Page 49 of Oops, I Fell For The Town Bad Boy!

“Hey, that’s nice. Did he give you a date? I’ll put it on the calendar.”

“Already did,” Kane grinned. “And Jeff says the kid’s been accepted to his college of choice too, so I placed an order online for a sweatshirt from the campus bookstore.”

“That’s so thoughtful.” Taylor went over to him and stood on her toes to kiss his cheek. “What a great gift.”

“Thanks, I’m glad you think so.”

Taylor was quiet for a moment. She wouldn’t have said it out loud, but she was thinking about the fact that there had been a time, not so long ago, when no one would have believed the Chesterfield grandkids would have been able to go to college at all. Between the fact that the Chesterfields had no money after the destruction of their farm and the fact that they’d had to lay off so many of their farmhands, it had seemed impossible.

But everything was different now. After the farmers market — which the whole town had agreed should be an annual event — Kane had helped the Chesterfields put the money that had been earned into a high interest savings account managed by a financial advisor, and it had grown exponentially even over the past nine months. It had changed their lives completely, and there was no one who could say, now, that Kane hadn’t atoned for the sins of his youth.

He and Jeff Chesterfield were good friends now, getting together for scotch and poker nights. Sometimes, Taylor would come along and spend time with Donna — they also got along well.

Things were good with the rest of the people in Miller Creek as well. Maddie and Bradley had restored the friendship the four of them had enjoyed in high school, and they had since spent a lot of time together playing board games, going out to the movies, or getting lunch downtown. They’d also helped with a lot of the recent renovations to the house Taylor and Kane shared — Kane had been adamant about not hiring any contractors for any jobs they were capable of doing on their own. “Dad would have wanted it that way,” he had said firmly, and Taylor, smiling at her memories of Jason, had agreed with that sentiment wholeheartedly.

They had done their best to preserve the spirit of Jason’s house, the house that Kane had grown up in. They hadn’t tried to modernize or to change the aesthetic. But they had turned it into something a little closer to the home both of them dreamed of living in, with more open spaces and connecting rooms, and they had also installed all-new appliances. That had definitely been a welcome upgrade, Taylor thought as she turned off the burner under the pot of chili. The new appliances worked ten times better, and they felt a whole lot safer, too.

“So what else happened today?” she asked Kane. “How was work?”

“Same old,” he said, adding hot sauce to his chili, though he waited for her to sit down before taking a bite, as he always did. “Mrs. Lipton showed up again. I swear, that woman is convinced there’s something wrong with her car’s brakes, but they’re completely fine.”

“That sounds like her,” Taylor laughed. “She had me schedule her for an MRI even though there’s nothing wrong with her. I told her she was wasting money by doing it, but she says you can’t put a price on peace of mind, and I guess that’s true. So I’ve stopped feeling guilty about running every test she asks for, even though most of them are completely unnecessary. It’s what she wants.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Kane laughed. “It does make me feel better about checking the brakes we just installed three weeks ago for wear and tear. As if there’s even been time for anything to have happened to them — she doesn’t even take that car out of town.”

Taylor laughed.

“I’ve missed living in a small town,” Kane said fondly. “I didn’t realize how much I’d missed it until I came back. The way everyone knows each other — it’s like family, isn’t it?”

“A bit like,” Taylor agreed. “I’m guessing it wasn’t like that at all in Detroit.”

“No. The military was a little like that, but once I decommissioned… well, I never realized how alone I felt out there. Or, if I did, I always told myself that it was a good thing. That it was better to be alone, because when you’re alone you can’t hurt anyone and no one can hurt you.”

Taylor felt a pang in her heart. She reached across the table and took Kane’s hand. “I hate that you spent so much time feeling that way,” she said softly. “I’m glad it’s better now. But I wish you had come back sooner, so I could have told you you were being too hard on yourself.”

“I don’t know that I would have been ready to hear it until now.” Kane turned his arm in her grip to squeeze her hand. “It’s all right,” he assured her. “What matters is that I made it back eventually — and that you were still here. It all worked out in the end.”

“We were very lucky,” Taylor agreed quietly.

“I think it was more than luck,” Kane said. “Knowing that my dad always had this dream for us, that he was looking out for us even as he knew he was dying… I know I didn’t do anything to deserve that from him. I’ll be thankful for the rest of my life that he brought us together.

“What do you think he’d think of the changes to the house?” Taylor asked.

“Oh, he’d make a big fuss about it,” Kane laughed. “Why did you take out the old washer and dryer? They worked perfectly well for me for fifty years!”

“They weren’t that old,” Taylor giggled. “You sound just like him, though.”

“He’d have loved the sunroom,” Kane said.

“You think so?”

“Oh, yeah. He would have loved going out there in the late afternoon to watch the sunset. I just wish he had lived long enough to see it for himself, that’s all.

“Maybe he’s looking down on us,” Taylor said. “If he is, I think he’d be happy.”

“Me too,” Kane said with a smile.

“What’s your favorite part of the house?” she asked him.

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