Page 5 of Cherishing Happily Ever After

He watched as she looked at the fence she hadn’t noticed when they’d first arrived at the site. She took a step closer and her eyes widened in question. She looked down the length of the fence line and he knew what she’d seen there. He’d been working hard. It was almost done. Slowly, she looked back at him. “What is…a fence?”

Travis nodded. “It goes around the entire perimeter of the property,” he said. “Well, almost. There are still a few gaps I need to close up.”

“But…I didn’t ask—”

“I know.” He held up a hand to ward off the objections he was sure would be coming next. “You didn’t ask me to do it,” he said. “And you don’t need to pay me for it. It’s a gift.”

“A gift?”

He nodded. “I know you were a little…well, after everything went down up here with Char and…” He wasn’t getting this right. “I know you haven’t been feeling very comfortable up here since it all happened. And I don’t—”

“I’m not uncomfortable. I told you, I’ve been—”

“Busy,” he finished for her. “I know, you said.”

He held her gaze for a moment and could see the truth reflected in the depths of her emerald-green eyes. She looked away first and stepped toward the fence. She ran her hand along the top piece of wood. It was a simple style. Rustic, to match the entire aesthetic of Lynx Creek, he’d made sure that it wouldn’t stick out.

“It’s…but I don’t understand. It doesn’t look like it will keep anyone out.” She turned and looked at him quickly. “Not that I thought that’s what you—”

“It won’t keep animals out either.” He cut her off. “That’s not what I built it for.” She looked confused, so he continued quickly. “In this part of the mountains, you don’t want to keep all the wildlife out because Lynx Creek is in the middle of a wildlife corridor. If you built anything to obstruct that, it would cause issues with migration and breeding and…well, it’s not good.”

She nodded.

“Besides, if you really wanted to keep everything out, it would be a twenty-foot-high fence and on a property this size…” He trailed off when he saw the way she looked at him.

“So if it’s not built to keep anyone—I mean, anything—out, then why?”

He nodded and grinned. “It’s a perimeter for the security system I found for you. You set it up along the fence line and then adjust the settings for the environment. So for example, we should be able to adjust for wildlife so they can still cross the property unrestricted. But you’ll get an alert if any…non-wildlife crosses the perimeter. And you can even set it so if there is an issue with bears or wolves, you, or whomever is the caretaker of the property, will be alerted and can keep an eye out. For safety.”

She nodded as what he said sank in. “For safety.”

“Exactly.”

She looked at the fence intently. “And we’ll be alerted if bears or people cross the perimeter?”

He nodded. She was trying so hard to prove she wasn’t scared to be at Lynx Creek. Her stubbornness was cute. Very cute. And if it made her feel better and more in control, he’d happily play along. “We can even set it so that the conservation officers or police are alerted immediately as well. It’s a pretty sophisticated system.”

She nodded thoughtfully and finally turned to him. “That does sound sophisticated and it’ll be good to have that level of protection. For…for the guests.”

“Of course.”

She smiled knowingly, the first genuine smile he’d gotten from her all afternoon. It was gorgeous and it warmed him in a way that had him wanting to remove more than just his T-shirt. “You just did this? Without asking or—”

“Like I said…” He held out a hand. “You don’t have to pay me. I know I should have asked you about it before starting, but I wanted to…” He blew out a breath and decided to go with honesty. “I wanted to surprise you, Steph. I thought maybe if you had a bit of security, you would…well, maybe you’d feel better about staying here again.”

Travis watched myriad emotions play out over her face.

“So you did this…for me?”

He nodded and took a step toward her. He longed to touch her. To take her face in his hand and hold her there so he could press his lips to hers again. It was pretty much the only thing he’d thought about for the last six weeks. Holding her. Kissing her. Laying her down.

Travis knew it was trouble. Stephanie wasn’t the type of woman who went in for no strings attached, uncomplicated and easy.

But he’d tried to stay away. For months. She was like a magnet pulling him in.

“I don’t really know what to say.” Stephanie’s tongue slipped out between her lips and she bit her bottom lip.

He couldn’t stop himself. He reached for her but she took a step back and shook her head quickly. “No.”

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