Animal Prints: Sweet Small Town Contemporary Romance (Michigan Moonlight Book 1) (15 page)

“Hi.” Ian interrupted them. “Lexy sent me to get you. Time to eat.”

“I’m hungry,” Connor declared, taking off down the path.

“Me, too.” Colette tried to skirt past him to follow the child.

“Just a second.” Ian caught hold of her arms and pulled her to him. When his lips touched hers, she melted against him and returned his kiss. Long before he wanted to, Ian separated his mouth from hers, but she stayed tight against him in the cool night air. He looked out behind her to the sun dropping over the lake. “We better head back.”

“Yeah. Lexy will send out a search party for us any minute.” She took his hand to return to the house. “I didn’t mean to expose you to my family today. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. I wanted to meet them.”

“Why?”
 

“I figured out that family is important to you and makes you happy.” He grinned at her. “I want to make you happy, too.”

Her expression turned serious for a second, but without the tension he’d seen earlier. She only nodded at him in response, but the pressure on his hand tightened in a good way as they reached her sister’s house.

With dinner over and the sun rapidly sinking, Ian and Colette said their goodbyes and started back toward the farmhouse. Just before entering the darkening forest, they glanced back to where Lexy and Nate stood on the deck. They flashed Colette a quick thumbs up sign. Although Ian was half-turned away, he caught the action and grinned at her.” Did they decide I’m not an axe murderer?” Ian asked.

“Oops.” Colette giggled a little, embarrassed, but also happy that her man got the stamp of approval. “You weren’t supposed to see that, but they’re not subtle.”

“I don’t think they care about subtle. They care about you.” Ian stumbled over a tree root. “It’s already dark in here.”

“Follow me. I could go through these woods blindfolded.” Colette stepped ahead of him on the path and guided him swiftly through the darkest part of the forest, his hand in hers.. “I meant to show you the whole place today, but we got distracted.”

“I’ll come back another day and you can finish the tour.”
 

She gave a little nod of her head, secretly pleased that he wanted to spend more time with her. Everything was going so well with him. Maybe too well…. It made her jumpy.

“Or we could continue tonight?” He suggested, his voice low.
 

She couldn’t answer him. He had appeal in so many ways, but she wasn’t ready to take the relationship there yet. They walked on in silence, emerging from the woods near the cherry orchard.
 

When they reached his car, he stowed his cameras in the trunk, keeping an eye on her the entire time. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Just thinking that I need to check on the animals for the night.” She leaned against the side of his car and made her decision. “Ian, I’d like you to come another time, but I don’t want you to stay tonight.”

“I’ll do whatever you want,” He said, closing the trunk and coming to stand next to her. “Is that the only thing you’re worried about?”

A cool breeze rustled through the leaves, making her shiver. She rubbed her arms with her hands, to ward off the chill and her nerves. Forcing herself to face him, she said, “I haven’t trusted anyone to stay since, well, a long time.”

“No pressure from me.” He held up his hands. “I’m just hoping for a goodnight kiss and a promise to see you again.”

She smiled at him and rested her hands on his shoulders. “I can manage that.” Rising up on her toes, she pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “See you soon,” she whispered.

He watched the dogs circle around her as she walked toward the barn, and then he got in his car to drive away. Before he cleared the end of her driveway, his cell phone rang. He grabbed it from the seat next to him, hoping it was Colette asking him to come back. Without looking at the display, he flipped open the phone.
 

“Well?” The gruff voice greeting him was a million miles away from Colette’s calm tones.

“Uh…Hi, Dad.” Ian’s chest squeezed tight immediately.

“Have you completed my business?”

Ian scrambled to react to the man’s demand. “I haven’t made the deal yet. I just got to Petoskey a few days ago. I’ve made contact with the family, but I’ve got to tell you they seem adamant about not selling.” Being up front with his father was his best option. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
 

“Damn right I do. Now, get off your ass and get the job done.”
 

Ian turned onto the highway. “I don’t think there’s any point in pursuing this land. I’ve met both sisters and talked to the older one’s husband. I can’t imagine that they’ll sell.”

“You still need funding for that book you’re working on?”
 

His father always did go straight for the kill.

“You know I do.” The three things he wanted in life at the moment were in opposition to each other—Colette, his book, and some kind of relationship with his father. Getting any one of those probably canceled out his chances of getting the others.

“If you want any money from me, you’ll buy the property. You understand simple motivation don’t you, boy?”
 

Ian unrolled his window, hoping the cool, night air would help him keep his temper in check. “Why does it have to be that piece of property?” His father sounded as unreasonable as he’d ever heard him and that was saying something. “There must be other land in this area that will work just as well for your plans. I could look into it for you.”

“Get the job done,” his father said and hung up.
 

What the hell did that mean? Ian threw the phone into the back seat. Was he supposed to look into other properties or should he just call it quits? If it had to be the Peterson’s land, this was over. He wasn’t buying and they weren’t selling.
 

His plans for the summer started to slip down the toilet. There was slim chance his book would get funding from the Veteran’s Administration and an equally slim chance he and his father could reconcile—unless he served up the Peterson property on a platter, which he wasn’t going to do. That much was clear.

He’d made a commitment to himself and the people he’d interviewed for the books to make their stories known, and a promise to his mother to patch things up with his father. As he drove the last few miles back to Boyne, he decided to keep at both those things a little longer and see where it took him.

That brought him back to Colette. He wanted to write her into his life permanently, and if this were just about the two of them—he thought about her body pressed against his—it would be easy. He couldn’t back away from her now, so he’d just have to keep working to earn her trust and her love.

Chapter Nine

Colette studied the street outside Hemingway’s Haunt while she waited for her sister to join her. An early afternoon meeting on a beautiful day in July was probably a terrible idea for Lexy. The café was full of visitors, trying the famous Michigan pasties and drinking Lexy’s signature lemonade. As she watched a woman laden with three shopping bags and a watermelon, Lexy slid into the booth across from Colette and wiped her hands on the apron around her waist.

“I can give you fifteen minutes, maybe twenty.” Lexy yanked a notepad out of her apron pocket and briskly flipped through it. “I’ve got this great idea for food stations this year instead of one main food tent. It’ll force people to walk around and see the whole place.”

“I already ordered the tent.” Colette took a bite out of her sandwich.

“Keep it, but add five,” Lexy tapped her pencil on the notepad, “no, six small tents.”

“Lex, the main tent is expensive enough. It’ll really up our expenditures to add more.”

“Ian showed me the mockup for the flyers he’s planning. People are going to come in droves.” Lexy brushed back a strand of hair and studied her notes.

“When did you see Ian?”
 

“This morning. He had breakfast here. Said something about some meetings in town today.” At Colette’s silence, Lexy looked up. “He didn’t call you?”

“I heard from him on Monday, but not since.” She irritated herself with her disappointed tone. It was only three days since she’d spoken to him.

“Did you call him?” Lexy stole a chip from her sister’s plate.

“No.”

“Relationships require action on both sides. Call him. He might still be in town.” Lexy shoved her cell phone at her sister.

“Maybe later.” Colette didn’t want Lexy to see how much she wanted to call Ian. Their relationship was moving fast, maybe too fast. It wasn’t rational, it wasn’t like her, especially considering her mistakes in the past. She focused on her sister’s idea.” Tell me what your plans are for the food.”

“Right. We’ll have six food stations, each with a different theme. For instance, we’ll have barbeque by the barn. I have this great idea for a marinated grilled steak on a stick served with sweet potato puree. Just little servings of food scattered around. In the orchard, we’ll have fruit, cheese, and wine. All local, of course. The dessert tent will be in that little birch tree stand near the house. You get the idea.”

“How many musicians does Mom have lined up?”

“Enough to have one near each food location. It’ll be a series of mini-parties inside one big party. The main tent will house the silent auction items and we’ll ask everyone to gather there a couple times during the evening for the sales pitch and some live auctions. What do you think?”

“Sounds wonderful.” There was no fighting the juggernaut that was Lexy and it would probably be amazing. “I’ll call the tent company today and get started on staking out the locations tonight.”

“One more thing.” Her sister hesitated. “I know how you feel about opening up the house, but so many people wanted to see inside last year. Could we open just the downstairs?”

Colette squirmed a little in her seat and took a deep swig of lemonade. “Why?”

“Collie, it’s a beautiful house. The woodwork is fantastic. Grandma had such an eye for decorating and you’ve enhanced it since it’s been yours. People just want to see. Then, they’ll go away happy and donate more money.”

Colette sighed. “I guess. The downstairs only. I’ll fluff it up a little.”

“I thought some light hors d’oeuvres available in the house, drinks in the kitchen.”

“Okay.” Colette huffed out a breath. “You really know how to twist and ring to get what you want. Poor Nate.”

“Poor Nate, my foot. He’s lucky to have me and he knows it.” She reached across the table for the uneaten half of Colette’s sandwich. “Just like Ian is to have you.”