be secured.
“Now that that is settled,” Owen broke into the conversation, “who wants to buy some land?”
Conversation turned from the coming weather to building homes. Which, of course, included him designing and building everyone’s dream homes.
“At this rate, I’m going to be so busy in the coming year that I’m not even sure if I’ll have time to think,” he joked to the table.
“Well, once these last three cabins are finished up, I think we’ve all decided to hold off building any more. Not that we couldn’t pack them out, but you know, supply and demand,” Elle said with a shrug.
He felt his heart skip at the thought of not designing and building more cabins for the camp. “Really?” he asked, trying to hide his disappointment.
“At least for a while,” Zoey chimed in. “Until after all the weddings and… baby.” She rubbed her belly again.
“Besides, we now have forty cabins. If we want to keep this place in high demand, then we have to cut it off somewhere,” Elle added.
Aubrey reached under the table for his hand. “Won’t you be busy designing and building homes?”
“Sure.” He tried to hide his reluctance about letting go of his daily life at the campgrounds. If he wasn’t overseeing and building cabins there, then he didn’t really have any excuse to be on the campgrounds daily. Glancing around the table, he realized that he’d grown accustomed to being around the group of friends. They’d become as much his family as they were Aubrey’s now. The possibility of losing them had him growing weary.
Scarlett stood up suddenly. “Well, it’s my night off, and I’m not going to waste a single moment.” She tugged on Levi’s hand and had the man following her out.
“We have dinner.” Elle stood up and glanced at the rest of the friends.
“I’ll see you later.” Aubrey leaned down and kissed him. The fact that she had already changed into an evening dress hadn’t gone unnoticed by him the moment he’d walked in. It was actually one of the perks of being around in the evenings, seeing her and her friends all glamorized for the dinner parties. Not that he didn’t like Aubrey’s evenings off now that she spent them snuggled up against him watching television.
Since he had the night to himself, he figured he’d get to work on a few ideas that had been going through his mind. By the time Aubrey walked in a few hours later, he had the entire home designed.
“What’s this?” she asked, leaning over his shoulder.
“Ideas,” he said, pulling her into his lap. “What are your thoughts about moving?”
Her brows arched as she frowned down at him. “I just did that,” she reminded him.
He chuckled. “This would be about a year down the road.” He motioned again. “Of course, I’d love your feedback on the closet here.” He zoomed into the massive space. “Along with the other rooms.”
He felt her stiffen but held her from bolting.
“Easy,” he said as he ran his mouth over her neck. “It’s just a home. I’m in the business of making them, remember?”
He smiled the moment he felt her relax. “Right,” she sighed.
“Let’s talk about this later.” He felt himself grow hard. “Right now, I want to see what you’re wearing under that dress.”
He knew he’d hit the mark when her entire body started vibrating. She wrapped her legs around his hips as he carried her into the bedroom.
Chapter 25
Aubrey tried over the next few days to avoid talking to Aiden about his home plans. Sure, she wanted him to build his home along with those for all her friends. But every time he tried to bring her into the design process, as if he wanted to design a home for her, she felt herself tensing up.
She had to admit that she was enjoying being out of that apartment. Not only was it great to be staying with Aiden, but having someone around all the time had curbed her loneliness.
It was obvious that her friends no longer had as much time for her as they had before, since they were spending all of their free time with the men they loved. That got her thinking about her own feelings towards Aiden, which she tried to avoid thinking about as much as she could.
She tried to busy herself by adding a few new classes to her already busy schedule. It helped that she’d decided to try a meditation class. There wasn’t a lot of call for it, but she did get three