Page 58 of Over the Verdant Hills
His dad told him the number, and he nodded.
“I’ll think about it, and I’ll try to let you know by Monday.” That didn’t give him a whole lot of time, but he’d be working in Claire’s kitchen for a good bit of that time, and he’d have a lot of time to think.
His first thought was that Claire’s old farmhouse was big enough for him and her and her kids together, but… He couldn’t move in with Claire. That wouldn’t look right. Not unless they were married, and he hadn’t even declared his feelings for her yet, let alone talked about a long-term relationship. Marriage wasn’t even on the horizon.
His dad said good night and then went to bed, leaving Josiah with his thoughts.
He could buy his parents’ house and probably would. But if he and Claire were going to get together, it was obvious that they would live at her grandma’s farmhouse. He couldn’t imagine her wanting to move to town when being out in the country was so much nicer, not just for her, with the garden and the chickens and the beautiful views of the green hills, but also for the kids. The bonfire, the easy walking distance to the lake, their own private beach.
No, Claire would definitely want to stay at her grandma’s house. But she might surprise him.
He was thinking like he’d already told her how he felt and that he was already thinking about where they would spend the rest of their lives together. He needed to stop getting the cart ahead of the horse. And he wasn’t going to get anything hitched up tomorrow, since it was her grandma’s funeral. And then she was leaving on Sunday to take her kids, which would be another hard day for her. And it would take her a little while to recover from that next week.
He was looking at several weeks before he even spoke to her about it.
He might as well just tell his dad he would buy the house, and then he would be responsible for selling it or renting it out or something. He wasn’t sure. On that thought, he finished up in the kitchen and decided to call it a night.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“You didn’t have to wait for me,” Claire said as she wearily got out of her car to see Josiah standing on the porch steps.
The roof was still held up by two-by-fours, but he leaned against the post with his arms over his chest.
He started coming down the steps as she got out. “I wasn’t really waiting on you. I spent the last couple of days working as hard as I could on the kitchen, and I kind of wanted to see what you thought about it.”
“Is it finished?” she asked, slamming the door shut and feeling tired to her very bones. Her kids were in Boston, and her husband had surprised both of them with new phones, without checking with her, of course. They had originally decided that their kids would be sixteen before they would be allowed to have iPhones, and Dan was only ten.
But she supposed this was the way parenting went when a couple split up. Everything they’d agreed on went out the window too. She wasn’t sure. She didn’t like the fact that her kids had phones, but she did like the fact that Lana had messaged her and let her know that they had arrived safely.
She had both of their numbers and had asked them to check in with her every day.
Whether they would or not, she wasn’t sure, but she was going totry to enforce that. She would have set that up before they left if she would have realized what her husband was going to do.
“It’s not done, but I’d like you to look at it,” Josiah said, coming down and stopping in front of her. “Did you have a good trip?”
“Yeah. I have a surprising amount of peace about this. I hated to see my children leave, but yeah, I have peace.” She’d had that same peace through her grandmother’s funeral, the graveside service, and the mingling at the viewing as well. She was almost looking forward to the summer. And Josiah was the reason.
“Well, then let’s go see the kitchen.”
“Could you wait a moment, please?” she asked, putting a hand on his forearm.
He stopped immediately.
“I have a confession to make.”
“Okay?” he said, sounding curious and confused at the same time. He turned but did not move closer to her. She supposed that he was respecting her space. Or maybe respecting the fact that she’d had a lot of things happen to her in the last week—the last year—and maybe he was thinking that she needed to have time to recover. Taking her children to Pennsylvania had been hard, and maybe she shouldn’t make any rash decisions after such painful things had happened, but she’d been leaning toward this before anything had happened to her grandma and before her kids left.
“I lied to you,” she said, looking up at him, thankful for the porch light which shone on their faces, allowing her to see his expression.
It had been brutal driving to Pennsylvania yesterday and back today. It had been even more brutal saying goodbye to her children. They’d eaten breakfast together, a late one, since Ted was not an early riser, which was just fine with her, because the hotel pool had been open, and she and the kids had taken an early morning swim while he slept. She’d cherished every second. Anyway, after their late breakfast, she had watched them go, kissing them and telling them she loved them without crying, but it had been a little while before she’d been able to get in her car and see where she was going through the tears.
“You lied to me?” he asked, narrowing his eyes, maybe not looking annoyed exactly butdefinitely confused.
“Yeah. You remember that truth or dare game? And our kiss?” She didn’t know whether she should say this or not. But she’d decided on the way home that her new beginning was going to include her being brave about certain things. This was one of those things.
“I guess we’ve established the fact that I had some pretty fond memories around that. I understand that you don’t.”
“That’s just it. I lied to you. I really, really liked that kiss. I talked about it for months afterward. I really wanted another one. I wanted more. But… I guess you just weren’t part of the clique that I was in in high school, and I decided that… I don’t know. But it was the best kiss I’d ever had.”
