“I called a Realtor in Butler before we left Mississippi,” he told her when they were outside of New York City.
“You did what?”
“I called a Realtor, told her how much I could afford to put down, and she found me what she called a fixer-upper. We can use everything we learned this summer to make it our own.”
“You did not buy property without even seeing it first.”
“What if I did?”
“Lincoln! You’re insane! No one does that. And when were you going to tell me about it? We’ve been on this bus for more than twenty hours already!”
“People do things like that when they’re trying to convince the one they love that they’re serious about making a life in the place she loves.”
“You told me you love me more than the Beatles. I’m already convinced you’re serious.”
“We’re going to need a place to live.”
“So you wait until we get there to figure that out. You don’t call some random Realtor who might be a scammer for all you know. Who is it anyway?”
“Someone named Gertrude who goes by the nickname of Dude.”
Molly began to laugh. She laughed so hard she couldn’t breathe.
“What’s so funny?”
“You bought a house from the woman known in town as Snow White because all she really cares about is animals.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. What the heck did she sell you?”
“Now, don’t freak out or anything…”
“Oh my God. What did you do?”
“She told me about a barn on Hells Peak Road. You know that road?”
Again, Molly laughed until she cried. She laughed so hard, she ended up in a coughing fit. “Tell me,” she said between gasping breaths that had the few other people on the bus staring at them, “that you didn’t buy the old Andersen barn.”
“I’m not sure who the current owners are,” Linc said, a bit indignantly.
“You have no idea what you bought, do you?”
“I bought us a place to live.”
“You bought us a falling-down wreck of a barn where cows were living a few months ago!”
“She said it was the only property currently for sale in Butler, but she didn’t mention the cows.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“Is this woman named Dude an actual Realtor?”
“Among other things. It’s okay. You can get the money back, right?”
“Um, well, so…”
“Lincoln Abbott! You did not put down money you can’t get back on a falling-down wreck of a barn where cows lived a few months ago!” She paused, looked at him, her eyes wide with alarm. “Did you?”
“Maybe?” he said with a sheepish grin.
“How much?”
“Like ten thousand?”
“Dollars?”
“Yes, dollars, and don’t look at me that way. If I want your parents to take me seriously as their daughter’s future husband, we needed a place to live.”
“Did it have to be a falling-down barn where cows lived a few months ago?”
“It needed to have room for all the kids you told me you wanted.”
“At least they’ll each have their own stall. Will they get fresh hay every day, too?”
Linc gave her the side-eye. “I had no idea that my sweet Molly Stillman could be so sarcastic.”
“Still want to give up Oxford to live in a broken-down barn in Vermont that probably smells like cow shit?”
“Hell yes, because sarcastic Molly is sexy Molly.”
“You’re not right in the head.”
“I believe I told you that the night we met when you called me a sociopath.”
“I should’ve paid closer attention that night. What else did Dude sell you besides a broken-down barn with a sagging roof?”
“She sold me on a dream of a life in Butler, Vermont, with you and our stable full of kids and maybe your family’s business if your dad decides to hire me, and snowy winters and breathtaking autumns, of apple picking and maple-syrup making and a simple, fulfilling life that sounds better to me than anything I’ve ever experienced. But only if you’re there to make it all perfect.”
“I’m thinking about forgiving you for the barn. Eventually.”
“When that barn is the coolest house in Butler, you’ll be thanking me for having the foresight and wisdom to get us a home that can accommodate the five children you told me you want.”
“Five? I said maybe three.”
“I heard five.”
“Now you’re hearing things, too. I’m starting to seriously question my choices where you’re concerned.”
“You’re not really, are you?”
“No, but I’m not having five children.”
“Four, then.”
“Three.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky with twins.”
“I’ll kill you if that happens.”
“No, you won’t. You love me too much to kill me.”
“If you knock me up with twins, I will kill you. Stand warned.”
“Good to know. I’ll tell my boys to focus on one egg at a time.”
“You do that.”
“How soon can we do that? All this talk about eggs is making me hot.”
Molly giggled when he kissed her neck and made her shiver. “Soon. I promise.”
With almost no privacy in the camp, they’d had to put their ardor on ice until they could be alone somewhere. And there was something she still needed to share with him that she hadn’t yet. Not because she didn’t think he’d understand, but because it was still too painful to talk about, even with him.
“So my dad will probably meet us at the bus station, and he’s kind of weird about me and my sister, Hannah, when it comes to boys and dating and stuff.”
“Weird how?”
“Weird in that he’d rather we didn’t date or speak to boys at all if possible.”
“He knows that’s ridiculous, right?”
“Of course he does, but you have to kind of ease him into the whole ‘Molly has a boyfriend’ thing. Let him get to know you a little before you let on that we’re, you know…”
“Dying to have sex?”
“Lincoln! Stop.”
He absolutely loved the way her entire complexion lit up when she was embarrassed. That made embarrassing her some of the best fun he’d ever had. “Are we or are we not dying to have sex?”
“If you say that again, you’ll never have it with me.”
“Have what? Say it.”
“I won’t say it, and neither will you if you know what’s good for you.”
“I know what’s good for me,” he said, nuzzling her neck again, “and her name is Molly. Sweet, sweet Molly. I can’t wait until we can sleep naked together every night.”
“Stop.”
“I’ll never stop wanting that. When we’re old and gray, I’ll still want to sleep naked with you.”
“My advice would be not to mention anything about that when you’re within five hundred miles of my father, or it may never happen.”