Chapter 3
Chapter Three
JASPER
My hackles rose as I watched Chase with Natalie.
I didn't like the way he was fucking looking at her, the way his eyes followed her as she walked away. Before I could stop myself, I was barreling toward him, right past Natalie and her boyfriend. I ignored them completely, though I didn't miss Natalie's eyes widening as I approached.
"The fuck are you doing?" I barked at my brother.
"Don't know what you mean, Jas."
"Get fucked, Chase. Stop drooling over Natalie."
"I'm not drooling over her, ya douche. She's my friend."
I loved my brother, but he had about as much impulse control as a sugar-crazed toddler. And when it came to Natalie, I didn't trust him as far as I could throw him—which wasn't far since he had a couple of inches on me.
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Just behave, okay? She's going through enough right now without you making a mess of things. "
"Relax, bro. I'm not trying to step on your territory."
"She's not my territory," I gritted out.
"Right, she belongs to Liam now."
"She doesn't belong to anyone, you tool." My voice dropped to a low warning. "I mean it, Chase. Don't stir up any shit."
"Jesus, okay! Message received." He shook his head. "You know, you really need to remove the stick from your ass. Maybe get laid while you're at it."
I flipped him the bird as he sauntered off, no doubt to cause trouble elsewhere. I rolled my shoulders and blew out a long breath. Having Natalie back in town was messing with my head. Seeing her again, being near her... it was bringing up feelings I didn't want to examine too closely.
I took another breath, trying to center myself.
"You okay, baby brother?"
"Yeah, El. I'm fine."
He simply nodded in his quiet, reassuring way. "Chase doesn't mean anything by it. He's just an idiot. You know that."
"I do."
Elliot clapped a big hand on my shoulder. "Let's head up to the house and see if Mom needs anything."
Twenty minutes later, I was lugging four bags of ice from the freezer in the barn back toward the house. I almost dropped them when Natalie stepped onto the back porch. Standing in the early afternoon light, gazing out at the endless rows of trees on Ever Eden Orchard, she was like a painting come to life. My steps faltered just before I reached the deck, but I recovered in time to climb the stairs without falling flat on my face.
When I reached the top, she turned to face me, visibly panicked.
"Hi," she said.
That's it.
Hi.
After seven years.
All I got was a hi .
I wanted to be kind. I wanted to be understanding. I wanted to hug her and tell her how sorry I was about her dad.
But I didn't.
A muscle ticked in my jaw as I muttered out a terse "Natalie" in greeting.
I moved to walk past her, and she whirled on me.
"That's it? That's all you have to say to me?"
"Yeah, Nat. That's it."
I threw the words over my shoulder without even bothering to turn around. I felt like a complete asshole, but goddamn, I was drowning in emotions. In that moment, I didn't know how to be anything else. So I kept walking, leaving the only girl I'd ever loved alone on the porch—the same porch we stood on the first time I kissed her when we were twelve.