Page 80 of Stuck Bayou

He gave her a wink. “I think the owner will remember you.”

The idea for her ornament had come to her easily, but now that it was time to give it to him, she was suddenly struck by nerves.

She did not want to come off as too needy.

"Come on. Hand it over, City Girl," Theo said, wiggling his fingers.

"It's not very good. I'm not a great artist."

"This isn't about artistic ability," he told her. "It's the thought that counts."

Yeah, that's what she was afraid of. She was afraid that he'd know exactly what her thought was—that she was crazy about him and wanted him for good, for always.

She needed to relax. She'd be visiting Autre from time to time like she always had. If they could continue to see each other on her visits to the bayou, have some fun sex, laugh, talk, hang out with their friends, maybe this would naturally evolve into more.

She could definitely invite him on a couple of trips with her, and see if that was just as fun and magical as North Carolina and the Merry Falls Lodge had been.

Giventime, they could figure this all out. She didn’t need to lay her heart on the line right now.

"Do you want me to come and get it?" He gave her a wicked little grin. "’Cause, you know, I'd really enjoy that."

She laughed. She should've made something sexy. Dammit. Finally, with a sigh, she handed it over.

It was like his—a four inch by four inch square of white cardstock with a drawing in the middle that she’d colored, then glued painted popsicle sticks to the sides to create a “frame”.

He studied it, not saying anything for a long moment. Savannah held her breath.

Theo finally lifted his gaze. He looked touched.

Her heart squeezed.

"I love this. I'm thinking I might hang it up somewhere in the house. Not just wait for Christmas."

She snorted. "Come on."

He reached out and snagged her hand, bringing it up to his lips and pressing a kiss to the back of her knuckles. "Seriously. This is perfect. The bayou trees, with their deep extended roots grounding them, and their branches reaching up to the sky.” He cleared his throat. “And the birds flying off, but knowing that those trees are home, no matter where they go.” He kissed her hand again. “Rootsandwings."

Damn. He'd gotten the message, exactly.

The tree was pretty obvious. The bayou too, she supposed. Drawing tall grass and water hyacinth—mostly just squiggles on her drawing—weren’t terribly hard. She’d opted for simple Vs for the flying birds though. She definitely couldn’t draw birds.

She just looked into his eyes waiting for him to say something more.

He didn't. But he leaned over and gave her a long sweet kiss.

Well, that was good. At least he wasn't running and screaming.

LATER IN THEDAY they each had a video call on Savannah’s computer with their families. Theo’s mom, dad, and grandma wanted to say hi to Savannah, but Theo sat at the foot of the bed while she talked to her parents. They didn’t know she was traveling with anyone and introducing them over the computer wasnotideal.

They did, however, make a call together to the gang down in Autre. Everybody gathered around the computer screen at Ellie's and for about forty-five minutes, they felt like they were part of the party. Everybody was sitting around drinking, eating, laughing and talking. They exchanged gifts. Becca even opened the gift she'd gotten for Savannah to show her on screen.

When they disconnected, she looked at Theo. He gave her a grin. "We pick pretty great people, don’t we?"

"Those people might be my second favorite thing we have in common."

His grin grew. "Yeah, what's the first?"

"The way we fit together." She didn’t just mean physically. They really did just seem to fit. In the things they both liked, in the ways they were different.

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