Everly rolled her eyes in thought. “Well, Decker’s in the house chatting up our very attractive Realtor, Melissa, who’s waiting to show you this two-hundred-acre property. That will take at least an hour—or five, if you and Decker start mapping out a training field. Then we have one little girl to wrangle away from the adorable elderly couple who own the property and insisted on showing her all the animals. This place is a veritable petting zoo, and I’ve noticed she has incredible focus around animals. If she’s ADHD, it’s very selective, which I doubt could really be considered ADHD. In short, I think Sam’s full of shit.” She smirked. “Anyway, the answer to your question is it might be a while.”
“But so worth the wait.” He lowered his head and kissed her again.
Cody cleared his throat, bringing reality into focus. They pulled out of the kiss and looked at the chopper pilot.
“I’ll just”—Cody gestured toward the house—“go give Decker a run for his money with the Realtor.”
Once Cody had started toward the house, Austin turned and looked around the property in the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia. He swung an arm around Everly’s shoulders. She wrapped an arm around his waist.
“How’d the meeting go?” she asked.
“Great.” He huffed a laughed and shook his head. “They want a full suite of services for five hundred of their top-tier operators. Equipment, analysis, training. The works.”
Everly’s jaw dropped. “Five hundred special forces soldiers?”
He smiled at her with the same stunned excitement. “Right?”
“That’s amazing. Guess we’d better get a jump on this place. I think you’re really going to like it. It’s not officially on the market yet, but the Realtor lives nearby and got wind of the owners looking to retire somewhere warmer year-round. We talked about Costa Rica quite a bit. If you want to sell the house there, they’d probably be interested.”
“No way. It’s the perfect vacation spot.”
She agreed. “You must have seen all the fall colors coming in from DC.”
“Oh, hell yes. Breathtaking.”
“And, what? Twenty minutes by chopper?”
“Yep. Unless Cody’s feeling adventurous.”
She laughed. “Let’s keep that to a minimum. Our lives are dangerous enough as it is.”
“True.” He shook his head and pulled her closer to his side, then strolled over the manicured grounds toward the house. “Tell me about this place.”
She started with the most interesting information and the details she knew he would love. “You may already know this, but the Shenandoah Valley was known as the breadbasket of the Confederacy during the Civil War.”
“Breadbasket?”
She nodded. “The soil and weather were ideal for growing grain. Now, the biggest crop here is wine grapes.”
“Yeah, you should have seen the vineyards flying over. They’re all changing color. It was amazing.”
“Maybe we can take a ride with Cody later.”
“Definitely.”
They strolled up the stone drive. “In the 1800s, this was a working farm. The house was a generously sized farmhouse once upon a time.”
He stopped and gazed up at the gorgeous house. “Looks a little more than generous to me.”
“For the 1700s, it was quite grand, but small by today’s standards. This is the second-oldest structure in Madison County.”
“That’s cool.”
“Gets better,” she said. “The house was exquisitely and completely renovated just five years ago. The owners wanted to keep the historical charm of the place, so the log-and-mortar structure remains exposed on the main level. They even kept and restored antiques, like an original stove, farming tools, the porch planks. But every other surface has been refurbished, refinished, or replaced. The new sections of the home are all modern.”
“Wow.” He ran a hand over her hair. “That spark in your eyes tells me you like it.”
“What’s not to like?” She avoided a direct answer. She wanted this to be his decision. “Look at this place. It’s a damn postcard.”