34. Grant
THIRTY-FOUR
GRANT
I’m in sight of my cabin and in desperate need of a shower when my phone buzzes. I can’t help the eye roll. Rhett’s timing could be better.
“Yeah?” Not the warmest greeting I’ve given him but probably not the worst. I spent the morning hiking the trails behind the lodge to distract myself while Lila gave her presentation. I’ve got enough time to catch a breath and shower before I need to head into town to meet her. Unfortunately, Rhett’s a pro at sidetracking people.
“Good vacation then?” He laughs, completely unfazed by my irritation. “You sure sound relaxed.”
I drag a hand down my face. I don’t need to take my impatience to see Lila out on him. “It is a good vacation.”
In fact, it’s the best, for reasons I won’t go into.
“Sounds like it. Mom and Dad told us about their surprise promotion. Congratulations. You’ve been waiting for this.”
Everyone keeps saying that. I’ve even said it. I’m just not sure that means much anymore.
“Thank you. It was…unexpected.” I can’t say when I th ought it would happen, but mid-vacation never occurred to me.
“You’ve never been away from work this long. I think they want to make sure you’re coming back, so they had to give you a little incentive.”
“They weren’t wrong,” I say before I can think better of it.
His laughter dies out. “What?”
I don’t know how to begin to explain. So I don’t.
“You like it there that much?” This laugh doesn’t come quite as easily as the first one. “Did you meet someone?”
Meeting someone doesn’t remotely compare to the reality of it. Finding the person I want to spend the rest of my life with is the truth of it.
“Wait.” He drags the word out, trying to catch up to everything I’m not saying. “Are you kidding me? Who is she?”
Is there a point in keeping this secret? Do I even want to?
“A woman I met on the hiking trip. She’s…radiant sunshine. She’s all heart and spirit and drive. She can be soft and gentle one minute, and the next, she’s ready to burn the world to the ground to defend her people. She’s like…coming home to a place I’ve never been but knew all along was waiting for me.”
Lila fills my thoughts, photos overlapping in an endless montage: Exhausted but laughing on the trail. Sweetly snuggling with August. Going to battle to protect me from my parents and Kelsey. In my arms in the lake. In my arms last night…
“I’m in love with her.” Saying it out loud is like a bird released from a cage, finally able to soar. Hmm—bad analogy for Lila. But the free sensation doesn’t fade. It grows until it presses up against my ribcage with an aching longing.
Because Rhett’s not the one I really want to tell.
“Wow, man! Congrats! That’s the best news. ”
His enthusiasm has the opposite of his intended effect and brings my feet back to earth.
“She’s building a life here, and my life is in Magnolia Ridge.” A truth I’ve been only too happy to avoid looking at straight on for weeks now.
“I know my advice is suspect. I don’t have the best romantic track record. My exes would say I’m the last guy you should listen to.”
“You’re really selling it.” I’ve talked with some of his exes—he’s barely scratched the surface of what they say about him.
“But if I felt about someone even half the way you sound when you’re talking about her, I would risk anything to hold onto her.”
A tiny spark of hope lights up inside me, searching for something to cling to. “I want to, believe me, I do. But everyone’s counting on me. You need me there.”
“ We need you? Since when?” He coughs. “Uh, respectfully.”
I sigh as I barge through my cabin door and storm around the tiny space. “You’d be surviving on granola bars and beer if I weren’t there to check up on you. And Dean…”
“This will be good. Please explain how our happily married, home-owning, ultra-responsible sibling would be lost without you here to big-brother him.”
“Fine. I can’t.” If anything, Dean’s taught me lessons these last couple of years. He’s found what’s most important to him and built his life around them.
“And for the record, I like granola bars and beer. I get it. You had to step up a lot when we were kids, but I’m thirty, man. Don’t use me as an excuse not to chase your own happiness.”
Lila’s voice echoes in my mind, telling me to create a life I don’t have to take a vacation from. If I could lay out the plans and make it happen, what would that look like? Easy—being with her. The rest—where I work, where I live—isn’t nearly as vital as that one all-consuming point.
“She is my happiness, but I’ve worked too hard at the business to just walk away without a second thought. I don’t know if there’s a way to have both.”
“We’re two reasonably smart guys,” Rhett says. “I’m sure we can figure something out. There’s a solution here somewhere. You could work remotely. Do something else entirely. Enact a hostile takeover of the closest outdoor store and raise the Irwin flag. Whatever it takes.”
“If only it were so easy. There isn’t anything like that in town. The closest one is—” Wait. Wait . Did Rhett really just solve my problem? I’ve been so stuck on this idea that it could never happen, I couldn’t see the solution right in front of me. “You’re a genius.”
“Finally.” He sounds like he’s puffed out his chest to receive a gold medal. “Some long-awaited recognition.”
“We can revisit the recognition later. I need to make some calls.”
“Nope. First, I need a name.”
“Lila.” It’s a sigh on my lips, and I do not care a bit.
“Pretty. Second—it was the shirt I sent that won her over, wasn’t it?”