Page 10 of Falling for Sierra

“But?”

“But it just doesn’t do things for me. It’s nice. I could live here, but I don’t love it.” Blake frowned realizing how spoiled that sounded.

“No problem. I didn’t expect you to love it or to buy the first thing I showed you, but you have to start somewhere. What did you like about it?”

Blake took a deep breath and thought about the house they’d just seen.

“I like that the main rooms were open, you could see from one room to the next easily. I also like the den slash library on the bottom floor.”

“All right. I can work with that. What did you not like?”

“The bedrooms were small, and I don’t like how the master is on one side of the house and the other bedrooms are on the other side. It would be hard to hear a baby cry, and would take too long to get to them, I think.”

Sierra nodded, pulled a small notebook from her bag, and took a couple notes. “What about the upgrades? What do you think of those?”

“You mean things like the marble?”

“Yes.”

“It’s pretty, but mostly cosmetic, at least in my opinion. I care about that less than making sure the house and property are the right fit. Cosmetic things can be changed to suit style or tastes. I assume when I get married, whomever I marry will want to change things like that.” He shrugged.

Blake had no interest in decorating and planned to ask his mom to handle it or he could hire someone, at least until he was ready to get married.

Sierra gave him a funny look out the corner of her eye, tucked the notebook in next to her seat then started the car. “No worries. I have several places to look at today, and if you don’t find what you’re after we can schedule another day and I’ll put together another list of places to consider.” She pulled out of the driveway without glancing at him again.

By the end of the day, Blake was ready to throw his hands in the air. At least for today. They’d looked at a half dozen properties and discussed each one as they left, but now the details were blurring in his tired mind.

Sierra shuffled a stack of papers as they got back into her vehicle after the last house. Twisting, she set them in the back seat with some other papers.

“You mind if I keep those?” Blake asked.

“The listings for the houses we’ve looked at?” She froze mid-movement and frowned at him.

“Yes, ma’am. They’ll help me keep the details of each place straight.”

“Sure.” She handed him the stack and straightened in her seat. She started the car and put it in gear. “Where to from here?”

“How about we get some dinner?” Blake relaxed into his seat. It had been a long day and his stomach reminded him he hadn’t eaten since the eggs she’d fixed for breakfast this morning. He’ d talked her into dropping him at his hotel so he could change clothes.

“Sure. We’ve got a couple diners, a Mexican food place and one nicer steakhouse. What are you in the mood for?”

“You know what’s good around here, you chose.”

“You sure you trust my judgement?”

“We’ve spent all day looking at things you thought might be to my taste, I want to try something to your taste instead. What’s your favorite place in town?”

“How about I surprise you?” She shot him a half smile as she turned back onto highway 287 and headed toward town.

“Sounds good.” Blake watched the landscape pass them as she drove.

The mountains and forest not far from town made Hawthorne more appealing than any of the other places he’d looked at so far. That alone made him like Hawthorne more, but Sierra? She made him want to stay. He wanted to keep her close and could only hope she wanted more than a one-night stand as well.

“You want to go back to your hotel and freshen up a little before dinner?”

“Do I need to?” He picked up the front of his shirt and sniffed, wondering if he’d started to smell and hadn’t realized it.

“No, I just thought you might like to.” She glanced over with a smile. “We’ve been out all day, in and out of different houses, traipsing across dirt and grass and you look as fresh as when you got dressed this morning. I on the other hand,” she sighed, “look like I’ve been tossed off the back of a bull and stomped on.”

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