Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Jude
“What do you think?” Tommy asked, standing by the table.
“It’s amazing,” I said, still chewing.
My mom threw me a look. “Manners, please.”
I swallowed and took a sip of water. All the while, my brothers chuckled, and Tommy’s smile stretched even wider. My nephew had decided he was going to learn to cook, and damn if he wasn’t skilled. I gestured toward him, sliding a look at my mom.
“I know, I shouldn’t have been talking with my mouth full, but it’s amazing. Tommy, you’ve got some serious skills.”
He even blushed a little. Elsa, my now sister-in-law, walked in at that moment, stopping beside Tommy to ruffle his hair.
“What do we have tonight?” she asked.
“Gourmet macaroni and cheese, plus a separate dish of sautéed caribou and onions,” my mom chimed in.
“I love your courage to try new things.” Elsa smiled down at Tommy.
“Well, you can’t go wrong with mac and cheese,” Tommy said with a somber nod.
“Oh, most definitely not.” Elsa’s blond ponytail swung as she sat down beside Haven. We were all still adjusting to how completely smitten Haven was with her.
He smiled at her, oblivious to the rest of us, as he leaned over to kiss her.
Elsa’s cheeks turned pink, just before her stomach growled.
Tommy glanced over at his dad as he sat down across from him.
“Dad, she’s starving. You need to let her eat.
” He caught my eye. “This was why I wasn’t sure I wanted to move over there. ”
Asher almost choked on his water beside me.
“Why’s that?” Cole asked, all innocence.
“The PDA.” Tommy looked exasperated as he threw his hands up in the air. “Elsa, I’m really glad you make my dad happier and less cranky, but ugh, gross.”
Haven grinned, unabashed. “Dinner’s awesome. Anyway, how was school today?”
“Good. My grades are fine. That’s all that matters, right?” Tommy returned.
“Grades and behavior,” I replied.
My mom caught my eye, a twinkle in hers. “Really, Jude?”
“What? That’s what you used to say to me,” I teased.
Kendall snorted from my side. My mom had invited her over for dinner tonight. If my mom ran into anyone after three in the afternoon, you could just about guarantee she’d sweet-talk them into coming over.
“Jude was a good student,” Kendall said, setting her fork down.
“Of course he was,” my mom replied with a smile.
“Because you always told us that good grades, behavior, and things like that mattered,” I deadpanned.
“How are the goats?” Tommy asked Kendall, clearly bored with this topic.
“They’re good. You know as well as I do since you stopped by and saw them this afternoon.”
“You never know what could happen. How long do goats live?” Tommy inquired, thus launching a lengthy discussion about animals and lifespan.
As conversation meandered along throughout dinner, we checked in about the scheduling for trips for the resort.
It had only taken a decade-plus, but our family’s wilderness resort had been rebuilt from the ashes after a wildfire burned it to nothing.
It was going better than we could have expected, with the one downside being that we were all running to keep up with the pace.
“I think we need to hire staff,” I commented.
“For what?” my mom asked, her eyes whipping up. “So far, you boys are managing the various expeditions and so on.”
“But we have a waitlist,” I replied.
“I think we need to take the rest of the insurance money, build more guest rooms, and then hire some staff,” my mom countered.
Haven, me, Cole, Asher, and Grady collectively shook our heads.
“We could try to get Lincoln to move home,” I pointed out. That was a loaded topic, if there ever was one.
Lincoln stayed in touch, but he’d moved away once he finished high school.
Our sister, Bree, had died from the burns later, and he’d been the one to carry her out.
He didn’t like talking about it, but he’d dedicated his entire life to fighting wildfires since one had erased our family’s legacy and taken our sister along with it.
“He called the other day,” Chloe said from the corner of the table. Chloe was the new admin person my mom and Elsa had hired.
“He did?” My mom pressed a hand to her chest.
“Yeah. He wanted to know how things were going from somebody other than, in his words, a biased family member,” Chloe replied.
Haven snorted. It wasn’t like Lincoln didn’t stay in touch, but I could see the hurt flickering in my mother’s eyes that he’d called and she didn’t know it. “What else did he say?” she asked.
“He said he was finishing up a stint up near Fairbanks and that he was thinking about coming back,” Chloe said calmly.
Elsa deftly changed the subject when my mom looked like she might cry on the spot. Dinner wrapped up, and eventually, I walked out with Kendall since I was giving her a ride home.
“How’s Lincoln?” Kendall asked once we were in my truck and driving. “Your mom seems worried.”
“Well, she is. She kind of likes to worry. Takes it as her job.”
Kendall’s laugh was soft. “I know, but it’s been a rough few years for you all.”
“A rough decade,” I said flatly.
Our dad had passed when I was a senior in high school. It was only a year later that Heartfire Falls burned to the ground.
The wildfire had blazed through the outskirts of Willow Brook, Alaska, where our family’s wilderness resort was situated.
It took years to deal with the insurance and get it rebuilt.
Between our father and then Bree, their losses had felt like dominoes falling.
Haven had been the most solid of all of us through it, and in hindsight, he’d paid a price for that.
He’d stepped up and done the legal work to adopt Tommy.
“Families are messy,” I said, trying to lighten the moment.
“I’ll agree with you on that.” Kendall snorted beside me.
I barked a laugh. A little later, I parked outside her place. I climbed out and rounded the truck, but she was already getting out.
“Jude, how many times do I have to tell you I can get my own door?”
“How many times do I have to remind you I’m always going to come around to get it? We’re going to do this for the rest of our lives.” I almost said sweetheart, but I bit the word back just in time.
She rolled her eyes, but I still walked with her to the hallway and upstairs. At her door, I reached around her and found it unlocked. “Kendall, what—?”
“I forgot to lock it.”
I sighed. “Lock your door, please.”
“Since when did downtown Willow Brook become a hotbed of crime?” she teased dryly.
She reached out, pressing her palm against my chest. Just like that, my heart lunged toward her palm, kicking up a racket inside the cage of my ribs.
“Kendall,” I began.
“What?” She blinked up at me.
I got lost in her gaze before proceeding to do the stupidest thing.
Her palm was still on my chest, and she was right there, so fucking close.
I took an incremental step closer and lifted a hand.
It was almost shaking. Some of her curls had fallen loose from her messy ponytail, and I caught one, spinning it around my finger.
“This.” I dipped my head and brushed my lips over hers. All thought had gone up in smoke. Some part of me unconsciously knew I needed to give her a chance to tell me this was fucking crazy, that it would ruin everything, and then I’d remember that it would.
But she didn’t. She let out this tiny sound in the back of her throat and arched closer.
I fit my mouth over hers and delved into a languid, slow exploration.
She tasted a little sweet from the strawberry rhubarb pie my mom had made for dessert.
She smelled like hay, and she felt sooooo good.
Kissing her was like coming home. When her tongue darted out to slide against mine, my knees nearly buckled.
I forced myself to finally lift my head. We stared at each other. Her eyes were big and wide.
“Jude,” Kendall breathed. “What was that?”
“Something I’ve wanted to do for years,” I rasped.
Her cheeks were flushed pink, her lips damp from our kiss. Her lashes swept down as she took a shaky breath. Little did she know that it only served to press her breasts into my chest. I could feel the pebbled, taut peaks through the thin fabric.
When she opened her eyes again, she asked, “What do you mean?”
The air around us felt loaded, as if a charge were about to go off. I tried to tell myself this had to be my imagination. I’d spent years convincing myself my crush was a one-way street.
In this moment? It was impossible not to feel little flares of hope shooting up in the skyline of my heart. “Just that.” I swallowed, trying to steady my voice. “I’ve wanted to kiss you for years.”
Kendall was quiet, but she didn’t move away. We were plastered against each other.
“I’ve never really had a relationship,” she said suddenly. The flush on her cheeks deepened as she stared at me.
“I know,” I said carefully. “I don’t have expectations.” But worry had already started to percolate in my thoughts.
Worry that I’d crossed a boundary I couldn’t uncross. Worry that with one kiss, I’d just screwed up the best friendship I’d ever had. For years, these silent reminders were how I talked myself out of giving in, or saying a single word about my feelings. Because that was the problem.
She was my friend. My best friend. She felt so close.
It was like family, minus the messy complications that came with family. I opened my mouth to say something else, but then she dropped a little bomb into our conversation.
“I’ve dated,” she admitted, “but no more than like one or two dates.”
She hesitated, then lifted her gaze to mine. “I’m a virgin.”
“Oh. Oh. What?”
It was a good thing I had a hand pressed against the wall, because I almost stumbled backward in shock.