“What?” I ask, lifting my head to meet his eyes.
“Yesterday. When I showed up here. I was outside chopping wood and I heard the chainsaw. We’ve had trouble with illegal logging in the past, so I came to check it out. I wasn’t bein’ creepy."
A broad smile spreads across my lips. "I didn't think you were being creepy at all. In fact, after all you’ve done between then and now, I think you're a bit of a hero."
Another grunt. It takes a bit of effort to not smile even wider.I wonder if he lives up here alone or if he has someone?He’s not wearing a ring, so odds are he’s single like me. But that doesn’t mean much. Not everyone who lives together is married…
Before I can ponder my mysterious neighbor’s relationship status further, he pulls the cord on the larger chainsaw he’s now using and indicates that I should do the same. "Let's get started," he says, showing me how to tackle the brush with strong, controlled movements. I copy him exactly, and before I know it, we’ve carved a space around the cabin that’ll allow me to get inside and do some real work.
As I hand Dylan a glass of cool lemonade, we stand back and survey our hard work. “You know, this looks nothing like the photos in the listing,” I say, tilting my head to the side as I sip my cool beverage through a straw.
“You didn’t come out here and see it with your own eyes first?” There’s surprise in his voice, something I’m not unaccustomed to since my mother and brother were shocked by me for the same reason.
“No,” I sigh. “I came across it at a time when I was really lacking inspiration and direction, and I just knew I had to have it.”
“If you knew it was this bad, would you have still bought it, though?”
Turning to him, I bounce a shoulder before I breathe in the crisp mountain air then smile. “You know, I think I probably would have. Something about the air in Whisper Valley just feels right.”
“Yeah. I hear people say that on occasion.”
I want to ask him what other people say, but he steps away, placing his half-finished glass on the table outside my van.
“You’re leaving?”
“Got somewhere I need to be.”
My face falls. A woman? Being a man as stunning as him, he probably has them lined up in town for a chance to turn his head, so it wouldn’t surprise me. I probably have rocks in my head for looking at him as anything else but a nice man who felt the need to save a clueless young girl from her own inexperience.
I clear my throat as I look back up at him. “Well, thank you for today and everything else you’ve done for me,” I say. “I’m sure that now we’ve cleared away all the plant life, I can slowly do the rest of it on my own. I’d hate to take up anymore of your time.”
“I already said I’d help,” he states, pausing when he reaches his truck. “I’m not lettin’ you do this on your own.”
“Letting? Do you look at me and think I’m just a girl who needs a father figure to tell her what to do? News Flash: I haven’t had a father for a very long time, and I most definitely don’t need one now. I’ll be fine. I’d always planned to do this on my own, and I don’t want to put you out.”
Running his tongue across his teeth, he kicks the toe of his boot against the dirt and lets out a heavy breath. “You sayin’ you don’t want my help?”
“No! I’m just saying that I don’tneedit. I don’t want you to feel obligated. I’ll be fine on my own.”
“Will you now?”
“Yes. I’m a big girl.” In more ways than one.
His eyes move slowly down my body, making my nerves stand on end. Then he lets out a grunt. “Suit yourself,” he says, getting into his truck and driving off without so much as a backward glance.
It’s then that I look around at the dilapidated cabin and cleared land and feel a great wave of overwhelm come crashing right into me. I slap my hand over my mouth, letting out a strangled cry as I lower myself and sit on the ground in a puddle of tears.Stupid! Stupid! Stupid prideful girl!Why’d I go chasing him away like that for? I want Dylan to come back more than anything. Not only is he the one person in Whisper Valley I actually know, but I also connect with him and like him, too. Plus, I could genuinely use his capabilities. Now I’ve gone and told him I don’tneedhim. I’m afraid he’ll take that to mean that I don’twanthim either, when I do.
I want him more than I’d dare admit out loud.
People think that inherently happy people don’t suffer from the same pain and stress that most others do day to day. But the reality is, they do. But we just feel it all too much. Which is why choosing happiness is so important. I need to make finding joy my priority or I’ll drown…
Dylan
"She’ll befine?" I mutter to myself, shaking my head and scoffing as I enter my cabin. She’s got rocks for brains if she thinks she can get that place fixed up and in some sort of livable condition without any help. After what I saw when she was trying to wield that chainsaw on her own, she’ll likely kill herself in the process. But if that’s what she wants to do, then that’s what she wants to do. She made it pretty damn clear that she doesn’t need my help at all.
Except I know she does...
Kneeling to properly stack the bundle of wood I dropped next to my stove earlier, I replay the last of our conversation in my head while I mumble and scoff out several obscenities. I can’t believe she’d turn around after I’ve offered my services—for free—and tell me she doesn’t need me anymore. What in hell’s kind of death wish does that woman have? Why, just replacing all the rot on that porch is going to be a two-man job. Even I wouldn’t try to do it alone, and I’m as big as two men.
