Page 70 of When Morning Comes Around

“Maybe.” He checked his watch. “Right now, it’s time to get started on my workout.”

“And it’s time for us to quit standing around here gossiping and get to work,” said Cal.

After they’d gone, Dom followed Damon over to the treadmills. Before they climbed on, Damon gave him a puzzled look.

“What?”

“Is it time – time for you to start thinking about a place of your own? Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you to stay where you are for as long as you’d like.”

“Thanks, I know that. I… I was starting to think about it even before I met Sadie.” He chuckled. “I was thinking more about me cramping Jake’s style than the other way around but either way, it might be time.”

“Do you have any ideas about where you want to look?”

“I like the idea of Four Mile Creek. Obviously, it’s close to you and Jo, and close to the restaurant for work. The only trouble is there’s not much available for sale there. All the waterfront lots sold out, and the properties that come on the market aren’t the kind of thing I want.”

Damon winked at him. “I know what you mean – there’s no reason that you should settle for a two-bedroom rancher now that you’re a man of substantial means, is there?”

He couldn’t help smiling back. “No. I wanted to take some time to get used to it. Now that it’s sunk in that I can buy pretty much anything that comes on the market around here, there isn’t anything that I want.”

“Would you consider building?”

He nodded slowly. “I would. I… I think I told you before, when we were in Yuma, we bought what I thought was the perfect lot. We were going to build, but then Polly found her perfect house. We bought that instead. After she died, I thought I might get around to building on the lot one day but…” He shrugged. “You know how that went. I stayed for a while, but that place just didn’t feel right without her.”

Damon nodded. “I’m hoping that Summer Lake is the right place for you now. I’m hoping that Sadie might be the right person, but it’ll take time before you can know that.”

“Yeah. I feel like the next chapter of my life might be starting to fall into place, I guess I’ll just have to hope that the right house comes along.”

“Or the right piece of land,” added Damon.

Dom gave him a puzzled smile. “What are you thinking that you’re not telling me?”

Damon chuckled. “I think for now, I’ll just keep it under my hat. I’ll save the telling you until later.”

“I’d argue with you, but at this rate we’re not going to fit in much of a workout before your first client comes in.”

With that, he climbed onto the treadmill, and Damon got onto the one next to him. A few minutes later, they exchanged grinsas they kept dialing up the speed. It wasn’t the ideal way to warm up, but it was a fun competition.

Chapter Sixteen

Sadie turned from side to side in front of the mirror. She looked okay. In fact, she looked pretty good, even if she did say so herself. She refused to let her mind try to calculate how long it’d been since she’d been on a date. A long time – a very long time – that was all she needed to know.

And besides, the past wasn’t important. All that mattered was the here and now. She was here, back in California, back with her dad and Savannah, back with her friends – even if she hadn’t managed to set up a lunch with Nina and Terry yet. She was back in a place she loved, surrounded by people she loved… No. It was too soon to even consider the possibility that someday she and Dom might fall in love.

She shivered. It might be too soon, but it was a nice possibility to dream about. She leaned in closer to the mirror to apply her lipstick. Whether it was just a dream or not remained to be seen. Tonight was their first real date. Whether it ended up being an evening that they looked back on together or turned out to be just a memory that she looked back on fondly if their lives took them in different directions, she wanted to make the most of the evening. She wanted to enjoy Dom’s company and have some fun.

It wasn’t that they hadn’t already had fun, it was just that so far, most of their time together had felt very… Domestic. That was it. That was the word. He’d come over here, and they hung out with her dad. He’d helped her out with Leanne. He’d helped in the garden center… She frowned. He’d done a lot of helping so far, and she’d done a lot of needing help. If they were going to develop a relationship, that wasn’t the dynamic she wanted.Hopefully, tonight would turn them in a different direction – it was a real date on a Friday night.

She turned away from the mirror and trotted down the stairs. When she poked her head into the living room, her dad grinned at her. “You’re looking pretty, honey bun.”

“Thanks, Dad. Can I get you anything?”

“I’m good, thanks. Jake can put the pizza in the oven for us later.”

She smiled. “And you’re happy to hang out with him?”

“I’m looking forward to it. He’s a good lad. I was surprised when Dom first suggested it. I would’ve sent Jakey over to the diner to hang around and wait for Savannah, but he’ll still be here when she gets off work. That’ll be them,” he said with a grin.

She turned and tilted her head to the side, straining to hear what he had. “I never understand how you do that. You act like you’re as deaf as a post half the time, and you have the TV turned up loud enough to make you deaf the other half of the time. And yet, whenever a vehicle pulls up outside, you hear it when no one else can.”

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