Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Their height was similar, with Dylan maybe being shorter by an inch, if that.
Both were ridiculously handsome. Fit. And downright sexy.
Dylan had looked good standing outside of the butcher shop. He looked even better now. Coming home seemed to agree with him, despite the hard work and stress from building a business from the ground up.
Her heart ached when she realized where they might’ve been if he had stayed. Possibly married with kids. Maybe even living on the dairy farm, surrounded by the mountains and cows.
Instead, she was a childless widow. And he was… She had no idea. “Did you ever get married?” she asked again since he never answered the last time. Just because he seemed to be single now, didn’t mean he was always that way.
“No.”
Her head snapped back. “Really?”
He nodded.
Now she had so many questions, even though the answers were none of her business. “No children, either?”
“No children. Apparently, I fail at picking partners on the same page as me.”
Shots fired. “I never said I would leave,” she reminded him.
“I never said I would stay,” he countered.
“And that’s why we are where we are right now.”
“True.” He exhaled loudly. “Let me show you around before someone sends out a search party for me.”
“Please. I’d love to see the rest.”
“It’s pretty basic.” He waved an arm around. “We’re standing in the living room, of course.”
“I was wondering. Thanks for clarifying that,” she teased, hoping he still had a sense of humor.
Unfortunately, he didn’t even crack a smile.
His wing of the house was decked out in rustic furniture with a “ranch” type of feel to it. Two large sepia-toned photos of cattle hung on the walls. Using the reddish-brown coloring gave the photos a more artistic and country feel than the typical black and white. “Were those photos taken here on the farm?” The landscape behind the herd of Holsteins looked familiar.
Again, he moved to stand directly behind her. So close, it would only take a slight shift for them to be touching. “They were. My father took them. I had them blown up and framed so I’d never forget the resort’s humble beginnings.”
“I doubt you could ever forget since you were raised here.” She looked closer. “He had a great eye.”
“I didn’t know that about him until I found a few of his photos going through his stuff after he died. It was actually difficult to pick which ones I wanted for myself. I had some others of the amazing photos he took around the area, including town, hung in the lodge and cabins. A few I had framed for my mother’s new place.”
“Our parents always end up being more complex people than we expect. Why are we so surprised when we find out these sorts of things about them?”
His hands landed on her shoulders, and he gave them a gentle squeeze. “We see them solely as our parents and not as others see them? I don’t know. On that note, how are yours?”
She turned, dislodging his touch, since it was increasing her heart rate. For a reason she didn’t want to admit. She just had sex with Ford, another man shouldn’t be getting her worked up, even if it was Dylan. “Great. They are loving the warmer weather in Georgia.”
“So, they left Fisher Falls,” he murmured.
She was surprised he didn’t know that, either, especially with the town being as small as it was. However, he’d been busy building the resort ever since he returned. And if he didn’t know Kyle died, or that her parents moved, then her best guess was he’d been avoiding any news or gossip from town. “They did. Not long after Dad retired. They didn’t want to deal with the snow and freezing temps anymore.”
“Good for them.”
“It turns out the move was good for them.” Though, she dearly missed them. Especially around the holidays. To see her parents, she either needed to fly south or they needed to travel north. It would’ve been the same for Dylan, since he had moved south, as well, after college. “Didn’t you come back for visits?”
“I stayed out of town when I did.”
Him not leaving the farm during his visits home would also explain why she hadn’t seen him in the last seventeen years. Otherwise, it would’ve been difficult to not run into each other.
“To avoid me?” she asked.
Him evading her question was her answer. Even so, they were supposed to be moving forward, so maybe it was for the best he didn’t answer.
The spacious living room included a big, comfortable-looking couch, an overstuffed recliner, an enormous TV hanging on the wall with a gas fireplace under it and a “live edge” wood coffee table. “That table is gorgeous. Did Callum make it?”
Callum was a woodworker and artist that lived right outside of town and made stunning custom furniture and decor from local trees. His stuff was pricy but worth every cent since each piece took him weeks, some even months, to handcraft. Anything he made would last forever and could be handed down through generations.