24. Tyler
TWENTY-FOUR
TYLER
Now
Chloe should have moved to the ranch months ago.
Although our schedules don’t always align we’ve made a routine of sharing dinner together a few nights a week together when we are both home.
It’s the highlight of my days to be with her.
Even at the crumbs we leave each other. Passing flirtations, soft touches and pecks on the cheek or head.
I’ll take them all, just happy to have the gift of Chloe in my life.
Since we’ve been home, she’s got this new fire in her eyes.
She is painting more and skips across the property to show me as soon as she’s completed them.
Scenes of the ranch and wildflower fields.
She even painted a portrait of Scooter. I hung that one in my entryway of the house.
She dazzles with vibrant energy. I crave being around her when I’m not.
It’s Sunday, and last night she dashed off to the cottage right after dinner, said she needed to get a new book or something.
I didn’t believe it for moment. The air shifted last night.
It wasn’t a coincidence that I pulled that recipe out from my mom.
I was going to finally take the leap and ask Chloe on a proper date.
Except, she seemed to shut off from me. I told her I’d let her take the lead so I need to follow through with my word.
Chloe is worth the time waiting for her to be ready again.
I see Chloe’s car parked in front of the cottage and Dandy perched on a chair next to an open window.
I faintly hear music that’s being played from inside.
The guesthouse is set back at the edge of the property, so a decent-size field separates it from the main house.
When I was a kid, my mom had six large planter beds in the area with rotating seasonal flowers, vegetables, and herbs.
Now, the planters are still there, but I only have straw covering the soil.
So much of the property reminds me of my parents.
Over time, it’s gotten easier, but there are still days that creep up and send me into a spiral.
A couple of weeks ago, I walked into my parents’ room.
I don’t know what compelled me, but I walked in and sat on their bed.
I hadn’t cried in months. But in that moment, I felt the grief swell up and instead of sitting there sad, I spoke.
I talked to my parents like they were there.
I told them about my job and friends. I told them about the trip to California.
I told them about Chloe. I laughed thinking how my dad would love her.
I told my mom about how Chloe is an artist and how she knows everyone in town just like she did.
I talked to them like they were there, because something clicked: they are with me, all the time.
I huffed out a breath and picked up a few linens to put in the wash, deciding their room needed to be refreshed.
I dusted the furniture and took some of the pictures down from the walls and relocated them around the house.
I vacuumed even though no one’s lived in that room for years.
I opened the windows. I realized I never looked out the windows of my parents’ room.
Unlike my room, their room is toward the back of the house.
It overlooks the back field, my mom’s garden, and the cottage in the back corner.
I also realize there’s a small window at the short side of the room that has a clear view of the side of the ranch that connects to the driveway.
No wonder my dad always caught me sneaking in after staying out with friends in high school.
And just like that, I was gifted with a new morsel of my parents.
If I never came to their room, I wouldn’t have discovered this.
The house feels so much like home, and yet I feel like a visitor.
Like parts of the house are frozen in time when I lost my parents.
I can’t help but just feel like I’m a son visiting his parents.
It feels so temporary. But this house and ranch are mine.
It has been since I moved back. I feel like I’m underutilizing it, and the guilt eats at me.
My dad loved the ranch. He and my mom thrived here.
I’m just letting it be rather than growing with it.
I know I should get another llama for Lucy, so she has a companion.
I know I should start my mom’s garden. I know I should look into other animals or something to make it feel like I’m doing my parents proud.
With Chloe here, it feels like a burst of inspiration with her vibrant energy makes me want to take all these things on.
I know I can do it. I will make my parents proud. I’ll make myself proud.
I walk out to the back porch with a cup of coffee in my hand just as I see Chloe do the same.
I stretch my arm up and wave to her. She does the same motion back to me, and I smile to myself.
I love that girl. The thought lands in my mind so naturally.
The admission makes my chest swell. Come on, Chloe. Let me in, I think.
The porch at the front of the cottage is small but has two small chairs, making it a nice spot to soak up the morning sun. Dandy decides to do just that, sneaking out the front door to curl up under a sunbeam. Scooter flies out from behind me and sprints over to the cottage.
“Scooter!” I hear Chloe yell, and she squats low to greet my pup.
I follow Scooter’s lead and walk the trail of stone pavers that lead to the cottage.
As we move deeper into autumn, the foliage around the property is changing to deep reds and vibrant yellows.
Our town is living up to its name. Scooter reaches her before I do and leaps up into her arms. He gives her a million dog kisses, his little body squirming with excitement; he cannot seem to contain himself before leaping off her, giving Dandy a quick lick on the head before darting over to the duck pond and running two laps around it before barking at the duck shelter to wake up the ducks. He does this every morning.
“Well, hello, neighbor,” I say winking and setting a foot on the first step to her porch.
“Howdy, farmer,” she says, leaning against the door frame. I want to pick her up, sling her over my shoulder, and haul her into my bed. She’s still wearing her pajamas—a long T-shirt with, hopefully, shorts underneath, at least for my sake. I force my eyes up from her bare legs and meet her eyes.
“Did you get that book?” I ask, taking a sip of coffee.
“Book?” she asks, puzzled. “Oh! Yeah, book, yep, got it.” She smiles slyly. Liar.
“What book was it again?” I inquire.
“The third one, in a series I read, you wouldn’t know it.”
“Try me.”
Her eyebrow quirks up, “It’s the third in a mermaid and vampire romance series. Forbidden and heated. Like I said, nothing you’re probably interested in.”
“You don’t know what I’m interested in, yet,” I gravel out and see Chloe’s mouth fall slightly, color staining her cheeks, then say before she can reply. “You must’ve been up for a while then.”
“Yes, well, after securing, the book. I did my usual walk around the ranch, you know, business as usual,” she says, smiling.
“Is that right? Lucy got a second helping of feed today. Do you know anything about that?” I ask, and her mouth falls open.
“She tricked me! She said she was hungry!”
“She said? Do you speak her llama language?”
“I know when a fellow lady is hungry, and she looked starved.”
“Well, she bamboozled you. I fed her when I woke up. Or when she wakes me up. Her pen connects to my bedroom window. I saw her trick you.”
“What are you going to do? Spank me?” she teases, waggling her eyebrows, but it wakes something dormant inside me. I can see her eyes sparkle and her cheeks flaring with pink again.
“Maybe you do know what I’m interested in after all. Very tempting, considering you’re not wearing any pants …” I lick my lips; I can play along.
“I have shorts on!” She makes a show of lifting her PJ shirt, revealing the smallest shorts I’ve ever seen, with a little blue-flower pattern.
I bite the inside of my cheek to restrain myself. I want to bend down and snake my fingers up to those tiny little shorts and feel if my arousal is matched. “But, I think to get even, you can come be my rock climbing partner instead.”
“Get even? It was a simple mistake. But fine, farmer, I’ll join you rock climbing,” she says, and I think I sense a tinge of disappointment in her voice. “Let me get dressed.”
“Or you can go like that, I won’t mind,” I say, and she rolls her eyes, retreating inside and closing the door.
“I’ll meet you by my car in twenty minutes!” I shout at the open window.