Ambrose (The Theriot Family 5)

Eric clutched the door and squeezed my fingers almost hard enough to break them as I showed off, driving faster than I should through basically nonexistent paths. Limbs smacked the truck, and I’m sure he thought we were headed into the water a few times.

“We’re almost there,” I told him when I turned onto the path a few other bayou residents had helped me clear for trucks to get in with supplies.

“Thank God. How close is this to your cabin?”

“You mean you didn’t recognize the route?”

“Fuck no.”

I loved this man so much. “It’s about a mile. I walk back and forth.”

“What the hell is this place?”

“You’ll see in a second.” I rounded a corner and immediately heard Eric suck in his breath.

“You’re kidding me. This house was just hidden out here in the bayou, and you could have been living here, but you chose that two-room cabin.”

“I don’t need all this space, and it’s still a work in progress.”

He frowned. “This isn’t a new house?”

“No, I’m renovating it.”

“Whose is it?”

“It’s mine now, but it belonged to my uncle.”

“I thought the cabin you lived in was where your uncle lived.”

“It is, but it wasn’t his original home. I helped him build it after my aunt died. He wouldn’t stay here anymore. Too many memories. They’d lost two children in this house, but she never wanted to leave.”

“Are you about to tell me it’s haunted?”

I shrugged. “Could be, but the spirits aren’t giving me any trouble.”

“How long have you been working on the house?”

“Pretty much since I got out of the army. For the first few months, all I did was lie in bed and drink, but once Dax sobered me up and started making me get out of bed every day, I needed something to focus on, so I came here.

“Has Dax been helping you with it?”

I shook my head. “No. This is my project. I’ve gotten help from a few neighbors out here, but Dax doesn’t know I’ve been working on the house. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even know it exists in any salvageable state. We all used to play here when we were kids, but even then it was run-down.”

“And your uncle didn’t try to fix it?”

“My uncle’s father gambled away most of the family’s money and drank up the rest. He and my aunt lived day-to-day, growing what food they could and hunting. They couldn’t keep up with the house. They shut up the second floor, possibly before I was even born, but that didn’t stop Dax and me from sneaking up there.”

“Are you going to live here when it’s ready?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

You. “Several things.”

“Like.”

“I’m not ready to talk about it, but the electricity is on, and there’s one fully functional bathroom.”

“And a bed?”

I smiled. “I wouldn’t have suggested staying here otherwise. We even have options: an antique bed or a mattress on the floor.”

“I guess we should consider how vigorous we’re going to be.”

“We’ll take the mattress on the floor,” I said.

Eric smiled. “Probably best.”

“Come on.” I opened the front door and stepped inside, but Eric didn’t move out of the doorway.

“This isn’t what I was expecting at all.” He looked around the pale blue entryway, studying the trim and chair rail I’d installed. “It’s a gorgeous house.”

“Did you think it would look like my cabin on the inside?”

“No, I… I just didn’t know what to expect. You laughed about Dax working so hard on his place.”

I shook my head. “I never laugh at hard work. I laughed at how picky he is about everything being perfect. This house isn’t going to be perfect. Etienne wouldn’t have wanted it that way. I want it to be like it would have been when he was a kid.”

“I love it.”

“You do?” The words came out choked.

He frowned, studying me for a moment. “Did you expect me not to?”

I cleared my throat before I could speak. “I wasn’t sure. I mean, it’s a nice house, but it’s out here in the middle of all this. Speaking of which, shut the door before the house is full of mosquitoes.”

“Don’t we need to leave it open to get some breeze?”

“You would already know if you’d come farther inside, but the house is fucking air conditioned.”

He walked around, taking in the large rooms, the high ceilings, the details I’d added, the floors I’d laid all by myself and the ones I’d refinished where it hadn’t rotted away.

“I could totally get into a place like this,” he said. “I might never find my way out of the bayou, but maybe, in time, I could learn.” He looked at me, expression intense. “Is this really possible? You and me?”

“If you’re ready to make some compromises.”

He chuckled. “Compromises are something that both people have to make.”

“I’m not very good at that. I never have been.”

“I guess you haven’t had to be.”