Chapter 37

37

She had plenty of time on her split shift to come up with a plan of attack. Housekeepers. Tylers. Her sisters had finally explained.

She hadn’t had a clue. Someone could have filled her in on the joke just a little bit sooner. But would she have still moved in with him if someone had? She didn’t know. Except she knew one thing: she’d needed to get away from the inn for a while.

And he had been a safe way to do that.

Was Fletcher feeling that way about his housekeeper? She’d seen Maggie and Clint, Pan and Levi, and Phil and Glenna together. They were all very much in love. Apparently that whole boss/housekeeper thing had worked out just fine for them.

She clocked back in at three forty-five that afternoon. She’d run the front desk for four more hours, and then Fletcher would be there to get her. He had texted something about taking her to the arcade for pizza. If she wanted.

She’d been there before. With Quade. But tonight…she just wanted to be with Fletcher.

Someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned. Dusty was there.

“You have been preoccupied all day. Want to talk? Everyone is already checked in for tonight. Should be a slow one now.”

“I have dinner plans. For after my shift,” Dylan told the one woman on the planet who might just understand where she was coming from right now. “With Fletcher. We’re going to the arcade. And then…home.”

Home.

She came to the inn or the diner, but she went home —to him. She was wise to the distinction. Even just in her own thoughts.

“I see. So what is the problem?”

“I think maybe he is. Or I am. Or…the whole thing is just so confusing, Dusty. And I really don’t know what to do.”

Braelyn and Caitlyn were there. They clocked in and eyed her and Dusty, waiting for their assignments. Dusty gave them their orders for the night and then pulled Dylan into the rear room.

And told her to talk.

Dylan spilled her guts completely. “And no guy has ever gotten me so confused. And I told myself I wasn’t ready for anything with a guy right now. I mean, everything is a bit upside down in my world and everything. Except when I am with him, it doesn’t feel like it. I feel like I am home, where I belong. So what am I supposed to do?”

Dusty’s ride-the-wave-until-the-end advice really didn’t help.

She was just as confused when he walked in to get her at eight p.m. as she was when he’d dropped her off at five thirty a.m.

He just casually wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her out of the way when Braelyn and Caitlyn walked by too. He didn’t drop his arm, didn’t let her go. And she didn’t step away either. As he stood there and talked to Dusty and Ben about everything he still needed to do with her car and with the far barn on the original homestead, and with the information Travis Deane had given him. He held Dylan the same way his brother was holding Dusty. Close and protected. Easy and almost normal.

And she knew he hadn’t realized he was doing it at all. Because in Fletcher’s mind—she was his , just like Dusty was Ben’s.

And Dylan still needed to figure out what to do about it.

Why did men like him have to be so confusing?

Her eyes met her sister’s. Dusty had an understanding look in her eyes.

Still not very helpful here.

Dylan leaned against him without thinking about it, as he asked her if she was okay with Ben and Dusty coming with them to the arcade. Of course, she was. It wasn’t a date. She wasn’t going to think about it being a date.

She wasn’t ready for that, right?

But hadn’t their entire time together in Finley Creek basically been a really big date?

The last thing Dylan understood was romance. She probably never would.

* * *

She was quiet. And he suspected she was confused. He couldn’t figure out what it was bothering her. But she eventually relaxed, and got into what they were doing at the arcade. He liked seeing her with his family. Seeing them with her. He’d have to make a point of them doing something with Nikki and Hunter when those two weren’t busy with studio stuff. And running down Sage and Gil when they could. Gil had an indoor pool. Dylan would like that. She’d mentioned missing the pool at the inn. And he’d get to see her in a swimsuit. Maybe even a bikini if he was lucky.

Fletcher was busy imagining that as they walked toward the exit. The pizza place was in what passed as a mall. It had once been a pretty decent mall, before he was born, he thought, but now was just a collection of kind of tired places. There was a fountain in the middle where people still tossed coins and made wishes.

The property owner—Grady Group, he thought—donated the coins to a kids’ charity that was prominently displayed on the side.

Of course, Dylan had to make a wish when they walked by. Fletcher wanted to know what it was. So he could make it happen for her. That was all he wanted in the world, he decided. For her to be happy no matter what. She tossed a quarter in and looked right at him. He didn’t want to look away. So he didn’t.

Until Ben bumped him on purpose, smirking at him.

It was almost eleven when they made it back to the house. It had started snowing again, and it looked quiet and pristine.

“Stay there. I’ll get you down. I’ll need to clear the drive again in the morning.”

“Does it always snow like this around now?” she asked in a quiet voice. Dylan had told him she liked it when it was quiet like this. It surprised him, as go-go-go as she tended to be. But she liked the quiet best.

“Not always. It was in the fifties this time last year. Come on, Dylan Geraldine, let me get you inside and warm.”

Fletcher went around the front of his truck as she opened her door. Then he was leaning in and lifting her down. “Let’s get inside. It has been a long day.”

“I have tomorrow off. Dusty and Dixie insisted.”

“Then we will spend it at home. I think you’ve deserved it lately.” She worked too much there at the Talley Inn/Diner. He wasn’t too thrilled with it. But he understood. Dylan thought she had to earn her place with her family.

But she would always have a place with him.

Fletcher made a command decision. “I’m just going to carry you over the ice. Let’s get inside.”

Her arm hooked around his neck, and he did exactly that.