Chapter 6 #2
He wanted to ask her more but figured it wasn’t the time or the place.
So instead, he looked back at the photo on his screen.
On it was a little fixer-upper cottage with a warped porch and peeling green trim.
It had four bedrooms, three baths, and five acres with a run-down barn.
It sat just outside town on a little bluff.
There was a pathway down to the beach that wasn’t pictured.
It did say that it was ocean-front property, so the land must have gone all the way down to the beach.
Suddenly, the place didn’t look quite so hopeless as it had before.
“Any favorites?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I like quirky stuff. You know, homes with weird little details or strange character. Things like hidden staircases.” She smiled and he remembered her mentioning a hidden hallway in her closet at his sister’s place. “Things that you can fix up and still make it your own.”
He nodded slowly. “You ever think about doing that for real? Renovating a place of your own?”
“All the time,” she said, laughing. “But you know, first I need to survive my first month here. Besides, I promised my brother and your sister I’d watch their place until they returned. After that…” She shrugged. “I doubt I’ll be able to afford something of my own for a while.”
“Well, you’re off to a good start working here,” he said. “Keep up the good work and I’ll make you manager.”
He meant it. She was a better worker than any of the part-time students that worked during the summer months.
Their eyes met again, and for a second, everything else—the shop, the hum of the espresso machine, the tourists laughing near the door—just fell away.
But before he could say more, the front bell jingled and a new wave of customers poured in, laughing, sandy, and sun-kissed from the beach.
“Lunch rush,” he muttered, already standing.
Faye rolled up her sleeves beside him. “Back to work.”
But as they moved around each other behind the counter, passing drinks and plates, catching each other’s gaze through the bustle, Nate couldn’t stop thinking about that little fixer-upper outside town.
Or about how, for the first time, the idea of a future—of settling down, of building something for himself—didn’t feel so far off.
Especially if that future had someone in it who had curls in her hair, stars in her eyes from her dreams, and a smile that made his entire body vibrate.
He was so screwed.
How was he supposed to stop thinking about being with her? Wasn’t there some sort of rule against it? Especially when they were… what? Technically, they weren’t in-laws. She was, however, his new employee. Which should have been enough to stop him from wanting to kiss her.
Right?
When he left work for the day a few hours after Faye had gone home, he decided to drive by the house he had been looking at. It was off the road heading out of town a ways, so he’d never laid eyes on it before.
The driveway needed work, maybe a new layer of rocks and gravel. But his truck went up the steep incline without any problems.
The gravel crunched beneath his tires as he eased his truck to a stop near the edge of the lot. The house sat quietly ahead, nestled between two windswept pines. Its faded green trim glowed in the sunlight.
The cottage looked better in person than it had in the listing photos, even if it clearly needed some work. The porch was slightly slanted to one side, the paint was flaking in long strips near the window frames, and the front screen door hung just a little crooked.
But still?—
There was something about it.
He climbed out of his truck and stood still for a moment, just taking it in. The scent of salt carried up from the beach below the property. Gulls cried somewhere in the distance. Warm wind rustled the leaves and branches as birds happily sang from their shelter.
He circled the house, taking in the necessary repairs he could spot from the outside.
There were some missing boards that would have to be replaced.
It needed new paint and maybe even a new roof.
The covered porch in back was a total loss and would have to come down first. There was a small well house that was lying on its side.
The barn was actually in better shape than the house from what he could see from the outside. He opened the door, and it looked like it could easily house half a dozen animals with some work.
There appeared to be a small garden area that was overrun with weeds. A few apple and pear trees were still bearing fruit, along with a lonely cherry tree. He plucked a few ripe cherries and enjoyed them as he made his way around the property.
There was no fence to mark the property line, just tall trees, wild grasses, and flowering bushes growing sporadically. Along the back side of the house, the ground sloped down to a narrow footpath and the stretch of quiet sand below.
If the brush was cleared, he imagined the view from the back deck would improve greatly.
He followed the short path slowly, moving carefully on the slick mossy stones and soft earth of the foot path, until he reached the edge of a small bluff.
And that was when it hit him.
The view.
The way the sun melted into the ocean, casting peach-colored light across the sky, bathing the entire backyard in its amber warmth.
The slight rise of the land made the cottage feel tucked away, private—like it had been waiting all this time for the right person to notice it.
His chest tightened. He hadn’t expected to feel this way.
He turned back to the house. He could picture it now.
He’d replace the front porch with a wide wraparound covered deck.
He’d repaint the whole thing, maybe a soft gray with navy or dark charcoal trim.
He would add a large back deck where he could sip coffee in the mornings and watch the water burn orange in the evenings.
He might even build a little fire pit area off to the side where people could gather in the yard for sunsets.
His hands twitched to get to work.
Damn.
He was already thinking like this was his. Like he’d finally found where he belonged.
He scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck and turned in a slow circle, taking it all in again.
It wasn’t fancy. It wasn’t impressive.
But it felt right, like home.
And he hadn’t felt that in a long, long time.
He took another step toward the edge of the yard and let the wind roll over him, carrying the briny ocean scent and a thousand unspoken possibilities.
Yeah. He could see his future right here.