Page 41 of The Homemaker

“Nah. It’s just a hobby. If I tried to make it a full-time business, I’d start to resent it. Putting pressure on your creative side to be your everything is the quickest way to squash inspiration.”

I tried not to look at Murphy Paddon as the most interesting person I had ever met because it felt like the ultimate betrayal to my past, but every day I liked him more and more.

After dinner, we took our usual stroll around the lake, but this time, Murphy reached for my hand to hold it.

“Nope.” I pulled it away from him, keeping my gaze in front of us at the ducks along the edge of the lake and a turtle chilling on a floating log. “I have no self-control around you. It’s no longer afternoon, so no moredelight.”

“Alice, do you know how much power you just gave me by saying that? Knowing that you can’t control yourself around me is too much. There’s no way I won’t take advantage of that. So this is me apologizing now for what’s to come.”

I nodded toward the group of four young women jogging toward us in the opposite direction. “Let’s find you a wife, one who can cook, so you won’t spend your life malnourished from eating microwaved quesadillas. What’s your type? Tall and thin? Beautifully curvy? Long hair? Short hair? Do you want kids? A wife who stays home or an equal breadwinner? How many kids do you want?”

“How many kids doyouwant?” he asked.

“Oh, that’s easy. I want five. Three boys first, then two girls.”

Murphy shot me a sidelong glance with a huge grin. “I’m not sure what to follow-up with first. That it’s rare to hear anyone want five kids anymore. Or your preference for three boys and two girls and in that order.”

“Do you have siblings?” I asked.

“A sister two years younger.”

“Well, I’m an only child. But my experience with big families is that they are fun. Perhaps chaotic at times, but fun. And older brothers looking out for younger sisters just melts my heart.”

He smirked. “I can speak from experience. There’s a lot of tormenting before the instinct to protect kicks in.”

“But you protect her now, right?”

“I don’t see her often. She just completed her associate degree as a vet tech and moved to Idaho to work for a livestock vet. Our parents aren’t thrilled.”

“Why?”

“Because she only moved there to get away from here.”

“Is she not on good terms with your parents?”

“My dad had bypass surgery last year. He’s fine now. But Ophelia thinks he’s going to have another heart attack and die, and she doesn’t want to be here when it happens. But it’s not like it’s going to prevent it from happening. She can run, but she can’t really hide.”

I swallowed hard. He wasn’t talking about me. Besides, I wasn’t hiding. I was just taking a break from reality.

“I love the name Ophelia. And I bet she meets a rugged cowboy out west.”

Murphy laughed. “Ya think?”

“I do.”

“Is that what you’re looking for? A rugged cowboy who keeps you barefoot and pregnant on his big ranch?”

I twisted my lips. “Milking cows and goats? Collecting eggs? Baking bread? Sure. That would work.”

“Synchronized swimming in a big pond?”

I giggled. “Exactly.”

“And you’d have plenty of turtles, so there wouldn’t be any need to steal them.”

I grinned, elbowing his arm.

It was all a wonderful dream.