Page 13 of Big Dill

Jaxon.

Relief washes over me. If it was Brody again…let’s just say my resolve can’t take much more. “Yes.”

The door creaks open, and the moment my brother steps inside, my heart softens, unspooling from the tight knot it’s been in for months now.

“Hey,” he says gently. I step into his arms without a word. He squeezes me, solid and warm and familiar. “Hey, Jami. It’s okay.”

The words crack something open in me. Tears burn, then surge, and an embarrassingly loud sob bubbles up before I can swallow it down.

“It’s going to be okay,” he murmurs, and I want to believe it, I really do.

He eases back, studying my face. “You’re just tired. You need sleep.”

“I am tired.” I rest my forehead against his chest.

“Do you need anything? Water? Snack?”

Lumber-snack.

“I’m so full,” I add. The salted beef. The cabbage. The potatoes. I’m basically ninety percent root vegetable at this point. We fall into a comfortable quiet before I say, “That was really nice of Brody to arrange the traditional Newfoundland dinner with his aunt.”

“Yeah.” Jaxon squeezes my shoulders. “He’s a good guy.”

He pulls back fully now, hands firm on me. “I’m taking tomorrow off to show you around.”

“No, no, you have to work. I can find my own⁠—”

“I’ll show her around.”

Jaxon and I both turn. Brody is leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed, expression unreadable but… something sparks behind his eyes when he looks at me.

“I know this town like the back of my hand, so it makes sense,” he says casually. “And you’ve got that bank meeting tomorrow.”

Jaxon frowns. “Yeah, but⁠—”

“My schedule’s clear.”

Wait, the phone call…did he just clear his schedule?

For me?

Brody’s gaze lifts to mine. “I’m game if Jami is.”

My heart glitches—two beats, maybe three. And not from the whole flannel thing he has going on, but from the quiet thoughtfulness behind it.

Who clears their schedule like that?

Who steps in without hesitation?

Apparently, Brody does.

And suddenly he isn’t just Jaxon’s best friend, the man I once hooked up with—he’s someone whose kindness could undo me if I’m not careful.

4

Brody

I drop bread into the toaster and toss another coffee pod into the machine. My second cup of the morning, but it’s possible I’ll need at least one more, or a dozen, to get through this day.