Page 104 of Love You
If the bugs didn’t bite them to death, they planned to eat alfresco. Win had strung twinkly lights in the trees so when it got dark they could keep the party going. He’d piled wood by the fire pit for s’mores later. And Darcy suspected that by the end of the day, half of them would wind up in the river like the dogs.
The place needed a lot of work but with Win’s dad and brothers they could do much of the rehab on their own. Nana was trying to talk Win into adding a hummingbird garden to the yard. Darcy said they should just hire a gardener before they killed everything. But Nana promised to help. Every day she was looking stronger. Even her doctors were impressed with how quickly she was recovering.
As Darcy gazed around the property her throat clogged. It was such a happy home, a house she knew would hold a lot of memories.
Next month, she was moving in with Win and though there’d been no official proposal, they’d knocked around the idea of a spring wedding. In the meantime, Geneva was planning to stay at Nana’s house until she found something of her own. Max had bought her out of the mausoleum and Geneva was thinking of starting her own mortgage brokerage firm in Glory Junction. Darcy still didn’t know how she felt about that. But she and her mother were slowly mending fences and taking the time to get to know each other.
As for Win, Geneva still wasn’t a fan. She appeared to be the only woman in the Western world, besides Ricki, that is, who wasn’t bowled over by Win Garner’s charm. But Darcy had no doubt that she would eventually come around. The good news is that she’d given up on Darcy ever reconciling with Lewis. And for his part, Lewis had stopped calling. Last Darcy heard, he’d hired a really good IT person and someone to keep the books.
“Hey, VP, nice spread you’ve got here.” TJ draped his arm over her shoulder. Ever since he’d promoted her to GA’s vice president of operations he’d been calling her VP. As obnoxious as it was, she liked the ring of it.
“Thanks. It’s a good home, isn’t it?”
“Hell yeah, and for the price, this thing will appreciate tenfold.” He launched into a lecture about the worth of California real estate. Darcy listened politely, even though she’d heard this spiel at least a dozen times. Finally, she saw Deb in the distance and used needing to talk to her as an excuse to leave the conversation.
“Is he talking about real estate again?” Deb rolled her eyes, then gazed at the river. “It’s a sweet piece of property, though. And the house is perfect. You guys will get it all fixed up, put your own personal touch on it, especially now with the extra income.”
Darcy had gotten a nice raise and now that Win was taking on more responsibility at GA, he’d be making more money, too.
“It looks like we’ll be teaming up with Lucky Rodriguez on a few projects,” Darcy said. Win had made that happen and she thought the cowboy camp would be a great option to offer their clients. “I think it’ll really round out our portfolio to have the dude ranch at our disposal, don’t you?”
“Oh God, not you, too.” Deb laughed. “For a minute I thought you were my husband.”
“Great place.” Colt strolled over with a plate in his hand. Darcy had never seen a person eat so much or so often. He watched the dogs drag a stick from the river. “I think we should work on the dock first. There’s still enough time this summer to use it.”
That was a Garner for you. “Don’t you think the roof should come first?”
“Nah.” Colt looked up at the sky. “We’ve got time before the rainy season.”
Darcy shook her head. “Whatever Win wants to do.” But she knew he would side with Colt. He was champing at the bit to make the rickety old thing functional so he could launch his boats and kayaks from it.
“Hey, good-looking.” Win grabbed her around the waist and swung her in the air. “I’ve got the grill going and the wood chips soaking. How ’bout you and I disappear for a few minutes?” He didn’t wait, just tugged her away from Colt and Deb without caring that it was rude.
She looked at him suspiciously. “You’re not going to do something crazy like propose in front of all our family and friends?”
“Nah, I’ve got that worked out. It’ll be private, just the two of us. I promise.”
“Thank you.” She looped her arms around his neck and he lifted her and carried her away with her legs wrapped around his hips. “Where we going?”
“Somewhere where we can be alone, even if it’s just for a few minutes.” He took her around the side of the house and they sat on a log. “What’s the deal with your parents?”
Darcy shrugged. “They’ve promised to be good. So far, no plates have been broken and no curse words have been hurled. Mother was even cordial to the ‘concubine.’”
Win laughed. “As long as you’re okay with them being here. Because this is all about celebrating your promotion.” He waved his hand at the house and the property. “And about us. Our future. The future of our kids.”
She liked the sound of that. “We haven’t really talked about that.”
“Between us getting the FlashTag account, me buying the house, and you getting promoted to vice president, there hasn’t been much time to talk about anything. Let’s go on a vacation. We’ve earned it.”
“Will you make me hike and bike and climb mountains?”
“Not if you don’t want to. We could just hole up in a hotel in the wilderness and have sex twenty-four-seven.”
“Works for me.” She crawled into his lap and he wrapped his arms around her.
“Kiss me now and then we’ll go back and entertain our guests. Colt’s probably eating all the pie.”
He pressed his lips against hers and the warm pull of his mouth made her hot. His taste intoxicated her.
