“You are a smooth one, aren’t you?”
“Yes ma’am, I do try when it comes to your daughter,” he admitted humbly, smiling at the older version of Rachel. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans trying to keep them warm in the cool air. He saw Rachel’s curious face peek out the window along with several other faces.
“And only my daughter?”
“Only her, I swear it.”
“You got her that outlandish car she named Fern?”
“Yes ma’am. Marshmallow was broken down and I don’t want her stuck on the side of the road,” he explained, feeling keenly possessive at protecting the woman he desired.
“I still can’t believe she names those cars of hers,” she muttered and smiled softly. “Thank you for taking care of her. I told her to get rid of that car a long time ago. I’m glad she finally listened to you if she wouldn’t listen to anyone else.”
“Hard-headed and beautiful,” he reminded her with a smile. “Now, she’s looking out the window to see if you are ready to shoot me or if you’ll allow me to court your beautiful daughter.”
“The way I see it, you already started without my permission.”
“Yes,” Tyler said firmly, “and I care for her a lot.”
“Then come inside and meet the rest of the gang,” she said with a smile that reminded him of Rachel’s. She patted him on the back happily as he stepped inside to be surrounded by people of all ages. “Welcome to the family.”
Tyler had never seen so many people crammed in a house in his entire life. When he’d called Rachel’s mother, Carolyn, he’d told her that they would be flying in and he’d like to meet her. He also mentioned he’d like to have dinner with her since that is what he’d done to get to know Rachel a bit better. That is why he brought the basket of things. His mother had made a peanut butter pie and he’d brought a log of summer sausage he’d had made at the butcher last year, some crackers, cheese and a bottle of Texas Hill country wine as a gift.
There were approximately twenty people inside the small kitchen and living room combination. He felt quite claustrophobic and overly warm inside of the house. At home it had always been just him and his mother. His father had disappeared a long time ago, running off, and then they had received notification that he’d passed away in a car accident. This was a shock to his system. No wonder Rachel was close to her family! It must be just as much of a change for her being alone all the time as it was to him being suddenly surrounded.
Scouring the room, he searched for her and finally spotted her in the corner talking to an older man standing near her. Her eyes met his and he felt a flush of happiness as she smiled at him and waved her fingers at him. Even in this crowded room, she watched him and he loved the attention.
Tyler felt himself being pulled in several directions, smiling at faceless people in the room, nodding amicably and laughing at some of the jokes being told around the table. Folding chairs were brought into the room as a massive turkey was pulled from the oven and set in the middle of the table. Bowl upon bowl was delivered to the large table, creating a dinner that resembled Thanksgiving in any other part of the country. Problem was, it was still two weeks away. This was simply a massive meal to feed a huge group of people.
Plates were handed out and everyone formed a line practically making a buffet of the large table. Understandably so since there was no way they could all sit nearby. He saw that someone had put the summer sausage out on a plate and the bottle of wine was on the counter hidden behind the large canisters containing flour, sugar and coffee.
Tyler was handed a plate and saw Rachel was still off in the distance talking. He wondered when she ate last, because he’d picked her up from work and then they’d flown out. Clearing his throat, he immediately reached over and grabbed a second plate before the teenage boy could walk off. It was almost a fend-for-yourself atmosphere.
“Rachel!” Tyler called out, making everyone grow silent. “You need to eat something, sweetheart. Come join me. I’ve got a plate started for you.”
Carolyn, Rachel’s mother, walked up behind him as everyone began talking and the sound became a dull roar once again. She patted him on the shoulder, getting his attention. Turning, he glanced down at the woman in surprise.
“You just watch out for her and we’ll all be just fine,” she said with an open, warm smile. “I like that you take care of my baby girl.”
“With pleasure, ma’am,” he told her and meant it. Rachel weaved through the crowd and he reached over and pulled her up beside him, almost with a sigh of relief.
“You never mentioned your family was this big?”
“A little overwhelming, isn’t it?” she smiled at him. “Their hearts are in the right spot though.”
“I agree. Everyone seemed very focused on you, especially your mother.”
“Shotgun?” she questioned with a huge sigh.
“She might have mentioned it once or twice,” he grinned and saw her roll her eyes.
“I wish she’d stop that,” Rachel told him and began putting little bits of food from each container on her plate. “It’s embarrassing and unnecessary. I’m an adult.”
“I thought it was fantastic and I would do the same thing if my daughter looked like you,” he said tenderly, teasing her. “I’d be sitting on the front porch polishing the biggest rifle I had when some fiendish man came sniffing around my place looking for my girl.”
“Hmm,” Rachel said with a bland, deadpan expression. “Guess we’ll have to have boys instead of girls someday so you aren’t embarrassing them all the time with your behavior.”
Tyler dropped his plate on the table, clattering it against a ceramic bowl and his roll bounced right off into a mountain of mashed potatoes. He quickly picked up his roll and glanced around to see if anyone noticed. He looked sharply at Rachel and saw the mischief in her eyes. “Someday,” she repeated softly and gave a little shrug.
“Boys could be worse than girls – maybe a mix of both?” Tyler teased her, whispering in her ear for her alone, holding a spoon aloft of the small florets. “You want some broccoli salad?”
“We’d have to work on that whole relationship thing first. I mean, we are still at the friendship stage. No, no broccoli but I will have a few deviled eggs.”
“A woman after my own heart,” he said stabbing a few eggs with a fork and putting them on her laden plate. “We are already in a wonderful relationship but you’re just fighting it. You can call it friendship if you want, but friends don’t kiss me like you do. Dessert?”
“I don’t do anything special when we kiss,” she stammered, blushing. “No, no dessert yet.”
“I agree, you are sweet enough as it is and I plan on sampling those lips again for my dessert.”
“You’re incorrigible.”
“I’m all yours, sweetheart.”
“Yeah, you are,” Rachel agreed with a tender smile, picking up a deviled egg and putting it directly in his mouth. Tyler grabbed her wrist before she dropped the egg and nipped at her fingertip like they were alone in the room. He chewed slowly and put a kiss on the inside of her wrist, his heart bursting at her open smile of happiness. He picked up his own egg off his plate and held it up gently for her, watching her sweet mouth open up as he held the egg for her. He tickled her tongue against the egg several times before letting her bite into it. He popped the remainder in his mouth suggestively before he heard several people clear their throat, reminding him they weren’t alone.
“Okay you two, it’s supposed to be wedding cake, not deviled eggs. Turn it down a notch there, Romeo and let Rachel eat her dinner like a normal person,” an older man said bluntly. Tyler felt heat creep up his neck and nodded.
“My uncle,” Rachel explained. “That is my mother’s brother. He won’t use a shotgun. He’s the town butcher and prefers massive meat cleavers instead,” she teased straight-faced.
“Great,” Tyler drawled, feeling a bead of sweat trickle down the side of his face as they
took their seats near the fireplace.
15
Rachel was simply enchanted by the lengths that Tyler went to show her she was special. It was breathtakingly tender and he wore his heart on his sleeve whether he knew it or not. They spent several evenings wrapped in each other’s arms watching the stars at his house. Tyler had bought some thick sleeping bags since it was too cold out to lay in the grass now. She couldn’t wait for spring to see the flowers bloom and the trees bud, knowing that they could stargaze once again together.
Tonight, was one of those nights.
She was chilly and could see her breath as they talked, but she didn’t want to give up her time with Tyler yet. The house wasn’t ready but it was definitely getting closer. She had a few finishing touches and they needed to touch up the paint. His mother’s furniture was supposed to be delivered in the next few days and that would finish the majority of what she’d planned. She still had one last surprise, but they would have to stay away from the home for that to work.
“I think it’s getting a bit too chilly out to continue this,” she hedged. “We might have to wait until it warms up a bit more.”
“I know,” Tyler’s voice rumbled in his chest under her head. “Why does a beautiful girl like you enjoy hanging out with a hick guy like me? You are so far out of my league and it just makes me worry that I’m not good enough for you.”
“You? Mr. Confidence, are worried?” she teased and saw the serious expression on his face. “Come here,” she beckoned, getting to her feet. They stood together and she weaved her fingers with his. “You and I are more alike than we realize, you know that? We both hide ourselves behind a façade to protect how we feel on the inside. I want you to know that I truly like what we are and enjoy being with you. When you smile, it makes me smile – and that is part of the reason I like your mother: I see how you are with her and know how you might be with me someday.”
“Today,” he said softly. “Not someday.”
“Tyler,” she whispered achingly as he leaned down to kiss her tenderly there in the cool night air. His warm breath caressed her, making her shiver with delight. This sweet man had enchanted her from the very first.
“I care for you more than you know, more than I can say honestly,” he told her and swallowed hard. She saw the love in his eyes and knew.
“Shhh you don’t have to say anything,” she told him, putting her finger over his mouth. “Just know that I’m not going anywhere. I’m here for the duration.”
“Until the project is done?” he asked bitterly.
“No, maybe at first – but,” Tyler interrupted her.
“It’s okay. I don’t have to have a commitment from you, but just knowing you aren’t running off or using me is enough. I don’t think I could take it if…well, I feel so stressed… oh, just never mind.” Rachel watched as he shoved his hands into his pockets and paced for a few moments.
“Tyler, is something wrong?”
“No, I’m just a little worked up right now. My mother is being released from rehab soon. She’s gotten much stronger and they said she’d be ready to go home in two weeks. I was hoping to have the house done by then. I’ve got so much on my plate right now and I don’t want to really talk about anything but the house, okay?”
“Ahhh business talk then,” Rachel said keenly. “Well, I plan on having it move-in ready in eight days. I have a lot of work to do still, so maybe you should take me back home so I can get some rest.”
“Of course,” he agreed, but Rachel saw him grab the sleeping bags almost angrily as he rolled them up and tossed them in the back seat of the truck. Usually he was so careful with everything, but this time he was letting it show that he was upset.
“Just so you know, I have been going to visit your mother and she is doing much better. She’s excited and ready to go home. I haven’t told her that I-“
“She knows,” he interrupted and Rachel snapped her mouth shut at the obvious rudeness. She wanted to tell him that his mother raised him better than that but it was not her place. He’d been good to her so far, tender and caring, but now she felt distinctly used, almost tossed aside. Had he been cozying up to her while the house was being worked on and now that it’s almost done – he was done? The thought of it made her physically ill.
Not waiting for him, she marched right over to the truck door and opened it. She climbed in herself and waited silently to leave. She’d be back in the morning and set herself back to work in order to hurry and finish the job. If this was how he was going to act perhaps it was a good thing she’d not shared her deepest emotions.
Rachel loved him.
She wanted to weep or throw up right now. Today, she’d taken care to carve their initials on the underside of the mantle with a Dremel. She’d thought there was something there between them, especially after meeting her family. Maybe that was what was wrong? Had someone said something to him to make him cross? Tyler climbed in the truck and she felt his eyes on her as he sat silent. She stared directly ahead and finally heard him start the truck with a heavy sigh. As he pulled up to her apartment complex, she opened the door and got out before he could open the door for her.
“Thank you for the ride,” she said casually.
“I’m…I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“No, I don’t think so,” she said with a falsetto smile. “I have a lot of work to do on the house and I am so close to finishing that I need to get it done. I’ll call you when it’s time for the walk through.”
“Rachel…” he began.
“Tyler,” she mimicked. “It’s fine. I’m a big girl. Have a good night.”
She then did something she’d never done in her life: she shut the truck door, effectively silencing him before he could speak. There was something so final, so decisive in this simple movement that made her feel like she’d taken a blow to the midsection. She hid her pain for as long as she could but felt herself, her world, crumbling fast. She waved and turned to walk up the stairs to her apartment. She didn’t even make it to the top of the landing before she broke down crying. Her heart was breaking and she didn’t know what had happened between them. She heard the massive squeal of his tires as he pulled out of the parking lot in a hurry.
Rachel threw herself into her work for the next several days. She ached physically, mentally and emotionally, avoiding all calls. She didn’t want to talk to anyone unless it had to do with the house. Unfortunately, the calls that came in were only for the house. She hadn’t seen or heard from Tyler since that night. She’d been so close to telling him her feelings there in the moonlight before she saw another side of him. A bitter, closed off, side of him. Is this how he’d been with his friends when he’d won the lottery? Was he regretting the money he’d spent so far? She’d not asked for the car, nor their trip out to Kansas. He’d done that, he’d planned all of it.
Rachel was working herself to the bone and she knew it. She was at the worksite long before the workers showed up and stayed late into the evening to make sure everything was simply perfect. Everything in the house was finished, now she was focusing on the mother-in-law suite for Clara. She wanted everything to feel elegant, plush, dainty and ladylike. Inside of the closet were drawers that she’d lined with lavender and placed several different pairs of gloves that she’d bought for the older woman for church. She’d taken a selfie of the three of them one afternoon, had it enlarged and framed. In the silver frame, she placed a few other photos of Tyler and his mother over the years. She loved that photo simply because of the way he looked at her in it.
Today, she stood in the room placing the different décor and items about, yet that photo kept drawing her to it. Now, she stood in front of it missing him terribly. She missed his aura, his steadfast faith and his arrogant ways. He walked into a room like he owned it and she missed that swagger. She missed his eyes, his smile, his very presence.
Tyler felt overwhelmed and lost. He wanted to confide in Rachel, to tell her he’d taken the necessary steps to purc
hase the grocery store but things seemed to go south so very fast between them. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but he was suddenly reminded that their meeting was a business transaction and he was hurt. He’d lashed out and snapped at her. The gentlest, most lovely woman he’d ever met in his life – he’d treated her badly. He’d been half tempted to tell Rachel’s mother what he’d done so she could put him out of his misery.
His heart hurt…it ached.
He wanted so much to tell Rachel about the store, see the loving pride shine in her eyes, but when she’d shut the truck door in his face, it had felt so final – like she was shutting the door on them, on him. He’d gone home to his empty mobile home, wallowing in grief at how barren his soul felt knowing that he’d ruined everything. He’d cried himself to sleep, dreaming of her eyes and the pain he’d seen there. He’d hurt his mother once and seen shame in her eyes that had haunted him. The look in Rachel’s eyes ripped his heart from his chest.
Tyler decided at that moment that he would get her back. He’d apologize and make her proud of him, make her want to be with him. He loved her like the air he breathed and he simply needed to show her how much. If the design project brought them together, he would spend every dime he’d won on project after project…after project to keep her with him. He couldn’t function without knowing he had Rachel there in his life.
It had been a long week of silence between them. Tyler had flown out of town repeatedly in order to close the acquisition of the grocery store. He was shocked by the loopholes and the amount of lawyers involved. He thought it would be a simple transaction, but no.
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