“It wasn’t hours,” I grumble.
“Sure felt like it.”
“She was tellin’ me about your grandfather andhisfather and–”
“Henley and Marion?” he asks.
“Yeah. She really wants to read the letters, too. Her and Cap had no idea they existed. Though she wasn’t surprised. She told me Ridley was like a squirrel, always huntin’ and gatherin’.”
“You havenoidea. The bunker was filled to the brim with all sorts of stuff,” he says.
“What bunker?”
“Wilson Ranch doesn’t have an underground bunker?”
I scrunch my nose up. “No. Why would we? Aren’t they for doomsday preppers who think society is going to collapse and take the world down with it?”
Jude laughs. “In Gramps’s world, definitely.”
I shoot him a curious look. “What exactly isinyour bunker?”
“Supplies, mostly. There are some old food stores we’ve kept for posterity’s sake. We’d only ever eat them if it wasliterallya last resort. Will and Case have also added some of Gramps’s belongin’s down there to keep for future generations. Family stuff, you know?”
I giggle, I can’t help it. “So, my dad wasn’t too far off when he called Riddles a bit eccentric?”
He chuckles. “Somehow I doubt that was the only thing Sully used to say about my grandfather, but yeah. He was a bit like that. He knew everythin’ about everythin’ though. He taught us as much as he could about livin’ on and off the land every time we’d visit.” Jude smiles at the memory.
“Dad was the same,” I say.
Surprisingly, it doesn’t hurt to talk about Dad anymore. Not since I realized that he may be gone, but it was a long time coming, and I don’t ever have to forget him.
“Sorry.” Jude squeezes my hand, offering me comfort. “Don’t want to upset you.”
“I’m OK. I like thinkin’ about him. It helps me remember the good times. I may not know what it’ll be like the first time I go into the house again and I know grief can hit you without warnin’ sometimes, but he told us I was the one to unite the mountain. Hewantedme to go back home. Maybe leavin’ was what I needed to do to see that.”
Jude’s lips twitch. “And maybe you needed a handsome, sexy husband to love you and help you along the way?”
The corner of my mouth quirks up. “Fishin’ for compliments, hubby?”
“Not goin’ to stop my wife from sayin’ she likes me.”
I laugh and give him a playful shove. “I alreadyloveevery single thing about you, Jude Henley Wilson-Cooper. But I’ll puff up your ego whenever you need me to. Deal?”
“Already pullin’ out the future married name, are we?”
I roll my eyes. “We’realreadymarried, remember?”
“I’m goin’ to marry you again anyway. Over and over if I have my way.”
Yep, I’m swooning. And I’m not even embarrassed about it. “You can sweet talk me like that any time you like, hubby.”
He turns into a gravel driveway leading to a pretty single-level house. Stopping outside the garage, he turns the engine off and releases his seatbelt, confusing me when he reaches over and does the same to mine.
I realize his motive when he tugs me over to the driver’s side and into his arms, before he kisses me like I’m the best thing to ever happen to him. It’s not a hardship to kiss him back the same way either. Not when I get lost in him the moment his lips touch mine, forgetting all sense of time, location….location…
A knock at the window serves as an instant reminder of where we are. Turning our heads in slow motion, we’re met with the sight of a grinning Mr. and Mrs. Cooper.
“Oh my god,” I mutter, burying my face in Jude’s chest, hoping to hide my beet-red cheeks.