Chapter 3 #2
“Sorry,” I exhale, rubbing my fingers over my forehead. “I was hoping to speak to her about something,” I lie, not wanting to admit that since the moment I laid eyes on Verity, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her, and that not knowing where she is is driving me a little crazy.
“She is one of our morning volunteers,” Erin says coldly.
“Oh. And you don’t know where she lives? Or if she works in the afternoons?” I question.
“No. I don’t.”
Biting the inside of my cheek to stop myself from demanding to know if the volunteers fill out paperwork with their details on, I nod. “Thanks, Erin,” I say as cordially as I can muster, then turn and leave.
The sidewalk is heaving with people when I step out of the air-conditioned store and into the bright sunshine. Without consciously doing it, I scan the faces of the people passing me by, searching for her, but without her cap on, I’m not sure I’d even recognize her.
I don’t understand how I can be so consumed by someone whose full face I haven’t even seen, but she’s all I can think about. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard about the Barnetts’ family legacy and how they knew at first sight that their wives were meant to be theirs.
Every Barnett, both male and female, honestly believes that’s how they ended up together, and almost all of my teammates think that the legacy has somehow moved on to us. But I’ve always assumed it was bullshit. Until now.
I don’t think that Verity is destined to be my wife or something, but I’ve never felt such an intense and instantaneous urge to get to know everything about someone the way I did when I saw her this morning.
Verity means something, I’m just not sure what. Maybe she’s meant to be mine, or maybe we’ve met in the past, and that instant recognition has sparked the need to learn more. Or maybe something about her is calling to something in me, and our paths are intended to cross.
Whatever it is, I need to see her again. I need to figure out what this means and why my skin feels like it’s itching to be close to her.
I spend longer than I’m willing to admit walking the streets of Rockhead Peak, hoping to find her in the faces of the people I pass. But by the time my stomach starts to growl, I feel like I’ve seen every single person in this town apart from her.
Crossing the street, I take a seat at a table on the sidewalk outside a new sandwich shop that opened a few weeks ago. I’ve only been once before, but the roast beef sub I ordered was the best I’ve eaten in years, and I’m not sad to try it again.
When the server arrives, I order a sub with fries and an iced tea, then sit back, trying and failing to find her in the crowds of tourists.
While I haven’t lived in Rockhead Peak long enough to consider myself a local, I am friends with the Barnetts, who’ve all been here their entire lives.
I think there are fewer people in town that they don’t know than the ones they do, so by association, the rest of the jumpers and I have been accepted into the community much more quickly than we would have if we’d not been befriended by them.
“Hey Warrick,” someone says, and I turn my head to find Granger and Alice Barnett standing behind me, pushing a double stroller.
“Hey guys,” I greet them.
“Do you mind if we join you? Alice is craving the meatball sub they serve here,” Granger says, one arm wrapped protectively around his wife’s back, the other holding the handle of the stroller tightly.
“Sure,” I say, gesturing to the empty seats at the four-top table I’m sitting at.
Pulling out Alice’s chair first, Granger guides her into it before positioning his chair as close as he can get to it, then wheeling the stroller close beside him.
Glancing beneath the sun shield, I spot their oldest child Fox fast asleep next to his younger brother Bear.
“So how are you doing, Warrick?” Granger asks.
“I’m pretty good, thanks. How ’bout y’all?” I ask.
“We’re great, thanks. We just found out that Alice is pregnant again, so life is perfect,” Granger says, his lips spread into a wide grin.
“Again?” I blurt before I can stop myself.
“I can’t help it. I love seeing my wife growing our children,” Granger admits, spreading his hand over Alice’s flat stomach.
“I keep forgetting how crazy you Barnetts are over kids. You’re going to have to move to a bigger house if you all keep going at this rate.”
“We have plenty of land, so we can keep extending until we’re done having kids,” Granger says, waving away my comment.
“Hey, guys, can I get you anything?” the server asks, placing my iced tea in front of me, before turning to Granger and Alice.
“Can we get a meatball sub and a tuna and Swiss, please?” Granger says, not even glancing at Alice before he orders for them both.
“Any drinks?”
“A ginger ale and a water, please.”
“Okay, I’ll bring those drinks right out for you,” the server says before she leaves.
Unable to resist, I look at Alice, wondering if she’s going to say anything about the way Granger just took over and ordered for her, but instead of looking annoyed, her expression is serene.
Alice is by far the quietest member of the Barnett clan.
I can’t remember hearing her speak more than a handful of times.
But to be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her without Granger.
The two of them are attached at the hip, moving as one entity, not two separate people.
A sudden and unexpected pang of envy pools low in my stomach.
I’m not longing for Alice, but for the togetherness she and Granger have never tried to hide.
Even now, Alice is as close to Granger as she can get without sitting in her husband’s lap.
Now that I think about it, that’s where she’s usually seated—curled up within his arms, usually with one or both of their kids with them.
I don’t have that. I’ve never had anyone who wanted me as viscerally as Alice and Granger want each other.
My last handful of relationships have ended quickly and sourly because the women I’ve picked haven’t wanted what I wanted.
I’m not a Barnett. I’ve never tried to marry a woman I met three hours earlier, but my last two exes have run for the hills the moment I even talked about a future with them.
Though I might not be ready for it just yet, ultimately, I want a home, a wife, and a life that’s about more than just me and work, and yet the women I’ve had relationships with have all been more interested in their friends, their social media following, and their own lives away from me.
Seeing Granger and Alice together reminds me that if other people get to have what I want, then it must be possible, and someone out there will want it with me too.
“You guys look happy,” I say, wishing I’d kept quiet the moment the words were out there.
“We are,” Alice says, her voice low but clear and full of honesty.
All of our food comes at the same time, and we fall into a comfortable silence as I watch Granger arrange Alice’s food first, making sure she has everything she needs before he even glances at his own plate.
When she barely eats half of her sub, he abandons his own sandwich, his eyes feral with concern as he places his palm on her stomach and cups her cheek with the other, completely attentive to her needs and wants.
I’ve never seen a man so in tune with his woman, and another surge of envy bubbles to life inside of me.
I want that. I want to have a woman to take care of, to love and protect and call my own.
The moment I think it, a memory of Verity jumps into my thoughts.
Before I saw her this morning, settling down with a wife wasn’t even on my radar, but could she be that person for me?
My inner cynic scoffs, but a louder voice dares me to wonder if she could be the one.
If the reason I’m so drawn to her is because of this town or the mystical shit that seems to be at play here has landed on me, and the reason I’ve become so instantly obsessed with her is because she’s meant to be mine.
“Hey, this may seem a little strange, but have either of you met a woman called Verity?” I ask.