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Liberty looked as smug as Buck. “Just lucky I guess.”
He grinned. “I guess I am.”
When the old mansion came into view, Jesse felt even luckier. There had always been something about the house that tugged on his heartstrings. Now he knew why.
The house had been put thorough a lot and was more than a little rough around the edges. But if you could look past the fake façade and the tarnished past, the house was sturdy and well built and had heart. With a little love and a lot of work, it was going to be something special.
Just like Jesse.
Because of his tarnished past, he had viewed himself as a dilapidated old house that didn’t deserve love. Shirlene and Billy had tried to make him see his worth. But it had taken a sassy, dark-haired beauty who challenged him at every turn for him to realize that he was worth saving. He deserved to be loved. He deserved to be happy.
And damned if he wasn’t.
The last couple weeks had been heaven on earth. Liberty had agreed to go back to Bramble with him to meet his family. If he hadn’t known Liberty was right for him before, he figured it out in Bramble. She and his sisters, Mia and Adeline, took to each other like ducks to water. She wasn’t starstruck by Mia’s husband, Austin, who had played quarterback for the San Diego Chargers and Dallas Cowboys, and was now a sportscaster for Fox Network. She didn’t flinch at Billy’s brashness or blush at Brody’s teasing or get shocked by Shirlene’s bluntness.
His tough girl fit right in.
“I love your family,” she’d whispered later that night when they were tucked beneath the sheets of his childhood bed. “I’m glad you found them.”
“I’m glad I found them too.” He’d kissed the top of her head. “But I’m even more glad I found you.”
She’d looked up at him with a wicked smile. “Care to prove it?”
He’d proven it.
In fact, he was going to prove it for the rest of his life.
He pulled into the circle drive in front the boardinghouse and jumped out. He smiled when he saw what the construction crew he’d hired had accomplished in just two weeks—of course, money talked and he was paying them double what they usually earned.
The crumbling columns had been replaced and the old ones stripped of old paint and vines before being repainted. The windows had been cleaned, panes replaced, and the trim painted a crisp white to match the columns and upstairs balcony railing. The front door had been sanded and painted a deep forest green and an engraved brass plate had been affixed to the center of it.
Jesse had ordered the plate himself. He hoped it would not only gain him points with Liberty, but also her sisters. Hank, Darla, and Mimi had accepted him, but the Holiday sisters were still skeptical of his and Liberty’s relationship. Especially Belle. He had only talked to her once via Zoom, but he’d gotten the Don’t-Mess-With-My-Sister vibe loud and clear.
Of course, Corbin wasn’t real happy about Jesse dating Liberty either. He hadn’t tried to talk Jesse out of being with her—that wasn’t Corbin’s style—but his silence spoke louder than words. Jesse knew he was still holding a grudge against Liberty and her family, but Jesse figured he’d get over it soon enough. The Holidays were impossible to resist.
Especially since Corbin was going to be living with Hank, Darla, and Mimi.
His agreement to let the Holidays stay in the two-story farmhouse wasn’t because of Hank listing everything that needed to be done on the ranch, or Darla’s home cooking, or Jesse mentioning that any smart CEO always kept the previous employees of a purchased company on to help with the transition. It was because Sunny had fallen in love with Mimi and refused to kick her out of her house.
Corbin couldn’t refuse Sunny anything. Although he’d only agreed to let them stay until the end of June.
Jesse would have thought Sunny’s attachment to Mimi was all part of their plan if he hadn’t seen the two women together. They had hit it off immediately. Mimi said it was because Sunny reminded her of herself.
“Jesse Cates!” Liberty hollered from the truck. “What the heck are you doing? Buck and I are burning up in this truck!”
Realizing he’d been woolgathering, he quickly reached into the truck and got Buck before he took Liberty’s hand to help her out. “Sorry, darlin’. We’re here.” He took off the blindfold.
She blinked in the bright sunlight. “Don’t you sorry me. It’s one thing to blindfold someone in the privacy of a bedroom. It’s quite another to blindfold them in broad daylight and drive them to Lord knows—” She stopped blinking and stared at the house before she glanced back at him. “Did you do this?”
“I wish I could say yes. I would have loved to be part of the transformation.” He winked at her. “But it’s hard to renovate a house and keep an extremely high-maintenance woman happy at the same time.”
She swatted his arm. “I am not high maintenance.”
“Of course you aren’t, darlin’.” He shifted Buck and held out his arm. “You want to go in, low-maintenance woman, and see the rest of the surprise or do you want to stay out here and yell at me?”
She shot him an annoyed look, but took his arm. Before they had even reached the door, she froze and stared at the engraved brass plate. “Holiday Bed and Breakfast?”
“I thought it had a better ring to it than Fanny Fields’ Bed and Breakfast.”
