Page 24 of Dreaming About Forever

“I don’t know. Is it? It’s so loud!”

Jordan grabbed the bar mounted to the floorboard between the seats and shifted it around. “It’s a diesel and older than me. It still runs fine.”

Jordan’s definition of fine probably didn’t match hers.

Unless it was the same fine she was using to describe her current situation in the small cab of a dying truck with her hot bodyguard.

Yep. Fine.

“What is that?” she asked, pointing to the long handle between them.

“It’s the gear shift. It’s a manual transmission.”

Okay. He might as well be speaking a foreign language because she had no idea what he was talking about.

He pointed to the knob on top of the stick. There were shallow grooves in it, but she had to look closely to see them.

“These are the gears. You have to change them yourself. An automatic transmission changes the gears for you.”

“And you know how to use it?” she asked.

Jordan smirked. “Yeah. I know how to use it.”

Oh, Alicia needed to add competence to the list of things she found attractive in a man.

The volume of the rumbling engine lowered slightly as they drove out of the barn, and the wide-open space of the ranch stretched in front of them.

“Wow. This is gorgeous. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a place like this.”

A thin sheet of white covered the gently rolling hills, contrasting with the cloudless blue sky. They drove in silence, slightly bouncing along the path until they came to another barn.

Jordan pointed at it as they passed. “That’s the woodshop. Dad likes to make furniture in the winter.”

“Furniture? Like, from scratch?”

Jordan chuckled. “Furniture from wood. So, yeah. From scratch. It’s also where we keep the firewood and extra supplies. I’m sure there are a couple of old trucks in there Clint says he’s fixing up.”

Alicia tried not to show her awe as Jordan kept listing things the Taylor family made “from scratch” or did on their own.

“Do you realize your home is the perfect vacation getaway?” she asked as she stared out at the sea of white.

“I’ve never thought of it that way. I guess if you’re used to Los Angeles, it’s a novelty. It was hard coming back here after…”

Alicia sat on the edge of her seat. “After what?”

Jordan glanced at her as if just realizing she was there. “After being away for so long.”

That was a coverup. There was no way that was what he’d been about to say, and her curiosity was piqued.

They drove along a fence, and she scoured her brain for anything she could say to convince him to give up more of that story. She opened her mouth to ask, and the truck jerked to a stop.

“Sorry,” Jordan said with his hand gripping the gear shift. He looked out at the fence not too far off. “Stay right here. I’ll be right back.”

Alicia’s mouth still hung open as Jordan jumped out of the truck and started running along the fence line.

“What is he doing?”

A big black cow stood beside the fence, and a small bundle of something brown lay beside it.

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