Page 13 of The Stranger's Code

Another bout of silence followed before he murmured, “Did you have fun, Cam?”

“Yeah. I had fun.” I let out a sigh of relief. “Fuck. I’m so happy things aren’t weird between us.”

“Why would they be weird?”

“They wouldn’t. They aren’t.” I shook my head. “Right?”

“Right.” In that moment, Levi twisted some knob or another, the heat inside the cabin blasting back on in response. “And there we go. All better.”

He brought himself back up to his knees. “I’ll see you around. Let me know if you need anything?—”

“Can I thank you with a hot cocoa?” I suggested, out of nowhere. “It’s only fair since I drank your coffee.”

“Hot cocoa?”

“Do you not like hot cocoa?” I laughed. “Have I finally figured out your fatal flaw?”

“I love hot cocoa.” Levi grinned, holding his hand out towards mine, helping me off the floor. “And yeah, I’ll take a cup or two. Why not?”

* * *

“What?Is there something on my face?” Levi was sitting on the other end of the couch in the cabin’s main room. He’d put his hot cocoa into his thermos and had been taking small sips of it. I’d been nursing my drink, too, with my focus mostly on Levi.

“Sorry.” I admonished myself inwardly for staring too long at him. It was a problem I’d had practically since I met the guy. “I just… got a little lost in thought.”

“Can I ask you something, Cam?”

“Sure. Anything.”

“Why a farm?”

“What?”

“Why do you want to buy a farm? I don’t think I ever asked you about it.”

“I…” I stalled for time, my brain trying to come up with a good answer. “I guess it’s because… it’s something I’ve wanted for a long time. The kind of thing I used to dream about when I was a little kid.”

“Owning a farm?”

“Yep.” I nodded along with my words. “It’s always been my big dream. I’ve been chasing after it for a bit, had some success here and there. But now? It seems like it’s all finally coming together. I’m on track to get exactly what I want… I just have to not screw up at the finish line.”

“Sounds like you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself.”

“Pressure makes diamonds.” I shrugged, with a small smile.

“But doesn’t that get exhausting? Pushing yourself like that, all the time?”

“Yeah, it does,” I admitted. “I don’t have a lot of time to sit and think about it. Not much of a point to it, anyway. Crying and complaining about getting exactly what you always wanted? People like that should have tomatoes thrown at them. It should be legal to hit them with a tomato when they’re walking down the street.”

“Remind me to keep you away from tomatoes,” Levi joked, a smile on his face now, too. “What do you think would happen? If you didn’t get your farm?”

“I’d feel like the biggest failure in the world.”

“But you wouldn’t be. And you could always try again. Starting over wouldn’t mean you lost out on anything. In fact, I think it’s the bravest thing you could do.”

“Is that how you feel about Big Sky? You’d be okay with your company burning to the ground?” I pressed. “Isn’t it your dream?”

“Oh, I’d be inconsolable.”

---