Unexpected Admirer by Bernadette Marie

Jonah. “Come inside with me and help me get lunch started.” She turned to Melissa. “Maybe you two should take a drive and have some time. You should go show Jesse Grandpa’s land. You can unlock the gate while you’re there. Elsie is going to show it tomorrow.”
    Melissa opened her mouth to speak, but Patsy hurried out of the car and Jonah retreated quickly, too. Jesse opened the door, climbed out of the car, and then got back into the front seat.
    “Melissa, if you don’t want to…”
    She shook her head. “I do want to.” She lifted her head and her eyes were filled with tears. “Jesse, this isn’t going to work. How can we possibly make this work?”
    He touched her cheek. He was good with words to soothe her, but he knew this was nearly the end of them and they hadn’t even begun. She’d been right. They just came from two different worlds.
    “We have today. Be mine for today. We can figure out everything later.”
    She nodded, put the car in reverse, and headed up the mountain as the snow began to come down heavier.
    “Where did you learn to sign like that?” Jesse asked as Melissa maneuvered the narrowing road.
    “My grandfather is deaf.”
    “The grandfather whose house we’re going to now?” Panic took over.
    “He’s not there.”
    “Oh, that’s right.”
    She smiled. “He liked his house, buried in the mountains. The community accepted him, but in general, the deaf were not commonly accepted by the masses. But up here, it didn’t matter.”
    Jesse looked between the trees and down the mountain. The small, quaint town began to grow smaller as they climbed the narrow, steep road.
    “So this was his hideaway?”
    “You could say that. He and Grandma lived here for fifty years together. When he lost her, we lost a little of him. We had to put him in a home in Aspen Hills. But he’s doing well there. I just wish we could put him somewhere even better.”
    “What’s stopping you?”
    She quickly glanced at him and then back to the road, which was quickly filling with snow.
    “We live on my teaching income and my mother’s Social Security. There is no money to put him somewhere nicer. The only option for us is to sell his property.”
    Just as she said so, they reached the property line with its grand ornate gate at the entrance.
    Melissa stopped the car, took out the keys, and opened the car door. “I have to unlock the gate. I’ll be right back.”
    He watched as she shielded her eyes from the blowing snow and unlocked the gate. The snow had accumulated quickly, and she had to force the gate open enough for her car to pass through.
    Snow storms, narrow mountain roads, manual entry gates—what a different world. How wondrous, he thought.
    When she opened the car door, the gust of cold air chilled him to the bone. As she situated in her seat, engulfed in her heavier coat, he couldn’t help but smile at the bright red of her cheeks.
    Melissa pulled through the gate and toward the house.
    “You should keep my truck and use it. How do you drive in the snow in this car?”
    She chuckled. “Skill and finance. I own this outright and that makes a big difference.”
    God, how spoiled was he? Within ten minutes, he’d heard twice how hard things were for her, and here he was in a stolen coat, bragging about a truck he bought on a whim after flying into town on a private plane. When did he become what he loathed?
    Melissa parked the car in front of the house. Jesse cranked his neck to see it through the window.
    “This is awesome.”
    She laughed. “It is, isn’t it? My great grandfather started the house, and my grandfather added a room in the back to it. A laundry room of all things.” She turned her head. “The barn was my playhouse. Grandpa even made me a little escape up on the second level.” She sighed. “I miss that simplicity.”
    She adjusted the zipper on her coat. “Out back there is a tiny little retention pond with a rope swing. You can swing and dive in. Jonah likes