Chapter 43 Ryder
RYDER
Evie blinks as we’re blinded by the string lights that come to life overhead. There are numerous strands woven between the cabin and a few haphazardly planted fence posts, as well as the few trees on this side of the cabin. And they are bright.
Perhaps I overdid it a little bit, but in all fairness, nothing tonight has gone to plan.
In the best way possible.
She came from the wrong direction so I had no time to mentally prepare and nearly took her out by chucking my phone alarmingly close to her head.
I had planned to start the generator long before asking what she wants her future house to look like because I laid out an entire damn blueprint in front of us.
I wanted to tell her I loved her after the tour, while I pour her a glass of wine and we sit on that damn log that nearly killed me getting it in place and look out over Evie’s sunflower fields.
But this way is okay too. Evie is happy, and that’s exactly why I'm doing all this.
Her eyes are wide as I cross the lawn to take her hand and help her down. Her eyes rove around the ground, taking in the various smaller logs and branches that I’ve laid out to match the first draft the architect sent me of our house.
“What is all this?” she asks, following the grid of logs.
I pull her along, crossing over the first one. “This is the kitchen. Also a stellar view of the sunflower fields,” I say, picking up a plate off the ground that I used to mark the area. “I hope you don’t mind that I borrowed this, but I was in a bit of a time crunch for making this all happen.”
She snorts, taking the plate from me. “This one can be your plate.”
“Deal,” I say, tugging her along to the next squared off area.
“Bathroom, I take it, if that hand towel is any indication?”
“You learn quick.”
“I do happen to know where I keep most things in my house, so it’s a pretty easy puzzle to solve.”
“Well, remind me to use things not from your house next time we do this.”
She laughs. “Next time? What next time?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe you’ll want a new house in the future and of course, this little layout is now a tradition so I’ll have to do it again for the next one.”
She beams at me, and I tuck her under my shoulder. “I like this tradition,” she says, turning her head so she can kiss my collarbone.
“Me too,” I say, hugging her close.
Her hand in mine, I lead her through each of the rooms of our future home. A mud room, family room, kitchen, garage, workshop, two offices.
When she notices the total lack of bedrooms, I lead her along the side of the cabin where I’ve laid out the second floor and point out each one, along with the bathrooms and closets.
And when she gets to the master bath, she turns to me, her eyes narrowed. “How did you know exactly what I was going to ask for?”
“You told me you moved heaven and earth to get that clawfoot tub into the barn. I’m not about to assume that’s not a necessity.”
She grins at me, squeezing me lightly. “I can’t wait to see it.” She holds up one hand as we head back toward the front of the cabin. “Though I do have some changes to the final floor plan I’d like to make.”
I kiss her head. “I wouldn’t expect anything else.”
I lead her to where I spread an old tablecloth from her linen closet over a tree stump, and promptly pour her a glass of wine from the chilled bottle resting there.
We cheers, take a sip, and I can’t resist tugging her under my arm again because she finally feels like mine.
At first I thought my hesitation about telling her how I truly felt was some lingering fear based on the way I grew up.
But that’s bullshit.
I had a gut feeling that it wasn’t the right time, and when it was, those words came flying out of my mouth like the most natural thing in the world.
Because that’s what Evie and I are. Natural. Easy. Right.
Different people who mesh together somewhere in the middle. We don’t want to change each other, just explore each other.
Glass of wine in hand, Evie wanders through the minefield blueprint that is our future house, her eyes and her glass reflecting the string lights above her.
She grins and tells me she wants her office on the other side of the house, because she’ll get distracted looking out over the sunflower fields if that’s right outside her window.
But when I tell her we can just switch offices, that doesn’t quite appease her. “Well, that’s not fair that you get to look at the sunflowers all day!”
I only grin. “Well, maybe we can just add another office on the far side of the house, and we’ll share the one with a good view when we feel like it. And maybe we can put a Christmas tree in there over winter—you’ll probably be able to see the lights from the sunflower farm.”
She bites her lip to hold back her grin. “We’re going to have a really big Christmas tree, aren’t we?”
“As big as you want,” I say, nudging her elbow.
She snorts, stepping into the living room. With one hand on my shoulder, she hoists herself back onto the large log and looks out over the sunflower fields.
“I really love this,” she says.
“Me too.”
I kiss her cheek again because I can, and we stand for a few moments in silence, the valley below us lit only by Evie’s kitchen light and the lamps outside the barn.
“Do you think Reed is screwing over other people?” Eve asks, her voice low.
My gaze shifts to her face, wondering what she’s thinking.
“Probably, if that little restoration scheme was any indication.”
She nods, pursing her lips. “Do you think we should have reported him or something?”
I turn to her, eyeing her expression. “I already did.”
She raises her eyebrows. “What?”
“I’m just praying the investigation will take some time.
I don’t think anything will happen before he signs the cabins over tomorrow, but I’m pressing the architect as hard as I can to get a draft for the development done before this week’s town council meeting.
Once that’s done, we’re home free, and Reed is in for a lengthy legal battle. ”
Evie’s jaw drops. “You double crossed Reed?”
“Double crossing implies we were working together. I gave him a deal he couldn’t refuse, but I never promised secrecy.”
Evie raises an eyebrow. “Well, let’s just hope I can stay on your good side, huh?”
I turn to face her fully, resting my hands on her shoulders. “I would never double cross you. If you murder someone, I’m helping you bury the body. Bonnie and Clyde, remember?”
“Why am I the murderer out of the two of us? Definitely seems more like your speed.”
“What about me screams murderer?”
She shrugs. “No qualms about skulking around an abandoned cabin in the middle of the night?”
“That says murder to you more than pushing someone in the stream? Twice?”
She rolls her eyes. “Will you let that go? It’s a shallow stream. It’s not like you would have died.”
“What if I didn’t know how to swim?”
She raises an eyebrow. “Do you know how to stand?”
“Not when you make my knees weak.”
She can’t help the grin that spreads across her face. “Okay, that was cute.”
I tug her into my chest, that smile of hers quickly becoming my favorite thing ever.
“My father was never there for my mom. He was emotionally abusive and manipulative. A shark sniffing in the water for blood. That might have worked for building his business in the worst possible way, but it made a toxic home environment. And I think it slowly killed my mother’s spark.
She’s alive. Healthy. But he took something from her that never came back, even after he died.
And I never want to be that for you. I want to see that grin for the rest of my life.
Probably get pushed into the stream another dozen or so times when you inevitably get mad at me for something.
I want to be the person you’re hugging when all the breath leaves your body and you relax for two seconds.
The person you curl into when you’re not feeling well.
The person you call when you need help disposing of the body. ”
“Reed’s?”
I pause. “Don’t kill Reed. That’s a slam dunk case they’ll have against him. That’s not worth it.”
She wraps her arms around my middle, squeezing gently, and sums up my monologue in three little words. “I love you.”
And so help me, I don’t think I will ever get sick of hearing it.
“I love you, too.”
We stand for a few more minutes, sipping wine as we look out over the sunflower fields, before Evie starts yawning.
“Come on. I think it’s time to get you to bed,” I say, stepping down and holding my hand out for her.
“But bed is very grassy,” she says.
I laugh, tugging her around the far side of the cabin where I’ve set up a tent with a little heater that connects to the generator.
She raises her eyebrows when she sees it. “Wow, you really were prepared, weren’t you?”
I shrug. “I was going to put it in the bedroom but I thought you might not like being that visible. If we have a phone light or the heater is still on, I think you can see the living room from the road leading up to the sunflower farm. Not that anyone is going to trek all the way up here, but I had to make a judgment call and I went with the more discreet option.”
She nods. “I respect that.” Then she turns to me, shooting me a quick wink. “Though a little voyeurism never hurt anybody.”
“Silly me, thinking that yawn was you saying you were tired.” I shake my head. “Little Evie Harper is always just using me for my body.”
She steps in front of me, weaving her arms around my waist again and pressing a kiss to my chin in that spot she knows drives me wild. “You love it.”
I can’t help the groan that escapes me as I pick her up, her legs winding easily around my waist as I duck underneath the zipper of the tent and throw her down on the thin mattress.
With only the sounds of the night surrounding us—owls hooting in the distance and the occasional rustle of a squirrel jumping between trees—I sink into the woman I love.
Her body melds to mine, her back arching up into me and her mouth searching for mine the second we part.
She clings to me in a way she hasn’t before, like she’s finally accepting that she’s mine and I’m hers.
And everything around us is now ours.
As her pleasure rings out around us, I let a little bit of my old convictions go too. Until now, I’ve guided myself through life with only the intention of not being my father. But from here on out, the only thing I want to be is good enough for Evie.
That is my new baseline. My goal. My guiding light.
When we’ve traded enough orgasms that she’s nothing but a puddle beneath me, she dons a blanket and slinks off to the fancy bathroom I rented for the night.
And I lay back, breathless with the thought of this new life I’ve chosen for myself. One that I’m really excited for.
A few moments later, she reappears, dropping the blanket from her shoulders and pulling my shirt over her head. She pulls on her underwear but stops there, tugging the blanket around her again.
“Can you turn off the lights?” she asks. “I want to see the stars.”
I nod, grabbing my underwear and giving her a sloppy kiss before letting myself out of the tent and unplugging them from the generator.
She follows me out, one blanket around her shoulders and two more gathered in her arms. She takes a seat along the big log that lines the living room and looks out over the sunflower field.
And I sit next to her, wrapping one arm around her shoulders as she pulls another large blanket around both of us.
I alternate staring at her, the sunflower farm, and the stars. She rests her head on my shoulder, and I kiss her forehead, euphoria pumping through my veins.
“I think this is my favorite midnight,” I say.
She lifts her head, leaving a kiss on my cheek, then snuggles in closer to me.
And though it’s nothing I ever planned to do when I first showed up on Evie’s farm, I can’t help but think that there’s no place I’d rather be. That despite a somewhat tortured adolescence that made taking over the vestiges of my father’s company look like the best way out, I found my way back.
I found home, in a place I never thought I would.
And while home is nothing more than a couple logs and string lights right now, I’m confident that it’s going to be the safe space I always wished my house could be.
Because this one will have Evie in it.