Page 7 of All Because I Found You

She rocked her head from side to side. “Depends on your definition. I did know a lot about you. Probably too much. Anyway. You had a party right after Christmas in your senior year, and I might not have been invited per se, but I convinced a friend to crash with me.”

Why didn’t that surprise him in the least? His mind drifted back in time, something he avoided doing when he could control it. But this time, he allowed the memories to form. “I remember that party.” It felt like a lifetime ago when he had the perfect life and never would have known how drastically everything would change in only a few months from that night.

“Anyway, so that’s how I know where you lived. After the…” She glanced at him, and he could see the pity in her eyes, but it quickly vanished. “Well, you know.”

He appreciated she avoided the topic. If she didn’t, he wouldn’t have thought twice about jumping out of the moving vehicle.

“Your parents’ house went on the market and sold pretty quickly. I always wondered where you went. I assumed you moved to some small-town hundreds of miles away. To think you’ve been here the whole time. Unless you weren’t and you recently moved back. But I feel like I would have known that. You know, being a stalker and all.” She glanced at him, a sparkle in her dark brown eyes that made it hard not to let her light in.

“The house is my grandfather’s. My parents were getting ready to sell it when…” A lump formed in his throat, and he forced it down. It had been eleven years, but the pain of that time was still so raw. “I always loved the house, so I moved in and sold my parents’ house.”

“It’s a beautiful house, though, if you don’t mind me saying, it kind of gives off haunted house vibes.”

“Yet it didn’t keep you from knocking on my front door.”

“Nothing can stop me when there’s something I want.”

“And you want my barn.”

“Precisely, and once we get a gander at it, you’re going to grant me permission to use it. Then we’ll go over the cost, and I can get started on turning it into a beautiful, rustic wedding venue.”

His head spun. This woman… she was exhausting.

She pulled onto the road and turned toward Beaver Creek. He hadn’t thought much about the old barn. For the last few years, Gene had been storing farm equipment there and nothing more. At one point, there’d been plans to expand the farm stand and even turn the barn into a haunted house during the fall.

So many plans that came to an abrupt halt. Ryder could have followed through with them. Nothing was really stopping him now, even, but it just didn’t feel right. Not when Dad wasn’t there to help him plan and execute. It had been their thing. Something they discussed over dinner until no end. Mom would shake her head and laugh, but never discourage them.

They were going to be the destination for fall activities on the north fork of the island. That memory seemed like a bad dream now.

Raelyn eased the car to a stop in front of the barn, and Ryder hopped out, making his way toward the building that had been in their family for four generations. He slipped the key ring off his belt loop and unlocked the deadbolt that kept people out.

The door creaked open, and Raelyn clapped as she hurried past him inside. “Yes!” she exclaimed. “This is so perfect.”

Sunlight filtered in through the dirt-stained windows, and he wondered if the windows were clean, allowing proper light in, if she’d be tooting the same tune.

“The equipment will have to be moved, of course. Do you have anywhere else to store it? You had a big garage on your property. Or you can park it out in the fields and give that abandoned farm look people love. They’d be great photo ops.” She tapped her chin as he imagined she was creating a vision in her mind.

“I have a place where I can move them.” He wasn’t going to leave expensive equipment in a field for strangers to climb all over, and not only risk breaking something, but potentially hurting themselves.

Her brain seemed to switch over to the next thing. She spun around, eyes wide like a kid in a candy store. She skipped to the left. “Over here we can set up tables.” She glided over to the right, hands scanning out. “And here we can set up a bar. Something rustic and adorable. Maybe an old tub as a cooler for bottles. Oh! And over here we can set up the table chart. And over here a dessert table! This is perfect.”

His head was spinning again as she jumped from one thought to the next.

“I can hang twinkle lights from the rafters, and I have a chandelier in storage that would look amazing overhead. The crystals would reflect the twinkle lights and make like a disco ball for the dance floor.”

“The dance floor?”

“Of course. What kind of wedding would it be without a proper dance floor?”

“And where do you plan on getting a dance floor? Or a bar? Or any of the things you mentioned.”

She patted his chest, and the warm touch sent a jolt right to his groin. He shifted and stepped away from her.

“You leave all that to me. So do we have a deal?”

“I…”

“Great!” She took out her cell phone and tapped a soft pink nail against the screen. “I’ll be here first thing tomorrow with a contract for you to sign, and we can negotiate costs then.” She continued talking as she strutted toward the car. He couldn’t help but notice the way her ass swayed with each step. The wedges she wore elongated her legs, and he wondered what it would feel like to have them wrapped around him as he pounded into her.

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