Chapter Eight
Jasper
Grabbing some clean clothes from my rental car, I ducked into the cabin to get changed. The cabin was small but homey. Warm and bright with a rustic quality that appealed to me immediately.
Splashing water over my face, I willed my brain to come back to normal and not to put too much stock into the conversation with Wren.
I stowed my wet clothes back in the car, then paused.
The smart move would be going back to where everyone else was socializing.
Grab a beer.
Talk to my cousin, my family and my friends as if nothing had changed.
The problem was… that was a lie.
Wren’s words lingered stubbornly in my head, made worse by the fact that Strawberry Hill Search and Rescue had apparently become a matchmaking service.
Both Clay and Emily had gone through messy divorces before somehow finding each other. They understood the exhaustion, the strange hours, the emotional wreckage that came home after bad calls.
Watching them fall in love had been equal parts sweet and deeply annoying.
I’d never admitted it out loud, but watching them had sparked something irritatingly hopeful in me.
Flynt and Ash weren’t any better. Both were dating ER nurses, women who understood unpredictable schedules and middle-of-the-night emergencies.
Staying alone had always seemed safer than trying to explain this life to someone else, except the people around me kept finding partners who already understood.
I pushed the thought out of my head.
Sleep-deprived and here to support my cousin, I didn’t have room for a romantic epiphany.
Instead of heading back to the crowd, I drifted toward the smell of grilling meat. Grant wasn’t a social guy, so I figured he’d escaped out here on purpose.
Sure enough, when I reached the back porch, he was standing alone in front of the barbecue.
“Smells good back here.”
Grant glanced over his shoulder. “Hey. You made it back.”
I nodded. “Got caught in a bit of a rainstorm at the overlook.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Weather can be unpredictable up there.”
I dropped into a chair and stared out at the view beyond the porch. “Your fiancée is trying to set me up with her friend Wren.”
Grant snorted. “Yeah. She seems to think there’s a fairy tale out there for everyone. Funny considering I’m not exactly Prince Charming.”
I looked down at my hands. “I guess everyone’s got a different definition of the prince.”
He nodded. “I never really pictured myself getting married until I met her.”
That sentence carried more honesty than I expected from the closed-off lumberjack.
I glanced at him. “So what changed?”
He turned, leaning against the railing.
“I was always on my own. Figured it would stay that way. When Walt was alive, he and I just kind of clicked. It wasn’t tiring to be around him, if that makes sense.”
He looked out toward the trees.
“When he passed, I thought things would go back to how they were. Once a loner, always a loner you know? But going back to being alone was harder than I expected.”
He paused.
“Then Kara came along. And she just fit. I don’t know how else to explain it. Being around most people makes life harder. More complicated. But with her everything just got better.” He huffed a quiet laugh, almost embarrassed. “God, I’m getting sappy.”
I let out a short laugh myself. “Yeah, I can see that.”
“I can’t even blame her for trying to pair you up. She didn’t think she’d find love again and did.”
“I can’t say I’ve ever really experienced that,” I admitted.
“Yeah. Well, if you ever get the chance—” He turned back to the barbecue, lifting the lid and pulling steaks off the grill.
He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to.
I understood what he meant.
Or thought I did.
A man who had spent his whole life choosing no one… until the right someone made the choice feel obvious.
Leaning back in my chair, I stared at the trees again. I spent so much time running. It was strange to sit with my thoughts when that all stopped.
Wren’s face flickered through my mind.
The stubborn way we argued. The soft way we connected. How she rolled with the punches when things got tough.
I swallowed.
Changing my life wasn’t in the plan, but Wren might force the issue.
And I wasn’t sure how to handle that.
Not yet.
Not at all.