Kate thought about it for a long moment. They needed to get to work on these structures in order to be ready when Lana’s people came out to review the site. If they didn't have everything built in time, the wedding would be moved somewhere else, and they would both lose out on a whole lot of money.

“Okay. But I'll have you know that I have mace in my purse and I've taken a self-defense class."

He looked at her carefully. "I know you're joking about thinking I might be an ax murderer or something, but let me tell you some thing. I'm a southern gentleman. I would never lay a finger on a woman, unless of course she asked me to,” he said with a wink.

As they stood up and started walking towards his truck, Kate got shivers she hadn't ever felt before. She might be going down a path she shouldn't, but for some reason she couldn't help herself.

Kate couldn't believe she was riding around town with Cooper. As they chatted in his truck, the wall between them started to crumble. He seemed like a pretty nice guy, if she was being honest. She learned that he’d grown up in Carter’s Hollow, but had left a few years ago for a a job in Florida. He’d only recently came back home to be nearby as his parents aged.

It wasn't like she hadn’t met men like him before who were trying to be funny but coming off as cocky and a bit rude. In reality, he was just a good old southern guy who probably thought he was flirting.

He pulled down a dirt road, and she thought about pulling the mace out of her purse just in case. Instead, she decided to just go with it and trust that he wasn't going to harm her in any way. When they finally stopped, he got out of the truck and came around to open her door. None of the guys she’d dated, including the one she married, had ever been big on opening doors. She liked it.

"We're in the middle of the woods. I don't even see anything you could've built," she said, still hanging onto the handle of the truck door.

"I know. It's down closer to the river. There's no way to drive down there. Don't worry, I'll help you watch for snakes."

“Snakes? I wasn't even thinking about that!" she said, really wanting to crawl back into the truck and lock the door.

“I’ve lived in this area my whole life. I promise I won't let anything happen to you," he said. Something about his eyes, his big, brown, beautiful eyes, made her trust him. This was how a lot of horror movies started.