Page 82

“I didn’t bring a bathing suit,” she said. “Or any picnic stuff. Why didn’t you tell me we were coming here? I would have loved to do a whole thing.”

“You couldn’t know because I have a surprise,” I said.

“What?”

“Come with me.”

I led her to the edge of the lake, looking out at where I envisioned the hotel would be. “See that, right there?”

“Yeah,” she said.

“That’s where the hotel is going to go.”

She looked out over the lake quietly for a moment before looking back up at me.

“What?”

“I bought it,” I said.

“The lake?”

“The land around it, so, yeah, kinda,” I said. “Mr. Pratchett owned it and wanted to sell. So I bought it. It’s already zoned for commercial use because of the Andersons, so…”

“So you thought we could build the hotel here?”

“Exactly.” I waited for some kind of reaction, but when none came, I looked down curiously. “What do you think?”

“I think… I think you might be the greatest man who has ever lived.”

The smile that spread across her face was like the sun shining through dark clouds. She jumped into my arms, and I held her aloft as she kissed me repeatedly. I laughed through the kisses, trying to catch a few of them and then giving up and just letting her pepper my face.

“This is incredible,” she said. “Absolutely incredible. I can see it. I canseeit.”

“We might have to wait just a little while, first, though,” I said.

“Oh?”

“Not long. It’s just that Luke and Amber want to do their wedding right here. At the lake.”

“Oh, well, that’s a good enough reason,” she said. “That’s fine. Can we talk about the hotel, though?”

I loved seeing the excitement in her face, and we linked hands. Taking a long walk around the lake, we discussed all the different things we could do with the land. Where the buildingwould be, the amphitheater, a playground and the parking. Our visions were nearly identical, and we fed into each other’s creativity, though her ideas were routinely better than mine.

When we finally returned to the car, the sun was slowly going down over the lake. She leaned over to lay her head on my shoulder, and I kissed the top of it.

“So Luke and Amber want to get married here, huh?” she asked.

“Yup,” I said. “It was apparently an idea of hers way before I asked Mr. Pratchett about buying it, so I couldn’t say much.”

“I don’t mind,” she said. “It’s a gorgeous place for it. It will be beautiful.”

“It will,” I agreed.

“What about us?”

“Hmm?”

“What about June?”