Page 33

Two weeks later

“ You did an amazing job on the kitchen. I love it. And I have a feeling that Grandma would have loved it too.”

“I have a feeling that Grandma knew that she wasn’t going to be around to enjoy it, and she wanted to make sure that you were taken care of.”

Claire smiled, put her arm around Josiah, and kissed his cheek.

She wanted to ask him to marry her, and she wanted to do it soon.

He had already told her that his parents were moving to New Mexico, and he was going to buy their house.

She wanted to tell him that there was no need for him to do that.

That they could just move into the farmhouse together.

But they would need to get married, of course.

She wasn’t quite sure that he loved her that much yet.

Or maybe that he wanted to take that big of a chance on her. Regardless, she’d enjoyed the last two weeks together with him. And there was a part of her that was kind of happy that her kids were in Boston.

The summer stretched out, exciting and anticipatory, with Josiah by her side. She’d thanked him over and over for the steadfast presence that he’d been during Grandma’s illness and death and her children leaving, and he’d just shaken his head like he didn’t understand what the big deal was.

They’d gone through her grandma’s will, with no surprises. The house, along with a set amount of money to finish fixing it up, had been left to her. Everything else that her grandma owned had been divided up with the rest of the family.

Grandma had made one stipulation. She wanted the farm to be called Verdant Hills Farm.

That hadn’t been a problem, and the next day, Josiah had made her a sign for the end of her driveway with “Verdant Hills Farm” written on it.

It hung there now.

“I think the kids will have a lot of fun baking bread in this kitchen this winter.” She turned to Josiah. “And I hope you will be here to enjoy eating it.”

“I don’t know why you think I’m going somewhere,” he said, dropping a kiss on her forehead and letting his lips linger there.

She closed her eyes, just enjoying the feel of him close, knowing that he had zero plans of leaving her. And Josiah was not the kind of man who left easily.

His parents were packed up and getting ready to move to New Mexico that week. He had told her that he might need to go with them to get them settled, but so far, they hadn’t asked him to.

Her thoughts were interrupted by her phone ringing. She felt a new urgency every time it rang, now that her children were a thousand miles away, and she hadn’t quite gotten over the idea that they might need her.

“It’s Ted,” she said, looking at Josiah. She bit her lip. Ted didn’t typically call her, especially not on a Tuesday afternoon. This was definitely out of the ordinary.

“Hello?” she said, putting the phone on speaker so Josiah could hear too.

He had great hearing, and even if she had been holding it to her ear, he probably would have been able to hear anyway.

He had surprised her greatly at the campfire two weeks ago when he’d heard the insult that her ex had lobbed at her and had said what he had .

She hadn’t wanted him to hear. Because she felt like it wasn’t true. It didn’t matter what she did—her ex wasn’t satisfied with her. It was like he needed variety or something, but everything was always her fault. Josiah had seen through that immediately.

“Claire. The kids are driving me crazy. I stayed home from work today, because yesterday they made a huge mess in the condo, and the landlord and my neighbors are complaining. It’s like you’ve been letting them run wild or something.”

“No. It’s been very civilized here. We even have indoor plumbing.”

“Very funny. Anyway, Justine, my girlfriend, is stressed out about it. Her kids are being badly influenced by yours, and I think two weeks was more than enough time with us. I’ll see them again at Christmas.”

“Wait, what?”

“Didn’t you hear me? I want to meet you again. They’re coming back. You can bring them back for Christmas, and I’ll see them then.”

“Okay. We’ll meet tomorrow?” she said, surprised and not wanting to let this opportunity slip away. She certainly wasn’t going to turn this down.

“Yeah, unless you want to meet late tonight.”

“Sure. Late tonight is fine,” she said as Josiah nodded his head. He might not be able to go with her. Someone would need to stay and make sure the chickens had food and water, unless they fed them extra and made sure they put extra water in before they left.

“All right. Same hotel, tonight, as soon as you can get there.”

“All right. I’ll see you tonight.” She managed to keep the excitement out of her voice until she swiped off the phone.

Then she squealed and jumped, throwing her arms around Josiah’s neck.

He caught her and didn’t complain at all when her lips found his.

She almost got distracted by the kiss, but then she squealed again and said, “Can we put extra water out for the chickens? Then you can come too.”

“But we’ll have to stay overnight.”

“We’ll get two hotel rooms.” Then she paused and thought, This is really not the time. But she didn’t let that stop her. “Would you marry me? Please? ”

That probably wasn’t the way that was supposed to go, but he laughed. And then he said, “Sure. Today?”

“Well, I just made plans for today, but maybe tomorrow evening?”

He smiled, and then he said, “Maybe we could hold off until Thursday.”

“All right. Thursday. I’m going to hold you to that,” she said, poking a finger into his chest.

“All right. You make sure you do. In the meantime, if I’m going to marry you, I think you ought to finish painting the outside of the house.”

“Maybe I can get my husband to help me,” she said, and then, feeling a little saucy, she kissed his chin before she reached up on her tiptoes and spent a longer time kissing his lips.

He kissed her back, and neither one of them were laughing when they finally broke apart.

“If we’re going to make it to Pennsylvania tonight, you need to stop doing that.”

“All right. Just because I want to see my kids. But in a few days, I’m going to expect you to do that all night long.”

“All right. I think that’s something we can work out.”

She smiled, and then Josiah took her hand, and they walked outside together to do the chickens before they left to get her kids.

All of a sudden, the verdant hills and sparkling sky held a whole new, exciting promise for her.

The promise of the summer with her children, and…

who knew? Maybe there would be more kids.

The thought made her smile even bigger.