Free The One Place by Laurel Curtis

house and bring all of her Fourth of July decorations back up into the attic for her.”
    My head whipped around to him as I tried to wrap my head around what he said. “Fourth of July decorations?”
    He just smiled. “Oh yeah. An elderly woman in small town Tennessee? No way she’s gonna pass up an opportunity to fly all her American flags.”
    I nodded my head in understanding. “Okay, so what do we do after we help the elderly store their patriotism?”
    Tuck’s face lit up in a smile filled with warmth. Man, I was starting to love his smile. “I thought we could stop and have some lunch before we head over to the Andersons’ to help herd some of their cattle.”
    That sounded awesome. Both parts. Lunch and herding cattle. So I downplayed it just a little and told him. “That sounds pretty good on both counts. I like food and I can be down with herding some cattle.”
    Tuck just kept smiling and walked along beside me headed for Mrs. Tanner’s house. I followed his lead because I hadn’t met Mrs. Tanner yet and had no clue where she lived. We fell into a comfortable silence and just enjoyed each others’ company. And it really was, just that. Comfortable.
    When we got to Mrs. Tanner’s house, which I discovered was just past the other side of Main Street, kind of behind the diner, we walked the horses right onto the front yard. Tuck jumped down, threw his reins on the ground, and rounded the horse to help me down.
    I felt it was necessary to tell him that I could do this myself. “I can get down myself, you know.”
    He just said, “Like it better this way.”
    Okay. Whatever. It wasn’t worth a battle because, quite frankly, I liked his hands on me too.
    He threw the reins of my horse on the ground too and headed for the house. “Wait. We don’t need to tie them up?”
    He shook his head. “My horses ground tie. Just drop their reins on the ground and they stay.”
    I was flabbergasted. I mean I had some horse experience, but I had no idea there were horses out there good enough to do that.
    “Really? That is so cool! I had no idea that was possible.”
    “Really. Now, come on. Let’s do this so we can go get some food.”
    “Wow. Somebody’s impatient.”
    Instead of answering, he just grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the door. Before we got there, it opened and Mrs. Tanner stepped out. “Hello, my dear Tucker. Thank you so much for coming to help me again.”
    Tuck stepped onto the porch and kissed her cheek. “It’s no problem.”
    “Always so sweet, Tucker dear.” As if she just noticed me standing there- which maybe she did; when Tucker was around he stole the show- she sing-songed, “Oh! And who is this pretty little thing you have with you today?”
    I stepped up and held out my hand, “Hi Mrs. Tanner. I’m Natalie Jenkins. I’m just helping Tuck out today.”
    A smile settled on her face and she murmured, “I just bet you are, dear.” Just noticing my hand she shooed it away and pulled me in for a hug. “What is this nonsense with a handshake? I want a hug, dear. I don’t have that many years left to get as many as I can.”
    Turning back to Tuck, she continued, “The boxes are just in the hall. Mr. Tanner helped me take down the decorations, but I told him he wasn’t allowed to take the boxes up with his new hip. He didn’t take too kindly to that. Stubborn old man.”
    As she headed down the hall, Tuck and I followed but not before I bugged my eyes out at him. He laughed.
    Man, he was attractive when he laughed. Who was I kidding? He was just attractive, period.
    ********
    After we finished carrying the boxes up to Mrs. Tanner’s attic (I only got to carry one box) we mounted back up on our horses and started walking once again.
    I was starting to get hungry so I was glad food was the next part of the plan. I hadn’t eaten anything the whole day and Zumba had done a number on me. “So what’s the plan for food?”
    “Well, I figured you’d be hungry, but I also