Chapter Seven
Wren
Ididn’t realize how closely I was watching Jasper walk away until Kara snapped her fingers beside my face. I startled, then glanced at her. She had a grin on her face that was definitely trouble.
“Want to share why you were staring after my cousin,” she teased.
“Just zoned out for a second.” Yeah right.
If only that was the reason. I was experiencing a case of emotional whiplash. This entire day had been strange. Getting partnered up with my airport nemesis only to find out we understand each other in a way no one else does.
One conversation had rattled my long held belief that I couldn’t do my job and connect with another person enough to maybe want more.
Kara snapped again. “Zoned out again, huh?”
“Long day,” I said, stretching my arms over my head and feeling my wet shirt move over my skin. “When’s dinner? I’m starving.” If I thought that would throw her off my scent, I was sorely mistaken.
“Worked up an appetite, did you? Physical activity can do that to you.”
I walked right into that one. “From the hike, yes, I worked up an appetite. We got stuck in the rain.” I gestured toward my wet, muddy clothes. “Thanks to your crazy scavenger hunt by the way.
She hummed noncommittally, one hundred percent not believing my story.
“What?” I said. “We did.” The defensiveness in my voice wasn’t exactly selling it.
“Hey, I’m not questioning you,” she said with that evil grin still on her face. “All I’m saying is when two survival experts come wandering out of the woods soaked to the skin and late for dinner, I have a few questions.”
“Questions like why did I send my friends and family out into the mountains in a rainstorm?”
“More like what were you doing that had you gone so long.” She bit her lip but still the joy on her face was clear. Evil woman.
“You set this up, didn’t you?” I asked, as the realization dawned on me.
Kara slapped her hand to her chest like she was offended.
“I mean, I set up the scavenger hunt if that’s what you’re asking, but the numbers on the paper were random selection.
Sure you are both single and both work similar jobs, but I certainly didn’t pair you up on purpose.
I definitely didn’t send you to different locations than everyone else so you’d be alone. ” She grinned wider.
I rolled my eyes. “Look, I know the whole story of how you and Grant got together. Your uncle Walt left his cabin to you and also left it to Grant. The two of you had to spend time together until you sorted it out. Instead of fighting it out in court, you fell in love. It sounds like a fairy tale because it basically is. That may have worked out for you guys, but you can’t just shove two people together and expect sparks to fly. Well, sparks in a good way anyway.”
“Did I mention that we’re pretty sure Uncle Walt did it on purpose?”
I nodded. “And I am thrilled that his plan worked for you guys. But most of what Jasper and I did the whole day was fight.”
“Interesting,” Kara said. “You know, when Grant and I first met, we did an awful lot of fighting too. Until fighting turned into, well… you know.”
I put my hands over my ears. “Kara, I really don’t want to hear about your sex life right now.”
“Well you refuse to tell me about yours.”
“Because I don’t have one. Sadly, living in a tent in one fire camp after another doesn’t leave much room for fun.”
She cocked her head sympathetically. “If only you met a man who understood. Say one who worked a similar job…police, paramedic, Search and Rescue…”
I glared at her. “Your meddling has been noted. Now, focus on your own happily ever after will you? It’s your wedding week.”
She laughed, then patted me on the shoulder. “Fine, fine. Steaks should be done in a few minutes. I’m going to start setting the food out. Why don’t you go and get dried off from your hike in the woods—” she added, making air quotes around the word hike.
I glared after her as she headed into the cabin.
I couldn’t blame her entirely, even if her meddling was annoying. She’d been through a really shitty divorce and hadn’t expected to find love again. But she had.
Maybe it had changed something in her. Some shift in perspective that made her think love was always just waiting around the corner if you shoved the right two people together.
She didn’t understand the way my job worked.
Jasper understood the way my job worked.
The thought slipped in before I could stop it.
I frowned at myself.
That was the issue. He didn’t just understand it, he lived it. Of all the men I knew, someone in his line of work had the best chance of accepting my job.
Weddings had a way of bringing out the worst in people. There was always drama—some aunt, cousin, or mother-in-law ready to detonate over nothing.
But they also put romance in the air.
And romance was something I didn’t have the patience for, let alone the time, or the circumstances.
Except that wasn’t entirely true, was it?
It might be true if the man who was circling in my head had a regular nine-to-five and wanted a white picket fence. But if I found a man who understood my life because he lived it himself, well, maybe there was hope.
The churning in my stomach couldn’t be blamed on hunger as that idea took hold.
I exhaled sharply, forcing my attention back to the forest around me and not on watching the door waiting for him to walk back out of it.