Page 89 of Getting Wrapped Up

She wouldn’t even need to have a job. He could easily and happily support her for the rest of her life.

But that wasn’t Kate and even the suggestion that she become financially dependent on him would, at best, freak her out. At worst, it would piss her off completely.

She loved her work. She talked about it all the time with enthusiasm and passion that Levi knew he’d never felt for anything in his life. Except her, of course. And her work was important. She was an environmental engineer whose focus was climate change and the effects on the oceans. She traveled to DC several times a year to educate policy makers and present to other scientists and groups.

The planet needed her.

Levi almost grinned at the melodramatic thoughts. But it wasn’tuntrue.

Okay, this was going to take some strategy. He couldn’t let on how much he loved Sapphire Falls. He fully intended to keep this house even after he moved to California and to make regular visits back here. Not only had he fallen for the town and was feeling, for the first time in a long time, as if he was contributing to something meaningful with his investments, but he was closer to his brother again.

They’d always been close growing up, but Joe’s life had changed dramatically when he’d come to Sapphire Falls as well. He was a husband and a father now. He was even farming—kind of. He was still the PR specialist and primary lobbyist for a world-renowned company, Innovative Agricultural Solutions, but he was playing farmer with about an acre of crops and a few chickens.

Joe’s wife Phoebe was the best and Levi adored their daughter Kaelyn. Being with them, having a taste of family for the first time ever, was addictive. Joe and Levi hadn’t grown up with any kind of typical family dynamics. It was nice to be in the front row witnessing a strong marriage and good parenting.

But he’d give it all up for Kate. In a heartbeat.

He just had to convince her.

Levi propped a hip against the porch railing and folded his arms. “I did. But I’m not crazy about snakes.”

Kate stopped the swing and looked up with wide eyes. “Snakes?”

“There are a bunch out here.”

Okay, they were garter snakes—small ones at that—and they were hibernating for the winter, or whatever snakes did. He only knew of them because he’d found two in his basement looking for warmth. There were no poisonous snakes in this part of the state and “a bunch” was a relative term. But there were more snakes here than there had been around his condo in Vegas. And probably more than there were around her apartment in San Francisco.

Kate pulled her feet up onto the swing and glanced around. “Really?”

“Sure.” He shrugged. “It’s the country.”

And as beautiful and peaceful as it was, he was counting on her being a city girl and unfamiliar with just how much “nature” there really was here.

“Are any poisonous?” she asked.

“Probably.” The chances were good anyway. He figured there had to be at leastonepoisonous species of snake in Nebraska.

“And there are frogs, crickets, grasshoppers, bees,” he said. And he’d seen none of them since he’d been living here only in the dead of winter so far. “It’s likeWild Kingdom.”

Okay, to him it was likeWild Kingdom. The “wild kingdom” of Vegas was something else entirely. And involved drag queens.

“Really?” She looked around. “I don’t like bees. Are there spiders?”

“Of course.” He was sure there were. He hadn’t seen any, but there had to be.

She shuddered.

“And mosquitos.” Not in February, but he’d heard the guys talking about the mosquitos during the summer.

“Hmm.” She was frowning and scanning his yard as if looking for tiny threats. “So should we go to town for breakfast?” She got up quickly from the swing, pulling the blanket around her.

Levi grinned. He didn’t want to scare her and he’d gladly kill any spider that got too close, but one of the things he appreciated most about Kate was their shared affection for city life—theater, museums, twenty-four-hour food delivery, night life, the anonymity that at times could save your sanity.

He loved Sapphire Falls too and being the social guy he was, running into the grocery store for one item and not leaving until twenty minutes later because everyone—and he did meaneveryone—wanted to chat didn’t bother him. He liked it, in fact. And he didn’t mind that everyone knew everything about him already. It had taken only about two weeks for the town to have his life story. But he’d never been a really private guy. He wasn’tproudof a lot of his life choices over the past few years, but being a millionaire playboy who liked to go out came with a certain amount of publicity. Kind of like being the new guy in a small town.

Kate was used to her share of attention. She was a beautiful young woman who had a brilliant mind and an intense passion for her work. She held the attention of rooms full of politicians and other lobbyists in DC and rooms full of scientists at conferences and summits. But in those cases, the topics of conversation were focused and she was fully prepared.

None of that was anything like being in the spotlight in Dottie’s Diner.

---