Page 55 of Delicate Escape

That was the best goddamn gift in the world.

21

THEA

I staredout Shep’s truck window at the fields stretching out around us. Ones that led to forests and then mountains. The way the grasses moved in the breeze was soothing.

I let myself be swept away as Shep drove. He didn’t push or ask questions. He didn’t speak at all. He simply let me be, seeming to understand that I needed the quiet to recover. My head pulsed with a low-grade headache, and my eyes burned so badly I’d had to take out my contacts.

But it didn’t matter. Shep knew who I was now. There was no need to hide. I saw better without them anyway. They weren’t bad to wear, but they occasionally distorted my vision. Now, I could see everything clearly.

The majestic beauty of Castle Rock and the Monarch Mountains. The way the land dipped and rolled, leading up to them both. I’d never get tired of looking at it all. So different from the gridlock of LA.

Shep flipped on his blinker, even though no one else was on theroad as far as the eye could see. It made my lips twitch. A rule-follower. A good guy through and through.

We stayed on the gravel road for about five minutes before coming to what looked like a brand-new gate. Shep rolled down his window and punched a code into a keypad. A second later, the gate swung open.

The moment it did, I caught sight of something in the distance. The house looked as if it had taken a beating by wind, rain, and snow. Even this far away, I saw the sort of grayish brown that spoke of standing through trial after trial.

The color fit. It made the house almost melt into the golden grasses around it. Especially since there wasn’t another structure for as far as I could see.

“What is this place?” I asked, my voice sounding rusty like I was sure the hinges on every door of this house were.

“It’s mine. My latest project.”

I forced my gaze away from the home and back to Shep. “You bought it?”

He nodded. “Closed a couple of weeks ago. Been starting rehab with Anson, but it might take us a decade.”

“You’re flipping it?”

“That’s the plan. Though I think it’s gonna be hard to say goodbye to this one. She’s got a pull.”

My focus moved back to the house. She sure did. There was a majesty to her that mirrored the breathtaking landscape. And the closer we got, the more I was entranced. “How old?”

“Around the time the area was settled. Mid to late 1800s.”

“Wow.” It was more sound than word. So much history. How special to be a part of that.

The moment Shep put his truck in park, I was out of the vehicle and moving to get a better look at the place. I edged closer. Not able to help myself, I put a palm directly on the siding. It was rough, the wood almost peeling in places. And I could see now that it had been white at one point in time.

“Gonna have to redo all this siding,” Shep said, moving in next to me.

“The color suits her.”

I felt his gaze dip to me. “I think you’re right. Makes it feel like the house just sprouted from the earth itself.”

I nodded, trailing my fingers over the wood planks. “Like she belongs.”

We were quiet for a moment, and then Shep asked, “You want to go inside?”

The corners of my mouth pulled up in a hint of a smile. “What do you think?”

He chuckled. “I was hoping that would be the answer.”

Shep led me across mangled landscape and to the broken front steps. There was a combination lock affixed to the door that he quickly sorted, then he glanced over his shoulder. “Brace. She looks a little rough in her current state.”

He shouldn’t have warned me because the moment I stepped inside, I was awestruck. Even beneath the dust and peeling wallpaper, I saw the beauty in her bones. The rich woodwork, the ornate staircase, the high ceilings.

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