“There? Where?”
“Why, at home, of course. Deep in the heart of Texas.”
Gillian felt a flutter of anticipation as an image formed in her mind. Tucker McBride.
No. No no no no no. It was too soon. Way too soon. How could she be thinking about Tucker tonight of all nights?
No, Angelica was sweet as can be, but this fortune-teller thing she had going on was silly. She couldn’t predict the future. A soul mate? Did Gillian even believe in such a thing? Soul mates?
Probably not. However, the idea was lovely. A pleasant dream. Eternity Springs had an atmosphere about it that this was a place where dreams came true. Where broken hearts healed. So for tonight—this big fat hairy monster of a night—when she climbed into her comfy bed in Eternity Springs, she would believe in pleasant dreams. In soul mates.
She dreamed about Tucker McBride.
Chapter Twelve
Weeks passed, temperatures rose, and thunderstorms built and blew across Texas as winter transitioned to spring. Deep in the Hill Country, wildflowers nurtured by a healthy amount of rainfall and blessed by a mild winter painted the land in a riot of color. As usual, the show of nature’s glory brought out the tourists. Cars and trucks clogged the roadways with visitors ready to participate in the Texas rite of spring—plopping children and pets down in patches of bluebonnets for photographs.
The new season also brought a change to Tucker’s schedule. To use one of his grandfather’s old sayings, spring had him busy as a long-tailed cat on a porch full of rocking chairs at a family reunion. Interest in the Enchanted Canyon Wilderness School had exceeded expectations. He’d had full classes each weekend for more than a month now, and business at the shop in town had been good enough to justify hiring full-time help. Thank goodness.
He’d needed to spend less time across the courtyard from Bliss. If sexual frustration could kill a man, Gillian Thacker’s friendship might well be the death of him. Operation Horny Toad, indeed. He couldn’t have picked a more appropriate operation name if he’d debated the choice for a decade.
Following their Valentine’s Day outing, he’d seen her almost every day. She would drop by the shop for a visit, or he’d join her for her lunchtime walk with Peaches or stop by Bliss to filch an afternoon snack before heading for the canyon to do some prep work for the classes. Somewhere along the way, he tumbled from wanting to needing, and from liking to caring. He wasn’t making much progress in the impatient-to-patient department, however. The need for self-restraint just might kill him.
They hadn’t kissed since Valentine’s Day. She went out of her way to keep things light and friendly. He watched like a hungry hawk for a signal that she was ready to take their relationship up a notch from friends, but so far, she seemed content with the status quo. Dammit. He was beginning to second-guess his strategic decision to allow her to set the pace. It might be time to call an audible, and the next forty-eight hours or so could present the perfect opportunity for it.
She and her BFFs had registered for his Wilderness Survival 101 class and dubbed it the “Girls Getting Grubby Weekend.” She’d even had pink T-shirts made. Tucker wasn’t sure that Enchanted Canyon Wilderness School was ready for the “Dirty Girls.”
The campus sat on forty-two wooded acres nestled in the northwest section of Enchanted Canyon that had lain unpopulated since the Comanche roamed the land. Within its boundaries, the spring-fed Blanchard Creek flowed year-round and meandered through a bottom area that included some massive old-growth pecan trees. Together with the bottomlands, rolling hills covered in white oak, cedar elm, and mesquites provided a natural habitat for an abundance of wildlife including white-tailed deer, axis, turkeys, bobcats, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, and rabbits. In the sky, one could spot red-tailed hawks, barred owls, pileated woodpeckers, and numerous other species of birds. Native edible and medicinal plants included turk’s cap, chile pequin, prickly pear, wood sorrel, sugarberry, dewberry, cucumber plant, toothache tree, wafer ash, pokeweed, and more. In other words, it was an undisturbed Eden—perfect for Tucker’s purposes.
He’d put quite a bit of thought into what structures he should erect on the campus. He wanted to keep it minimal, but within days of launching their website, they identified a strong demand for children’s programs. He’d expanded that part of his business plan due in large part to his enjoyment of working with Haley over the winter. Working with kids, however, required amenities he might have skipped had he planned to work only with adults. So by March, ECWS boasted two indoor bathrooms with attached showers, two covered outdoor classrooms, and a two-room building with an office and a dedicated first aid room. Not surprisingly, he’d discovered that having indoor restroom facilities increased demand from female students by about a million percent.
Indoor plumbing was the only reason why he expected the Dirty Girls’ arrival at any moment. Gillian had made it quite clear she was not a porta potty person.
“She’s not much of a dirty girl either,” he muttered as he stacked wood in the fire pit down in the pecan bottoms. The idea to attend his Survival 101 class had been Caroline’s, not Gillian’s. Caroline had come to him seeking help not long after she’d returned from the “Distract Gillian” trip to Eternity Springs.
“She’s lost confidence in herself,” his soon-to-be cousin-in-law had shared. “That’s the worst thing Jeremy has done. She’s getting over her broken heart, but her self-doubt continues to grow. I think she doesn’t trust herself—her intelligence, her instincts, or her emotions. Unfortunately, it’s only getting worse instead of better. She second-guesses every decision she makes. I’ve seen how your wilderness lessons have helped Haley be more confident. I think Gillian would similarly benefit.”
“I don’t know, Caroline. I took her hiking in the canyon a few weeks ago, and she was very vocal about not liking the outdoors.”
Caroline’s eyes brightened, her curiosity piqued. “You took her hiking?”
He shrugged and deflected. “It was Valentine’s Day. We both needed something to do.”
She assessed him with a look, then apparently decided not to pursue the subject because she continued, “I don’t think it’s a case of Gillian not liking the outdoors as much as she’s not comfortable with it. She didn’t go camping when she was growing up, and she simply has no experience. I think that learning a few outdoors skills will help her self-confidence.”
“Hey, I’m not opposed to the idea at all. If you can talk her into it, then go for it.”
After they’d kicked the idea around a little more, Tucker had agreed to add Caroline, Maisy, and Gillian to his class scheduled for the third weekend of March, and Caroline had set about arranging it. Gillian had resisted the idea at first, as Tucker had expected, but her girlfriends wouldn’t take no for an answer. Exactly how she’d gone from reluctant student to Queen of the Dirty Girls, he wasn’t quite sure.
“Dirty Girls,” he murmured, his mouth twisting in a crooked smile as he placed the last log, checked his watch, then knelt to start the fire. Students for this weekend’s class would begin arriving any time now. He hoped they had sense enough to wear more than just their T-shirts. A cold front had blown in overnight bringing unseasonably low temperatures along with a drizzling rain that was forecasted to continue throughout the day. Well, if they didn’t come prepared, they’d learn. Preparedness was what this weekend was all about, wasn’t it?