Chapter 18
Lottie stepped inside the house, and the scent reminded her of the attic in her grandparents’ house.
She shivered at the memory, switched on the light, and scanned the room for spiders.
As a child, she used to sneak up there every chance she got to prowl among all the stored stuff.
Until the day that she backed into a spiderweb and disturbed what looked like a million granddaddy long-legged spiders.
She had run screaming to her grandmother, who brushed baby spiders off her clothes and out of her hair for what seemed like a whole hour.
Thankfully, there was nothing but a couple of cobwebs on the legs of a wooden rocking chair in Knox’s new place.
“Are you cold?” Knox asked.
“No, but the house has a smell about it,” she replied and told him the spider story.
“My hero. Do you have a white horse to ride in on when you save the maiden in distress?”
“I can buy one if that will make you feel safer,” he teased.
“Don’t you dare. If it rained, I would want to bring it inside. I’ve worried about that rooster of yours being outside when and if it rains down at the site. I do have a couple of questions. Why did you choose that number, and why again?” she asked.
“Thirteen is my lucky number, so I just doubled it, and there was a security system in the house where I grew up.” He finished that and opened all the windows in the living room. “There you go. The fresh night breezes should take away the smell pretty quick.”
“I don’t remember that security thing from the last time we were here,” Lottie said.
“It wasn’t here then, but Tripp took care of having it installed for me, and after what happened at Swan Song Estates, I’m glad. There’s also one at the gate. Security code is the same.”
“Do lights flash and sirens sound when someone doesn’t enter the right numbers?”
“No, the Nocona police bring those things with them,” he answered. “Do you want that long bath in the claw-footed tub or supper first?”
“Food.” She headed across the room. “I’m hungry, so let’s bring in the groceries, and…” She took a step forward and looked him right in the eye. “If you tattle on me about cooking to the guys at the site, you will be in big trouble.”
Knox drew her close in a tight hug, then tipped her chin up with his fist. “Your secret is safe with me.”
She barely had time to moisten her lips before he kissed her. Her knees came close to buckling, and she wished that he would lead her to the bedroom right then. But then her stomach growled, and he took a step back.
“We’ve got all weekend, and you are hungry,” he whispered. “I’ll bring in the groceries.”
Flashing lights, sirens, hunger. What next? She sighed as she watched him go back outside. Were they doomed to never have sex? Maybe I’m really not his type and boring.
Lottie wandered into the kitchen and opened the cabinet doors, one by one.
She wasn’t surprised to find that part of the kitchen was set up for convenience, just like her grandmother’s had been.
Cups and mugs in the cabinets above the coffeemaker.
Dishes to the left of the sink and dishwasher.
But after checking out everything, she couldn’t find pots and pans, or anything that resembled where staples like flour and sugar might be stored.
Knox brought in several bags and set them on the counter beside the mint-green refrigerator. “Where do you want all this? In the pantry, or have you found space in the cabinets?”
“Pantry?” she asked.
“It’s out there.” He took her by the hand and led her through swinging doors into the laundry room and opened a door leading into a walk-in pantry. “I found it while you were looking at the bedrooms the last time we were here.”
“Wow!” she gasped. “I missed this when we were here. I was so surprised to see a fairly new washer and dryer instead of one of those old wringer things that I didn’t really come inside this room.”
Knox agreed and picked up a jar of jam from a shelf. “I got a house, a laundry room, and food.”
Lottie stood in the middle of the long, narrow room with floor-to-ceiling shelves on three sides and took stock of what was stored there.
Jellies, jams, and canned food were on the shelves on one wall, pots and pans on the other, and staples in see-through containers at the back.
“I love this,” she whispered. “I wonder why Geneva didn’t take some of this stuff with her. ”
“She said that she got what she wanted out of the house, gave the personal things to a women’s shelter in Wichita Falls, and didn’t want to have a garage sale or deal with the rest. I guess all these canned goods are the rest. This is elderberry jam.
I wonder if the berries grow somewhere on the property. ”
Lottie took a large pot off a shelf to boil water for noodles and a smaller one to make spaghetti sauce. “These will work perfectly, and I know a little about elderberries.”
Knox set the jar back on the shelf and raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t look so surprised.” She brushed past him on the way out, and sparks danced again.
“I helped my grandparents pick and clean blackberries, strawberries, and also elderberries. I whined the whole time when it was time to work in the elderberries until Granny poured some of the thick syrup that she made with them over ice cream that night for dessert. Then I realized that it was worth every single second that we dealt with those BB-sized berries.”
He followed her into the kitchen. “Are we going to harvest them if we find them on the property?”
“What is this we business?” she asked. “Do you have a mouse in your pocket?”
“Nope,” he answered, and quickly changed the subject. “What can I do to help with supper?”
She filled the bigger pot with water, set it on the stove, and turned on the oven to preheat.
“You can set the table and pour each of us a glass of sweet tea. I saw the perfect pan in the pantry for the peach crisp that we’re having for dessert.
When I get back, I want you to tell me some more about who all is included in the we that will be helping you pick elderberries. ”
“Who do you want it to be?” he asked.
“I hope it’s not some other woman who you have hiding in the background.” She brought a glass pan out and set it on the cabinet. Then she opened and poured two cans of tomato sauce into the smaller pot and added spices.
“Truth is, all of us Callahan brothers have had—or in my case have—commitment issues, but I have never been unfaithful. Then again, I’ve never found someone like you, Lottie.
You can rest assured, darlin’, that no other women will come out of the woodwork.
Besides, not even one from my past short-lived relationships would even know what an elderberry is. ”
“What about long lived?” she asked.
He made a zero with his forefinger and thumb. “How many lasting ones have you been in?”
She stirred a few more spices into the sauce and set it on the stove.
“I really like to start with fresh, ripe tomatoes to make my marinara, but it has to simmer all day. This will be faster. To answer your question, only a couple, and they ended because”—she hesitated—“they weren’t worth fighting for, and I don’t like anyone trying to control me. ”
“That would be like trying to cage a lioness,” Knox said.
“Thank you,” she said and poured a can of peaches into the glass pan. “Are you are planning on your brothers or sisters helping you with the elderberry harvest?”
“Not really.” Knox filled two glasses with ice from the refrigerator and then poured tea into them from a gallon jug. “I’m hoping that you will. Remember when I told you that I could probably get you a job up here in Spanish Fort?”
“Yes, and I’m sure thinking about moving here,” she answered.
“Well, as soon as the papers are signed, I’m planning to turn this property into a place somewhat like Swan Song Estates, only on a little larger scale.
I envision ten plots with five acres for each home, and I’m offering the first one to Bo and Maverick.
The lots will be for sale right at the beginning, and I’ll hire a good construction team from the local folks.
Joe Clay has offered to help me with that.
I’m hoping that by the end of summer, we’ll be ready to start framing on the first house.
I’ll have to get the land surveyed, plots laid out, utilities checked into, power lines run, wells drilled, permits taken care of, and all that kind of thing before we can lay foundations. ”
“And a rec hall?” Lottie asked.
“That will be the first item on the list,” Knox said. “Will you be the mouse in my pocket?”
“A mouse…oh!” she gasped. “You are asking me if I want a job helping build the houses? I am the we.”
“Yes. You can live in this house with me—no strings attached—either in a shared bedroom or your own room, or you can park your trailer in the yard. You choose when and where we take the steps along the way.”
“It’s a little early to ask me to move in with you.” Her mind spoke, but her heart disagreed.
“Maybe so, but you can make that decision when the time is right for you. I’m all in when it comes to this relationship.”
“Can I think about it for a few days? I told my folks that I would give them the summer to get settled in before I moved closer, and I planned to work for Walter out in El Paso for three months to kind of get him started.”
Knox handed her a glass of tea. “Take all the time you need. This house isn’t going anywhere, and neither are my plans.”
“Do you really think we could survive a long-distance relationship?” She was still worried that he would find her boring after a while.
“If we can’t last three or four months, how would we ever make it through fifty years?” he asked.
She almost dropped the butter that she was blending into oatmeal to make the crispy top on the peach crisp. “You are thinking that far ahead?”
“Yes, ma’am, I am.” Knox took a sip of tea and then brushed a sweet kiss across her lips. “Sometimes it works out like I see it in my mind. Sometimes it falls flat.”