Chapter 4
“Tell me about you.” Blake sat in the passenger seat of Sierra’s beloved mid-sized SUV watching her as she drove toward the first property on her list to show him.
“There’s not much to tell,” Sierra said with a shrug. “I grew up here. I sell real estate to pay the bills and finance my hobby as a romance writer. You already know it all.” She glanced at him then looked back at the road. She had a hard time keeping her eyes on the road as her mind kept flashing on snapshots from the night before.
“Did you go to school?”
“I did. I got my degree from UW Casper.”
“Why come back then?”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You were gone, out of here. Escaped. You could have gone anywhere from there. Why did you come back here? Why not go to Denver, Dallas, stay in Casper? Why come back?”
Sierra turned off the highway onto a long, paved driveway, pulled over to the shoulder and put the transmission in park before giving him her full attention. She stared at him a moment, trying to read his expression, but not getting anywhere.
“Are you telling me I should have left when I had the chance or trying to figure out why I didn’t?” She was trying to keep from getting angry. The idea that he thought Hawthorne was somewhere to escape from made her want to yell, but she held it in. Berating a client was not the way to make a sale. Not to mention not the way to get him to repeat the night before. And even if his short visit here was all that was between them, she wanted to repeat it.
“The latter.” He watched her with an intense curiosity she had a hard time understanding. “I’ve looked at settling down and buying property in a lot of places. I’ve talked to people who live in each, trying to find where would be best to raise a family. I have specific things I’m looking for and part of it is a place where people like to be. Where the people raised there aren’t all looking to get away and go somewhere better.”
That made her feel a little better. He wasn’t insulting her home, just trying to find out why she loved it enough to come back when she didn’t have to. Maybe a night or two of the mind blowing ecstasy he’d shown her the night before wouldn’t be all of it then.
“Part of it is my family.” She gave him a lopsided smile before putting the vehicle back in gear and continuing down the driveway. “I like being near them. Not that I was all that far away, even in Casper. But we have a good community here. When something happens or someone falls on hard times, the community pulls together and does what they can to help.”
“What do you mean? Can you give me an example?”
“Last year we had an elderly lady who lives with her daughter fall and break her hip. She’s mostly wheelchair bound now. Her daughter’s home was pretty wheelchair accessible, except it was almost impossible to get into. Every entrance had at least three steps, which Mrs. Calloway had to be carried up and down every time she left the house.
“The people of Hawthorne did what we do. The Harrisons at the hardware store donated the materials, and a couple of our local handymen donated their time. Together they built a ramp, so Mrs. Calloway and her daughter didn’t have to struggle so badly every time she needed to leave.”
“Do Mrs. Calloway and her daughter not have the money to have it done?”
Sierra shook her head. “They’re both retired. Mrs. Calloway’s daughter is in her seventies. Yet that didn’t stop her from carrying her mother up and down the steps every time she needed to get out.”
Blake blinked. “Is there no one in town with enough money to just pay for the job to be done?”
“There is. Several in fact. But that’s not how we do things. It was a community thing. Several people who had no skills to offer showed up to help, still more brought food to feed the crew and the family. It was a community helping each other thing, not a charity thing, which would have made Mrs. Calloway and her daughter feel bad.” She shrugged; not sure she could make him understand.
An expression she didn’t recognize crossed his face but disappeared before she could figure out what he was feeling.
“I’m not trying to run down or denigrate Hawthorne in any way. I’m trying to understand it and its people a little better.”
Sierra pulled into the driveway in front of the first house she planned to show him and put the car in park. She turned and watched him for a few seconds, trying to figure out how honest he was being, at least about this. He was hiding something, that much she could tell, but she didn’t get the feeling he was lying to her, just not telling her everything.
“This place sits on twelve acres.” Her uncertainty made her turn to her work while she tried to regain control of her emotions. “It’s a little more than you specified, but from the way your emails were worded, I assumed that was a minimum, not a must have.”
“That’s fine. I’m open to more,” Blake’s tone was careful, polite. He paused and licked his lips, reminding her of how that tongue had felt against her skin. It was almost as if he wasn’t sure what was wrong. “You were correct, ten acres was a minimum, not an exact requirement. I’m open to larger parcels.”
“Let’s have a look around here. Tell me what you think. What you like and don’t – that will help me choose other places that might be more what you’re looking for.” Sierra killed the engine and opened her door, but didn’t get out yet. “Everything on my list today is between ten and fifteen acres. If you’re open to more, there are several additional properties available.” She had limited it to fifteen because he’d only asked for ten but there were few listings for properties that large, and yet that small at the same time.
“I am. I don’t need a hundred or even a thousand acres. I’m not looking to start a ranch. But I’m open to a bigger chunk of land.” He looked intrigued at the idea of more land than he’d asked for.
“I can work with that. You ready to take a look?”
“Sure.”
Sierra slid out of the SUV and grabbed her briefcase from the rear seat. She wanted to be sure she had all the details on the property with her, in case he asked, plus a notebook so she could make notes of his likes and dislikes about the place. By the time she’d walked around the front of the car he was standing beside the vehicle waiting.
“You want to start inside or out?”
Blake glanced around then looked up at the two-story house she’d parked in front of. “Is there anything remarkable about the property?”
“A couple things. There’s a barn and corral in the back and a small pond on the other end.”
“Let’s look at the house first and see if it warrants checking out the rest.”
“Sounds like a plan. Come on, I’ll let us in.” She led him up the flagstone walk to the door, punched the code into the key box and unlocked the front door. She stepped inside and held the door for him to follow, but he stood at the threshold frowning for a moment before he shook his head slightly and stepped inside.
“Is something wrong?” she wondered if there was something about the tile foyer he didn’t like.
“I just like to open doors for women, not the other way around.” He gave her a wry smile. “It’s the way I was raised and a habit I’ve found difficult to break.”
“It’s a nice habit.” Sierra couldn’t help but flash him a real smile instead of the polite, business like smile she’d been wearing. “I like it when men open doors for me; when it’s practical. For this though? It’s more practical that I do it.”
Blake stared at her a moment then nodded. “You’re right. It threw me for a moment having someone else hold the door open for me, but I agree, it is more practical.” He stepped out of the way, and she closed the door, blocking out the cool breeze that sent a sudden shiver up her spine.
“Do you have a preference where we start?”
“No.”
“Then let’s go this way.” She led him through the house, pointing out the view and some of the higher end features like the marble hearth and mantle in the living room and the hand laid tile backsplash in the kitchen.