Page 70 of All I Need (Hearts of the South)
“Sounds wonderful.” Even she picked up the tremor of fear in her voice.
He reached for her hand. “It’s just today, all right? That’s all.”
“Yeah.” She wrapped her fingers around his and held on. “Just today.”
* * * * *
“Long Lonesome Road?” Savannah squinted at the street sign. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.” Emmett grinned. “When we went to enhanced 911 a few years ago, every road in the county had to have a name. The guys responsible for that got a little desperate after a while. There’s an Old Lonely Road, Smokehouse Road, Honeysuckle Trail. My personal favorite? Honeypot Trail.”
She laughed and let her hand linger along his nape. Under her easy touch, he seemed less tense this evening than he had earlier in the day. At the least the muscles under her hand weren’t taut and vibrating.
He hooked a left into a long paved driveway. Against a backdrop of pines and cypress trees lit by the setting sun, a small gray contemporary rose on stilts, blending with the surroundings. Savannah smiled at the picture it made. “Oh, that’s gorgeous.”
“Isn’t it great?” His excitement was infectious, and her smile widened as she slid from the truck.
A blonde in trim black slacks and a pink silk blouse leaned on a snazzy Lexus. She looked up from her phone with a bright smile at their approach.
“Hey, stranger. Long time no see.” She lifted her cheek for Emmett’s quick kiss and brushed a hand down his arm. “You look great.”
“Probably a hell of a lot better than the last time you saw me.” A grin played about his mouth, and he drew Savannah forward. “Ivy, this is Savannah. Savannah, my friend Ivy.”
Friend, her ass. This one was an ex as well. Savannah curved a slightly possessive hand around his biceps and nodded at the younger woman. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too.” Brimming with professional enthusiasm, Ivy waved at the house. “Let’s go take a look.”
She led them up a wide set of steps, talking about the storage beneath the house and the various amenities. “It’s only two bedrooms, but I know you don’t want a big house. It does have two bathrooms and a separate laundry room. The kitchen is a little small; however, the living area is a nice size and there’s a huge deck, plus the dock outside. I think you’ll love the swing. The house is set above the five-hundred-year flood plain, so it didn’t sustain any damage in last year’s flood, unlike a lot of the places around it.”
She punched in a key code on the lockbox at the glass French doors on the front of the house and swung them open. Around the corner, Savannah glimpsed the river below the sloping yard, lazily rolling along in a dark brown slide.
Ivy was right—the living area was large, with a nice view of the trees and water. The younger woman flipped on the lights, revealing a country blue-and-mauve paint scheme, and a small grimace twisted her mouth a moment. “The colors are a tad dated, I know.”
Emmett glanced around, pulling his attention from the view outside. “They are?”
Savannah smothered a laugh. He was hopeless. “Yes, they are. Paint can fix that.”
He rested his hands at his hips, gaze trailing back to the yard below. “I could put my kayak in from the dock.”
“Yes, and you have easy access to the boat ramp and the nature trails up the road.” Ivy gestured toward the door to their right. “I think you’ll like the master suite too. It’s large and has a great view of both the river and the wooded lot next door.”
Even painted blue and pink, the bedroom was inviting, with large windows on two walls inviting nature into the space. The sun, sinking behind the trees, bounced final rays of red and gold light across the hardwood floor.
Ivy’s brows came together in a pained expression. “Swapping out the paint would make a big difference, but it has tons of potential.”
“It does. Gray would look wonderful in here.” A fantastic shade of gray paint to go with that gorgeous wood trim, a bed with a white down duvet and soft sheets, and the two of them wrapped up naked in those sheets with light spilling into the room from just such a sunset. The images came a little too easy, and her chest went tight, anxiety crawling under her skin.
This was too real.
“Ben says you’re prequalified on the lease.” Ivy swiped her thumb across her phone screen. “What do you think, Emmett?”
He cast a quick glance at Savannah. She swallowed hard. This waswaytoo real, and she couldn’t breathe. “It’s a great place.”
He jerked his chin at Ivy. “Put in the offer.”
Savannah made herself inhale slowly.Hewas leasing a house. All she was doing was giving him an opinion on the place. It didn’t mean anything. If she kept telling herself that, maybe sooner or later, she’d believe it.
“Awesome. I’ll let you know something as soon as I can, probably within the next day or so.” She squinted at her phone screen. “Um, listen, I have another showing across town in ten minutes. If you want to hang around and look at the grounds, that’s fine, but if it’s okay, I’m going to take off.”
