4. Char
FOUR
The next day,we clean up, eat breakfast, and are soon heading back toward Hunter and Savvy’s cabin.
“Right back to building that gazebo?” I ask, riding shotgun alongside Bear.
“We’re taking our time and not rushing it. Both Hunter and I understand the importance of building something that lasts.”
“I guess you can take off from your job whenever?”
“There’s a planting season and a harvest season just like any other farmer.”
“Wait, you farm the trees?”
He nods. “What, you think I just chop down all the trees on the land without any thought on if I’ll ever run out?”
“Well, yeah. That’s how most people work.”
“I ain’t most people. I actually gotta do stuff like run numbers and plan when the trees are best harvestable and how to do this all while keeping it sustainable.”
“That all sounds... very complicated for a job that I basically thought was about wearing flannel and hitting stuff with an ax.”
“It’s the twenty-first century, Char. I got a spreadsheet program and everything to manage it all.”
I giggle. “Just thinking of you huddled over your laptop doing very important business. Maybe you aren’t so different from the people just dressing the part.”
“Hey, I still gotta go out and hack down the trees too. I still lumberjack things.” He puffs himself up proudly.
“Sure you do, Bear. Sure you do.”
He just smirks and shakes his head at my teasing.
We roll up toward Hunter’s cabin, the lovely couple there to meet us, and baby Nate in Hunter”s arms as we leave the truck.
“Looks like the two of you are getting along really well,” Savvy says as she approaches, hands on her hips.
“Yeah. Just a bit,” I say, blushing and deciding to stay with understatements for now.
“Shall we get to work?” Bear says, stretching out, declaring his intention to avoid further questions.
Hunter hands the baby off to Savvy, and the two of them head off to the gazebo.
“So, I’m guessing you’re settling in really well with Bear?” Savvy says, a smirk on her face, clearly digging for details.
“Um, yeah, he has lots of space. He helped me set up my own room and everything.” This isn’t a lie. I do have my own room to keep my things and did put a good deal of it away after I woke up in the morning and cleaned myself up. Granted, we had another encounter in the shower and one in the guest room, but I did somehow get my clothes put away.
“Not going to lie, there’s a part of me disappointed you won’t be staying with us, Char.”
“Oh, I would have just gotten in the way. This works out better for both of us, I’m sure.”
“Not about you being in the way. It’d be nice to have you close by for a change. Our friendship has been mostly online for the past year since the city is so far from here.”
“Well, I’m a lot closer. I could literally walk here if I was determined.” It’s about two and a half miles, so it’d be a long walk, but it’s very doable. “Plus I got my own car, and looking at your garage over there, so do you.”
“Gotta be my own woman, Char. Hunter’s always been very supportive of that.”
“Never thought of you as a SUV person though.”
She smirks. “I’m not. I wanted to get some small fuel-efficient sedan, but Hunter pointed out that we do, technically, drive on a lot of dirt roads. I actually need the stuff that most people never use, like the all-wheel drive.”
“Things are different out here, I guess.”
“They are. I think you’ll learn to love it out here, Char. People are friendlier. They remember your name, and you’ll learn to want to help them as much as they want to help you. Everyone needs everyone out here.”
I take a few steps, gazing up into the clear sky and taking in a lungful of the clean country air. “I dunno. There’s a lot of stuff in the city that’s really nice and hard to give up.”
“Such as?”
“I can get a pizza at two a.m. after I spend all night dancing and then be able to call a cab so I don’t risk doing something stupid like driving drunk.”
Savvy laughs. “Yeah, doing that was fun sometimes. And yeah, you can’t do that here. But how often did you really want to do such a thing? How often could you?”
I stroke my chin. “With how broke I was? Not often. But it was nice to have the option.”
“You can have a lot of fun at the local bar, I bet. Last call is at two in the morning on Fridays.”
“Not Saturdays?”
“Well, no, Sunday is church, and staying up that late on Saturdays wouldn’t be moral.”
We both share a chuckle. Neither of us were super religious, but we didn’t take offense to people who were.
“So give me the details,” Savvy says, shooting her eyes at me. She’s planning on going from discussing the very holy to the very much sinful.
“The details of what?” I reply, playing stupid. We head toward the house, Savvy still rocking her newborn back and forth as we go.
“Bear and you. You don’t just go off and spend the night with someone because they platonically offered you a room in their house.”
“That’s what you did, and I’m not sleeping with you, Savvy.”
“Yeah, well, we’ve known each other for a few years. You and Bear are very different.”
“He’s just a nice guy. An actually very nice guy. One that wants to help.”
“You’re an awful liar, Char.”
“What, you don’t think Bear’s nice?”
“Not about that. Just the way you walked from the truck just now, or how you came back here in the same vehicle.”
“Uh, the last one is just efficiency and the first is, um... me stubbing my toe.”
She’d cross her arms sassily if there wasn’t a baby preventing her from doing so.
“And if we did do some unclothed exercises together, what would it mean to you?” I say, shooting a fierce glare right back at her.
“Nothing. Just that you’ve fallen for the woodsman just as hard as I did, and just as quickly too.”
“Are... are you suggesting that...?”
“Hunter and I? The first night we met?”
I smile at her. “I never expected you to be indulgent, Savvy.”
We giggle like gossiping schoolgirls. “I’m really happy for you, Char. You need this more than anything, and you deserve it too.”
We take a seat at the kitchen table, and Savvy pours us each a cup of coffee. I take mine and have a sip. “Glad I’m not being judged for it, at least. My mother would probably have choice words for me doing things with a guy when we haven’t even been on a proper date.”
“Life’s short, Char. Do what brings you joy. I want what’s best for you, and I want what’s best for Bear too. He could use a gal like you.”
“He seems to have his stuff together. Does he really need me showing up and making a mess out of everything, as I’m known to do?”
“There’s some hurt Bear has. He’s good at hiding it. A lot of men are, but him especially.”
I nurse my coffee. He does seem too perfect, and nothing is ever that perfect. “What do you think’s going on with him? Anything I should worry about?”
Savvy shakes her head. “Nothing that I think would hurt you. Bear is, for lack of a better term, a teddy bear. He wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
“Really?”
“Well, not unless they really deserved it. Same with Hunter. Very protective. Calm, and sweet, but if you hurt who they care for? They’ll show their fangs.”
I remember the incident that Savvy had with her father, and everything she told me about it. How fiercely Hunter defended her.
I don’t think I’m going to run into a situation like that. My father’s been out of my life for decades, and my mother for a few years. I wonder what Bear’s family was like? Or would it be “is” like? He mentioned a divorce and his mother buying the land the Love Nest was on, but he didn’t mention much else. Are they still around?
I worried about asking those questions. Everything is so sweet and wonderful right now. Something seems to be going right in my life for a change.
My luck would have it all destroyed just as easily as I found it.