“Yes, that’s perfect,” she says, then grabs my wrist suddenly. “Then you can explain this.” She taps my mom's wedding ring on my finger, and I realize why she shouted.
“Oh my gosh!” I squeak. That might explain the hot and cold. “He thinks I’m married and was flirting with him,” I groan.
“This is good. You take him his box and explain things.” She wiggles her eyebrows again.
“Maybe.” I worry my bottom lip between my teeth, not wanting to get my hopes up.
Damn, what is wrong with me? I see this man one time for two seconds and I’m this hung up on him?
My parents' love story flutters through my mind, and I think about how quickly they fell in love. My heart starts to race again. Even back in high school I never dated. I was waiting to feel that flutter in my chest Mom told me she had the day she met Dad. The look she got in her eyes when she would think back on it and tell that story made me long to have that one day myself.
“Take the box, sweetheart.” Grams pushes it in my hands before reaching into her pocket and handing me the keys to the truck. “I’ll see you back at home.”
“All right.” I grab the keys and my coat, then put it on along with my gloves. If I’m taking the box, I should get a move on. “You’ve got the address?”
“I’ll text it so you can get directions.” She pulls out her phone, and I continue getting my crap together so I can head straight back to the house after. I hear my phone chime a few seconds later.
“I’ll see you back at the house. I take it Grandpa is coming to pick you up?”
“Yep, and I’ll let Wilder know you’re headed that way so he’ll be on the lookout.” Grams gives me a kiss on the cheek on my way out. When I step out the door, I let out a small gasp at how quickly the weather has changed. The snow is really coming down now.
I rush over toward the truck and put the box into the passenger seat before climbing into the driver seat. I’m still getting used to driving a truck. Back home, I drove a small car.
Checking my phone, I put in the address Grams sent me into the navigation then put on my seat belt. As I make my way up into the mountains, I see on the map that Wilder’s cabin is way up there. The higher I climb, the narrower the road starts to get.
I try not to get too excited as I get closer to his home, but my curiosity is getting the best of me. It’s beautiful up here. Again, a rush of rightness and belonging fills me even more than when I first moved here.
Then like clockwork, doubt starts to take its place. What if it wasn’t about the ring and he just wasn’t interested? It’s still driving me nutty that I’m into this man so quickly. I’m scared to be happy about anything because it can so easily be taken away.
As that thought flutters through my mind, I feel the truck start to slide when I take the last curve before I should be able to spot his home.
I try to pump the brakes as the truck slides and then turn the wheel hard to get back on the road. But it’s useless, and I scream as the truck slams into a tree.
Wilder’s smile flashes through my mind before everything goes black.
Chapter Four
WILDER
It’s a long drive back from Connor and Evie’s place because of the storm. My cabin is more remote than theirs, but the snow from earlier has turned into a blizzard. Up here, it’s even worse than in town, and as I have the thought, an image of Bri pops into my mind.
“Let it go,” I say to myself as I turn into my driveway.
Once I bring in my supplies from the dry storage and stack some wood on the porch, I check the chains on my tires in case there’s an emergency and I need to leave. The cabin is pretty large, but I keep all the unused rooms closed off so I don’t have to heat them in the winter. My dad and I built this place before he died, and I’m proud to call it mine. It’s big enough that if I have a wife one day, we can grow into it.
Once again, I think of Bri and shake my head. “Enough.” All the signs were right there, but it wasn’t meant to be, and I need to forget about her. Easier said than done.
Just as I take off my jacket, my phone rings. It’s not often I get calls up here since I’ve got a long-range radio to reach my mom and Natalie or Connor. The cell reception all the way up here is shit, so the old landline is basically the only way someone that’s not my family can reach me.