by Liz Isaacson
He smiled too, and he was devastatingly handsome. How he hadn’t found someone to be his wife was a complete mystery to Sophia, and she started up the steps toward him.
She groaned and sighed as she sat next to him. “Been here long?”
“A little while,” he said.
“I didn’t get a text or call,” she said. Not that it would’ve mattered. She worked for Marcy and Wyatt until six on Fridays.
“I didn’t text or call.”
She didn’t want to dance with him tonight. She pressed her shoulder into his bicep and laid her head against his shoulder. “It’s good to see you here.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she said. “A sight for sore eyes.” She reached over and took his hand in hers. “You want to come in? I’ve been out of town, and the place is a mess, but I probably have something in the freezer I can heat up for dinner.”
He squeezed her hand. “Too tired to go to dinner with me? Then you won’t have to cook.”
That sounded appealing too. Sophia couldn’t decide if she’d rather spend a quiet evening in with him or go on a date.
“You choose,” she said.
He looked at her, his chin tilted way down to see her. “I don’t want to share you with anyone tonight.” He started to stand, and Sophia let him pull her to her feet too. “If you point me in the right direction, I can get the food heated up.”
“Okay,” she said. He’d done that before while she’d showered the day off her skin and changed into a set of more comfortable clothes.
She went inside, and the cabin still harbored a musty smell from the time she’d been gone. “Could you open a window too?”
“Sure.” He did while she put her purse on the small table outside the kitchen where she and Patsy had kept their keys and mail.
“I wanted to ask you about the dog fostering you do,” he said as he joined her in the kitchen.
She glanced at him, pulling her attention from the labeled containers in the freezer. “Yeah, sure. But do you feel like pulled pork or chicken enchiladas?”
“Pulled pork,” he said, and he leaned against the counter beside the fridge.
Sophia pulled the plastic container out of the freezer and handed it to him. “Thaw that in the microwave. There are some rolls in here too….” She pulled them out and put them on the counter behind her.
Ames hadn’t moved, and when their eyes met again, life on Earth could’ve ended, and Sophia wouldn’t have known.
He’d captured her completely, and she felt the barriers she’d put between them start to collapse. She wasn’t sure what she was doing by allowing him to break down everything she’d built. All she knew was she was tired of trying to keep him in a place she couldn’t get to.
He reached past her and set the container of pulled pork on the counter beside the rolls. “I’ve missed you,” he whispered, gathering her into his arms. They breathed out together, and Sophia felt things shift in her life again.
She wanted Ames Hammond, and she’d never admitted that to herself before.
How far are you willing to go to be with him? she asked herself. She didn’t have an answer to that question, and within the safety and warmth of Ames’s arms, she didn’t need one. She simply clung to this moment and the way he made her feel worthwhile, beautiful, and when he breathed in her hair and sighed, she felt cherished.
No one had ever made her feel like that before, and a door in Sophia’s heart opened that she’d kept steadfastly closed when it came to Ames.
Chapter Nine
Ames thought he could stand in Sophia’s kitchen with her in his arms for the rest of his life and die happy. He knew he needed to move, but Sophia didn’t, so he stayed.
When her stomach growled, he stepped back. “I’ll get this going,” he said. “You go take care of yourself.”
“All right,” she said softly, and she flicked her gaze to his for half a second before turning and leaving the kitchen.
He watched her go, marveling at the way she prompted him to be a softer, kinder version of himself without saying a single thing. She had told him in the past when she’d thought he was speaking to her in a harsh tone. He’d realized then that his normal speaking voice, especially when he spoke about something he was passionate about, could come across as mean.
He’d dialed that back in the few weeks he’d spent with her last year, and now, when faced with her, he automatically slipped into a calmer state of mind.
He turned away from the wide, arched entrance to the kitchen and got busy heating up their dinner. He couldn’t stop his thoughts from revolving, and they switched from Sophia, to the therapy he’d been considering, to getting a rescue dog to occupy his time while the microwave whirred.
A tiny piece of his heart had come alive when Sophia had initiated the physical contact between them. He wasn’t sure if she’d ever done that as blatantly as she just had, and Ames’s pulse skipped a beat just thinking about kissing her again.
“You’re an idiot,” he muttered to himself. “Why didn’t you call her at Christmastime?”
He felt like he’d wasted the last six months of his life. If he’d been talking to her all this time, who knew where their relationship would be?
He probably wouldn’t have taken a job in Three Rivers, moved there, and bought a house. If he didn’t go back—and Ames couldn’t believe he was even thinking about not going back—what would he do with that house?
He’d already started demolishing it. He was in the middle—literally, the very middle—of a kitchen remodel. Who would buy a house in that state?
Hire someone to finish it, he thought. Just like he’d told Colt that Wes should just hire someone to finish his back yard, Ames could certainly afford to hire someone in Three Rivers to finish the house. List it. Sell it. Heck, he could just keep it and live there in the winter, the way Wyatt and Marcy Walker did.
“Why not?” he asked himself.
“Talking to yourself again?” Sophia asked from behind him, her words full of a tease.
Ames smiled and turned toward her. “Yes. What did you hear?”
“Just your voice.” She reached for the rolls and untwisted the tie keeping the bag closed. “What were you telling yourself?”
“Nothing,” he said. It was far too soon to talk to her about leaving Three Rivers. He’d just gotten there, and Ames felt like he’d made a mess of everything. Literally everything.
“Do you ever think God just lets you do what you want?” he asked, watching her for her reaction.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Sometimes I feel like I pray so hard for direction. I don’t get it, so I end up making a decision and acting.” His parents had taught him to do exactly that. Whenever he had a major decision to make, he should consult with the Lord first. If there was a strong feeling or prompting to take one path over another, follow it. The Lord would never lead him astray.
If not, make a decision and act on it.
Ames had often operated from that state of mind, because he struggled to get promptings or direction from the Lord.
“And then, I find out later, I should’ve made a different decision. Like, why didn’t God just have me do that in the first place? Seems like it would save a lot of time.” Not to mention his mental energy, his money, and the way he’d started to second-guess everything he’d ever done in his life.
“Life would be easier,” he said.
“I don’t think that’s the point,” Sophia said, looking up at him.
“To make life easy?”
“Right,” she said. “I think sometimes, it really doesn’t matter what a person does, or which road they’re on. It’s about the journey, and learning something while you’re on it.”
Ames nodded, wondering what he was supposed to learn by moving to Three Rivers. Foolishness stabbed through him. He shouldn’t have moved there and started that job at Seven Sons, only to leave six weeks later.
What am I supposed to lea
rn from that? he thought, hoping his thoughts would make it through his thick skull and up to the Lord’s ears.
Behind him, the microwave beeped, and he turned to get the food out. He removed the container and set it on the counter so he could put the rolls in. Sophia handed him the bag, and he got those going while he stirred the meat.
“Almost ready,” he said.
“Coffee?” she asked.
“No way I can drink coffee this late in the day,” he said. He could barely drink it in the morning, as Ames seemed to have plenty of pent-up energy from the moment he woke until the minute he laid down at night.
“Oh, that’s right,” she said. “I forgot that about you.”
Ames disliked that he was forgettable, but he said nothing. He hadn’t forgotten anything about Sophia, and he once again wondered why in the world he hadn’t called her when he’d said he would.
He’d probably regret it for the rest of his life.
No, he told himself. “So tell me about the rescue dogs,” he said out loud. “I need something to keep me busy this summer.”
She smiled and sat at the small breakfast bar that could house two barstools. “They’ll love you, because you won’t be afraid to take the big dogs.”
“I only want a big dog,” Ames said.
She grinned at him, and he thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. “It’s up in Dog Valley,” she said. “If you want me to go with you, I can. Introduce you to Lindsey and have her show you everything.”
“You’re not too busy?”
“I don’t cook here on the weekends,” she said. “And Marcy and Wyatt want their weekends to be just theirs. I’m off tomorrow, and I have the daytime on Wednesday to myself too.”
“We could go tomorrow,” he said.
“Let me text Lindsey,” she said. “She might not be available, and we want her to show us everything.” She pulled her phone toward her and started tapping away. “She leads the dog foster program, and she doesn’t do as many tours as she used to. But if you’re really interested in fostering, you’ll want her to know your name and face.”
“Okay,” Ames said, because he trusted her. “Will she let me take more than one dog at a time?”
“Maybe,” she said. “If they do, she’ll be the one that has to sign off on it.” She glanced at him. “She’s off tomorrow. She said Wednesday would be great.”
“Wednesday it is,” he said, smiling at her. Silence filled the space between them, and a sense of awkwardness descended on Ames. He was entirely too old to feel this way, and he cleared his throat and turned back to the microwave just as a flash of light came from within.
“Whoa,” he said, grabbing for the door to get it open and stopped. He yanked the bag of rolls out of the microwave. “This caught on fire.”
He examined the bag, but he couldn’t see why it would cause anything to light on fire. He turned back to the microwave, and a definite wisp of smoke lifted from the appliance.
“You can’t use this anymore,” he said, turning back to her. “I’ll get you a new one.”
“It’s had some problems,” she admitted.
Ames reached to unplug it while she told him he didn’t need to replace her appliances. “Graham will do it,” she said. “I just need to tell him.”
Ames didn’t want to push her into a place she didn’t want to be in, so he didn’t insist he go to the department store tomorrow and get her a new microwave, even if that was what he wanted to do.
He joined her at the breakfast bar and said, “Okay. So you’re off tomorrow, and I don’t do anything. Want to show me the best thing about Coral Canyon?”
She giggled as she finished slicing the rolls. “The best thing about Coral Canyon? That might be hard to do in one day.”
“There’s more than one thing?”
“Ames,” she said, a hint of exasperation in his voice. “Yes, there’s more than one thing.”
“Okay,” he said. “I want to see them all this summer.” He’d texted her the moment he’d decided to spend the summer in Coral Canyon, and neither of them had said anything about his departure date. It was months away, and as Ames enjoyed Sophia’s leftover pulled pork, he actually seriously considered moving to Coral Canyon for the first time in his life.
He kept that close to his heart, though, and didn’t say anything to Sophia. He enjoyed listening to her talk about Wyatt and Marcy Walker and her new adventure as a nanny. He told her how his thumb was healing and all about a woodworking class he’d learned about that took place at the community center on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
By the time he wrapped Sophia in another hug, the sun had long since set and Colt had called him twice. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” he said, forcing himself to back up without kissing her. His eyes dropped to those perfect lips, but he’d already decided not to kiss her right up front.
They’d done that last time—something she’d initiated—and while Ames had liked it, he wanted more time to think through his actions and what path they put him on.
“See you.” Sophia curled her fingers around the door just above her head and smiled him out of the cabin.
He went, pushing his cowboy hat lower on his head as he turned to go down the stairs. He wanted a longer relationship with her this time, and that meant he had to take her out and really get to know her better before he got to kiss her.
The following morning, Ames went downstairs to Colton’s kitchen to find him and Annie sitting at the table, a couple of file folders open in front of them.
Colton said something in a low voice that Ames couldn’t decipher, and then he turned toward Ames. “Morning,” he said, his voice a false chipper version of his normal tone. “What time did you finally get home?”
“I texted you when I left the lodge,” Ames said. “I got back thirty minutes after that.”
“I didn’t get your text until this morning.”
“Yeah, because you’re an old man now and need to be in bed by nine-thirty,” Ames teased him. He bypassed the coffee, his nerves buzzing from the text Sophia had sent five minutes ago.
On my way to you. Do you have water shoes?
No, he’d said.
We’ll stop at the sporting goods store. Swimming trunks?
Back home, he’d said.
Bring a towel, she’d said, and he’d confirmed, but she hadn’t responded.
“What are you smiling about?” Annie asked.
“Sophia,” Colton said before Ames could answer. “You’re seeing her today, right?”
“Yes,” Ames admitted. “And no, I didn’t kiss her last night,” he added in a hurry when Colt opened his mouth again.
“Wow, kissing already,” Annie said, lifting her mug to her lips as they started to curve upward.
“I don’t believe you,” Colton said. He turned back to his wife. “Last time, they were kissing before he even took her out.”
“She kissed me last time,” Ames said.
“Yeah, I’m sure.” Colton laughed.
Ames didn’t correct him again. He didn’t care what Colt believed. Ames knew the truth, and that was Sophia had kissed him on that hike, after he’d spoken to her for ten minutes.
His lips tingled, and he got to his feet. “Well, she’s coming to pick me up, so I’m going to grab a protein shake and wait out front.”
“I’ll put it on your tab,” Colton joked as Ames went into the kitchen. He’d offered to buy his own groceries, but Colton had said that he just needed to write down what he wanted on the pad on the fridge, and they’d get it all.
Ames took his chocolate shake out to the front porch and shook it up. A blue sky stretched before him, and in Texas, he’d be sweating already.
Here, the air held a coolness he’d only felt in Colorado in the springtime, and Ames took a big lungful of it in. As he breathed out, the overwhelming sense of gratitude that he was there, in this place he’d thought he’d never want to spend a significant amount of time in, caused
emotion to grind in his throat.
“I’m willing to go where You want me to go,” he said to himself. “Guide my feet. Soften my heart. Open my heart.”
That last statement was the one Ames really needed help with, as he’d decided a long time ago that he would absolutely not be moving to Coral Canyon.
Sophia pulled into his driveway, her window rolling down. “Towel, Ames. You need a towel.”
“Oh, right,” he called to her. “Just a sec.” He ducked back into the house, wondering where she was going to take him that required him to have water shoes, swimming trunks, and a towel.
He couldn’t wait to find out.
Chapter Ten
Cy Hammond paced up and down the sidewalk in front of his house while Blue Velvet barked somewhere in the orchards that stretched in front of him.
“Come on,” he called to the dog, but Blue would just ignore him. He needed to get his anxiety out before Ames showed up, though, so Cy walked back toward the trees and turned around again.
His twin had been in town for a few days, but Cy hadn’t seen him yet. He and Patsy had been so busy getting all the last-minute details of their wedding together that Cy had only managed to text Ames.
“Today,” he said to himself as his pit bull came galloping toward him. He was getting married today.
He’d been at the orchard until almost midnight last night, helping Patsy get the lights hung in the trees, tying ribbons to the backs of the chairs where the audience would sit, and setting up tables where the buffet would be.
The entire event was taking place at Foxhill Farm, in Patsy’s favorite section of the orchard that was a couple hundred yards south of the main entrance and farmhouse that sat on the property.
The wedding felt huge to Cy, because the Foxhills had lived in Coral Canyon for many generations. A lot of people from town had been invited, and most of them had RSVP’ed in the positive. When they’d put in their final numbers for the food last week, Patsy had recorded three hundred and fifty placements.
