An owl hooted softly in the distance, working late to bring home the daily bread—or mouse, in its case. You and me both, I thought to myself with a wry smile. It seemed like ages since I had seen the sun, and it also seemed like there couldn’t possibly be enough time to get everything ready before tomorrow.
It was the last night before the big expo, and there was no way I was getting any sleep. Not when every time I tried to lie down, I thought up another last minute touch that would make everything just perfect and go off without a single hitch. So I’d given up on my guesthouse bed and headed to the dining room of the manor, not for the first time cursing both Hunter and myself for agreeing to put our personal relationship on the back burner until we had this new business stuff figured out. What a stupid idea that had been. Stupid, stupid, stupid. A few hours in his bed and I knew my nerves would be nothing but a distant memory. But it was too late to go back on my word now, and I wasn’t pathetic enough to go pound on his door and beg for him to let me in like a cat in heat. Then again…no! Focus.
For now, I’d distract myself by going over all the presentation graphics for the umpteenth time. Sandra had really outdone herself, tweaking the concepts we already had in place for the first campaign into something distinctive and completely new. I hadn’t caught any imperfections so far, but I couldn’t stop fussing over them. What if I missed something?
What if I didn’t miss anything and it still didn’t work?
It had to work. It just had to.
“How’s it going?”
Hunter was lounging in the doorway, a black V-neck tee clinging to his chest and shoulders, cargo pants hanging loosely around his hips. Mmm-hmm. Talk about midnight snack. I took a minute just to drink in the sight of him before I replied. “Fine. Nervous, but fine. You know how it is.”
“I do indeed,” he said with a warm, kind smile. “Can I offer the nervous but fine lady a drink?”
“I won’t say no to that,” I said, leaning back from the table and stretching my tired shoulders. “What’s on tap?”
He pulled out a bottle from behind his back, looking sneakily pleased. “Oh, just this old thing.”
I took it from him and sipped; it was delicious, like an iced tea lemonade all grown up and squeezed into a cocktail dress. “Mmmm, that’s good. What’s this one?”
“A new flavor I’m experimenting with. I take it you approve?”
“If they’re all half as good as this, you can put me on taste test duty anytime,” I told him. I hesitated before adding, “I’m glad to see you so…enthusiastic again. Excited. You’re lit up, like you’re back to being this unstoppable force.”
“It feels good,” he admitted, taking a seat next to me, his knee pressing against mine. “To be building something on my own now, to know that I can build something, that I wasn’t just following in the family footsteps because I couldn’t do anything else. I think…” He ducked his head, oddly shy for a moment. “I think my grandfather would have approved.”
I reached out, ran a gentle hand through his hair. “What was he like?” I asked softly.
“Hard as nails,” Hunter said with a rueful grin. “My parents would drop me off here so they could attend business meetings in the big city without worrying about me, and I’d sulk my head off—no movie theater to walk to? What was the world coming to?” He gave a little laugh. “But my grandpa took me out to the woods each day. Didn’t say much, would just start whittling, or looking through his binoculars, or setting up a duck blind or a fishing pole. He’d let me rant and rave and whine and when I’d finally tired myself out, there he’d be, with this little smile on his face, like he was in the best, most interesting place on the whole planet, like he was privileged to be there. Eventually I got so tired of whining I gave up and gave paying attention like him a try. And when I saw what he saw—the plants and the animals, the earth and the air and the water, the way they all fit together like pieces of some grand plan—when I saw that, I knew he was right.”
“That’s beautiful,” I whispered. I cupped his cheek. “I feel the same way about this place—it’s the most amazing land I’ve ever seen. I want to know all its secrets.”
Hunter smiled. “I just wish I’d told him, before he passed. How much he taught me.”
My heart broke for him. “Oh, Hunter…”
“It’s all right,” he said. “I’ve learned from that mistake. I’ll always tell people how much they mean to me from now on.” He put his hand on my knee, his thumb making circles on my skin. “I couldn’t do this without you, Ally. I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”
“I should be thanking you,” I whispered, and I was going to say more but then our lips were so close, and then our lips were touching, hesitant at first until he pressed back more firmly; my tongue darted out and teased into his mouth, stroking and caressing in the way that I knew would make him groan into me, move his hand to the back of my neck and press me closer, yes, just like that.