Chapter Twenty-Five
“OKAY, BE HONEST.” HATTIE stood beside the counter at the bookstore, holding up half of an autumnal sweater she was working on.
It was a big, chunky creation, knit in cream yarn with gigantic, graphic orange and red leaves stitched in a repeating pattern.
“Is this awesome or does it look like a pumpkin spice latte vomited all over it?”
Emma bit her lip, trying to choose her response carefully.
Hattie and Abby had come in half an hour before closing, supposedly to grab pumpkin spice lattes, though Emma was pretty sure it was also to see how she was doing.
They weren’t alone. Apparently, Betty Jenkins had spotted Emma coming out of Doc Nguyen’s on crutches the other night and spread the word around town that she was laid up.
Emma mentally rolled her eyes at herself.
Maybe next time business was slow at the store, she should fake another injury.
The increase in foot traffic thanks to helpful neighbors “just checking in” was a retail manager’s dream.
According to Owen, it had been even worse the day before, when she’d been off.
She owed him big for not disclosing her location to anyone.
While the other gossips’ attention had been an equal mix of touching and annoying, her friends’ presence reached right into her chest and squeezed. In a good way.
Which led her to her final verdict on Hattie’s bold pattern. “It looks like pumpkin spice vomited all over it, but in an awesome way?”
“Or maybe pumpkin spice merely rolled around on it, as opposed to actually being ill on it,” Abby suggested.
Hattie beamed. “Perfect. I’m trying to finish it before Harvest Fest.”
“You can do it,” Abby encouraged.
The annual fall festival was the talk of the town, with folks preparing ensembles and building hotels for black cats, just like Hunter had promised they would. With only a few weeks to go, knitting an entire sweater seemed ambitious, but Emma wasn’t going to rain on anyone’s pumpkin spice parade.
Hattie frowned. “Maybe I should have made it a size larger to accommodate all the cider donuts I’m going to eat.”
“Harvest Fest has the best cider donuts,” Abby assured Emma.
“And the little pumpkin tart things.” Hattie practically drooled. “I definitely should have knit a size larger.” She shrugged. “Oh well, too late now.”
As Hattie got back to work, Emma did, too, clicking the last few boxes on the setup screen for the new computer.
The machine then prompted her that it needed a restart to install about three thousand updates.
She hit the button, telling it to go ahead, and then she pushed back with her good leg, rolling her chair out from under the desk.
Her busted ankle dully ached. She’d been able to stay off her feet for most of the day, but she hadn’t been able to elevate her leg as much, and she was definitely overdue for a fresh ice pack.
She glanced at the time. Technically, the store didn’t close for a few more minutes, but the place was deserted, save Hattie and Abby.
Emma tilted her head toward the door. “Would one of you mind flipping the sign to Closed for me?”
“Sure thing.” Abby took care of it.
The instant she did, Owen poked his head out from behind one of the shelves where he’d been doing some restocking. “Need me to help close up?”
She shook her head. “As long as everything’s cleaned up out there on the floor, I got the rest.”
“Anything we can do?” Hattie asked.
“Don’t think so.” Just then, her phone rang. She braced herself, half expecting it to be the HR manager Ji-An had offered to put her in touch with. The call was coming from a local area code, though, so she held up her finger in apology to her friends and answered. “Hello?”
“Hi.” The voice that came through the speaker was female. Probably young. Definitely bored. “Is this Emma?”
“It is.”
“This is Alix, from the preserve. Hunter asked me to call you.”
Emma sat up straighter, alarm bells going off in her head. Oh, God. Was he dead? Hurt? “What happened?”
“He’s fine.” Unveiled annoyance colored Alix’s tone, and that alone pulled Emma down off the ledge of panic she’d been teetering on.
No one sounded that cranky while calling to tell somebody their significant other was dead.
“Just, some dimwit lit a campfire, and there’s a Fire Weather Watch, so Hunter’s off dealing with that.
He says he’s sorry, but he’s going to be late. ”
“Oh.” Relief flooded her. “Okay, that’s fine.”
“Cool, bye.” Just like that, Alix hung up, and wow. Emma really hoped customer service wasn’t in her future career plans, because it was not her forte.
“Everything okay?” Abby asked carefully.
“Yeah, of course, Hunter’s just got something he’s dealing with at the preserve, so he won’t be coming by for a bit.” She kept her tone light and bright.
This was fine. Hunter was fine.
She’d take her time cashing out the register and closing everything up. She could hang out down here for as long as she pleased. Maybe she could even get some inventory done in the back.
And if Hunter was still tied up with work stuff when she got tired of that, she’d figure out a way to get up the stairs to her apartment. Now that she could put some weight on her injured leg, it probably wouldn’t even be that big of a deal.
Hattie and Abby exchanged a look.
Carefully, Abby asked, “Were you going to stay at his place tonight?”
“Probably not. I think the plan was for him to grab some takeout and help me get upstairs with it. But I’ve intruded on his hospitality enough for now.”
Hattie snorted. “Please. That man would love for you to intrude all over his hospitality anytime.”
Emma’s brows pulled together. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
“You know what I mean.”
Emma did know what she meant, but she wasn’t sure she entirely agreed. “Regardless, I can’t stay at his place forever.”
Even if, in the back of her mind, that was exactly what she wanted to do.
“Do you know how late he’s running?” Abby asked. “Do you need anything?”
“Not sure.” Emma shrugged, making sure to keep smiling.
She opened her mouth to tell them she was fine.
But then she stopped. “Actually.” She bit her lip, chewing on it for a second before releasing it.
“I’m a little nervous about getting upstairs on my own.
I don’t suppose one of you might be willing to be a spotter? ”
“Absolutely!” Hattie’s enthusiasm took her aback.
What had she been expecting, though? For them to tell her to go to hell? Of course they wouldn’t let her fall to her doom. This wasn’t that big of an ask.
“Thanks.” Emma’s smile suddenly didn’t feel as brittle. “I really appreciate it. I just need five minutes to finish things up down here.”
“Take your time.” Hattie held up her knitting. “I’m not in any rush.”
Abby had her own project she was working on—a much more demure maroon cabled vest that she was also attempting to finish before the festival. “Me, neither.”
“You know,” Hattie continued, “takeout sounds pretty good.”
“Tacos?” Abby asked.
“Hell, yes.” Hattie looked to Emma. “Tacos good by you?”
“Oh.” Emma blinked a couple of times. “Yeah, sure. Always.”
“That’s if you don’t mind us inviting ourselves over,” Abby hedged. “But since Hunter’s tied up…”
The kindness of the offer bowled her over. It didn’t feel self-sacrificial or anything, though. Emma wasn’t putting them out. They were all just super into tacos, and the fact that it saved her having to cook or go forage in the wilderness with her bum leg was just a bonus.
“No.” She grinned. “I don’t mind at all.”
By the time Hunter made it back to the ranger station, the sun was setting. He was exhausted, starving, and generally cranky as hell.
“Holy crap.” Alix’s eyes flew wide as he dragged his carcass into the office. “You reek.”
“Like you smell like flowers and roses,” he instinctively gibed back, but it was a half-hearted effort at best.
Honestly, she wasn’t wrong. He smelled like a smokestack, and he looked like one, too—which he knew because he’d put his phone on selfie mode right before he’d left the site and recorded a real barnburner of a rant for @H_ForestRanger to post at some point.
Stupid teenagers, setting a fire on a high-wind day in the middle of a drought. They were lucky they hadn’t set the whole state ablaze. Everything was contained, and everybody involved was safe and accounted for, thank God, but it had still been a mess.
He glanced at the clock and then back at Alix. “What’re you still doing here?”
The welcome center closed an hour and a half ago. She should have been long gone.
“Excuse me for sticking around when half the park was on fire.”
“It was a small, contained, accidental burn.”
“Same difference.”
He had about five minutes’ worth of desk work to take care of, and then he was out of here. All he wanted was something disgustingly greasy to eat, a shower, a beer, and then to cuddle up in bed with Emma for the night.
Shit. Emma.
Empty as it was, his stomach dropped into a pit of self-recrimination. First, his dad got in his head, comparing Emma with a twisted ankle to his mom with cancer. After he’d left, Hunter had gotten all weird and distant—and Emma knew it, too. And now he’d gone and stood her up. What a dick.
“Did you—” He couldn’t come up with the word, so he mimicked holding a phone to his ear.
Alix rolled her eyes. “Call your girlfriend? Yes.”
He wasn’t the kid’s dad, but he didn’t care for her tone. “Hey. Be nice.”
“I’m always nice,” she protested, which was categorically false. He raised a brow pointedly, and she huffed out a breath. “I’m often nice.”
“If you say so.”
“Just. I thought we were bros, you know?”
“‘Bros’?”
“Grumpy loner bros.” Her tone was still full of bravado, but there was just a hint of vulnerability lying underneath it.
She wasn’t exactly wrong, either. They were both grumpy loners who liked trees better than people.
He shrugged, trying to soften his annoyance. “Even grumpy loners occasionally find people they like.”
Frowning, she chewed her words for a few seconds. “Just be careful getting too invested. Folks who didn’t grow up here don’t always stick around.” An edge of bitterness colored her tone. “Just ask my mom.”
Right. Alix’s parents had split just a few years ago. Apparently it had been messy, and her dad had eventually decided to move back home to someplace on the West Coast.
His throat went tight as his memory flashed back to Emma talking about some job opportunity back in the city. She’d been very clear that she didn’t have any interest in taking it, but Alix had accidentally hit a sore spot.
“Appreciate the warning,” he said gruffly, even though he honestly, decidedly did not.
“Anytime, bro.” She gave him a thumbs-up. “Anyway, I better head out before my mom completely freaks.”
Hunter nodded, taking care of the handful of administrative tasks he needed to deal with while she was making her exit. They didn’t take long. By the time she let the door swing shut behind her, he was done. He sat there for a minute, staring off into space.
Then he breathed out deeply, sagging back into his chair.
He hauled out his phone, wanting nothing more than to hear Emma’s voice. He pulled up her number and gave her a call.
Something hollow panged in him when it flipped over to voicemail after barely two rings. Before he could think of what to say in a message, his phone vibrated in his hand. He pulled it away from his face to see an incoming text from Emma.
Sorry, impromptu movie night with the girls
He’d barely finished reading the first message when a second came through, this time with a picture. It was a selfie, with terrible lighting, but it didn’t matter. She looked as gorgeous as ever.
Behind her, though, were Hattie Thompson and Abby Zhang. He squinted. They were all in their PJs, surrounded by a tangle of yarn and half-empty take-out containers and what little was left of an entire quart of guacamole.
He swallowed before typing out, Looks fun.
It is, she agreed. It was Hattie’s idea to reschedule bad 80s movie night for tonight, and apparently it’s turned into a sleepover. Hope you don’t mind?
He did mind. A little. But not enough to be an asshole about it.
Of course not. Sorry about getting stuck at work.
No problem, she replied. Everything OK?
Yeah. Tell you all about it tomorrow?
Perfect. XO
He liked the hug-and-kiss sign off. But not as much as he would have liked actually getting to hug her and kiss her.
He was glad she was with her friends, though. They’d shown up for her when he’d flaked, and that was good. Maybe having a group of friends she could rely on would make her more likely to stay in town.
Not that he was worried about that.
Shoving his phone in his pocket, he rose to his feet. Beneath his breath, he cursed Alix. He didn’t care what she thought, but she’d really rattled him with all the “newcomers don’t always stick around” nonsense. She was just being a pain in his butt, though. He didn’t have anything to worry about.
It was time to go find that greasy meal he’d been craving, then the shower and the beer. Cuddling with Emma would have to wait until tomorrow, but that was all right.
They had all the time in the world.