Chapter Twenty-Six
The warmth of the morning sun flowing through the window warmed Libby’s face the next morning and brought her out of a wonderful dream about her and Benny sitting on a porch and watching the sunrise together. She opened her eyes slowly and reached over to find the other side of the bed empty. She sat up so quickly that the room did a spin before things settled down. Benny came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist.
He then picked up the leftover cheesecake and two forks. “Good mornin’, gorgeous,” he said as he dropped the towel and crawled beneath the sheets. “Breakfast in bed seems like a good way to start the day.”
“I bet you say that to all the women you sleep with,” she said.
“Nope, just the ones that have a cheesecake ready,” he teased as he fed her the first bite, “and the ones I like well enough to give the first bite of pumpkin cheesecake to, which is my favorite.”
“How many is that?” Libby asked, not really sure she wanted to know the answer.
“Counting you? One,” he answered. “I have never spent the entire night with a woman, Libby. I have always left before daylight.”
“What about when they stayed at your apartment?”
“Didn’t ever happen, or in the house in Paris, either,” he answered and fed her another bite. “How many men have fed you cheesecake for breakfast?”
“Not a single one,” she answered, “until now, and that would be one—you.”
“Okay, enough about that part of our past,” he said. “I don’t need to know numbers.”
“Me neither,” she told him, but she figured that his number would be way north of what hers was. “What’s on our agenda for today?”
“I want to draw up a rough draft for a house,” he answered. “And I’d like your input on the plans.”
She took the pan from his hands and kissed him on the lips. “My only idea is that the big breakfront could be set on a foyer wall or even in the living room as an entertainment center. Other than that, it’s your house, Benny. What made you decide to build a house now? I thought you were happy in your trailer.”
“Mmmm ...” He pulled her in for another kiss. “I like pumpkin cheesecake, but having the taste on your lips is even better than just eating it.”
“That’s both the funniest and the most romantic thing anyone’s ever said to me,” she said as she fed him a bite. When he had eaten it, she leaned in for another kiss. “You are so right. That makes for some good kisses.”
“Oh, yeah,” he said with a chuckle. “To answer your question—when I moved up here, I vowed that I would live in the trailer for a year to be sure I had no regrets about leaving the law firm. I haven’t had a single one. Except that last week, when I was home for all those days, I figured out that when I’m in it for several days a week, the trailer feels pretty cramped. Out on the road for four days and working the other three seemed to work. Now I need a little more space.”
“Well, then ...” She crawled out of the bed. “After we eat a proper breakfast, I guess we will get busy designing a house. I’ve got a couple of rolls of Christmas paper we can use.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t it have jingle bells or ...”
She bent and kissed him on the cheek. “The back side is white, so we’ll just flip it over and tape it to the table in the front room. I had no idea you were a draftsman.”
“I’m not.” Benny stood up and put on his jeans and shirt, which had been strewn across the apartment floor. He crossed the room and slipped his arms around Libby’s waist and pulled her to his chest. “But I can make a rough draft and give it to an architect. I like the way you feel in my arms.”
She turned and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I like having breakfast in bed with you.”
“We could have lunch and supper in bed, too,” he suggested with a wicked smile.
“Sounds good, but—” She barely had time to moisten her lips before his closed in on them. Her breath came in short bursts when he pulled back a few inches.
“What were you saying?” he asked and then grinned.
“That we need to—”
His lips found hers again. This time she forgot about everything until she heard Fancy whimpering at her feet. She put her hands on his chest and gave him a gentle push. “I can’t think straight when I’m this close to you.”
“Right back at you,” he said and stepped around her to turn the bacon. “Can I steal a kiss or two while we are having breakfast and working on house plans?”
“Maybe a couple,” she answered, hoping the euphoria that she felt right then—something she’d never experienced with any other man—wasn’t just a flash in the pan but would last forever.
Forever! That’s a really wonderful word. The voice in her head sounded happy.
“Hey, what are you kids doing?” Opal yelled as she entered the station.
“Building a house,” Benny answered, but he didn’t look up from the table, where he was using an old wooden ruler and a carpenter’s pencil to make lines. “We went up to the warehouse and measured that antique breakfront that Grandpa bought when I was a little boy. I want to use it for an entertainment unit in the living room.”
Minilee followed Opal and sat down at the table. “It’s about time. I don’t know how you’ve managed in that little bitty trailer for a whole year. It’s even smaller than Libby’s apartment. What kind of house is it, and where are you going to build it?”
Until that moment, he hadn’t really thought about where he wanted to put the house. He laid down the pencil. “What do you think, Libby?”
“Depends on a lot of things,” she answered. “How much land you own. How far from the road you want to put it. Things like that.”
“I own six hundred acres.” Benny went back to his work. “From here to the river. From the turnoff onto the gravel road to half a mile back behind the warehouses, and half a mile behind Opal and Minilee’s houses. And I think we should build back away from the road to get away from all the dust.”
“Oh! My! Goodness!” Libby gasped. “That’s a lot of property.”
Benny looked up with a smile. “It’s all relative. Compared to the little bit of land that this station is sitting on, it really is—but compared to a ten-thousand-acre ranch, it’s just a drop in the ocean.”
Libby nodded. “Still, I guess that does offer more options.”
“My opinion is that you should cut a road behind the store and warehouse,” Minilee said. “Clear out enough that you’ve got good shade on three sides, and make it face the east.”
Benny rubbed his chin. “That would make for privacy.”
“Have a paved road built back to your place, so on rainy days you can drive to work,” Opal suggested. “What made you decide to do this now?”
Benny drew another line on the paper. “Living in a trailer with Elvis for four straight days.” He wasn’t ready to tell them that he needed more room if he was going to have a family in the near future. Libby needed time to adjust to the idea of dating and then possibly spending lots of nights together before they became permanent housemates—and hopefully a married couple on down the road. She should be the one to decide about making the arrangement permanent.
Permanent! Benny stopped what he was doing and stood back to think about that word.
The idea of marriage had always put him in flight-or-fight mode, and the former usually won the battle. He felt like he couldn’t trust a woman to love him for who he was and not because of his money. But that morning, the idea didn’t terrify him, and instead of wanting to run, he wanted to take Libby in his arms and hold her there forever.
Elvis and Fancy were quite the pair in the back seat of the pickup truck on the Fourth of July. Elvis sat up proudly and looked out the side window. Fancy reared up on her hind feet and watched the world go past on her side.
“Don’t worry.” Benny reached across the console and laid a hand on Libby’s shoulder. “Naomi has watched Elvis before. She’s good with animals, and the backyard is totally fenced, so they can go outside and explore.”
“I trust you,” Libby told him.
She had worried that, in her excitement, Fancy might scratch a piece of priceless furniture in the Taylor mansion they were heading toward, but more than that, she was concerned about seeing Benny in a whole different element. Would he act differently in a house big enough to be considered an estate? Would she feel like a country bumpkin?
“Naomi is making lunch for us after the parade, and we’ll have time to ourselves before the fireworks show tonight,” he said. “But I’m rattling on. You already know the plans for today. Have I told you that you look beautiful in that sundress?”
“Maybe six times,” Libby answered. “Why are you nervous today?”
“You don’t miss anything, do you?”
“Not much,” she replied. “It comes from having to read Victoria when I was young. Are you going to talk to me about what’s going on in your head?”
Benny sucked in a lungful of air and let it out slowly. “You live at the station. I stay in a travel trailer. When you see Grandpa’s estate, I don’t want you to think I’m an entitled brat.”
“I don’t want you to think I’m a country bumpkin,” Libby admitted. “I came to Sawmill with almost everything I own in my SUV. You are my polar opposite when it comes to wealth.”
Benny chuckled. “If it’s true that opposites attract, then we should get the prize, don’t you think? Honey, I’m falling in love with a strong, independent woman who I want to spend time with, whether it’s in your apartment, my trailer, or Grandpa’s mansion. Those are all just places—some big, some small. It’s the time that we spend together that’s important to me.”
Libby’s breath caught in her chest. Benny had said the L word. Not actually the three magic words—I love you—but close enough.
“Right back at you,” she said. “But—”
“There are no buts in a relationship like ours. Only ands,” Benny told her.
“I like that.” She smiled and hoped that there were never buts in their lives.
In order to have only ands, she felt like she had to get complete closure. A line in the self-help book she was reading for the club meeting for the next week came to her mind: When you forgive those who have hurt you, you take away their power.
Forgiveness was more than just saying the words, though. Still, the idea of no one having power over her appealed to Libby in a way that words couldn’t explain. All that had gone on in her past had made her who she was that very day—someone who could fall in love with Benny and have a life of peace and happiness. He deserved a companion and a lover who didn’t come with a load of mental baggage.
Closure might come in little bites, like another quote in the book said: You can eat an elephant a bite at a time.
They passed the WELCOME TO PARIS, TEXAS sign, and Libby decided that today, she was taking a big bite out of that elephant. After all, it was Independence Day.
Her resolve dwindled somewhat when she saw the house, but she felt better when a tall, plus-size woman waved from the rosebushes in the front yard. Benny opened the truck door for Libby and helped get Fancy’s leash on her collar. Elvis bounded out of the back seat and ran right to the woman, who was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt.
“You are early,” the woman said. “I wasn’t expecting you for another hour and thought I had time to clean up a little. Who is this precious little thing on a leash?”
“Fancy is her name, and I am—”
“I am Naomi, and you are Libby,” the woman said. “Benny has told me all about you and sent pictures. But you are much more beautiful than the photographs. Come on inside. I have a little snack laid out for you kids so you won’t get hungry at the parade. We can have it in the kitchen while the doggies explore the backyard. I’ll tell Claude to keep an extra eye on the little one since she’s new here.”
Benny ushered Libby into the house with his hand on her lower back. She covered a gasp with a fake cough. The credenza in the foyer was worth more than her SUV, and that was just one of the many pieces of antique furniture she could see from that angle. Evidently, Walter hadn’t just liked antiques—he’d loved them. A few items were more modern but had been chosen well to fit in with the old ones. The deep burgundy leather sofa facing the massive stone fireplace looked inviting and well worn. Libby could well imagine spending hours curled up on it with a good book in her hands.
“Like I told you before, Claude is Naomi’s husband, and they oversee this place together. There’s also a cleaning staff and gardeners,” Benny explained as they passed through the foyer, where two curved staircases led up to the second floor.
“We wish that Benny would live here,” Naomi said over her shoulder as they passed through the dining room and went into the kitchen.
Libby had never seen such a huge, modern kitchen, not even in the home-decorating magazines she loved to glance through when she went to the bookstores in Austin.
“I made a few croissants this morning and stuffed them with chicken salad, and the macarons are leftovers from yesterday. They aren’t as good as when they were fresh, but I’ll make cream puffs for lunch. Claude plans to grill some steaks for supper, and then we can all sit up on the catwalk and watch the fireworks,” Naomi said.
“It all looks delicious.” Libby sat down on the barstool Benny had pulled out for her.
“Claude took his break early with the gardening crew, but he’ll be in by suppertime to meet you and have supper with us,” Naomi explained.
“I’m going to run to the restroom,” Benny said and gave Libby a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’ll be right back.”
Naomi handed Libby a plate and motioned toward the food. “I’ll pour a couple of glasses of peach tea. It goes well with the sandwiches and macarons.”
“Are you going to eat with us?” Libby asked.
“Of course,” Naomi answered. “Claude and I never had children of our own—we came here after we married in Paris, France, forty years ago—so we helped raise that boy, and we feel like he partly belongs to us. Benny’s grandparents always treated us like family.” She released a long sigh. “Poor Mr. Walter. He was never the same after Miz Katie passed away. He spent more time up at Sawmill. I think it’s because he could feel her spirit here in the house, waiting on him to join her ... I’m rattling on when you didn’t even ask.”
“Please, tell me more. So, you came from Paris, France, to Paris, Texas?” Libby asked. She wanted the kind of relationship Katie and Walter had had—one that was so strong that the one left behind could still feel the spirit of the one who had passed.
“That’s right.”
“How did you get all the way from France to Texas?”
“We didn’t come here when we first came to the States,” Naomi answered. “We spent a few months in New York City; then we were offered jobs in Tennessee, so we went there. Seemed like we were chasing a dream until we landed here. Once we got to Paris, we felt like we were home.” Naomi looked up and smiled when she saw Benny coming back to the kitchen. “That’s a story for another day.”
He picked up a croissant and took a bite. “We’re going to have to eat and run if we want to see the parade.”
“I was about to tell Libby the same thing,” Naomi said. “I’ll wrap up the leftovers for you to take to Opal and Minilee. I wish they could have come with you. I haven’t seen them in over a year now.”
“I’ll bring them next time,” Benny promised.
Libby finished her first croissant and put another one on her plate. “Will you teach me how to make these?”
“I would love to do that,” Naomi replied. “You kids come and stay with us a few days, and you and I will spend our time in the kitchen. Claude was just saying yesterday that there are things he needs Benny’s opinion about—some remodeling on the gazebo out in the rose gardens.”
“If Libby doesn’t have anything else on the books, we might do that real soon,” Benny said. “I’d like Claude’s advice about the house I’m designing.”
“Why would you build a house when this one is sitting right here?” Naomi fussed.
“This was Grandpa and Grandma’s dream house. Mine isn’t nearly this big or fancy,” Benny answered.
“I can understand that,” Naomi said. “Claude and I are very glad to go home to our cottage at night. If we lived in a place this big, we would spend all our time trying to find each other.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Benny said and nudged Libby on the shoulder. “Now that I’ve found Libby, I sure don’t want to play hide-and-seek, trying to find her every day after work.”