone to the mill for a couple of hours of work, and Charlotte had explored on her own until dinnertime, when they’d met up again and eaten with the others.
At dinner Nate presented Charlotte with the paperwork for her house. She’d read it over while she ate, agreed to the terms and then fished out a dollar from her purse. They’d need to finalize the paperwork with a notary in town, but they’d broken out a couple of six-packs, and everyone had toasted Charlotte, then taken turns coming up with ideas for how she could renovate her new house. All too soon, Charlotte had gently let them know she was tired and ready to be on her own.
“I’m not sleepy either,” he said to Charlotte now and thought a moment. “We could take a walk if you want. Go down to the beach for a few minutes and look at the stars. See if the night air tires us out so we can get some shut-eye later.”
Charlotte considered that idea. “That sounds… nice,” she said slowly. “You’re not an ax murderer, are you?”
“Nope.”
“The problem is if you were an ax murderer, that’s what you’d say.”
“Guess you’re going to have to trust me. Or you could call Amanda and ask her,” Lincoln said.
“It’s pretty late for that. Besides, she already told me you were harmless.”
Lincoln laughed. “Not sure if harmless is the word for me, but I’ll take it. Meet you in five minutes?”
“Okay.”
When Charlotte withdrew from the window, Lincoln hurried to pull on jeans and a T-shirt, gathered up a couple of blankets and the mini cooler of beer and snacks he’d brought over from his parents’ house. Outside a few minutes later, he crossed to her porch and waited until she opened the door. She’d slipped on jeans and a shirt, as well, and had braided her hair.
“I feel like I’m sneaking out and I’m going to get in trouble if my grandmother catches me,” she said.
Lincoln knew what she meant. He had gotten in trouble plenty of times for escapades like that when he was a kid.
“Gage, Nate and Hudson are staying in number1, so we’ll have to be quiet as we pass by on the way to the beach,” he warned her.
She nodded. Starlight filtering through the trees gave them enough light to navigate by. They cut through the neighborhood, crossed the Circle and took the path around the side of number1 that ran along a fern garden and down some stone steps to the beach.
Charlotte slipped off her shoes as soon as they reached the sand, and he joined her, the shifting surface cool beneath his bare feet. He laid one of the blankets on the sand close to the water, and when she sat down, he arranged the other over her knees.
“Don’t want you to be cold,” he said.
“You think of everything.”
“I do my best.”
He popped the tops off two bottles of beer, handed one to Charlotte, then opened the bag of chips .
“You’re amazing.” She reached a hand in. “Oh my goodness. Salt.” She took a swig of her beer. “This is fantastic.”
Lincoln couldn’t help laughing. “Anyone ever tell you you’re a cowboy’s dream girl?”
She smiled, and he was grateful for the moonlight that allowed him to see her expression. “Are you a cowboy?”
“No. We never had cattle on the Ridge—too steep up here. Most guys in Chance Creek would answer yes, though. If you’re shopping for one, that’s the place to go.”
“I never thought about hooking up with a cowboy.”
“What kind of man have you thought about hooking up with?”
When she looked at him, Lincoln’s body tightened with desire. Had she thought about him?
He’d thought about her plenty today—especially after he’d turned in for the night.
She shrugged. “What about you?”
Deflecting the question. Fair enough, he supposed, although he’d already told her he was planning to make a move on her. He thought about his last girlfriend. What type had Katie been? Flaky as hell? That wasn’t what he was looking for these days. “I guess I want someone who knows herself. Someone with staying power.” He said the words lightly, but the truth of them went all the way down to his soul. “I plan to settle here at Elliott Ridge—for good. I want a woman who can commit to that, too. Who can commit to me that way.”
She was silent. Had she just crossed him off her list of potential candidates? Was she afraid of commitment?
“You know yourself well,” was all she said.
“I hope so. I’m thirty-two.”
“I’m twenty-eight,” she said. “And I thought I knew exactly what I wanted in life, but I was so wrong about all of it. Now I don’t know what to think.”
He had a lot of questions he wanted to ask her. He decided to start with a simple one. “Did you come here to get away from your memories of your family?”
Her face was a pale oval in the dim light as she shook her head. “To get away from my ex-boyfriend,” she admitted. “It was… messy. I didn’t break up with just him. I broke up with my whole life. My plans and dreams. Everything I’d been working for.”
“Sounds rough.” She hadn’t mentioned a boyfriend before and Lincoln wondered what else he’d gotten wrong about her. Was there a chance she’d want to return to her prior relationship?
“It was rough,” she said. “I was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and the wrong man made me both his girlfriend and his employee. Then it all went to hell.” She lifted her hands. “I can’t believe I wasted a minute on that relationship, let alone two years.”
“Are you sure it’s over?” He didn’t want to ask the question, but he had to know.
“I’m positive.” She sounded sure of that and Lincoln relaxed. “I need a new set of dreams, though.”
“You’ve come to the perfect place for that. You can start over here on the Ridge. Do anything you want. You don’t even have to be a veterinarian if you don’t want to be. Maybe you’d like working at a mill. Or running a hotel.”
She thought that over. “I definitely want to be a veterinarian but not the kind of veterinarian I was before.”
“What kind were you?” he asked softly.
Charlotte was quiet for so long, he thought she might not answer. Had her boyfriend owned a clinic and employed her to work in it?
“I was in charge of keeping about twenty thoroughbreds healthy enough to win their races. Or to make them able to race even when they weren’t healthy enough. I’m not going to do that anymore.” Charlotte’s voice went flat, and he heard the hurt and anger she was trying not to show.
Lincoln lay back on the blanket and linked his fingers behind his head, knowing he’d just learned something important. Her ex-boyfriend had enough money to own racehorses and to employ her to work with them. And he was enough of a bastard to mistreat his animals.
“No one around here would make you do something like that. Anyone who did would have to answer to me. There’s the Big Dipper,” he added, keeping his tone even. He hadn’t known Charlotte long, but the way she’d focused on his horses earlier, he could tell she loved them. He couldn’t imagine her standing by and allowing an animal to be hurt. A man was supposed to protect the woman he loved, not ask her to ride roughshod over her values in the service of making him money.
How wealthy did you have to be to own twenty thoroughbreds? Suddenly the debt his family owed seemed like a crushing weight. Why would Charlotte want to be with him after experiencing that kind of luxury? He couldn’t offer her thoroughbreds or a mansion or fancy vacations to Paris…
Lincoln took a steadying breath. He could offer her the Ridge, though. A home. A family who’d rally around her. Charlotte had left her boyfriend, wealthy or not. She was here—with him.
After a moment Charlotte lay back, too, and sighed. “I see it.”
They pointed out constellations to each other for a while. When she shivered, Lincoln adjusted the second blanket to cover them both.
“Are you comfortable?” he asked. He reached an arm out. “Put your head on my shoulder. Don’t worry; I won’t push my luck.” He waited and was rewarded when she shifted nearer and fit herself against him. Warmth flooded his body. God, she felt good there.
“My brothers and I slept outside all the time in the summer when we were kids.” Lincoln struggled to keep his desire for her out of his voice.
“It must have been wonderful growing up here.” She wriggled a little to get comfortable, and his blood heated. It was hard to keep from drawing her closer.
“It was.”
“Why did everyone leave?”
He hated to even remember those days. “Price of lumber fell. And kept falling. Everyone who lived here worked in the mill or to support those who did. Dad kept having to lay people off. He was having health issues, too. In the end we couldn’t keep it all going.”
There was a lot more to it than that, but he didn’t want to talk about it tonight. Not with this beautiful woman snuggled up beside him.
“Are there ghosts here?” she asked.
Lincoln snapped out of the reverie he’d fallen into. “Ghosts?”
“Memories,” she amended. “You lived here most of your life. It can be wonderful to go home, but sometimes it’s tough, too. Like a butterfly trying to fit back into its cocoon.”
“Sometimes it feels like that,” he said and drew her in a little closer. “How’d you know?”
“It was like that when I spent time with my grandmother after I moved out. She was the one who raised me after my parents died, and she was great, but it felt like she wanted me to stay that little girl I’d been when I first moved in. All bright and shiny and innocent.”
“You’re not bright and shiny and innocent?”
“No.” She nestled against him. “This is nice,” she said.
Lincoln noticed she didn’t elaborate on her answer. He decided to let it go for now. “It is nice,” he agreed. He was dying to kiss her, but this was Charlotte’s first day on the Ridge. He’d convinced her to come and look at the place—or Amanda had, anyway—and he’d convinced her to buy a house and stay here. He’d held her hand, and now he was lying beside her on the beach. Trying for more seemed like a good way to lose the ground he’d gained. He could be patient.
Even if it killed him.
Charlotte had no idea what time it was when they decided to pack it in. At some point she dozed off and woke to find herself still tucked against the length of Lincoln’s body. More than once she thought about what she’d do if he tried to kiss her.
Let him, most likely.
Kiss him back.
She appreciated that he hadn’t tried anything, though. As easy as it might have been to act on her feelings for him, it would have made the night less special. The togetherness she felt simply sharing a starry sky touched her on a soul level. Lincoln had been respectful of her in a way she doubted Ivan could even fathom.
Lincoln helped her to her feet, shook out the blankets and balled them under one arm with their beer bottles and the half-empty chip bag. When he took her hand, his fingers were warm around hers, and she was glad for the connection. Once more, they passed number1 as quietly as they could and strolled back through town.
At her door Lincoln squeezed her hand and let go. “I hope you get some more sleep. Don’t feel like you have to get up early in the morning. If you miss breakfast, just make yourself at home in the town hall kitchen when you’re ready and whip up anything you like. I’ll be at the mill.”
“Thanks.” She hesitated, not wanting the night to end and, if she was honest with herself, not wanting to try once more to sleep in her big, empty house. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Ivan’s expression the day she’d learned he’d torpedoed her attempt to escape. The smug satisfaction on his face. The cold glint in his eyes. Every rustle of the wind through the trees outside her window had left her tense with fear, despite what she’d told Lincoln earlier. What if Ivan came after her? What if he found her somehow?
Lincoln hesitated, too, as if he knew she wanted to ask him something. He was a gentleman, and he wasn’t going to invite himself in. If she wanted his company—or his protection from the things that went bump in the night—she’d have to speak up.
Wouldn’t it be foolish to invite one man in to protect her from another? Especially since there was no way Ivan could trace her here? What if she’d misjudged Lincoln, and he attacked her during the night?
Charlotte supposed if he was going to try something like that, he would already have done so. He’d proven himself to be an honorable man so far.
“Would you mind… sleeping here tonight? In one of the spare rooms,” she finally asked. She wasn’t inviting him into her bed, no matter how nice it had felt to cuddle with him on the beach. Much too soon for that.
“You sure you’ll be comfortable with me in the house?” He leaned against the doorframe and surveyed her.
“You’re the lesser of two evils. The devil I know versus the devil I don’t.” When he raised an eyebrow, she added, “It’s going to take a little time to get used to this place, okay? It’s so… quiet.”
“It is. Give me a minute.” He slipped away and quickly returned with his things, but already Charlotte was second-guessing herself. She opened her mouth to say she’d changed her mind, but Lincoln beat her to it.
“I’m not reading anything into this,” he assured her. “You’re new to the Ridge. You’re feeling a little skittish. People are like horses; they’re meant to have a herd.”
Tears pricked Charlotte’s eyes at his understanding. Grateful for his kindness, she said, “That’s it exactly.” She took a deep breath and led him upstairs to one of the bedrooms she wasn’t using. “You can stay in here.”
He nodded, but before she left the room, he added, “You’re safe, Charlotte, from whatever critters might be out there and from me. You know I’m interested, but we’re going to take this at your pace. We’ve got all the time in the world. Get some sleep, okay?”
“Okay.” Charlotte hesitated, then, propelled by a reasoning she couldn’t quite explain, she lunged forward, went up on her toes and pressed a quick kiss to his jaw. “Good night,” she called over her shoulder as she fled across the hall and shut her bedroom door hard. She leaned against it, her heart pounding.
What on earth had she done that for? She crossed the room, dropped onto her mattress and hugged a pillow to her chest. The man had just stated his willingness to go at her pace, and she’d kissed him. She was supposed to get her financial feet underneath her before she even looked at a man.
Maybe this is my pace.
The thought popped into her mind like a gopher popping out of its underground lair. The more she tried to deny it, the more stubbornly it persisted. She liked Lincoln. That was the truth of it. She liked the way he joked around with Amanda. The way he could be serious one moment, then laugh the next. The way he’d banded together with his brothers to reclaim the town they all so obviously cared about. When he’d spoken of bringing his parents home, her heart had squeezed. They were as important to him as her grandmother had been to her.
She’d thought she’d need months—maybe years—to get over the way her relationship with Ivan had gone so disastrously wrong, but now she realized she didn’t want to take months or years to get on with her life. Ivan had wasted so much of her time already, first by fooling her about who he really was, then by making it impossible to leave once she learned the truth.
She was over Ivan. There wasn’t any mourning to do, and she didn’t need time to figure out who she wanted to be now that he was out of her life. What she wanted was right here in front of her. A home. A job. A community. The ability to support herself. A man she wanted and who wanted her, too—not because she filled a role in his moneymaking enterprise but because she was Charlotte.
She shook her head at her own certainty. She’d known Lincoln less than a day, not long enough to form any judgment about his character or what he did or didn’t want. If she really thought he was the perfect man, and she didn’t need any time to heal or grow or find herself before being with him, why didn’t she walk across the hall right now and climb into Lincoln’s bed?
When Charlotte found herself on her feet heading for the door, she let out a groan.
“You okay in there?” Lincoln called from his room.
God. He’d heard that? “No. I’m incorrigible.”
“What?” His voice was closer now. He must be standing on the other side of her door. All she had to do was open it.
“Nothing. Get some sleep.”
“How am I supposed to sleep when there’s incorrigibleness happening in there?”
Charlotte snorted, then covered her mouth with her hand, hoping he hadn’t heard that. “I’ll settle down. Good night.”
“Too bad. Night.”
His footsteps padded back across the hall, and a moment later, his door shut. Charlotte sighed. She was sleeping in a strange house in the middle of a strange forest on a strange ridge in a state she’d never even visited before—and all she wanted was for the stranger sleeping not ten feet away to bust down her door and take her to bed.
This was madness .
But she wouldn’t change a thing.
Lincoln didn’t think he’d ever spent a more uncomfortable night, despite the foam mat he’d carried over from house number35. He’d tossed and turned, alternating between the hope of getting a whole lot closer to Charlotte and the despair that maybe she’d change her mind and leave. He’d had infatuations before and knew how strong raw attraction could be, but he hadn’t stayed awake all hours fantasizing about sleeping with Charlotte—he’d been strategizing about how to marry her before some other guy swept in and stole her out from under his nose.
Despite being up most of the night, Lincoln woke early. Old habits died hard, he thought as he turned over and got in another catnap. When he woke a second time, he still had plenty of time to stow away his gear for the day and take a shower before breakfast. He expected Charlotte to sleep in far longer than he had, but when he returned to his room, he heard her moving around in her bedroom, too. Before he was done dressing, she’d taken his place in the bathroom, and twenty minutes later, she appeared wearing jean shorts and a T-shirt, her hair still damp, just as he was heading downstairs.
“I desperately need to go shopping,” she said, following him down the steps.
“I’ll drive you to town later, and we can get a few things for your house, too. You need a new mattress and bed frame, at the very least. Maybe a dresser and some end tables?”
“Let’s start with the bed,” Charlotte said. “I want to put some thought into what the house will look like when it’s renovated before I start furnishing it.”
Lincoln accepted that, but he wondered if she was hedging her bets. Last night he thought they’d reached a good place when she’d kissed him, but maybe she was regretting all that. She seemed distant this morning. Uncertain around him. They stood in the front hall awkwardly.
He supposed he could understand her hesitation. If he wanted her to stay, he’d better get busy showing her all the reasons to fall in love with Elliott Ridge. Too bad he’d have to spend most of the day at the mill. It was rare he or his brothers took time off. They were scrambling to fulfill the contracts they had and to secure new ones.
“Ready to eat?”
She nodded but remained quiet on the way to the town hall. Breakfast was pancakes and sausages prepared by Gage. She perked up a little when Amanda arrived with Carter, however, and chatted along with everyone when the rest of Lincoln’s brothers appeared for the meal. Afterward, Lincoln reluctantly dropped her off at number37 with a promise to be back in a couple of hours. Amanda had loaned her a pad of paper and pen so she could jot down ideas about the renovation. He got to the mill by eight, but time at work dragged, worried as he was that left alone for too long, Charlotte might change her mind and want to leave Elliott Ridge. During a break he tracked down the Petersons and gave them a call. Elaine Peterson answered, delighted to hear from him, and assured him they didn’t need the horse figurine.
“Darla got over horses before we even left town,” she said. “Next it was video games and then she got into tennis. She got a scholarship to TSU. If you sent that thing back to us, she’d just throw it out. Give it to someone who wants it.”
“Will do.”
“I’m so happy you and your brothers are back at the Ridge. If we hadn’t put down roots here in Tennessee, I’d move there in a flash.”
“If you change your mind, we’ve got lots of houses available,” Lincoln told her.
After chatting a little more, they ended the call. Lincoln tapped the screen of his cell phone a few times and placed another one.
“Megan Lawrence speaking,” Megan answered.
“Wondered if you could do me a favor,” Lincoln said. “I know it’s Sunday, but Charlotte’s agreed to buy the house. She paid her dollar and signed the paperwork Nate copied from when we sold a house to Amanda. Could you help me find a notary who wouldn’t mind working for an hour today?”
“I know just the person,” Megan said. “Are the rest of those houses ready for me to list yet?” She spoke in a teasing tone, but he knew her question was serious.
“Any day now,” he told her. “Let me talk to the others tonight and make a plan.”
“Okay. I’ll make a call and I’ll get right back to you.”
She was as good as her word, and soon Lincoln had an appointment in town with Don Reese, a notary. He got back to work, and at ten thirty, he left Gage in charge and came to drive Charlotte to Chance Creek.
She was more cheerful when she opened the door of number37 and ushered him in. She’d found a tape measure somewhere and created a floor plan on the pad of paper.
“Looks like you made a good start,” he said, dropping the horse figurine in her hand. “That’s yours now. The Petersons don’t want it back. Consider it a housewarming gift from them.”
She held it up in her palm. “My first decoration! Seems fitting, doesn’t it?”
“A horse for a horse veterinarian? Sure does.” He was glad to see Charlotte in such a good mood.
“I think this house could be beautiful with a bit of work. I have so many ideas for it.”
He warmed to her enthusiasm. “Then let’s find you a bed. It’s the most important piece of furniture in a house, right? I mean…” What did he mean? “You’ve got to sleep,” he finished lamely when she raised an eyebrow.
“I guess so. I was thinking more about how this living room and kitchen could look if we knocked down the wall between them.”
“Oh. Sure, kitchens and living rooms are important, too.” He ran a hand through his hair, conscious he was being a little too obvious. He couldn’t help it, though. He wanted to get closer to Charlotte. Of course he had beds on his mind.
Charlotte smiled. “Kitchens and living rooms are important. You can’t… sleep … all the time.”
“I don’t know about that. I think you can sleep an awful lot if you put your mind to it.”
She heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Let’s focus on the kitchen, shall we?”
“The kitchen can be fun, too.”
“Lincoln.”
“Charlotte?”
Her mouth twitched with a smile she wouldn’t let break free. “Who’s incorrigible now?” she asked softly.
“I’ll be serious,” he promised her. “Right after I do this.” He moved close to her, hooked an arm around her waist and bent slowly, giving her time to pull back. Instead she leaned forward, her mouth meeting his halfway. Lincoln had meant to keep the kiss short and sweet, but the moment their lips met, that plan went out the window. He gathered her to him and took his time exploring the feel and taste of her.
When they pulled apart, she was flushed, and he was feeling a little hot and bothered himself.
“I’ve been thinking about doing that all morning,” he said.
“Me, too,” she admitted.
“You’re still happy with your choice of house? No second thoughts?”
“None,” Charlotte said quickly, then looked down, her cheeks flushing. “I mean about the house.”
“Of course.” Lincoln stood a little taller, though. She wasn’t having second thoughts about him, either. It felt good to know their attraction was mutual. He doubted this small house held a candle to her ex-boyfriend’s home, but Lincoln didn’t believe the size of a home mattered all that much. It was what happened within its four walls. He’d do whatever he could to make sure good things happened here.
“I think this house suits you.” He stole another kiss, loving the buzz of warmth and wanting that flooded his body every time they touched. “I hope you stay.”
“I hope so, too.” She wouldn’t meet his gaze, and he decided he’d better lower the temperature a bit.
“Let’s go find that bed.”
They started at Thompson’s Furniture, a small store with a limited selection of mattresses, bed frames, couches and other furnishings. Charlotte quickly picked out a wooden slatted frame but spent her time testing the mattresses, finally choosing a high-quality one.
They grabbed burgers for lunch and made it to their notary appointment on time. Don was a stickler for details and frowned when it came time to discuss the payment of the dollar and found out the money had already swapped hands.
“Normally there’s an escrow process during the purchase of a house. The buyer transfers the payment to the notary, who doesn’t forward it to the seller until the process is complete.”
“It’s just a dollar,” Lincoln reminded him.
Don sighed and kept going. Finally, they were done .
“Clothes next?” Lincoln asked as they left the notary office. “A homeowner needs to keep up appearances.”
Charlotte nodded happily. “Amanda told me about a store she likes. Should we meet up again in an hour?”
Lincoln’s good spirits sagged. “You don’t want me to come along?”
“Not really. I don’t like an audience when I go clothes shopping,” she added. “It makes me too self-conscious.”
“All right,” he conceded. “I’ll run a couple of errands of my own and wait for you at Linda’s Diner. Just ask directions at the store. They’ll steer you right.”
“Okay.”
Lincoln dropped her off at Heloise’s, which he’d heard was owned by Storm Hall now. Storm had married Zane Hall, whom Lincoln had known when they were kids, and lived with her husband and his extended family on a ranch outside town called Crescent Hall.
Lincoln remembered when the clothing store used to be called Mandy’s Cowgirl Emporium, a dowdy establishment most of the Chance Creek women had avoided. Now it looked like the kind of updated boutique you’d find in a much larger city. He hoped Charlotte would find everything she needed there.
Meanwhile, he ducked into the feed store and the bank, then ambled down to the diner. He spotted Megan sitting at a table by the large front window as soon as he entered.
“Come join me,” she called when she saw him, motioning him into the chair opposite her. “How did the signing go?”
“All done. That’s two houses sold.”
“And zero commission,” Megan said. “I’m looking forward to selling a few of your houses for real.”
He took a seat and, when a waitress came to greet him, ordered a cup of coffee.
“Do you want something to go with it?” the waitress asked.
“I’ve got a friend joining me later. I’ll order a snack then.”
The woman bustled off again.
“Who’s joining you?” Megan asked. “Charlotte?”
Lincoln nodded. “She’s shopping right now, but she’s supposed to meet me here afterward.” He watched as Megan picked at the muffin she was eating. “How are things with you?”
“They’ll be better when I’ve got those listings,” she admitted.
“Business is slow?”
“More than slow.” She noticed what she was doing and wiped her hands on her napkin. “I sold Gage’s house a couple of weeks ago, and Lainie knows that pretty soon I’ll have the rest of the homes in Lucy’s Corner to list, but she’s constantly riding me about not having any new clients. Maybe she’s right. Maybe I’m just no good at this.”
“Seems like you sold Gage’s house pretty quickly.” He and the rest of his brothers had been surprised to find out Gage had owned one in town for years. He’d never lived in it, just rented it out.
“It was a nice house. Did you ever see it?”
“No.” That rankled Lincoln. Why had Gage kept his purchase a secret all these years, and what had possessed him to buy a house in town in the first place? Apparently, he’d done so before they even left the Ridge, using the money he’d saved up for college to buy and renovate it before turning it into a rental.
“It wasn’t fancy, but everything was fresh and well maintained. I gather he did all the renovations himself?”
“That’s what I heard, too.” Lincoln couldn’t understand why Gage hadn’t asked any of them to help, but in those days they’d all been short with each other as the economy tanked and they’d helped their parents try to keep the town afloat. Maybe Gage had simply wanted something of his own to work on. “Did he make a good profit?”
“A fair one, I’d say. He’s smart.” She looked away, color rising in her cheeks.
“He is.” Lincoln felt for Megan. She so obviously liked Gage, and he was treating her shabbily. “Don’t judge him too harshly for the way he’s acting. I think he’s worried we’re going to let down our parents if we don’t get the mill running at capacity again soon.”
“Do you think that’s why he dropped me?” Megan asked baldly. “I thought we started something together at Cindy Gladstone’s wedding, but he’s avoiding me now—which feels pretty awful.” She made a face. “I should just move on and find someone else to pine over. I’m making a mess of my life.”
“No, you’re not, and I don’t think you should give up on Gage yet. I saw how he looked at you at Cindy’s wedding. Whatever is holding him back has nothing to do with you. He’s probably worried we won’t succeed, and we’ll all have to leave again.” Lincoln considered that. “Maybe I’m the fool thinking we’ll stay.”
It was Megan’s turn to shake her head. “I don’t think you’re foolish. I think five years from now, you and your brothers are going to look like geniuses. That’s a fabulous community you’ve got up there, and the way you’re planning to diversify your workforce, you’ll be better prepared to handle hiccups in the lumber market in the future.”
Lincoln appreciated her vote of confidence.
“I should get going,” Megan said. “Tell Charlotte I said hello.”
“Tell her yourself. I bet she’d like to see a friendly face. She’s at Heloise’s.”
Megan nodded. “I’ll stop in and say hi.”
Charlotte was approaching the counter to pay for her purchases at Heloise’s when Megan came in and found her.
“Lincoln told me you’d be here,” she said, looking with interest over the pile of clothing Charlotte handed to the sales associate. “Looks like you found a lot of good stuff.”
“I did,” Charlotte said happily. First, she’d ducked across the street and upgraded her phone and cell service since the burner phone Steven had given her wasn’t going to cut it for normal use. Then she’d come back to Heloise’s, where she’d picked out a starter wardrobe, a few fun extras, several pairs of shoes, including some flats and heels that were far more flattering than the thick-soled work shoes she’d worn since she’d run from Gasparyn Stables, and a pair of sturdy work boots she figured would come in handy, too. “This is the best women’s clothing store I’ve ever been to. I didn’t think I’d find half the things I needed, but I found them all.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” the woman at the till said with a smile. She had blond hair that hung down to her waist and was dressed casually but neatly. “This is my store,” she explained.
Megan made the introductions. “Storm Hall,” she said, “this is Charlotte. She just got to town and she’s staying up at Elliott Ridge. Charlotte, meet Storm.”
The women shook hands over the counter. “Watch out. Chance Creek has a way of getting its hooks into you. If you meet a military man, be extra careful. They have a way of marrying women who breeze into town.”
Megan laughed. “She’s right. Maybe that’s my problem—I grew up here. I should go somewhere else for a decade and come home. I’d be married in no time.”
“I’ve already met a military man,” Charlotte admitted.
“You’re stuck now,” Storm said. “Might as well go down the street to Caitlyn’s place and buy your wedding dress.”
“There can’t be that many women marrying military men in this town. Chance Creek isn’t that big!”
“You’d be surprised. It’s not just newcomers, either,” Storm said to Megan. “Look at the Reed girls. All five of them married to military men and their family has lived in this town for generations.”
“Their father is a general, and he ordered those men to marry them,” Megan said. “My dad never served and he’s gone now.”
“Are you looking to get married?” Storm asked her. “I heard you and Gage Elliott were pretty cozy at Cindy Gladstone’s wedding.” She bit her lip. “Sorry, I probably shouldn’t have said that.”
“Oh, why shouldn’t Storm know? I’m sure everyone knows,” Megan grumbled.
“Does Gage know?” Storm asked curiously.
“He knows,” Megan assured her.
“He knows you like him,” Charlotte said, “but that doesn’t necessarily mean he knows you want to marry him.”
“Maybe you should tell him,” Storm said.
“No!” Megan looked from one to the other. “I’m not telling him anything. I want the whole fairy-tale. He needs to ask me out, wine and dine me, take me somewhere romantic and get on his damn knee to propose. I deserve that!”
“You do,” Charlotte assured her. “And if he doesn’t do just that, I’ll think less of him.”
“I will, too,” Storm said. “Be patient, Megan. He’ll get there.”
“He’d better pick up the pace.” Megan pulled out her phone and looked at it. “I’d better pick up the pace, too. I have to get back to work. Let’s get together for coffee or something soon.”
“I’d like that,” Charlotte said. “I’d better meet Lincoln at the diner before he decides I’ve gotten lost.”