He smiled back. “I like that plan.”
“Me too.” I pulled the salad out of the refrigerator and set it on the table.
“It all looks so good, Greer.”
“Thank you! It was fun putting it all together. Oh, and I even made apple pie with fresh apples from Boggy Creek Orchard.”
The way Hudson was smiling at me made my heart race a bit faster. A part of me wanted to skip dinner and move on to dessert—and not the apple pie version.
“I’m starving; today was a long day,” he said. “Joanne made a lasagna for dinner at the bed and breakfast and invited me to stay. It was tempting, but I couldn’t wait to see you.”
“I’m glad to see I won out over her lasagna. It’s actually really good.”
He laughed and grabbed the bowl the mango pesto had been in, setting it off to the side while I mixed the pasta and veggies with the sauce. We sat down and started to plate our food.
“So how did the house-hunting go?” I asked. “I can’t believe you were out nearly all day.”
“Neither can I. I was exhausted from the drive up yesterday. and my folks and I stayed up late last night. Then we hit the road for Boggy Creek early this morning. But—I put an offer in on a place.”
I paused with my fork at my mouth. “What! Already?”
A wide smile broke out over Hudson’s face. “It’s the perfect place, Greer.”
“Tell me where it is!” I shouted, bouncing in my seat like a five-year-old.
He laughed. “Okay, I’ll tell you! You’ll appreciate this, since you’re a history buff. The house was built by one of the first doctors in Boggy Creek Valley. Doctor Michael Steck.”
I dropped my fork down to my plate. I couldn’t believe my ears. Had Hudson bought the Steck’s Victorian house just outside of town? I loved that house! “The Steck place?”
He nodded. “Yeah, Jill got a call from the owner this morning while we were out looking at other places. They mentioned possibly selling, we went and looked, and I put in an offer on the spot.”
I was positive my mouth was on the ground. When Hudson looked up from his pasta, he frowned. “Is everything okay?”
Slowly, I shook my head—then started to laugh. Uncontrollably.
“What’s so funny?” Hudson asked, laughing himself without even knowing why.
“You did it again, Hudson! Oh my God, you did it again!”
“I did what?” he asked, wiping his mouth as he sat back in his chair.
“You truly put an offer down on that house? Doesn’t it sit on five acres of land?”
He shook his head. “Um, no, it has about fifteen. The owner purchased the land next to hers last year when it went up for sale. Now she decided she doesn’t want to do winters here anymore and wants to move to Florida.”
I brought my hand up to my mouth and laughed again.
“Okay, you’ve got to tell me what’s going on, Greer.”
“Hudson, I love that house! I’m just so excited you bought it. I’ve admired it for years, not to mention, it’s one of the oldest houses in Boggy Creek Valley. Do you know who stayed there?!”
Hudson stared at me for a few moments until it all clicked. “Wait, you like that house? And who stayed there?”
“Like it? Like it?” I laughed a bit more before I went on. “I’ve loved it since I was a little girl, and my best friend Emily Lou lived there!”
“The owner’s name isn’t Emily Lou.”
“No, Emily Lou went to Harvard and got married and now lives in Chicago with some big-time lawyer. Her parents sold it a few years back. It’s always been a silly dream of mine to own it one day, but I never thought it would ever happen. I mean, I don’t think Em’s parents sold it for a huge amount of money. The house was built in the mid-eighteen-hundreds and wasn’t updated then. I’m not sure what the latest owner has done with it. When Em’s parents sold it, I had just bought Turning Pages, so I had no way of even thinking about purchasing it.”
“Eighteen-forty, to be exact. The house was a damn steal. Two-hundred and twenty thousand. I could have only gotten a storage unit for that price in New York City. The only areas that have been remodeled are the kitchen and a few rooms on the first floor. I’m excited to get in and see what changes I can make. I hope you’ll help me with the process.”
“Of course, I will! I’d love to!”
He winked. “You never told me who stayed there.”
“Oh, right! It was Stephen King.”
His mouth fell open. “Shut up!”
I laughed. “Nope, he stayed there for like a week when we were younger. He knew Emily Lou’s father. Something about being family friends.”
Hudson sat back in his seat and smiled. “You weren’t thinking of buying the house, were you?”