“You won’t be saying that after you’ve tried my cooking,” Brady said with an easy grin.
There was no smile on Cole’s face as I addressed him. “Since we’re stuck together for a week, you really should consider calling me Lila.”
“Fine. Ready to continue the tour?”
“I can’t wait.”
He rolled his eyes, looking unconvinced. Honestly, I couldn’t really say that I blamed him, but I followed him down the hall. He’d changed out of the white dress shirt he had on before and was wearing an olive-green sweater that looked homemade. Had the late grandmother made it? Probably.
I thought about the info I’d seen at the Donovan’s Mill High School website. Cole definitely looked like he’d played football. His shoulders were broad and his biceps well defined, even under the bulky sweater. He strode along the hallway with confidence. I didn’t know much about football, but I could imagine a member of the opposing team trying to tackle him—and failing miserably.
From behind me, Brady spoke up. “That’s the kitchen on the left.”
I glanced in as we passed by. It was large and the appliances looked like they’d seen a few decades. But they weren’t ancient, and they were clean. Seeing it made me wonder what we’d be eating tonight. I hoped the guys had something planned, because until Penny arrived, I didn’t have any way to get into town. Somehow, I didn’t think that DoorDash delivered out here.
Cole led us past a half-opened door that seemed to house some kind of study. Ahead of us was a glass door that led to a deck. He slid the door open and ushered me out ahead of him.
Blinking from the bright light, I examined the backyard. There was a good-sized clearing, and I could imagine Brady and Cole playing there as kids. There was an old tire hanging from an enormous tree, plus some boards about ten feet up that might have once been a treehouse. On the opposite side of the yard was what looked to be a very old log cabin.
Brady came to stand next to me as I leaned against the railing. “That’s the old smokehouse,” he said.
“Smokehouse?” My first thought was that it was a place for people to smoke.
“It’s where meat was cured. But long before I was born, it was converted into a cottage.” He scooted closer and pointed with one long finger. “See the part that’s darker? That was the original smokehouse. Then the part to the right is the add-on.”
The addition looked newer than the smokehouse, but still pretty old. But there were perfectly modern-looking windows on either side of the door. They looked brand new.
“They are,” Brady said when I mentioned it to him. “I told you, we’re expanding.”
“It’s going to be the honeymoon suite when it’s done,” Cole said from behind me.
Okay, now I knew these guys were delusional. They seriously thought that people were going to spend their honeymoon in a shack that was used to house dead animals? It was astonishing that Brady and Cole had kept this place in business as long as they had.
“Come see my pride and joy,” Brady said, ushering me over to a grill. A grill—that was his pride and joy. This guy needed a girlfriend. From the way he looked, with his boyish charm, it kind of surprised me that he didn’t have one. Then again, he did live in a town of only 1600 people.
“Why are there two grills?” I asked. The second one was oddly shaped, too.
“That’s Cole’s pride and joy,” Brady explained, patting the dome-like shape on top. “It’s a pizza oven.”
“I thought you did the cooking?”
“I do. And most of the grilling. But Cole makes the best pizza in the state.”
“You do realize I live in Chicago, right?” I barely resisted snorting as I followed him down the stairs into the yard. There was a fire pit down there, and under the deck was an assortment of mismatched lawn chairs piled against the side of the building.
Cole led us through another sliding glass door into a finished basement. It was about the same size as the lounge upstairs, but there was a pool table, darts, and a bar at one end of the room. At the opposite end, there was an unlit hallway. “What’s down there?”
“Bathroom, laundry room, and the unfinished part of the basement. It’s mostly for storage,” Brady answered promptly. “We call this the rec room.”
“Mind if I take a video of it?”
When Brady nodded, I patted my hair into place, put on a smile, and then started the live stream. “You all, I’m learning so much about the inn where I’ll be spending the next week. They’ve thought of everything. Upstairs are board games.” I raised my eyebrows and made a face to show my followers exactly what I thought of this.
I circled the room as I talked. “And this place holds a lot of promise. There are darts—those might come in handy.” I trailed a finger along the hard little dart. “And a pool table. Color me excited.”
Still talking, I moved to the bar. “All right, this has some potential.” I panned the camera along the shelf behind the bar. It was stocked with a bunch of dusty bottles, and something else.
I zoomed the camera in. “Are those high school sports trophies? Guess that makes this a sports bar. A sports bar without a TV, apparently.”