“Yes, ma’am. Thanks for the ride and the info about the job.”
“My pleasure. Are you guys going to Sunday dinner?”
Landon hadn’t mentioned it to her, but he probably would. “I suppose we are.”
“Great, see you then.” Dani waited until Amanda had slowly made her way inside the house, using the key Landon had given her, before she drove off.
Amanda went straight for the woodstove and used the wood Landon had brought in before he left for work to stoke the fire. She couldn’t believe how chilly it still was in the mountains in early June.
She’d changed into pajamas and one of Landon’s warm flannel shirts when the phone rang. The caller ID said Butler Vol FD, so she took the call. “Hey.”
“Hi there. I wondered if you’d be home yet.”
“Just got here about fifteen minutes ago. Thank you for arranging my ride with Dani.”
“No problem. Did you have fun with the girls?”
“So much fun. My stomach hurts from laughing.”
“That sounds about right.”
“Megan told me you also arranged for piano lessons for me.”
“I meant to tell you that, but I got distracted earlier.”
She smiled at how he described their afternoon in bed. “Is that right?”
“Oh yeah. Very distracted. I hope it’s okay I asked Hunter about teaching you.”
“It’s very sweet of you. So far, you’re being an awesome partner in crime.”
“Glad you think so.”
“Megan invited me to dinner one night this week and said Hunter could show me some of the basics while I’m there.”
“If it's a night I’m working, I can go with you as long as I have a radio with me.”
“Really? That’d be awesome.”
“Sure, we can make that happen. I have to tell you… Normally, I like working nights, but not so much this week.”
“And why is that?”
“Gee, I wonder. Could it be the smoking-hot woman who’s sleeping in my bed?”
“I thought we were exclusive. What’s her name?”
“Haha, you know her well, in fact.”
“Not really, but I’m working on getting to know her better. You’ll never guess what happened tonight.”
He groaned. “I’m not sure I want to hear this.”
Amanda laughed. “You’ll like it. I mentioned how I want to do more writing about people and their stories. Cameron and Lucy hired me to write some profiles for the catalog, starting with Mildred Olsen and your grandfather.”
“That’s great, Amanda. Good for you.”
“I’m super excited about it. I’ve got experience writing catalog copy, and for years, I’ve been trying to talk my mom and the management team into doing more profiles of how people are using our products for our catalog. But they feel that people would be too embarrassed to discuss our products that way. Writing about your family’s business and the people who run it will be so much fun.”
“Look at you, shaking things up. I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks. I’m looking forward to it.” After a pause, she added, “Today was a really good day.”
“For me, too. I like hearing you sound happy.”
“It feels good to be making some changes that get me closer to where I want to be. Also, Hannah offered to loan me a dress for the wedding if you still want me to go with you.” He’d asked her before the fire, but they hadn’t talked about it again since.
“Of course I want you to go. I have to take a run to Montpelier at some point in the next few days to pick up the ring Lucas bought for Dani. You can come with me and go shopping if you’d rather have something new.”
“That sounds fun.”
“We’ll do that. Tomorrow or the next day. Whenever you want.”
“Okay.”
An alarm sounded in the background on his end. “We’re getting a call. Got to run.”
“Be safe.”
“I will. Don’t worry. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“I’ll be here.”
“You’d better be. I want you to do something wild.”
“What’s that?”
“Sleep naked.”
“I can’t do that! I’ll freeze.”
“No, you won’t. The down comforter on my bed will keep you nice and toasty. Come on. You want to walk on the wild side, right?”
“I do.”
“Then I want to think about you naked in my bed waiting for me to get home in the morning.”
“Fine.”
“You’ll do it?”
“I’ll do it.”
“That’s my wild girl. See you, all of you, in the morning.”
When the phone went dead, Amanda smiled and hobbled over to put the portable phone back on the charger. Before she’d come to Vermont, she hadn’t seen a phone like that since she was growing up at home in Missouri. It still boggled her mind that people in Butler lived without cell phones because there was no reception in their town. That had been the biggest adjustment to being there for her as a cell-phone-addicted kind of girl.
She realized she hadn’t checked her phone in hours. What was the point when you had no reception? She dug it out of her purse and took it with her to bed, logging on to Landon’s Wi-Fi so she could get her texts and email. But before she got into bed, she recalled his instructions and tossed her phone on the bed while she removed her clothes and snuggled under the comforter.
With her teeth chattering, she questioned the wisdom of dancing on the wild side when it was still cold in Vermont. She sent an arm outside the cocoon to find the phone and brought it under the covers to check her messages and emails while Landon’s soft flannel sheets brushed against her hard nipples.
“The man is a devil,” she said, wishing he was there to keep her warm.
She’d received a message from her mother asking her to choose the trade shows she wished to attend that summer so they could set the schedule. Amanda scrolled through the dates and locations—New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Austin, San Antonio, Phoenix, Charlotte, Baltimore. In a usual summer, she attended up to seven trade shows. As she scrolled through the options, she only felt dread.
The last thing in the world she wanted to do was attend yet another trade show in yet another city where she wouldn’t get to see anything other than the inside of a hotel or convention center.
As she closed her email, she realized she was going to have to have a conversation with her mother before too much longer. Because she worked so much and lived out of suitcases, she’d managed to save quite a bit of money over the years, especially since she’d made the decision three years ago to give up the apartment she used to have in Chicago.
She had the ability to take some time to figure out her next move—and to take the trip to Europe she’d been saying for years she was going to take “one of these summers.” That was going to happen this summer. Before she could chicken out or come up with a thousand different reasons not to do something she’d always wanted to do, she logged on to the travel site they used for work and bought a one-way ticket to Paris for early next month.