“Sounds perfect,” Rory told him sleepily. Her eyes closed and she imagined his farm, and him climbing trees with a bunch of other kids, and his mom calling to him from a front porch to come in and wash up for dinner.
It sounded so completely opposite of how she’d grown up. It sounded exactly the way she’d always wished she could have grown up though. It also sounded a lot like she imagined the people in Autre had grown up.
“I wouldn’t say perfect,” Drew said. “But it was pretty great. I’ve been in Appleby all my life so I’ve known a lot of my friends for as long as I can remember. The new guys, the ones who came from Chicago and bought the snack cake factory…”
“Ollie and Dax and the others,” Rory said. “The ones who donated the game controllers.”
“Right. Two of those five guys are from Appleby. I’ve known Aiden and Cam forever. But Ollie, Dax, and Grant came to town more recently. They’re the first people I’ve become friends with that I haven’t known since I was ten.” He sounded amused.
Rory just smiled. She didn’t have any friendships that extended that far back. But it was interesting that she felt that she’d known Charlie and Paige and Jordan and the others here far longer than she had. Jordan had grown up here and Charlie had spent summers and holidays here, but none of those women had lived here permanently in the three years Rory had been here. Still, this was clearly their home, and she was the outsider. But she didn’t feel that way with them.
“What was Christmas like growing up in Iowa?” she asked.
“Cold and snowy.” He chuckled softly. “I don’t know how you all grow up without making snowmen and sledding and having snowball fights.”
“I’ve only seen snow a couple of times. It falls here but it’s rare and doesn’t stick around. I’ve never made a snowman,” she said.
“We’ll have to fix that. We’ve got snow in Iowa well into March.”
Her stomach swooped at the implied invitation to come north, and Rory smiled, then yawned deeply, and cuddled into her pillow further.
Yeah, maybe this long-distance thing could work.
8
The next day Drew decided he should do something with the friends he had supposedly come to Autre to visit.
He took a swamp boat tour captained by Josh with Tori and their little girl Ella alongside.
He hung out at the petting zoo, learning more about Jordan's program with the alpacas, and then let Charlie take him on a tour of the other exotic and domestic animals they had brought into their park/sanctuary.
Tori and Jordan had both told him that they were looking for some additional help around the park. Especially someone with some animal handling experience, and that if he knew anyone—wink, wink, nudge, nudge—they'd love to talk about that person joining their team.
It wasn't so much that they were being openly welcoming about him potentially joining them that surprised him—after all, he ran a farm, and his love for animals and ability to handle them, made him someone who would be an obvious fit. What surprised him was that he'd been in Autre for just short of twenty-four hours and he was already thinking that that sounded like a pretty sweet deal.
And it wasn't just about Rory Robins.
At least that's what he told himself every time he thought about it. He loved alpacas. He loved goats, donkeys, and every other barnyard animal he’d ever worked with. He also thought it was amazing that they had camels and a zebra, not to mention a sloth, lemurs, red pandas, a tiger, and freaking penguins in this animal park.
He wasn't a veterinarian, but he definitely knew his way around hooves and wings and beaks and muzzles. If they needed a farmer with a biology degree, who was interested in learning more about zoo keeping, he could definitely be their guy.
Of course, his brother and cousin would have to be willing to run the farm back home on their own. But Drew knew Justin and Dallas would be fine with it. More than his mother would be. He would have to swear to Linda Ryan that he would come home on a regular basis and that any kids he had, would be guaranteed at least a month back home on the farm in the summers.
Kids? He was thinking about kids?
He'd been in Autre, Louisiana for a day.
But yeah, he was thinking about kids.
And wondering if Rory wanted to have any.
Fuck.
“Hey, good news,” Fletcher Landry called as he strode toward where Drew was standing by the lemur enclosure with Jordan and Paige. “Becca’s free tonight.”
“Oh, great.” Paige turned to Drew. “We’re going to head over to Bad, a little town a few miles up the bayou. They have an amazing bar and restaurant. One of Fletcher's teaching friends is able to go along. I think you'll really like her.”
Drew looked from Paige to Jordan to Fletcher and back to Paige. They were all grinning. “Don't you guys have a cool restaurant-bar right here?”
Paige laughed. “Oh, well, of course. But Ellie’s is kind of like sitting around grandma's house with the whole family. When we want to get away from that a little bit, we head over to Bad.”
“Bad Brews is owned by a couple friends of ours,” Fletcher said. “Zeke and Mitch did some of the interior work when they were remodeling. It's really cool. They have live music and all that. And Becca is excited to meet you.”
Yeah, Drew hadn’t missed that part. “You're setting me up with someone?”
Paige gave him a wink. “I promised I would set you up with a hot bayou girl when you made it down this way.”
She had. Drew had been lamenting the fact that all the girls in Appleby saw him as such a good guy that he hesitated to get dirty with any of them. Paige assured him that he could start off as a bad boy with the bayou girls and show them his good side later.
Which he had totally screwed up with Rory, of course.
She thought he was a great guy. Nice. Good. Decent and noble.
Hell, she'd been offering him just about everything last night and he’d still sent her home alone.
His body heated thinking about what he’d done before he'd sent her home though. She hadn't been horny so much as she’d been wound up. She'd been stressed out and exhausted, but he knew she was the type to go home and either keep working or lie in bed with her head spinning. He truly had wanted to give her some relief and release, hoping it would help her calm down.
Yeah, he'd really wanted to touch her. But more, he’d wanted to connect with her.
And they had connected. Physically, for sure, but more than that. The phone call, as she'd said, had been strangely intimate. Talking to her while she made a sandwich had been so routine it should have been boring, but it seemed like something he could do every day and never grow tired of it.
Yes, listening to her shower had been hot. And he'd definitely jerked off. And he knew he would again. And again. But also talking to her, telling her stories about growing up in Iowa, keeping his voice low and steady so that she would fall asleep and the listening to her breathing even out and grow soft until he was sure she was sleeping peacefully had been strangely satisfying too.
He was going to her house tonight. She needed to wrap fifty more gifts for Santa’s Village, and he was going to help. Because she needed someone to help her out. And because she wouldn’t ask anyone else. And because he really wanted to see her.