Page 78 of Dandelion Sighs

I shook my head, growing more dismayed as I described them. “Decent, well-meaning people who don’t understand what the locals really want.”

“It’s not the locals they’re catering to.” His lips thinned. “Okay. Now you want to see if Sheridan will marry you?”

“She won’t.”

“You asked?”

I nodded, glaring at the floor. A minute of silence ticked by. “Kind of falls flat when I just told her why I didn’t ask her to marry me. Which was for her own good.”

“I’m sure she swooned.” When I glared at him, he narrowed his gaze on me. “Jasper, do you want to marry this girl for real?”

“I hardly know her.” I stubbed the toe of my boot into the floor and spun to put my back to him. I knew how hard she worked. I knew what she cared about. I knew how she looked when she climaxed and when she was snuggled into me, fast asleep.

“Shit,” he uttered. “So you told her about the trust⁠—”

“She understood, but she was hurt. I proposed a deal anyway, like what you all did.”

“Her pride won’t let her?”

Her lack of confidence in me. “Her pride. The fact that I can’t hold a job. Now she thinks we’re just messing around, and she has this idea that she’s gotta do it all. I’m not a good bet, and she has to make sure she doesn’t rely on me or anyone else.”

“Show her you are a good bet.”

I huffed. “As if it’s that easy.”

“It’s not.”

“Time is running out for me to get the cabin. I could help her a lot more if she’d marry me and gain another cabin to rent out and the water access she needs to expand.”

“There’s the swoon I mentioned.”

My glower deepened. “I like her, okay? I like spending time with her. I like hearing her laugh. I like…” I couldn’t spill our private business, but from the astonishment on his face, he filled in the blanks. “Yeah.”

His nod was knowing. “Have you told her how you feel?”

I shook my head. I was trying to figure that out for myself.

He picked up a rag and wiped his seemingly clean hands off. “You’re talking about getting married and regrets. You sure you just like her?”

I ground my molars together. “I care about her.”

“If you can’t admit you love her, then maybe she’s right not to gamble on how you really feel.”

“But you and Daisy⁠—”

“You’re not me, Jasper.” His voice was hard. The stern older brother. The guy I came here to talk to. I snapped my mouth shut. “I fucked up when I got out of high school. You went to college and did everything right. Now I’ve got it together, and you’re figuring it out.”

“I’m a mess.” No wonder Sheridan had alarm bells going off around me. Orgasms would only go so far, and she was too smart and driven to allow me to hold her back.

“You’re not.” He said it with such conviction that I could almost believe him. “You’ve never been a mess. So you’re living off your retirement when you should be building it? Not the best financial decision, but you’re working and you have a place to live. Your fiancée left you when times were tough, and that’s made you more than a little gun-shy of relationships. Admit that you’re in love with Sheridan, and you might be able to get closer to your goals.”

“She’s more than a goal.” Way more. My throat closed up just thinking about it.

He held his hands up, the rag hanging from one. “Don’t tell me that. Tell her.”

How did I do that? Catch her in the office one night and say, By the way, I think I love you. How about we get married now? “She won’t believe me. She’ll think that I don’t believe in her, or that I just want the cabin. Most likely she’ll think I still feel bad for her and want to help her.”

“Fuck, Jasper. You’re talking circles around everything but what’s obvious. You need to woo her. You need to quit thinking about the future and logistics, quit worrying about the motivation or what she thinks is the motivation, and just date her. Romance her. You’ve got the rest down, so maybe you need to make her feel like there’s more to life than guests and gentrifying and bottom lines.”