Chapter 27 Ginger
Ginger
Downtown Timber Forge looks like it was plucked from a postcard.
Not a single chain store in sight, just flower boxes, glass-front shops, and brightly colored awnings lining a sleepy two-lane road.
The weather is perfect—warm but breezy—and most businesses have their doors propped open to let the morning air drift in.
There’s a charming town square anchored by a white gazebo and a massive pine tree, the kind of place that probably looks magical in winter. No wonder Wren loves it here.
Timber’s Treats sits on Main Street, nestled between a yellow-doored bookstore and an old mechanic’s shop with a faded "For Sale" sign in the window. It’s already busy when I pull up in Hayley’s borrowed car, the scent of coffee and maple drifting through the open door.
The walls are white, save one with exposed brick, and an archway leads to the bookstore next door. When I’d mentioned to Wren last night that I might go into town to get a little work done this morning, she told me not to forget to stop by here and get something yummy.
I don’t know if Natalie realized I was in town, but the moment she spots me from behind the counter, her face lights up.
She grins, waves, and says something to a coworker before slipping off her apron.I step closer as she comes around the counter, still smiling widely.
She looks so much like Hank—same hazel eyes, same wavy dark hair pulled into a low ponytail that swings down her back.
“I wondered when you’d be in town.” She pulls me into a hug.
“It’s great to see you,” I tell her, returning her hug.
“Well, it looks like you survived the trip with my brother.” She pulls back and her eyes sparkle as she looks me over with a chuckle. “Hopefully it wasn’t too painful.”
“Yeah, it was good actually.” I shake my head, with a light smile, and hope the blush I feel creeping up my neck isn’t obvious. “Very eye opening.”
Her eyebrows lift and she gives me an amused grimace. “Oh, God. Do I even want to know?”
I hadn’t meant the comment like she obviously took it.
I’d been talking more about my own experience, and I can admit now that I greatly underestimated Hutch.
Before this trip, I’d thought he was nothing but a shallow asshat.
But I was wrong, and judging by Nat’s reaction, I have a feeling his siblings don’t know him as well as they think they do, either.
“Actually, Hutch was great. I really appreciate him detouring to get me here.”
She looks surprised a bit but nods and then turns halfway to the counter. “You’re staying at Hayley’s, right? My little sister isn’t the best at keeping her fridge stocked when she’s actually in town. You must be starving. Can we make you something? Coffee, maybe, or a muffin?”
“Coffee and a BLT? Wren says they’re amazing.”
“Best in town,” she says, throwing me a wink. “You want it to go?”
I shake my head, reaching into my purse for my wallet. “I was thinking of getting some work done here, if that’s okay?”
“Oh, yeah, totally fine. Of course,” Nat says, walking back behind the counter, grabbing her apron, and tying it back around her waist. “You can pick a table in here, but you might be more comfortable in the bookstore.” She nods toward the arch in the wall connecting the two shops together.
“Between you and me, the WIFI’s better on that side, too. ”
“Okay, thanks,” I say, and she rings me up for the BLT and coffee and then tells me she’ll have it out in a few minutes.
I find a table near the window to eat and decide maybe I’ll head next door to work.
As I wait for my order, I pull out my phone and check to see if I have any messages from the boys.
There’s one from Peter, a picture of him, Tate, and Jordan at the zoo, which I’m assuming was taken by Meghan.
I shoot off an ‘Aww, cute!’ and then flip back to the inbox.
When my eyes land on Hutch’s last text message from our road trip, I can't help but smile.
Bigfoot: See if they have any dill pickle sunflower seeds. Please?
I hadn’t been able to find any, but I did find a small bag of dill pickle kettle chips, so when I’d finished up in the bathroom, I’d grabbed a packet of Nutter Butters—an old love of mine that I hadn’t had in years and a bag of chips for him.
I glance up to see Nat behind the counter. Maybe I should text him?
To say hey. I mean, I appreciate the time he took to pick me up and bring me here, and we’d kind of become friends, hadn’t we? It didn’t matter that I’d already thanked him. There was nothing wrong with thanking him again.
Would he think that was weird, though? We could be friends, right? We’d kept things casual. Just because he’d nearly been inside me twenty-four hours ago didn’t mean anything more than friends. We’d said as much on the road trip.
I bite my lip, look around the café, and then back down at the phone. But this isn’t the road trip. This is Timber Forge, and his family is here. Wren is here, and his sister is, at this moment, making me something to eat.
Texting him is probably a bad idea. We’d had fun.
A lot of it. But it was time to put a stop to that.
Besides, I had work to do in the form of apartment hunting—though that would be easier from California, and actual, real friends to see and hang out with while I was here.
I hadn’t come for Hutch, and certainly hadn’t come for a summer fling with my best friend’s brother-in-law.
Besides, I’m a mom. Responsible. I have to remember that.
I need to be in the right headspace for when the boys come in two weeks.
And I can’t do that if I’m busy getting railed by a sunshine lumberjack and his monster cock every night.
I’d been so irritated when he showed up on my doorstep, but somewhere along the way, my irritated snarkiness turned into good-natured and even friendly teasing.
I put my phone back in my bag. Now is not the time for me to get distracted by a man.
Sure, the sex is fantastic, but I came on this trip to spend some time alone.
I’m supposed to be finding myself, working out what it means to be Ginger, and figuring out my next steps, not getting tangled up in a complicated situationship with my best friend's incredibly hot brother-in-law.
Besides, Hutch was a self-proclaimed fuckboy, and that was so not my style.
So why the hell can’t I stop thinking about him?
Nat brings over my food and tells me to let her know if I need anything else before she steps away, moving to the table beside me to leave me alone with my food.
“Hey, Shelby,” Nat says, with a light smile at the blonde woman. I can’t see the woman’s face as her back is to me, but she must be a regular if Nat knows her by name. “Can I get you two anything?”
“Oh, hey, Nat. Thanks, we’re good,” the woman says. “This is my cousin, Lisa.”
“Nice to meet you,” Nat says with a smile before turning to go. She shoots me a wink as she passes my table and wanders back over to the counter to help another customer.
As soon as Nat is out of earshot, hushed tones from their table have my ears perking up.
“Do you remember that guy I was telling you about? The one my cousin hooked up with when she was in town? The one with the piercing.” She says the last word pointedly, and I immediately know she’s talking about Hutch.
I flick a glance at their table.
The dark-haired woman, Lisa, nods, drinking from her straw as she does. “Mmm,” she hums in affirmation, then grins around her straw. “How could I forget?”
“That’s his sister.” Shelby tips her head in the direction Nat went.
There’s a beat of silence. “The waitress?”
”Think she knows her brother is a self-important manwhore?” Shelby asks with amusement.
Oh, she knows.
“Probably,” Lisa laughs lightly. “Didn’t you say he lives out in the sticks, too?”
“I heard he’s got a sex dungeon out there,” Shelby says conspiratorially.
I roll my eyes, taking a giant bite out of my sandwich. Hutch would definitely get a kick out of that. Hell, he probably started the rumor himself.
“You’re only saying that because he doesn’t date locals, i.e., you,” Lisa says with a smug little laugh.
“He doesn’t date anyone. Hasn’t in years is the rumor. I heard he won’t even have sex with the same woman twice and he never kisses on the mouth.”
My heart starts up a drumbeat in my chest, one that I can feel in my ears.
Thump. Thump.
Thump. Thump.
This conversation feels oddly familiar to the one I had with Wren and Finn last night.
I strain my ears to hear their conversation over a particularly rowdy group of twenty-something guys that pile into the café laughing and ribbing one another.
“Either way, I wouldn’t mind a ride on the Hutch Hayes express. I know dude’s gotta be hung like a horse.”
Something weird snakes through my stomach. Jealousy? Possessiveness? I want to whip around and tell these bitches that Hutch Hayes does do repeats, and he most definitely kisses on the mouth, but something stops me.
“I need to see what this guy looks like. I wonder if he has social media,” Lisa asks, and I snort.
“No, he has a business website, though. It’s only a headshot, but that’s enough. Let me pull it up so you can see what he looks like. He’s fucking gorgeous.”
There’s silence for a minute as Shelby pulls her phone. “Holy shit. He is hot.”
“Tell me about it,” Shelby says.
“He looks like he’d talk you through it, too.” Lisa giggles, and I bite back the urge to put this woman in her place.
“Maybe he has a brother.” Her friend laughs.
“He does, but they’re both marred.”
“God, Shelbs, you talk about them like they’re famous or something.”
“Everyone in town knows them. They’re like Timber Forge royalty.
Nat was the prom queen, and her older brother Hank—he’s got this whole moody rancher thing going on—was like a football God back in high school.
Hudson, the second brother, is also fine as hell.
Honestly, if there is someone you want to hitch your wagon to in this town, it’s a Hayes brother. ”
“Too bad the only single one left is broken,” Lisa jokes as the two of them get up to leave, slinging their tiny purses over their shoulders.
My sandwich stalls halfway to my mouth. My brain screams say something. But my chest screams don’t you dare.
I glance up in time to see them saunter out of the café, leaving a trail of too-strong perfume and their bitter words hanging in the air.
I stare after them, appetite gone, their voices sitting heavy on my shoulders.
The only single one left is broken.