Page 6 of Stripped Down at the Fair

The gravel-crunching stopped, replaced by silence. I closed the grill cover and headed around the outside of the cabin to greet my houseguest. As I rounded the corner, I spotted the car parked next to my much larger pickup. Even though I was no car expert, I could tell at a glance that the small sedan was an older model. I noticed a sizable dent in the front fender as I approached the driveway.

One thing was clear. She’d been struggling financially for a while. I was almost overwhelmed with the need to make sure she never had to worry about money again.

When the door opened, revealing another dent on the side along with some scratches, I spotted those familiar sneakers beneath the doorframe. Slowly, she stood, revealing her upper half.

I nearly tripped over my own feet as I took in her long blonde hair. It was the first time I’d seen it down, and it made her evenmore jaw-droppingly gorgeous—something I didn’t even think was possible.

“Hi,” she said. “So sorry I’m late. A woman wanted a caricature of her and her dog. She came up right as the fair was closing down. I told her I’d stay late. It was a gift for her husband.”

She closed the door, then looked back at her car with a strange expression. At first, I thought something might be wrong with it, but then she shifted her stare to me. She wore a grimace.

“I should have brought something,” she said. “Wine, beer, dessert…”

I shook my head. “I have all that.”

I’d stopped by the store for a bottle of wine. I didn’t even know if she’d like it, but it felt like I should have some on hand. I also grabbed some ice cream and an apple pie from the bakery. Something told me this woman had been sacrificing good food for a while, and I fully intended to spoil her.

“You’ve done too much,” she said. “I can’t thank you enough.”

“Do you have your stuff?”

She looked at her car again and nodded. “Packed it all up. I didn’t tell the person I’m staying with. I want to make sure you don’t change your mind.”

“You can go ahead and text her now. Unless you think you’ll changeyourmind.”

Our eyes met, and my first thought was that maybe I was making a mistake. Not because I didn’t want her to stay with me. No, I wanted that more than I wanted my next breath. My biggest concern was that having her stay with me would push me even deeper. And it would be impossible to ever let her go…ifshe decided she wanted to leave.

What choice did I have? I’d never felt anything like this. I had to have her in my life. I couldn’t go another day knowing she was out there somewhere and I couldn’t be with her.

“Come on in,” I said. “The front door’s open. I need to run around and check on the steaks.”

It wasn’t necessary. They’d be fine for a few minutes. But she might want to unpack without me hovering around. So I turned and headed toward my backyard patio without even glancing back at her.

Cate. Her beautiful face stayed on my mind as I moved the steaks from the grill to a platter. She’d spelled her name out to me earlier as I tapped it into my phone. C-A-T-E. A unique spelling for a unique woman.

I’d included my name when I texted her the directions. I liked to picture her saving my number into her phone, including my name. Maybe she even smiled as she typed it. I’d live in that fantasy as long as I could.

I’d just turned off the grill when the patio door opened and she peeked outside and asked, “Need help out here?”

“I think I’ve got it.”

I closed the grill and powered it off, then started toward the door. But she was still standing there, looking around.

“Wow, this is nice,” she said. “It’s so private.”

“Yeah, no mountain view, but when I look out any of my windows, all I see is green. That’s the way I like it.”

“Me too.”

She nodded, then stepped back, pushing the door open wider. As she did so, she disappeared into the house and I followed her inside. She was standing just inside the door, looking around. I waited on her to comment on the size of the interior of my cabin, but then I realized she’d already seen it when she breezed through to get to the back patio.

“I left my stuff by the front door,” she said. “I didn’t know… I mean, I could sleep on the couch.”

“I have a guest bedroom.”

Hadn’t I mentioned that already? Probably. She was no doubt trying to be polite.

“Of course, you could always sleep in my bed,” I said. “It’s a king. It’s so big, you’d never even come in contact with me.”

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