Page 19 of The Mountain Man Lumberjack’s Claimed Bride

My thumb slides under the flap before the thought finishes forming.

Dear Mr. Marsh,

Congratulations on your successful match through Mountain Hearts Matrimonial Agency. This letter confirms the terms of arrangement #4471, initiated on September 2nd by Ms. Bette Marsh on your behalf.

Per our standard agreement, the following terms apply to all matched parties:

A trial residency period of no fewer than 30 days is recommended before any legal commitment.

Should the match not proceed to marriage within 90 days, the placed party (Ms. Nora Chambers) is entitled to a relocation stipend of $5,000, funded through the initiating party's account.

Should the match proceed to marriage, standard community property laws of the state of Montana apply.

The initiating party (Ms. Bette Marsh) has pre-paid the full placement fee of $8,500, which includes background verification, travel coordination, and post-placement support services.

Additionally, we have received correspondence from a Mr. Kevin Thorne regarding Ms. Chambers' application. Mr. Thornehas contacted our office three times requesting Ms. Chambers' placement location. Per our privacy policy, no information has been disclosed. However, we recommend that both matched parties be aware of persistent third-party inquiries.

We wish you every success.

Warm regards, Sandra Chen Director of Placements Mountain Hearts Matrimonial Agency

The letter sits in my hands. The kitchen is quiet. Morning light falls across the table, across the two mugs still in the drying rack from breakfast, across the sourdough starter bubbling on the counter. None of it registers.

Eight thousand five hundred dollars. Bette paid eight thousand five hundred dollars to a matchmaking agency to send a woman to my cabin. There's a relocation stipend. Legal terms. A case number. Correspondence from Nora's ex-fiancé, the man she told me about on the ridge, the one who wanted her smaller. He's been calling the agency. Three times. Trying to find her.

The chair scrapes back. My hands grip the edge of the table, knuckles going white.

Nora told me she came here because she read a profile and made a choice. Said she wanted a life that felt intentional. Said her engagement ended because Kevin wanted a version of her that didn't exist.

She didn't mention the relocation stipend. The safety net. The five thousand dollar payout if this doesn't work, funded through my sister's account, which means funded through my family's money. She didn't mention that her ex-fiancé is actively searching for her, calling agencies, trying to track her down.

What she said was:I ended it fourteen months ago.

What Kevin Thorne's three phone calls to the agency say is:It's not over.

The second envelope sits on the table. Nora's mail. Her terms. Her version of whatever this arrangement actually isbeneath the bread and the flannel and the brown eyes that made me believe a woman could show up on my doorstep and mean every word she said.

Beth left because the mountain wasn't enough. Because I wasn't enough. Because three years of marriage taught her that a man who builds things with his hands and sleeps in a cabin he constructed from timber he harvested isn't a life worth choosing. She said it plainly. No cruelty. Just fact.This isn't the life I want, Hunter. I'm sorry.

Seven years of solitude after that. Seven years of deciding that alone was better than standing in a kitchen watching someone pack boxes.

Then Nora. Standing in my driveway. Two suitcases. A letter. A smile that didn't flinch.