“Who gave you those kind of requirements?” I asked curiously. “The breeder?”
He shook his head. “No. I actually got her from the vet. She has a bleeding disorder that prevents her from clotting. They deemed the surgery too dangerous, and the breeders gave her away for free. I got her from the vet, not the breeder.”
“Huh,” I found myself saying. “That’s kind of scary, actually. There’s nothing they can do to prevent it?”
He shook his head. “Nope,” he said. “They tried. She doesn’t respond well to medication. So…we’re all just hoping that she lives and shit at this point, and never gets hurt.”
I shook my head and walked with him to the dirt driveway.
“You live here?” I found myself asking.
“Yeah.” He gestured up ahead. “Built the house about two years ago.”
We topped the hill of the driveway, and my breath left my body.
“You have a log cabin,” I breathed.
I’d always dreamed about living in one of them. When I’d talk with my dad, it was always a house like the one I was currently looking at that was my dream.
“It’s beautiful,” I found myself saying. “How did you build it yourself?”
He grinned and gestured for me to continue walking.
“There’s a place down the road from here that sells log cabin kits,” he answered. “All I had to do was get a pad done, and a slab poured over the pad to the kit’s dimensions. From there, I was able to build it with what they delivered.”
“Like Lincoln Logs on steroids,” I snickered.
“Yeah,” he confirmed. “Only I had to use my tractor to put the walls up.”
“Did you do it all yourself?” I asked.
At that point, we’d made it to the front yard, and up close it was even more impressive.
“Yes,” he said. “Everything but the wiring, anyway. I knew I could do it, but seeing as the damn thing was made out of nothing but wood, I thought it best to go ahead and get the wiring done by professionals. Seeing as if that bitch burns, it’s going to burn all the way down to the ground.”
I winced.
“It’s really beautiful, though,” I said softly.
The entire thing was all beautiful timber and glass windows. There was a wraparound porch, from what I could see, and the front door was a soft lavender.
“Lavender?” I asked.
He shrugged. “My sister chose the color.”
I smiled.
“Those are some serious windows,” I said. “How do you clean them?”
“I don’t.” He snorted. “They haven’t been washed since I built the damn house.”
I laughed, and he gestured for me to follow him up the steps.
“I have the intention of cleaning them one of these days,” he said as he opened his front door. “Don’t put her down until the door’s all the way closed. The bitch is an escape artist.”
I did as he said and placed the quite snuggly kitty down onto the couch before taking a step back and looking at the ceilings.
“Wow,” I breathed.
The inside was quite possibly more beautiful than the outside.
The walls on the inside were the exposed timber, and the ceilings were a beautiful pine.
The living room/dining room/kitchen was all one massive open room, and the ceilings for them all were high. At least twenty feet high if not more.
Then there was the beautiful, modern but still country kitchen that had what looked to be fresh eggs on the center island.
“This place is…wow,” I breathed.
“Yeah,” he said. “I get that reaction a lot. It’s definitely a stunner.”
“And you did it all yourself?” I breathed. “Holy shit.”
“Mostly. Remember, didn’t do the wiring.”
I still shook my head. “But still.”
He shrugged and walked to the fridge, plucking off a bright red key that was stuck to the fridge with a massive magnet.
“Do you want something to drink while I bring your car up here and fix it?”
I shook my head. “No.”
He nodded. “If you change your mind, there’s tea and chocolate milk in the fridge.”
And with that, he was gone, leaving me in his massively stunning house with his elegantly beautiful cat staring at me.
And, like the snoop that I was, I took a better look around the house.
When he came back an hour later, handing me my keys, I bit my lip that he’d finished so fast.
I didn’t want to go.
I wanted to stay here forever.Chapter 4Dear big girls, don’t be afraid to get on top. If he dies, he dies.
-Text of a meme from Downy to Jonah
Jonah
“You’re calling in sick?” my brother, Downy, asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “I have one day at work, and since I’m still technically on desk duty and modified work capacity for the time being, and only work one day before I have a three-day weekend that I asked off for anyway, I’m going to just go ahead and call in. Plus, I was given some sweet ass tickets to the car show in Vegas. I’m headed there now.”