Our Now and Forever(77)

All they had to do was sell the rest of the committee on the idea, and among the three of them, that would not be a problem. He hoped. There was always Jebediah Winkle and his cronies, who attempted to stifle any idea they didn’t come up with on their own. Not that they’d offered a single suggestion that Caleb knew of.

His afternoon meeting was the real victory of the day. Not that anything was decided until Snow had her say, but he’d liked the house and hoped she would, too. Buying a home in Ardent Springs was the perfect solution to keep Caleb’s parents’ negative attitudes out of his marriage.

“You’ve been cooking again,” Snow said as she stepped into the house. “I could smell it before I reached the porch.”

“I didn’t soak those beans overnight for nothing.” Caleb gave the sausage and beans a stir. “This is authentic Louisiana red beans and rice. Prepare to lose your mind.”

He scooped a piece of andouille sausage onto the wooden spoon and offered her a bite. The moment it hit her tongue, amber eyes closed with sheer pleasure.

“That is delicious,” she said around the food. “How long have you been working on this?”

“All afternoon.” Caleb checked his rice. “And in less than fifteen minutes, we’ll be chowing down on the best food ever invented.”

Snow leaned over the pan of sausage and breathed deep. “What about gumbo?” she asked.

He’d forgotten about gumbo. How did a Cajun forget about gumbo? “You’re right. We’ll be chowing down on the second-best food ever invented. So how was your day?”

“Funny you should ask,” Snow said, sliding past him to pull a glass off the shelf. “Miss Hattie came into the store today.”

Caleb’s hand hesitated in stirring the rice. He hadn’t expected Hattie to see Snow before he did, which meant he hadn’t asked her to keep the house thing a secret.

“She did, huh?” he asked, keeping his attention on the stove.

Filling her glass from the faucet, she said, “Yes. And she seemed to know something that I don’t.”

So much for his big surprise. “I was going to wait until after dinner.”

“Wait until after dinner for what?” Snow set her glass on the counter and then wrapped her arms around his middle, laying her cheek against his back. “You aren’t really going to make me wait, are you?”

“All right.” Caleb extricated himself from her arms and wiped his hands on his apron. “Since the surprise is ruined.” He disappeared into the bedroom and returned seconds later with his hand behind his back. “If you don’t like it, we can look at something else. And I want you to be honest. Don’t say you like it to make me happy.”

“I’m sure I’ll love it,” she said, her eyes glowing.

“Okay,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Here we go.” Caleb pulled a flier from behind his back and held it under her nose. “What do you think?”

“I . . .” Snow’s eyes dimmed and clouded with confusion. “I don’t know what to say.” She tried to cover her disappointment while shoving the curls off her forehead. “What is it, exactly?”

Caleb glanced over the top of the slip of paper. “What does it look like?”

“It’s a real estate ad,” she answered. “For some house over on Green Street.”

“Three bedrooms, two baths, fenced yard, and still under construction so we can decide on the finishings we want.” Caleb tapped a picture in the bottom corner. “Two-car garage in the back, and we’ll have to do some landscaping, but that’s easy enough.”

“Hold up.” Snow took several steps away. “You bought us a house?”

“No,” he assured her, kicking himself for doing this all wrong. “I looked at it to make sure it was worth you taking time away from the store to check it out.” Caleb had expected Snow to be happy that he really wanted to settle down here. That they could have their own place. A real home. “We can look at something else. It doesn’t have to be this one.”

“You went to see this?” she asked, nodding toward the flier. “Today?”

“I did,” he said, feeling like an idiot. Of course he should have included her from the beginning. “We can forget it for now.” Caleb returned to the stove, removing pans from burners and pulling plates from the bottom shelf.

As he loaded the first scoop of rice onto a plate, Snow said, “I don’t know what to say.”

Trying not to sound disappointed, Caleb said, “You don’t have to say anything.”