AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Soon, the boy who was with him in the car the other day appears. He’s shorter than Dean and lankier, but they have the same color hair and the same light silver eyes.
“Look what I found! Mr. Dunning said I could keep it.” He shows his dad something in his hand.
“Wow. That’s awesome, bud. What is it? An arrowhead?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
Mina is now the one who is chaotically trying to remove the hay from her person.
“Oh, sorry. Where are my manners?” Dean turns his attention back to us. And suddenly, I’m unsure if this move was the right choice for us Dale girls after all, not with these guys so close by. “This is my son, Dylan.”
“Nice to meet you, Dylan. This is my daughter, Mina.”
I can tell by her reddened cheeks and the way she avoids looking me in the eye that she thinks he’s cute.
“Well, if you do move in next door, the two of you will go to Petaluma High School together. Go, Trojans!” I say.
“Mom!” Mina says under her breath.
“What?”
“Actually, Dylan’s more of a private-school kid. But in any event, we should really get going,” Dean says.
“Oh, okay. It was nice talking to you.” I wave my hand as they turn to leave.
Dean shoots me a smile that makes my heart flutter. “You as well.”
And if I watch Dean for a little longer than is polite as he walks back down the hill, who’s to know?
***
“What did he want?” Grandpa Bob asks after bringing us out some of his famous lemonade. “This property’s ours. He can whine about it all he wants.”
“No, Grandpa. It sounds like he’s trying to get the lot right over there.” I point to a home about a thousand feet away from ours. Like ours, it’s a two-story wood house with a gabled roof. But where ours is an eggshell white with a red door, their home is baby blue with a white door.
“Wow,” Grandpa says. “He sure must like this neighborhood.”
“That’s what I think. But I also think that it’s kind of suspicious.” I can’t put my finger on it, but he’s got a suspicious air to him. Too nice. Too hot. But that hot is what’s melting me like a fire.
Maybe I’m just projecting. As an attorney, I’ve always had to be suspicious of people. I find the secrets they don’t want other people to know.
“Oh, I don’t mind him.” Grandpa waves off my concerns. “Sure, he’s kind of a jerk, but he knows what he wants. That’s admirable.”
“I suppose.” But that’s the question that’s been plaguing my mind. What does Dean, like the sausage, Cornel, like the university, actually want? And why is he so eager to get his hands on this land?
And how am I going to focus on anything here on the farm other than those biceps, that hair and his saunter…. Not that I was watching him leave.
Chapter five
Dean The Fake Move-in
“It’s ours? Are you sure?” I ask the real estate agent I’ve been working with to secure the other farmhouse.
“Yep. The Dunnings signed off on everything earlier today,” she says.
“Perfect.” A smile curls over my lips. Looks like things are back on plan. “Thank you.”
“Of course. It’s always a pleasure doing business with you.”
