mind. “Are you working today?”
“Only if I get called on an emergency. Why?”
“I have something I need to do,” he told her. “I could use some company.”
Chapter 10
Kir followed behind Lynne as she parked in front of her house. A minute later she was climbing into his SUV and pulling the seat belt into place.
The faintly floral scent that he was beginning to associate with Lynne laced the air, teasing at his senses with an enticing promise. He wanted to lean across the console and press his face against her skin and simply absorb her scent. He battled back the urge with a wry smile. He might be increasingly convinced there was something special happening between the two of them, but that didn’t mean Lynne felt the same.
He drove out of town, allowing a silence to settle between them. Lynne was still flushed with anger, as if she was fantasizing about the numerous ways she’d like to torture Parker Bowen for plastering her clinic across the morning news. Probably along with whoever was responsible for tipping off the newsman that the sheriff had been there to investigate the missing drugs.
It offered him the opportunity to concentrate on the narrow road that was packed with snow along with a crunchy layer of ice. The local road crews were too busy trying to clear the main streets to do more than pass through these country lanes once or twice a month.
Kir turned onto a private drive that was completely snow-packed before he came to a halt and switched off the engine.
With a blink, Lynne leaned forward to glance out the front windshield. “I don’t think I’ve ever been out here.”
Kir allowed his gaze to roam over the rolling hills that surrounded a small frozen lake. At this time of year there was nothing much to see beyond the barren trees that poked through the thick layer of snow.
“This was the Jansen homeplace,” he told her. “According to my grandfather some distant ancestor traveled here from Norway in the seventeen hundreds after he decided he wanted to be a farmer instead of following the family tradition of becoming a cobbler.”
“A cobbler?” She sent him a wry glance. “Really?”
“Swear to God.” He pointed toward the top of the nearest hill. “When I was young there was a huge three-story house on the ridge there.” He moved his arm until he was pointing toward the flat pasture that had once been filled with a large herd of dairy cows. “Over there were two barns and a paddock.”
“What happened to them?”
“My dad was an only child and he had no interest in being a dairy farmer.” Kir heaved a faint sigh of regret. He had a lot of happy childhood memories here. “It all just decayed and eventually collapsed after my grandparents died. A sad waste.”
She reached to lay her hand on his arm. “This isn’t the only farm that’s been abandoned,” she assured him. “The rural Midwest is evolving, and it isn’t always easy for us to adapt.”
He turned to study her sympathetic expression. “The Darwin theory?”
“The species that survives is the one that is able to adapt, or something like that,” she said. “I suppose this place belongs to you now?”
He glanced back at the snow-covered hills. It hurt deep inside to think that everyone who’d loved and devoted themselves to this place was gone. “I guess I do, but don’t ask me what I’m going to do with the property because I haven’t decided. My brain tells me to sell it. It’s a prime piece of property that’s being neglected. My heart tells me it’s my duty to hang on to it. This is my heritage.”
“You don’t have to make a decision now. This place isn’t going anywhere.”
“True.”
She gave his arm a gentle squeeze before returning her attention to their isolated surroundings. “Is there a reason you wanted to come out here today?”
“My father never wanted to be a dairy farmer, much to the disappointment of my grandfather, but he did love to spend his afternoons fishing at that lake. He called it his little slice of heaven.” Kir reached to grab the battered hat he’d placed on the dashboard and opened his door. “The funeral doesn’t seem real. It was just a box going into the ground,” he told Lynne. “This is where I want to say my good-bye.”
She nodded, opening her own door and climbing out of the SUV. Together they battled their way through the snow to reach the edge