It's a promise

Chapter 27

Rylee's POV

The rest of the breakfast was pretty normal especially because Steve didn't really react to the fact that Nat mentioned the whole Captain thing. Did I tell him last night that she knew? Or maybe he didn't care that she knew. Or he would ask me later.

Nat was so nice to fly us to Missouri. She was the only one who could fly one of the jets and she would also pick us up on Sunday evening. It was nearly a year ago when I saw the farm house the last time and I immediately felt at home. A part of my heart would always belong here.

'Where were you when Clint brought us here five years ago?'

'He called me not to come home and that I should stay at College. I asked if I could help but he didn't want to put me in any danger and that my bed was needed so somebody could sleep in it.' Laura told me that Nat used the room which was totally okay for me. I smiled at him while I opened the door. It smelled a little stuffy which was not a big surprise because I wasn't here for some time. I opened a few windows while I walked through the rooms.

'Wasn't this the dining room?'

'Yeah. But Clint mentioned that no one ever ate here so he knocked out the east wall and turned it into a work space for Laura. He even baffled it so she could work in peace'

After the blip I looked after the house and after a couple of months I realized that Clint wouldn't come back so I bought sheets and placed them over the furniture. I also put the smaller decoration stuff into cartons so it wouldn't get dusty. I didn't believe that my family would come back but I couldn't throw anything away. This would always be Clint and Laura's home and they both were the soul of this house. Now it was just four walls and a roof full of memories.

I asked Steve if he could turn on the generator and he also offered to chop some wood while I would make everything ready. I put our stuff in my former room and started to pull the sheets from the furniture and put some clean sheets on the bed. I went downstairs to also put away the groceries and then I looked out of the window. I nearly dropped the package of rice when I saw Steve chopping the wood. I remembered the day when we were in the woods before Christmas when this whole thing between us started. My mood lightened up because even though this house made me sentimental, seeing Steve always made me happy. And turned on. Especially seeing him using his muscles.

I needed every mental strength I had to turn around and don't run out to jump at him. I walked over to the living area to get the dust sheets of the furniture there as well. The remaining rooms would stay the way they were. When I put the sheets away, I stumbled against a few boxes and one of them crashed down.

'Everything okay, sweetheart?' Steve came through the main door with logs for the fireplace in his arms. He put them away and helped me grab everything to put it back into the box. I saw him holding my yearbooks from my junior and senior year at high school. I grabbed them and put both back into the box. He smiled at me.

'I would like to see that.'

'Later' I said later but what I meant was never. Maybe I could hide them when we came back or use them to start the fire in the fireplace. I didn't think that anybody liked their yearbook photos. I didn't really remember what they looked like but I knew I never liked them.

'You can stay here or take a walk. You don't need to come with me.' I would love to have him by my side doing this but I could understand if he didn't want to join me.

'I'm not letting you go alone' He grabbed my hand and placed a little kiss on my knuckles. I felt the butterflies in my stomach again. Would this man ever not make me feel this way?  We walked over to the old truck I learned to drive with. Steve held the car door open for me and I just pulled him in for a short kiss before I climbed into the driver's seat. The drive lasted less than thirty minutes because it was a little bit outside of Warrensburg. I grabbed the steering wheel a little harder until my knuckles turned white when I searched for a parking spot.