Chapter Two #2
“Don’t pay attention to him.” Granny shook her head. “You’ll find we’re very welcoming. I’m sure you’ll fit right in and feel completely at home within the month.”
“Okay…” Emma said weakly.
Granny wasn’t having it. “I have a good feeling about you.”
Hunter scowled. Granny and her “good feelings” were legendary around here.
Her lips drew up into that cryptic smile of hers, and her voice went all honey and innocence as she darted a finger between the two of them. “So you two just ran into each other outside, then, did you?”
“Granny…”
Emma laughed, completely unaware of what she was getting them both into. “Collided is more like it.” She gestured out the window, and any hopes Hunter might have had about this not turning into a thing withered and died. “Right on the corner there.”
Granny’s smile widened, and there was a twinkle in her eye behind those enormous glasses as she turned to gaze directly at Hunter. “Is that so? Right at the crossing of Heart and Hope?”
“Seriously, about that book,” Hunter gritted out.
“Oh!” The dots seemed to connect in Emma’s mind, but she still was missing half the picture, and Hunter sure as hell wasn’t going to hand it over to her. “Is that where the town gets its name?”
“There’s more to it than that.” Granny stepped behind the counter and wiggled the mouse for the ancient computer that ran the store’s inventory system. “You should ask Hunter to take you out for a drink tonight, and he can tell you all about it.”
“I’m busy,” Hunter answered reflexively, and then immediately regretted it.
Emma had that look in her eyes again—the same one she’d gotten when he’d automatically growled at her outside about watching where she was going.
And just like she had earlier, she blinked. In an instant, the hurt expression on her face was gone, replaced with that fake smile he was already starting to hate. Not that it was his problem if she was putting on a happy face she didn’t actually feel.
“I’ll probably be pretty busy, too,” she chirped. “Getting settled in and all.”
“Ah, there we have it.” Granny clicked a button on the computer mouse, then turned around and plucked the new Cold War thriller Hunter’s dad had ordered off the pickup shelf. “Your father’s book.”
Finally. Now maybe he could get out of here before shoving his foot any deeper in his mouth. “Thanks.”
Granny passed it over. As soon as the book was in his hands, Granny turned to Emma. Too loudly, she suggested, “Now, how about I show you upstairs, and I can help you unload your car?”
Damn it all.
Granny wasn’t even looking at him, but he knew exactly what she was doing.
“Oh, it’s fine.” Emma shook her head. “I’m sure I can manage on my own.”
“I insist.”
The idea of this tiny woman and this old lady hauling boxes and suitcases up the stairs finally broke Hunter. He set the book back down on the counter. “I can help.”
“Oh, are you sure?” Anyone who didn’t know her might have missed the dry sarcasm in Granny’s voice. “Not too busy?”
Emma glanced at him. “You really don’t have to.”
But yeah. He was pretty sure he did.
So he followed them up the stairs, to a little apartment even he had to begrudgingly admit was cute, furnished in a style he was pretty sure his friend Lucas called “cottagecore” when folks asked about it at the hardware store.
Two bedrooms, a living room with good natural light, an eat-in kitchen that actually had enough counter space to be useful.
It’d be better with an island, but she could sort that out on her own.
She seemed thrilled, gushing about the light and the counters and the green couch with its mountains of decorative pillows. “You don’t mind if I hang up curtains, do you?” she asked Granny.
“Not at all. Make the place your own. And if you need help, I’m sure there are folks who would be happy to lend a hand.”
Hunter kept his own hands firmly in his pockets, clearing his throat. “You said there was a bunch of stuff to unload?”
“Not that much.” Emma fiddled with her keys.
Maybe Granny realized she was pushing it. She shooed them toward the door. “Go on then. Take the back stairs, and prop the door near the loading dock.” To Emma, she added, “When you’re all settled, you can meet me in the shop and we can talk about the job. No rush, though.”
With that, Granny took her leave, heading down to the bookshop. Considering the store was open and unlocked, that was probably a good call.
“You really don’t have to,” Emma tried again.
“I stayed for the tour, didn’t I?” In case that came out too harsh, again, he forced a smile. It wasn’t as hard to summon as he might have expected.
Hunter had never been up here before, but he knew more or less which side of the building they were on, so he was able to find the back stairs without too much trouble.
Once outside, he scanned the rear lot and the street beyond it. “You have a moving truck, or…?”
She clicked the button on the fob, and a little hatchback parked just down the way lit up. His brows rose. She moved here in that?
“I travel light,” she said by way of explanation. There was a slight edge to her voice, like there was a story there, but he didn’t ask, and she didn’t offer. Instead, she tipped her head back toward the store while leading him over to the car. “So she really makes everybody call her Granny, huh?”
Hunter shrugged. “She’s a character.”
“You can say that again.” She hesitated for a second before commenting, “She cares about you a lot.”
“I don’t know about that.” He popped the back of the car, and while it contained a lot less than a moving van might, just about every inch of the trunk and the back seat was jammed full.
“I do.” She inserted herself beside him and grabbed a suitcase from the pile and yanked.
He reached in, shifting some of the stuff stacked next to and on top of it so she could pull the thing free.
She exhaled with effort as she set the luggage down on the ground, regarding him as she did so. “And you care a lot about her, too.”
“She’s Granny.” He shrugged. Really, that summed it all up.
Emma hummed in reply but didn’t press the issue any further, thank God.
Together, they got the car unloaded and everything hauled upstairs.
She told him he could just leave all the boxes by the door, but what was the point of that?
He helped her get stuff to the right room, at least, and he was about to start unpacking, too, when his phone buzzed in his pocket.
He got the infernal thing out. It was his dad, asking if they had the book or not.
Hunter rolled his eyes. “Sorry.” He tapped out a terse reply. Yes, it’s in. I’ll bring it around later.
“You probably have to get going,” Emma said. “And I should go check in with Granny.”
Putting his phone away, he met her gaze. Had he overstayed his welcome? “You sure?”
“I’m sure.” And no, that wasn’t irritation behind her too-bright smile. It was nerves—and maybe more than a little exhaustion.
Right. She’d moved here today, and he was getting the impression that she’d taken quite the leap of faith in doing so.
“Okay, well, if there’s anything you need…”
“Thanks.” Her smile softened, and so did something inside him.
Somehow, they’d drifted awfully close again, and while he wanted to be annoyed about it, he was finding it harder and harder to mind.
That said, he was hovering, and she’d made it pretty clear that it was time to go. Which was good. It was like he’d said—he was busy. He had to bring that book to his dad, and he still had to check in at the ranger station before it closed tonight.
He took a step back. “Well then, uh…”
“I’ll see you around?” she asked, and was it just him, or did she sound hopeful?
His throat bobbed, and he coughed into his fist. “Uh, no. Probably not. I don’t really come into town that often.”
“No?” Her expression definitely fell by a fraction.
“Not if I can avoid it,” he said honestly, and he instantly felt like an asshole. “Not that there’s anything wrong with town. Town is great.” What on earth was he babbling about? “I just work up in the park.” He jerked his thumb north, as if that was any explanation.
“The park?”
“Silver Pine Preserve.” He automatically stood up a little straighter, like he was in his uniform, just saying the name.
“So you’re, like, a forest ranger?”
Basically. He gave a double thumbs-up, pitching his voice goofily low. “Only you can prevent forest fires.”
Her mouth curled up into the prettiest smile, and she held her hands up in front of her chest. “Gotcha—no open flames in the woods.”
He dropped the silly stance. “No seriously, though. It’s super dangerous.”
“I know.” Her grin faded. “Well then, if I don’t see you around, I guess… thanks for all the help today.”
“Sure.” Why did he suddenly want to backtrack on the whole not-coming-into-town-that-often thing?
It was true. He had his cabin in the woods and his job helping people not die in the woods.
He liked the hermit life just fine. Still, he hedged, “Though, who knows. My dad’s gotten really into reading recently. So maybe I’ll be back.”
“Fingers crossed.”
“Yeah.” Okay, now he’d officially, completely overstayed his welcome. “So long.”
So long? Really? Smooth.
He put himself out of his misery by showing himself the door.
He was so turned around, he almost forgot to go back downstairs and grab the book he’d come here for in the first place.
Wouldn’t that have been something? To tell Emma all that stuff about not being around much, only to end up coming back immediately?
As soon as he approached the counter, Granny held out the book. She smiled at him in that infuriating, endearing, I know something you don’t way of hers, but he ignored it.
She hadn’t been lying about basically adopting him when he’d been a kid, but he was a grown man. He had a job, and a house, and a hard-earned reputation as a recluse. He knew who and what he was.
He didn’t need anybody meddling in his affairs. Not Granny. Not some new girl.
And definitely not fate.