Five
Natalia
“Will I ever grow to like this cold?”
My lips curved into a smile as I watched the stone skip across the water before it finally sank.
The lake was drenched in early morning sunlight, the rays of which warmed the skin of my face.
“You complain about this at the beginning of November every year, Danielle. It’s chilly, but it’s not that cold yet.
Just wait until January or February. Then you can whine about it. ”
I picked up another stone as she shared, “Maybe I wouldn’t be complaining if I’d been smart instead of scared. I could have been warm in Stephen’s bed.”
Twisting my neck, I looked over at my friend. “I thought he was working this morning.”
“He is.” The look in her eyes turned dreamy. “But he asked me to move in with him.”
My jaw fell open as I stood with three new stones in my hand. As I tossed the first one out, I asked, “Are you serious? When did that happen?”
Danielle wrapped the blanket she’d brought out to the lake tighter around her body.
The two of us often did this. We’d come out to the lake where she’d sit in the chair—all bundled up if the outdoor temps dared to dip below sixty-five degrees—while I found the flattest stones I could and skipped them across the lake.
I’d been doing this for as long as I could remember. Ever since I was a little girl. It was the one thing I did whenever I needed time to think or clear my head. If I were ever stressed about something, I’d find a body of water and skip stones.
“He asked me last night. After you and I called it quits on the decorating, Stephen picked me up. We grabbed some takeout, went back to his place, and spent some time together. That’s when he asked.”
I tossed another stone across the lake, watching the plinkers at the start of the run and counting all the way through to the pitty-pats at the end of it. “What did you say?”
“I told him I wanted to think about it.”
That surprised me. So much so that when I crouched to find more stones, I remained squatting and brought my attention to her. “Really? Are you worried about doing it?”
Even beneath the layers of her clothes and the heavy wool blanket, I couldn’t miss the way she shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ve been dating almost a year now, and everything with him feels great. I guess I’m just worried I’ll end up in another situation like I did with Travis.”
Travis was Danielle’s ex-boyfriend. They’d been together for five years and had moved in with one another after two. He never popped the question, and she was left feeling like she’d wasted years of her life on someone who never intended to get serious.
The two of us weren’t exactly getting any younger, so I could understand her hesitation, especially when she was at the point where she was ready to settle down.
“Stephen’s not the same as Travis,” I assured her. “And consider yourself lucky. I’d give anything to be in your shoes right now.”
“Why? Are you hoping to get married within the next year?”
Laughter spilled out of me at that question, and the stone went flying from my hand, sinking into the water just a few feet in front of where I was standing. “I’m so far away from having that be my reality. You must have lost your mind, Danielle.”
“Well, what is it, Natalia? What’s making you say that I’m so lucky to be in this predicament?”
I kept my focus on the stone I sent out across the surface of the lake. Only after it had stopped did I turn to face my friend again. “I might need to start looking for a new job.”
She gasped. “What?”
“It’s possible I took things a bit too far yesterday,” I confessed.
Her brow furrowed. “I don’t understand. When? What happened? Are you being serious with me, or is this some kind of joke to make me feel better?”
I tossed out the last stone, walked over to where Danielle was sitting, and lowered myself into the chair next to hers. “It’s Reid.”
“Reid? The new guy?”
I huffed. “He’s Barrett’s son. That makes him far more than just the new guy. ”
“I don’t think so.” Danielle tipped her chin down just slightly to sip from the mug she’d been holding beneath the blanket, warming her hands. “Tell me what happened with him yesterday.”
A long, frustrated sigh escaped. “I think it’s been more of a culmination of things throughout the week that ultimately led to me throwing an ice pack at him yesterday.”
The morning air was so crisp, Danielle seemed unable to tuck herself as tightly as she needed to into her blanket. “What did I miss?”
I tugged the sleeve of my sweatshirt up high enough to show her my arm and explained, “I tripped as I climbed the stairs to the first cabin. As it turns out, Reid is staying in that cabin…”
I went on to tell Danielle all about what happened yesterday when I climbed the stairs to the porch of the first cabin I chose to decorate, one I had presumed was empty.
I explained how I tripped and fell, injuring my arm, and how Reid stepped out of the cabin, noting the blood and pain I was in, and took care of me.
“Oh, Nat, it sounds like he was being sweet.” Danielle was swooning so hard; she couldn’t hide the hearts in her eyes if she tried.
“Yeah, I thought so, too. It was the best mood I’ve seen him in since I met him. But then he went back to being a grouchy jerk.”
Her brows pulled together. “He went back to it? Are you telling me that he’s been a jerk before? What did he do?”
My thoughts instantly drifted back to the encounters I’d had with Reid earlier in the week, none of which I’d shared with my closest friend.
“From the moment I was introduced to him, Reid’s been less than pleasant.
At first, I tried to give him some grace.
I assumed his grumpiness and lack of interest in conversation was the result of the change of scenery with moving back here temporarily or even the worry he experienced over what happened with Sylvia, but I don’t think that’s it any longer.
He was so pleasant—kind, even—as he worked on bandaging me up and giving me some ice.
And I was my usual self, so I went on and on about how much I enjoyed helping you with decorating around the retreat.
That’s when he told me he didn’t want me to decorate the cabin he’s staying in. ”
“Why not?”
I shrugged. “He’s just being miserable, I guess. I don’t know. It was like he had this one small moment of decency and compassion before he went right back to being a certified jerk.”
Danielle’s eyes roamed over my face in a way that made me think she was having thoughts about the situation that she didn’t intend to share.
I was curious about them but too exhausted to demand answers.
Whatever those thoughts were, I never learned, because she asked, “So, he said he didn’t want you to decorate his cabin, and you threw an ice pack at him? ”
“More or less,” I said as a smile crept onto my face.
“He used the fact that I’d fallen and hurt myself to insult me first, so I told him he could be a miserable jerk all he wanted but that he wasn’t going to steal my joy.
Then, I walked off to the next cabin. And before I finished up last night, I put an autumn wreath with a big, fat turkey in the middle of it on his door. ”
Her face lit up as she tried to stifle the laughter. “So, he was a grump, you put him in his place, and eventually, you made a peace offering with a wreath?”
I pressed my lips together and nodded. “That about sums it up.”
“I don’t think that means you’re going to need to look for a new job,” she said, her tone confident.
I sighed and reasoned, “I don’t think you’ve spent enough time with Reid Erickson to make that kind of statement.”
She cocked a brow, one half of her mouth quirking. “And you have?”
Danielle didn’t need to come out and tell me what had been going through her mind before, because seeing that look on her face now, I knew.
She thought I liked the guy. “You can get that thought out of your head right now. I’ve spent more time with him than you, because it’s mostly been a requirement of my job.
If I still have one, if he doesn’t fire me on Monday morning. ”
“He’s not going to fire you. I don’t even think he has that kind of authority.”
“Reid hates my guts, Danielle. It’s awful.”
This wasn’t so much about Reid as it was about me. With one big exception, I didn’t generally experience people who truly hated me. I didn’t expect I’d be everyone’s cup of tea, but Reid went out of his way to be callous toward me.
“But he came to your aid when you were injured,” she argued. “If he hated you, he wouldn’t have even opened the door.”
“Unless he thought I was going to file a lawsuit,” I countered. After letting out a big breath, I said, “I don’t know what I’ll do if I can’t be here.”
My friend and I sat in silence for a few minutes, my thoughts running wild with the potential job loss I was facing.
After some time, Danielle said, “I don’t think you have anything to be concerned about, especially when he’s only here temporarily.
But if you truly believe that Reid has the power to fire you, and you think he’d actually do it, I suggest you make it impossible for that to happen. ”
“And how would you suggest I do that?”
A grin spread across her face. “Make it so Barrett would step in if his son ever made such a foolish decision. That man adores you. Sylvia does, too.”
“I feel the same about them. And I get the distinct feeling Reid knows that.”
“So… like I said, make it impossible for Reid to make such a grave error in judgment. And torment him a little along the way.”
My brows shot up. “Torment him?”
Danielle’s head tilted to the side. “If he’s as grumpy as you say, I suggest you continue to be the very opposite.
Prove to him that he’s not going to steal your joy and do things like you did last night with the wreath.
Bathe him in your happiness and carefree attitude. It’d probably drive him crazy.”
Bathe him in my happiness…
It wasn’t a bad idea.
Because what could he do then? If he decided to fire me, he’d have to offer an explanation of why. I’d demand an answer—I suspected his father might do the same. Would Reid simply say that I was too pleasant, and he couldn’t handle it?
Oh, this was going to be fun.
And Danielle’s suggestion about making it so Barrett would step in if Reid did something stupid was a great one.
I’d never pretend to be anyone that I wasn’t—and I truly adored Barrett and Sylvia—so it wouldn’t be difficult.
But more than that, I owed them both tremendously for what they’d done for me.
Reid didn’t have the slightest clue what this place meant to me. It truly was a haven.
“You’re the best friend a girl could ever ask for, you know that?”
Danielle beamed at me. “I know. I’m freezing my ass off here, just so I can watch you throw rocks into the water.”
I rolled my eyes. She was just bitter because I’d repeatedly tried to teach her how to skip stones, but she never quite got the hang of it.
“For what it’s worth, Danielle, you deserve to have what you want. If Stephen isn’t prepared to give you that before expecting you to just move in with him, I say you stick to your guns and wait to move in.”
Her expression turned solemn. “What if he isn’t ready for marriage?”
“Then he can’t expect you to be ready to move in with him.
It’s that simple. As much as I believe Stephen is different than Travis, better for you in so many ways, you still have to be comfortable with where things are headed.
And if it scares you to move in without that commitment from him beforehand, he should understand that.
I think he will, but you’re going to have to tell him. ”
Danielle’s hands peeked out from beneath the blanket again. After taking another sip from her mug, she confessed, “I don’t want him to think I’m pressuring him into popping the question.”
“But you aren’t, and he should be able to see that.
” A gust of wind blew past us, forcing me to run my fingers through my hair to get it out of my face.
“Why should you feel pressured to move in simply because he asked? I say that if he truly loves you, he’ll be prepared to lay the world at your feet.
Tell him what you need, Danielle. And how he responds will indicate to you whether he’s the right guy. ”
A small smile appeared on her face. “You know, you’re the best friend a girl could ever ask for, too.”
I grinned back.
The two of us spent the next little while braving the cold in silence. I used the time to consider the ways in which I could drown Reid in my cheerfulness. At the same time, I considered Danielle’s suggestion to get Barrett on my side.
Sandstone Heart meant the world to me.
I couldn’t let go of this place.
So, I was prepared to do whatever it was going to take to hold on to it.
And Reid Erickson was just going to have to find a way to live with it. At least for the next six months.