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“Good idea,” Dave replied. “And Natalie?”
I stood too, Jax not giving me much of a choice. “Yeah, Dave?”
“Take the day off.”
I nearly laughed out loud but figured that wouldn’t endear me to him. “I was just off for a week. And honestly have been easing back in. If anything, I need to work overtime today.”
“Up to you. But I’m heading out for a weekend in Cayuga with the wife. No one else is in the office today so...”
“So you want to shut down the building? You’re kicking me out?” I smiled despite everything else that was happening around me.
Jax bought the land. Why the hell was that such a surprise?
“I am.”
“Nice,” I said. “I’ll catch up this weekend,” I said, knowing he didn’t care. Dave was not a micromanager and knew the work would get done.
“If you say so.” Again with the secret smile. He stood and Jax went up to his desk. The two men shook hands. “Great to meet you, Jaxon. Glad we could come to an agreement.”
“Same to you,” Jax said, nodding to me.
Following him down to my office, even though he should have been following me, I wasn’t surprised when Jax closed the door behind us. He was a take-charge kind of guy, so the fact that it was actuallymyoffice? Didn’t seem to matter to him.
The second he turned around, Jax’s expression changed. Gone was the mask, the indifference. This was not Ranger Jax but... my Jax.
“You bought the land.” I didn’t know what else to say.
Jax took both of my hands at the same time. It felt so good to touch him again.
“I did. For you.”
He squeezed. I stared up into his eyes, wondering what he’d just said.
“For...excuse me?”
“I bought the land for you. Build a house on it, leave it undeveloped. Doesn’t matter to me. Although we already know the environmental impact of the B&B would be negligible. Can’t imagine a house would do much damage at all. But if you’d rather leave it untouched...”
His words began to penetrate.
“You bought the land for me?”
“Technically, yes. But I’m hoping more for us than you. But there are no strings attached. It’s in your name already.”
That’s what Dave had been smiling about.
“I can’t...Jax. Are you serious?”
“This would be a pretty cruel joke if I wasn’t.”
Agreed.
“I also rented my current house for another six months. I asked the owner about a possible purchase, which also may be an option if you don’t want to build on the inlet property.”
“You’re staying.”
“If you want me to.”
“Are you kidding me? I am so in love with you,” I said. “If you left, it would have broken me.”
