“What’s all the noise?” Cody asks and scrubs his tired eyes.
“Doug is here with his horse and buggy,” I explain.
Izzy’s head comes back with a start, and then a small smile touches her mouth as she glances at the guys. A knock sounds on the back door.
“We better go see what he wants,” Izzy says.
I go down first, and a gust of wind blows over me when I open the door. Doug takes his hat off.
“Miss Palmer,” he says. “Your chariot awaits.”
I look past his shoulder to see a snarling Eddie. “I didn’t book a ride,” I say. “I’m not even dressed. You must be mistaken.”
He pulls a piece of paper from his pocket, and his weathered face crinkles as he reads it. “Nope. Right here. Right address.”
My heart beats faster as my brain kicks into gear. “Who set this up?” I ask, a surge of hope welling up inside me. Is it possible that Nate’s behind this?
“Can’t say for sure,” he says. “Now run along and get dressed. It’s cold out there.”
I turn to the crew, and they’re making coffee and avoiding my glance. “Are you guys behind this?” Are they giving me a farewell send-off?
“You’d better get going,” Jason says.
“And dress warm,” Sam adds, as he scratches his…parts, and sits at the table.
Mumbling under my breath, I go dress. The crew sits around the table eating, and completely ignores me when I return.
Outside, Doug helps me onto the buggy. “He’s not going to take off with me in this thing, is he?” I ask as I settle myself. Doug hands me a big wool blanket, and I wrap it around me. It smells like horse.
“Can’t say for sure, Miss Palmer,” he says, offering zero comfort.
“Where are we going?”
He flicks his reins, and Eddie takes off, snorting at me before leaving the driveway. I glance around, take in the beauty of the place, the freshly fallen snow clinging to the trees. I have no idea what’s going on here, but after finding out Nate is staying in the Victorian home he purchased, I plan to go knocking on his door when we go by. I somehow need to make things right again. But I don’t even know if he’ll want to, and he could very well be gone from here now that he’s secured the land. He told me he was leaving at the end of the lobster season, so I can only assume he was here to attend to the business of buying, with no plans to hang around afterward.
We head to downtown, and instead of giving me a tour of the city, we go a little farther out, to a wide-open space near the ocean. Doug stops the horse, and I glance around.
“Why are we stopping?”
He nods toward the water, and I spot Nate coming out from around a tree and walking toward us. Tears fill my eyes, and I stumble trying to get off the buggy.
“Nate,” I say and meet him in the clearing. “I’m…I don’t know…I wasn’t sure you’d ever want to see me again.”
“You signed the papers,” he says, the warmth in his eyes pushing back the cold in my bones. “Why did you do that?” he asks so quietly I have to strain to hear him.
“Because it was important to the community, and it was…important to you,” I say honestly.
Dark lashes fall slowly, and when they open again, he says, “I’ve never met anyone like you, Kira.”
I cringe at the words he threw back at me in anger two days ago. “I thought you said I was no different from the other women in your life.”
“I was wrong.”
“Nate,” I begin, but choke on my words.
“Kira, I never, ever meant to hurt you. I’m not the guy you think I am. I never want to be that guy. I want to be someone you can love and respect, and what you did…” He stops and takes a breath, his chest rattling a bit. “I would never ask that of you. You know that, right?”
“I do. I wanted to talk to you. I was going to stop by your place this morning.” I turn and point to the buggy. “This was you?”
“Yes.”
I glance around the clearing, take in the trees around us. “Why did you bring me here?”
“I’m not tearing Gram’s studio down.”
“Nate, no, we have to,” I say quickly, panic erupting inside me. “It’s important, and Gram would want that. With the money from the sale, I’ll rebuild at some point.”
“No, you won’t. I purchased this land yesterday.” He waves his hands around, and I angle my head, my brain trying hard to keep up.
“I don’t understand. What do you want this land for?”
“We’re going to move the studio here.”
My heart stops beating. “Wait, what?”
He waves his hand again. “It’s not the same, Kira. I know that. But at least it’s close enough to town that people can walk here.”
“You’re wrong,” I say, and a line forms in his forehead as he frowns, those deep green eyes of his filled with worry.
“I thought you’d like this,” he says
“You’re wrong, Nate. It’s not the same.”
“I know but—”
“It’s better,” I say, cutting him off. “This location is perfect, and accessible to more people.”
He reaches out and tentatively cups my elbow. When I don’t pull back, he says, “Kira, I’m sorry for the things I said.”
“I reacted, because—”
“Because you’ve been hurt before. But I’ll never hurt you. I promise.” He swallows hard. “I don’t want you to go.”
“I don’t want to go. I want to stay here at the B&B, work at the local university, and keep the rooms open for Izzy and the guys, but it sold, Nate.” I choke on my words. “It sold yesterday.”
He smiles and cups my cold cheeks with his warm hands. “It’s yours, Kira. I bought it. It’s for you.”
I shake my head and try to wrap my brain around what he’s saying. “Nate—?”
He puts his finger to my lips. “I’m staying. I’ll have to travel a bit, to help the company survive and to secure jobs, but I’ll always come back here to you. You once said we can’t pick our family, but we can. I pick you and this whole town.”
“Nate, I can’t—”
“What can’t you do?” he asks in a soft voice.