Katie thought she’d been smart when she bought her car. She’d learned to drive on these winding roads when she was a teen and had taken her driving test for her license during a snowstorm. She’d made sure her sedan had all-wheel-drive so she could navigate safely. But as good of a choice as she’d made, it still wasn’t a truck.
This ride across town was a test run from the lumber yard to the chapel and she’d failed miserably, especially after she’d hit a pothole halfway there and she feared her sunroof would get smashed and glass fragments would come raining down on her as she to drove. But luckily that hadn’t happened.
Ash Dennison over at the lumberyard had made sure that the one board was tied down well enough that it wouldn’t go flying off her car. Of course, that was after he’d spent fifteen minutes trying to talk her out making the trip at all. He’d even offered to drive the few things she had over to the chapel himself after work, but then relented when she lifted her chin and insisted on doing it herself.
Okay, she could admit that she was more stubborn than smart sometimes. She should’ve listened to Ash. Lesson learned.
But going slow, Katie had made it to the chapel. And now that she was here, stubbornness and anxiety faded and were replaced with excitement again.
Just as she was untying the stubborn bit of rope that wouldn’t come free easily, she heard the sound of an engine growing louder as it came into the parking lot. She glanced over the roof of her car and saw Caleb Samuel’s cruiser.
Groaning under her breath, she said, “Here we go again.”
She kept at her task until the rope came free and the board fell to the ground. But not before it bounced off her mirror on the journey down. She held the piece of plywood in place, but all it would take was a good gust of wind and that would go flying like a sail.
Caleb got out of the cruiser and walked slowly over to her as he did the other day. “Need help again?” he asked.
“I got it,” she said forcing herself to smile. On the last two occasions Caleb had been pleasant, even a bit nostalgic when they spoke. This time, the scowl on his face showed he was clearly annoyed.
“I warned you before, Katie. You can’t keep coming here. If you don’t have permission from the owner—”
“You’re looking at her.”
He stopped dead in his tracks and frowned with confusion and maybe even a bit of shock.
“That’s right,” she said. “After we had our little tour last week, I called up that old fart and found out he had no intentions of doing anything with the chapel or the land. At least for now. And since he hadn’t done anything with it in the last ten years, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t planning to do anything. I’m not even a hundred percent sure he knew which piece of property I was talking about. So I took my brother’s advice and made him an offer.” Excitement filled her as she told Caleb the story of her negotiation. “He accepted just like that.”
“You already signed the papers?”
“Yes! Just after lunch. I bought the property and now my name is on the deed. I have a nice hefty mortgage that I can barely afford to go with it. If you need me to show you the papers, we’ll have to go back to the house because I locked them in the house safe. But I’ll do it if you insist.”
A slow smile lifted his lips to a grin that she found irresistible. It made something inside of her burst until her body hummed and her fingers tingled. What the hell?
“That won’t be necessary,” he said, rubbing his chin. “How in the world did you pull this off?”
Caleb’s grin was wide. Katie wasn’t sure if he was impressed or just teasing. She was going with impressed because she wasn’t going to let any teasing ruin her mood.
“I am an able-bodied woman.”
“I could see that,” he said, glancing at the two by four that had fallen to the ground.
She cocked her head to one side. “I work at a bank. I’m capable of purchasing a piece of real estate.”
His smile was wider, if that was even possible. He propped his hands on his hips and shook his head. “You called your brother again, didn’t you?”
With her back straight as a board, she said, “I don’t need to go to my brother for every little thing. He may be successful, but I still have the same genes he has.”
“Not exactly.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ve never seen Kasper Dobbs looking so pretty in a dress. And you can tell him that for me too.”
“I will not. Is that your way of flirting with me, Caleb?”
“Would it bother you if I were?”
Caleb Samuel was a damn fine man in so many ways that Katie was surprised some younger girl in town hadn’t snatched him up for marriage yet. There’s been plenty of talk both at the bank and throughout town about that very thing. And maybe if Katie hadn’t taken a wrong turn in her life, she’d be joining in that conversation.
But not today. She’d made a vow to herself when she signed the papers on the mortgage earlier. She was going to have something for herself even if everyone else, including her brother and Caleb Samuel, thought she was nuts. She was going to make money on this project and then she was going to go back to pursuing her dreams.
“I’m busy, Caleb.”
“I can see that. When I first pulled into the parking lot and saw that wood, I thought you had graduated from breaking and entering to vandalism. But as you say, you’re the owner. You can break anything you want.”
“Thanks for the confidence.”
“You’re
