“Jeff Wickerman lived here. Do you remember him? We all went to high school together.”
“Yeah, I remember him. Didn’t he move to LA and became a big-time movie producer?”
“He did. His folks decided they were over the winters in New Hampshire, and Jeff gave me a call a few years ago. I had mentioned to him back in high school how much I loved his folks’ property. He remembered…and asked if I wanted to buy it.”
I was positive my mouth fell open. “Their place was huge! They had cattle on it, didn’t they?”
“At one point they did. When Jeff’s folks got older and decided to retire, they sold off all the cattle.”
“Did you buy it?”
Hunter nodded. “I did. I thought it would be a good investment. The house is in great shape. Older, but the Wickermans really kept up with it. And I’ve made a few changes to it.”
“Why don’t you live there?” I asked, looking at the gate we drove up to.
Hunter shrugged. “I don’t know. The house is a lot bigger than the one I’m living in, and I just sorta thought I would move in when I was ready to…”
His voice trailed off, but I knew what he’d been about to say. Get married and start a family.
“When did you buy it?”
“Not that long ago. A couple years back.”
Hunter put his truck in park and Jack jumped up and poked his head in the front to see where we were. He barked as Hunter got out of the truck and opened the gate.
“He bought a farm, Jack.”
Jack barked again.
“Yes, I know you knew about it already but…”
Hunter climbed back into the truck and gave me a wickedly handsome smile. “Ready?”
I nodded, the excitement coming back.
“I don’t think I’ve been here since they hosted that Halloween party when we were in like ninth grade!”
Hunter chuckled. “I thought you were friends with his sister.”
“Kathy? No, when Kathy told everyone in high school that you had sex with her under the football bleachers, we stopped being friends.”
“What in the hell? I never slept with her! You and I were together nearly all of high school.”
Turning to look at him, I said, “Hence why I stopped being friends with Kathy.”
“Bella, I never even looked at her.”
I reached for his hand and laughed. “Hunter, I never thought you did. She was just a drama queen who wanted to spread rumors. Besides, Greer punched her in the nose when we heard her telling a group of girls about the supposed incident.”
Hunter snapped his head around to look at me. “That’s how she broke her nose? Greer hit her?”
“Yep!” I said, popping the P loudly. I’d been horrified at the time, but also slightly giddy that Greer had knocked the crap out of Kathy.
“Does Kyle know his sister hit Kathy? You know Kyle liked her.”
I screwed up my face. “Gross. Why would he like her? She was so mean.”
Hunter laughed. “Let me rephrase that: Kyle liked fucking her. They were fuck buddies nearly all of our junior year.”
“Ugh, I didn’t need to know that. Maybe that was also why Greer hit her.”
Hunter steered down the long drive, and I admired the snow-covered pastures. Nothing had disturbed the snow, so it looked like a giant white lake on either side of the drive. The way the sun hit caused it to sparkle like diamonds. The property was on the northwest side of the Boggy Creek Valley, and butted up against South Twin Mountain. Or at least it used to, unless the family had sold off some of the property over the years.
“Does the property still stretch over to South Twin?” I asked as I looked at it in the distance. Most of the mountain was covered in snow. With the blue sky as a backdrop, it was almost too bright to look at. The color of the sky reminded me of Hunter’s eyes.
“Yeah, they sold all of it to me.”
I looked at him. “How much land?”
He gave a half-hearted shrug. “Almost a hundred acres, give or take a few.”
“Wow, I didn’t know it was that big.” With a chuckle, I asked, “Hunter, what are you going to do with all that land?”
“I don’t know. Maybe put some cattle on it. Maybe grow shit on it. There’s plenty of land for an, um…an apiary. That’s one of the reasons I always liked this place.”
My stomach flipped, and my heart melted. “An apiary?”
He looked at me with a shy smile. “I mean, if you like the place. If you don’t, we can find another one.”
I looked forward and stared out the window as his words repeated in my head. Hunter had bought this land with me in mind? Tears threatened to fall, but I blinked them back. No more crying. I was so sick of crying.
Jack barked, and I jumped. The sound pulled me from my thoughts, and I focused on what was ahead of us. The house.
“Oh my goodness,” I whispered, watching the classic colonial saltbox home come into full view. “I forgot how beautiful this house was.”
“And it’s in great shape for being built in 1886.”
I shook my head in disbelief as I stared at the two-story white house with blue trim.
“Didn’t the house used to be black?” I asked.
“Yeah, but I thought it was too drab looking, so I had it painted white and blue.”
I peeked over at him and smiled. Had he remembered my favorite color was blue, or was it just a coincidence?
“They added on to the house in the back around 1952. That’s where the kitchen and laundry room is, along with a half bath,” Hunter said while he parked his truck. Jack whined, clearly wanting to get out.
“I take it Jack likes this place?”
Hunter laughed. “Yeah, he loves coming here to run around. Grab your coat; I don’t have the heat turned up very high in the house.”
I jumped out of the truck and quickly slipped my coat on. Jack ran all around the front yard, then took off toward the back of the house. He was on a mission.
I looked around but saw no other cars. “No one lives here?” There were fresh car tracks in the snow that went around back. They went out a different way from where we had come in. That was strange. I was about to ask Hunter who had been here, but he started to talk.
“Nah. I had a security system put in a few months back, since some local kids were messing around up here. Jack and I nipped that shit in the bud real quick.”
“What did you do?”
Hunter laughed. “Sat around back and waited for the little bastards to show up. Then I let Jack give them a little greeting with his bare teeth. Told them the next time they set foot on my property, I’d let the dog eat them.”
I brought my hand to my mouth as I tried not to laugh. “You did not. Hunter Turner, that was mean.”
He grinned, then winked. “I sure as shit did. Haven’t had a problem since.”
“That’s terrible,” I said with a giggle.
He shrugged. “It worked.”
Hunter reached for my hand and walked us up to the front door as Jack came running back around the side of the building. “The house is a little over three-thousand square feet.”
I nodded and watched him unlock the door. We walked inside and into a small foyer. Directly in front of us were two staircases.