Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Sheridan
Jasper owned the cabin and property?
That wasn’t right. Poppy just explained it. He’d have to get married to move in. He’d have to get married in less than two months. Which he clearly wasn’t going to do. And unlike his siblings, he wasn’t going to marry me to get that property, nor was he going to marry me in order for me to buy it.
I dragged in a breath. My throat was raw, and my lungs were on fire. It hurt. I had the full picture now. Everything Linda said made sense. Everything Jasper hadn’t said made the worst sort of sense.
“I’ve pretty much written the cabin off,” Jasper said, his tone heavy.
Numbness sank through my skin and into my bones. “Yeah. Right. I mean, married?”
A divot formed between his brows, and concern etched into the corners of his eyes. “Crazy, isn’t it?”
Poppy snorted. “Not in our family.”
Clover gave her a fist bump, and the entirety of the Duke family history got clearer.
“You all married to get your properties.” All of them had found something irresistible in their partner to risk it. How cool was it to have struck every member of the family. Except Jasper. At least not yet.
“Basically. But it worked out to be real.” Clover shoved a cracker and cheese into her mouth and walked away.
“Best thing I ever did,” Lily said and circled around me and Jasper to finish filling her plate.
“Same.” Poppy sighed. “I’m sure Jensen and I would’ve found our way back to each other, but I’m glad the trust expedited everything.”
I glanced to where her husband had their new baby propped on his shoulder as he chatted with Alder. Magnolia was rocking Clover and Van’s baby. This whole damn shop was filled with people who built their families by getting married to get a house.
Then there was Jasper.
Why was I upset? It wasn’t like I wanted to get married—I did.
In the back of my mind, the hope was still there, and now it had been dangled around me, but Jasper didn’t bite.
I found him so irresistible that I was risking my reputation.
I was risking constant distraction. But he risked nothing.
Was that what morphed this anger into stinging hurt?
He wasn’t so overcome with affection for me that he’d use the cabin as an excuse to make me his. He took care of me. He wanted to fuck me. But live together as partners? Nope. He’d rather lose a whole-ass piece of land.
Did I know how to pick men or what?
I spun on a heel to return to my seat. The wall of heat followed me. I sat and dug into the pudding mixed with fruit and cookies. I tasted nothing. Why was this bothering me so much?
“Sheridan,” he said quietly and took the seat next to me.
“Yeah?” I shoveled a big bite into my mouth.
“I can explain.”
“About what?” I summoned the most innocent look possible. He didn’t want me in that way, and I didn’t want to talk about it.
He tightened his jaw. “I’m sorry. I should’ve told you.”
“It’s not my business.” Only I had told him over and over how important getting that land was. And he’d let me lament without telling me the deal. His reality was my obstacle, but he lacked the respect to clue me in.
“It sort of is,” he said softly.
In the end, it wasn’t. Or he would’ve talked to me. I couldn’t reach into his mind and pry out personal information. I wanted him to want to tell me. I put more cookie salad in my mouth. I had no saliva. The food was dust.
His gaze bored into me, but I focused on my plate. I wished I had grabbed more water. He finally tackled his own food. Was he only going through the motions to keep everyone from thinking there was anything wrong? Why would he care? No drama. He’d come to Coal Haven to be carefree.
Magnolia sat across from us. “How is Bishop’s Landing? I haven’t been out there for years.”
I spent the rest of my time at the gathering small-talking with Jasper’s mom. It wasn’t hard to push aside the cabin situation. There wasn’t one. It wasn’t like I could fault him for not getting married when he didn’t want to.
My parents might’ve met and married after a few weeks of knowing each other.
Sure, they stayed together until death did them part, but that didn’t mean it was a good idea for others.
Jasper was “others.” Maybe he wanted that all-encompassing passion.
He didn’t want hesitation and contracts. Nor did I.
I wanted respect, and something about hearing the news at the family gathering lacked that.
After another hour of excruciating small talk, people started to leave.
Good. I could go home and lose myself in my boxes. Grief over losing my mom would smother what I was feeling now. I turned to Jasper. “I should get back. Do you mind, or should I see if I can catch a ride?”
His eyes were hooded, and his lips were flat. “I’ll take you.”
“Thank you.”
Saying my goodbyes helped keep my mind off the simmering anxiety in my gut. Until it was time to drive home, all cozy in the same pickup.
After we were loaded and on the road, Jasper blew out a hard breath. “I can explain.”
“There’s nothing to explain.” A pang in my chest disagreed, but that was the truth. “It’s not your place until you get married, and you don’t want to get married.”
“I don’t think I should have to get married, no. It’s not fair.”
Yet his siblings found people who made them want to use the excuse to get closer to each other. No—I couldn’t get hung up on that. Jasper’s reasons might be different, and they should be none of my concern.
Why did I think I could do casual?
“I know Alder and my sisters all did,” he said.
“All five of them.” I didn’t point it out to be snide. But five? All loving and deliriously happy now?
“Is that what you want? Marry a guy you just met, live in a one-bedroom lake cabin for a year, then divorce?”
The pain behind my ribs intensified. Divorce? He was so sure? I hadn’t thought beyond the “I do,” but he was thinking of the end, and that there would be one despite the five happy couples surrounding him. “You have to live there?”
“Plus my dad and Linda have to believe that our marriage is real at the end of the year or I don’t get the place.”
“That’s weird.” What if it could be real? My chest constricted. I hadn’t even been thinking long term. I was nearsighted on the resort and figuring out if and when the new one would be up and running. Yet the hurt lingered.
“It was my grandma. She loved love, and none of us were settling down fast enough for her.”
“So you’re just going to let it go?” Setting my situation aside, that had to suck.
The cabin was cool. A lot of places around the lake were older and didn’t have much square footage, and the Duke cabin was the same, but it was also a real cabin.
Stacked logs that needed some TLC made up the outside, and it had the cutest porch.
The shed beside it was in worse shape than the one Jasper had fixed at the resort.
“If I don’t marry before the deadline in August, then it’s not mine.”
All or nothing. That didn’t seem fair. Was his grandma so sure they’d find love?
“Sheridan, if I proposed a deal to marry and get the property, how would that have served your goals?” He cast a pointed look my way. “Or your drive to be independent?”
My throat grew thick. Was he trying to tell me that he was thinking of me?
That not marrying me was for my own good?
How should I feel about that? Only confusion welled up.
“I haven’t been independent at all. Without you, I would’ve lost the roof on the shed, missed out on two rooms thanks to rain damage, and I would’ve had no support. In any of this.”
“Your best friend. What’s her name?”
The shift in topics left my head spinning. Easy to do after today. “Exactly. I’m going to forget her name too! She never calls.”
“Do you call her?”
“This isn’t about me and Everly.” No, I hadn’t tried. She was busy—with her family and her successful job.
“You want to prove to your family, to yourself, that you can run Bishop’s Landing. If anyone—anyone—learned you and I married to get the property, no one would’ve taken you seriously.”
“I would’ve been able to improve the place,” I said more to hide the fact of how right he was.
“Then marry me.”
I barked out a laugh, but a hot brand seared my lungs. “Wow.” That was my proposal. After all this time, a handsome, sweet, funny, and thoughtful man I was crazy about felt shoved into a corner just to make a marriage proposal that was a business arrangement. Swoon…
Yet this was my chance. My moment to seize.
I could get what I wanted, but was this how I wanted it?
In all the other situations his sisters described, there’d been something in it for both parties, even if it was just to get close to the other person.
Jasper claimed he was looking out for me. I’d have to do the same for him.
“No, Jasper. I won’t.”
I dragged in a deep breath and blew it out slowly.
He would’ve done it if I had said, Yes, I need the help.
Please marry me and pretend to love me for a year and then sell me the cabin, he would’ve done it.
And then I would’ve been reliant on him.
As much as I liked and admired him, I didn’t know him.
What if, at the end of the year, he decided to keep the place?
I’d had men promise me the world and barely deliver a pizza.
If I hung my hopes on Jasper and he did something well within his rights, like change his mind, I’d be destroyed.
I’d become a cartoon. The owner who fired the person with the most experience, married a guy to get ahead, then got dumped with nothing.
I wished I’d never learned about the real stipulations of the trust. Jasper and I could’ve kept just enjoying each other. That rang as more of a loss than possibly accessing the land.
The rest of the drive was quiet. He parked in front of my car and killed the engine. “I really am sorry.”
I gave him a sad smile. “It really wasn’t my business.” When he opened his mouth, I held my hand up. “I mean it. It’s not. I have no claim to that spot. My dad started the resort knowing there was no water access, and now I’m left to figure it out.” Or sell. “But I knew that when I came home.”
One rug was pulled out from under me, yet the more information I had about my options, the better.
It wouldn’t be different than that one house I sold where the neighbor’s garage opened into the driveway.
Potential buyers were not thrilled, but I had gone to showings armed with information about their rights.
“You can do it. I know you can.” Jasper twisted in his seat. “If I thought Bishop’s Landing was a lost cause, I wouldn’t have jumped in and taken the job.”
“It wasn’t like you had a lot of prospects.”
He recoiled. “Shit, Sheridan. Tell me how you really feel.”
Guilt hit me, and I pushed my fingertips to my forehead. I didn’t mean to insult him. “Sorry. It’s not you. I dated losers, and the anger came out right at you.”
“I have prospects. I just wasn’t looking for anything.”
“That doesn’t help.” Did I circle my personal life back to the beginning? Find a guy who seemed like he had potential, fall for him, find out that he wanted a second mom instead?
Jasper wasn’t like that, but he touched on something I’d been overlooking. I had bumped into him because he’d been jobless and killing time.
He nodded, his gaze distant, like he was mulling over what we’d said to each other. “I’m not living someone else’s dream.”
I drew back like he’d done earlier. Did he mean me and the resort? I never asked him to. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I think you’re determined. I think you can get Bishop’s Landing well into the black.” He paused for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the quiet street. “But I also think that you’re chasing a time in your life when you last felt useful. Happy.”
His words hit and stuck, denting me just a little. “You mean when my parents were alive?”
“No.” His expression turned horrified. “Not at all. What do you want, Sheridan? Have you thought about that?”
I wanted success. I wanted stability. I wanted a partner to share my life and my successes with. Someone who brought more to the table than more doubts about me. And yes, I wanted to return to a time and place where I was useful. Where I followed my dad and he was proud of me.
I loved Bishop’s Landing. It was as simple as that. It was my home when I was growing up, and it was my home once again. I also wanted Jasper. But he wasn’t mine. His cabin wasn’t mine. So it was more important than ever to hold on to Bishop’s Landing.