Chapter 2
Chapter Two
The next morning is the start of a new routine.
The dogs go out back while I make coffee and prepare everyone’s breakfasts.
I make an extra cup of coffee in one of Jim’s disposable “to-go” cups and bring it to Lloyd at the barn, where he’s already fed Pie and Gator.
He reminds me that his friend will be by in the afternoon and will take over for him.
I spend a couple of hours taking photos of the property and making more lists on my phone of everything I could find that needs fixing, and the supplies I’d need to get it done.
I know there are several people I could pay here in Crescent Lake who would do a good job and whom I can trust, but I’ll move on to that when the time comes.
Priorities.
There’s too much wood rot, from shingles to old decks, to the trailer outside the paddock fencing.
When I open the door to the rotting trailer, very carefully, I’m greeted with a mess for the ages.
Plastic bins, old furniture, newspapers—it’s like my uncle had been a hoarder and got away with it by keeping his junk separate from his house.
Which is strange, because I remember Jim being tidy and always wanting his environment clean.
“What on earth were you doing?” I breathe, brow drawn tight with confusion as the musty smell begins to make my eyes water.
I can’t even get into the trailer if I wanted to. There’s nothing I can do to clean the place up, and I have more important priorities. So, I add “Rent Dumpster” to my To-Do List on my phone.
Back at the house, I let the dogs out back again and head upstairs to Jim’s office to find his financial ledger. I need to know how much of the impending bills I’ll need to foot myself.
After fifteen minutes of flipping through pages and looking over the cash flow, all I can do is curse to myself. It’s better than crying.
This place is broke.
Actually, it’s worse than that. The sanctuary is in debt.
I lean my elbows on the desk and drop my face into my palms.
Slow breath in, slow breath out. And again.
But nothing calms my racing heart or subsides the ache forming in my head.
Why would Uncle Jim let this happen? Why didn’t he come to me for help?
Probably for the same reason you won’t go to your family for help.
But it isn’t—not really. My family doesn’t believe in this place. I do. I would have helped…
With a sigh, I lean back against the chair and close my eyes.
Okay, Adley. This is what you’re good at. Fixing problems is your jam. Making something from nothing is easy to you, and this place isn’t nothing.
We can do this.
With a renewed sense of vigor, I get up, bring in the dogs, and get ready to go into town.
The big pet store visit was a good thousand-dollar trip.
Beds and blankets, new food and water bowls that are dishwasher safe, cat litter, a new pooper-scooper to replace the rusted one I had to fight with this morning—thing didn’t want to open, dammit.
I also splurged on one of those pet water fountains to see if the fur-babies would even like it. If it goes over well, I can get more.
Tomorrow, I’ll have to go to the local feed store. It’s closed on the weekends, so I’ll have to go on Monday. I have pictures on my phone of what I need, thanks to Lloyd. He told me they’d deliver the hay bales after I bought them.
This is a whole new world for me.
Next stop today is the big grocery store nearby.
I’m loading all the bulky beds into the back hatch when someone calls out from the parking lot.
Sure that the person is calling out to someone else, I ignore it and keep loading. But then the voice is closer when it says, “Hey! Need any help?”
I inhale to respond, tell him I’m fine before I even look at him, but his rum spice scent short-circuits my brain.
I can’t breathe. I cannot breathe.
My hand grasps at my chest and I force in a breath at last before I turn to the man.
And at the sight of him, I can’t breathe again.
Tall, with wide shoulders, muscular arms straining the sleeves of his deep red muscle tee, thighs taking up almost all the space in his jeans.
His brown hair is nicely combed back, shorter on the sides and longer on top.
His square jaw is lined with even scruff, just less than a shadow across his face.
His pale gray eyes twinkle in the sunlight, but his brow is pinched with concern as he peers down at me.
When he opens his mouth to speak again, his nostrils flare, and those concerned eyes go wide with surprise.
He’s scented me, too.
I know I’m gaping at him. I know I must look like a fish, mouth opening and closing as my brain tries to come up with something to say. Then the wheels in my head come to a grinding halt.
I recognize this man. This absolute specimen of an Alpha.
“Y-you’re Jasper Lang.”
My voice is airy and small, and my face begins to heat immediately after I speak.
Great, now he probably thinks I’m some fan-girl. What a turn-on.
His surprised expression slides into the sexiest crooked grin I’ve ever seen, his pale eyes focused solely on me.
“U-uh, my dad and brothers love football. We used to watch it all the time as a family. I remember you from the TV.”
Good job, Adley. That totally made you look like less of a bumbling idiot.
But everything I said is true. I remember seeing this gorgeous man’s face on the screen in our living room, watching him catch the football with amazing ease… my gaze drops to his hands, and holy shit, they’re huge.
That’s so fucking hot.
Jasper lets out a laugh. “I didn’t expect to find a fan here.” His voice is smooth and confident, deep and calm. It does things to my insides that normally I’d keep to myself, but this man? He’s my destiny.
I’m pretty sure we both know it.
“Will you tell me your name, beautiful?”
“A-Adley.”
When the fuck did I start stuttering?
His eyes grow hooded and he leans on my shopping cart. “Adley. I’ve never met an Adley before. But I guess that makes sense, since you’re one of a kind. Aren’t you, Adley?”
Each time, the way he says my name has heat pooling in my lower belly, an unbidden whine struggling for freedom inside my chest. When he steps around my cart to stand only a foot in front of me, my breath hitches, and his nostrils flare again, a low grumble or maybe even a growl vibrates his chest.
“I never imagined I’d meet you. Not here, maybe not ever.” The fingers of those big hands twitch like he wants to touch me, but he’s holding back. Instead, I stand dumbfounded as he begins to load the back of my SUV for me.
“Please, tell me you’ll be staying here for a while.”
I nod my head, yes, furiously. “Uh, yeah. I just moved here. Yesterday, actually.”
“Thank the gods,” he breathes, more to himself than to me. “Where are you from?”
“L.A.”
“What brings you here?”
His question fans away a bit of the fog from my brain, and I sober. “My uncle owned and ran a pet sanctuary here in town. He died and left it to me. Now, I’m taking over.”
Jasper has finished loading my things and looks at me with a sympathetic gaze. “I’m sorry to hear about your uncle. I didn’t know him, but I know of the sanctuary. A few years back, someone I know adopted a mom and puppy from there.”
My brows fly upward. “Adopted? Really?” Uncle Jim never adopted out pets. The sanctuary was built and maintained to be a stable, forever home for the animals that came to it. The people who left their pets with Jim trusted him to care for them for the rest of their lives.
“Yeah, they said your uncle knew the dogs belonged with Izzy the moment they saw each other. And since their pack decided to take both mom and her puppy, your uncle was happy to let them adopt.”
My eyes grow hot, warmth spreads inside my chest. Uncle Jim must have been happy, then, for the two dogs to stay together in a loving home. “That’s wonderful to hear.”
His head tilts as he looks at me. “Let me help you with all of this stuff. Help you settle into your new home.”
Under normal circumstances, my answer would be an immediate “No.” But these aren’t normal circumstances, are they?
Jasper Lang is my mate. He’s my Alpha. I’m safer with him than I am with anyone else on this earth.
And letting him help me means keeping a promise to my uncle.
“If you’re ever lucky enough to find your scent match, hold onto them with everything you have. Don’t play hard to get with destiny. Don’t let anything stand in the way of your happiness.”
My head bobs in agreement, then I remember something. “I actually have to go to the grocery store before I head back.”
“I don’t mind a little grocery shopping.” He gives me that devilish grin again, full of unspoken promises for the future that make me shiver.
“Okay, then. Um, I’m just going to the big store down the road. I promise not to take up too much of your time.”
He scoffs at me. “Take all of my time. Please.”
My lips purse on a stifled laugh as I press the button on my liftgate for it to close automatically, then turn back to Jasper. “I’ll meet you there, then.”
“That you will.”
I watch his muscular body turn and walk toward a nice, new pickup truck parked further down the shopping center’s lot, noticing immediately that he favors his left leg.
I rack my brain trying to remember if I ever heard about him being injured in his career, but I’d stopped following football when I moved into my apartment after college.
It feels almost slaker-ish to look him up on my phone now.
I guess I’ll have all the time in the world now to ask him about his life.