That was the issue. He didn’t just understand it, he lived it. Of all the men I knew, someone in his line of work had the best chance of accepting my job.
Weddings had a way of bringing out the worst in people. There was always drama—some aunt, cousin, or mother-in-law ready to detonate over nothing.
But they also put romance in the air.
And romance was something I didn’t have the patience for, let alone the time, or the circumstances.
Except that wasn’t entirely true, was it?
It might be true if the man who was circling in my head had a regular nine-to-five and wanted a white picket fence. But if I found a man who understood my life because he lived it himself, well, maybe there was hope.
The churning in my stomach couldn’t be blamed on hunger as that idea took hold.
I exhaled sharply, forcing my attention back to the forest around me and not on watching the door waiting for him to walk back out of it.
Chapter Eight
Jasper
Grabbing some clean clothes from my rental car, I ducked into the cabin to get changed. The cabin was small but homey. Warm and bright with a rustic quality that appealed to me immediately.
Splashing water over my face, I willed my brain to come back to normal and not to put too much stock into the conversation with Wren.
I stowed my wet clothes back in the car, then paused.
The smart move would be going back to where everyone else was socializing.
Grab a beer.
Talk to my cousin, my family and my friends as if nothing had changed.
The problem was… that was a lie.
Wren’s words lingered stubbornly in my head, made worse by the fact that Strawberry Hill Search and Rescue had apparentlybecome a matchmaking service.
Both Clay and Emily had gone through messy divorces before somehow finding each other. They understood the exhaustion, the strange hours, the emotional wreckage that came home after bad calls.
Watching them fall in love had been equal parts sweet and deeply annoying.
I’d never admitted it out loud, but watching them had sparked something irritatingly hopeful in me.
Flynt and Ash weren’t any better. Both were dating ER nurses, women who understood unpredictable schedules and middle-of-the-night emergencies.
Staying alone had always seemed safer than trying to explain this life to someone else, except the people around me kept finding partners who already understood.
I pushed the thought out of my head.
Sleep-deprived and here to support my cousin, I didn’t have room for a romantic epiphany.
Instead of heading back to the crowd, I drifted toward the smell of grilling meat. Grant wasn’t a social guy, so I figured he’d escaped out here on purpose.
Sure enough, when I reached the back porch, he was standing alone in front of the barbecue.
“Smells good back here.”
Grant glanced over his shoulder. “Hey. You made it back.”
I nodded. “Got caught in a bit of a rainstorm at the overlook.”
