Chapter 15
“Can you pull off at that next rest stop?” Shay asked as he pointed out the front window at the sign that read a rest area was in thirty miles.”
“What? Why? We just stopped for gas, didn’t you go to the bathroom then?” She looked at Shay with a shocked, bug-eyed expression.
Shay laughed at her expression. “It’s not that, I want to talk to you about something, and I know you enough by now that if there’s a heavy decision on your mind, you like to think about it. I don’t want you to jerk the wheel when I talk to you.”
“I made a rash decision a couple of days ago about selling the house or turning it into an Airbnb.”
“Yes, but was it really rash? Or was it practical?”
She nodded, and cocked her head to the side. “There is that, I’ll agree with that. It was a practical decision. Okay, I’ll pull over.”
When the truck slowed down, Shay looked up to see she was pulling into the rest area, and his stomach suddenly tightened, and his heart fluttered.
He knew he was probably going to be jumping the gun with what he wanted to discuss, but it’d been on his mind for a few days, and he needed to let her know what he’d been thinking.
There was no way he could get his answer if he didn’t voice the question.
After Faith parked in one of the long parking lots for a tractor trailer, because of her own trailer hooked up to her truck, the space was the perfect size for them.
They got out, walked around, and ended up using the facilities.
When Faith came out of the building, he pointed to some picnic tables in the distance. “Would you like to walk up there?”
She shrugged as she looked at him. “This is your rodeo, do we want to walk up there?”
“Please,” he said, and they made their way over there. Once they settled across from each other, he folded his hands out in front of him, with his forearms on the table. Since she kept her hands in her lap, he couldn’t hold them.
“Well?” Faith asked after almost a full minute of silence.
“Sorry,” he said on a sigh, then drew in a deep breath.
He looked at her directly, and nodded once.
“Faith, I like you. What I’m about to ask you, I’ve never asked another woman in my life.
” Faith sat up, and he nodded again, only once.
“Faith, when we return to New Double will you move into my cabin with me?” He didn’t talk after he asked his question, just studied her expression.
Again, it was several long moments of silence.
“Can we do that?”
He noticed she didn’t say yes or no, and he knew she was thinking.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you don’t own the cabin you’re living in, can we move in with each other just like that? Or do we have to ask permission from Cole, or Naomi, or even Erin. Hell, I don’t know who actually owns them.”
Shay chuckled, “Yeah, neither do I, but I got to know you well over the last three weeks. I liked sharing space with you, I’m asking so you can think about it on the rest of the drive home.
” She laid her hands on the table, and he reached out to cover them lightly with his own.
“No pressure, I’ll wait until we get home for your decision.
If you say yes, then drive directly to my cabin, if the answer is no, about living together, I hope you will still see me.
You know, spend time together after work, cook a meal together, talk, do things a normal couple does. ”
“Except go out to eat,” she giggled. “Because after a hard day’s work, I’m not driving for an hour or more to the nearest restaurant.”
“Yeah, me neither.” He sighed and watched her.
“I can think about it?”
“Yes, we still have a day and a half to travel. We got a late start because you needed to talk to Margaret, so it might be two more days before we get home.”
“Yeah,” she sighed as she looked at her watch. “Can you go for another couple of hours? I thought maybe we can go until this fresh tank of gas needs to be refilled, then look for a place to stop for the night.”
“I’m good.” They rose, and he held out his hand to help her up, smiling the entire way back to the truck, because she kept her hand in his as they walked. It didn’t take them long to get back on the road, and Shay remained silent as they drove, letting Faith be alone with her own thoughts.
Two days later, they both sighed in relief when she slowed down to pull into the driveway leading to New Double.
They had stopped off in Fool’s Gold to get something to eat at the diner in town, then went to the grocery store to stock up.
There was no telling when they would return to town again.
While in the store, which they had spent almost two hours in, because neither one of them had any groceries at home, the skies had opened up and brought rain.
It was slow going home, because it was torrential downpours, with the wipers on high, and the four-ways going.
Faith didn’t want to stop, because she didn’t know when it would let up, so she kept at a slow and steady pace, thanking the stars that the road was empty of any other traffic.
“Thank God,” they both said at the same time as they eased down the driveway.
“Stop? Or continue?”
“I’d say continue. We can unload the refrigerated groceries, and if need be, leave the rest.”
She nodded and made her way past the barns, and toward the cabins. She pulled up in front of his, and looked at him with a nod.
“Yes, I’ll move in with you, and I wouldn’t normally say this, but on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“You get out of this truck, hurry, as fast as you can without falling on your ass, and I’ll bring the groceries to you.
” She shook her head when he was going to protest. “Think of your knee. Yes, you’ve healed quite a bit in the last three weeks, but if you go back and forth, what’s to say you’re not going to slip and slide in this shit, and reinjure it? ”
“Fuck, you’re right.” He sighed heavily, looked out the side window, then shook his head as he looked at her. “Before you get out, let me get inside, turn on the lights, and grab some towels, we’re not going to want to track through the house.”
“Yeah,” she said and jerked with a small scream when someone banged on her side window. It was Tony. She rolled down her window, and he shouted above the noise of the rain.
“Shay need help getting to the house?”
“I’m good, but we have groceries.”
“Okay, I’ll help, since I have the rain poncho, make your way to the porch, we’ll get them.”
Faith handed Shay her purse, and he stuffed it beneath his shirt, and with her help, he was able to put a jacket over his head.
It wasn’t rain proof, but it would keep him dry.
Since the groceries were on her side, and the suitcases on his, he thought he would grab her case, because he still had clothes in the house, whereas she didn’t.
He opened the door, swung his feet out, leaned over the seat, grabbed her case, then made a dash to the porch, slamming the door behind him.
“That works,” Tony said with a grin when he saw Shay give them a thumbs up.
He went into the cabin, leaving the door open for them.
Tony and Faith were able to get all the groceries in one trip, and they shook the water off the bags and themselves before entering the cabin, laughing as Shay handed them each a towel.
“When did you encounter this rain?” Tony asked as he wiped his face.
“It started when we were in the store,” Shay said. “How has the weather been while we’ve been gone?”
“This is the first rain, and it’s been warm enough that the snow all melted.”
“How did you know we were back?” Faith asked as she started hefting the bags onto the kitchen table.
“I was sitting in my truck, I had just gotten home from work, when I saw the headlights. At first, I thought it was Staci, but then I saw the trailer and figured it was you guys.”
They nodded and Faith paused from unloading the groceries. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“Who owns these cabins?”
Tony cocked his head to the side with a confused look.
He studied the couple before him, and knew they were serious in the asking.
“I guess, if you want to get technical, Erin does. She’s the one that paid for the lumber, she’s the one that had Ryan, oversee building them.
The land is hers, so are the barns, so I don’t see why the cabins wouldn’t be either. Why? Does it make a matter?”
“No,” Shay said as he walked over to Faith and laid his hands on her shoulders. “I asked Faith to live with me here. We started a relationship while we were in Kentucky.”
“And I was wondering if we had to tell anyone.”
“Not really,” Tony said. “When Staci and I moved in together, she had a cabin over at Broken Two when she first arrived here, then when our relationship took off, we decided it was better to live here.”
“Why?” Faith asked. “I’m not being nosy, I’m just asking. Wondering.”
“Here we have two acres. There it was like a quarter of an acre. The four cabins are close together, almost like on a street in a neighborhood. I like having the feeling of being spread out here. Not on top of one another.”
“Got it,” the couple nodded. “Thank you for being honest with us.”
“You’re welcome. Not that I don’t want to know more about your trip, but I should get home to wait for Staci. She should be home any second. We can catch up tomorrow.”
They walked out onto the porch with him, and he paused as a camper van came slowly down the drive.
“That’s her,” he said with a grin as he lifted the hood of his poncho, and ran over to her.
They watched as he waited until the door opened, then he flopped one side of the poncho over her head, and they ran to their cabin.
After Tony turned to wave, Shay and Faith went back inside the cabin.
Without talking, and working together, they took care of the groceries, and made dinner, all while only making small talk.