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A soft laugh came through the line. “So, you’re still keeping yourself cooped up inside then, right?”
“It’s freezing outside,” I fired back in an attempt to defend myself.
“Bundle up,” Waverly ordered. “You’ve got to get out if you’re going to have any real fun.”
I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. This was how it had been for the last couple of weeks. At first, Waverly had been taking it easy on me. She obviously recognized the fact that I was still dealing with heartbreak over my marriage ending, but it wasn’t long before she was urging me to get out of the cabin.
In all fairness, I did get out.
I’d gone into town twice now for some provisions, and I’d done it feeling grateful for the fact that the weather had cooperated.
Beyond those two trips, I had to admit that I’d done precisely what Waverly had accused me of. I kept myself cooped up inside.
“Where would you like me to go right now? There’s so much snow on the ground as it is, and it seems as though they’re always calling for more.”
Waverly huffed. “I kind of wish I could go back to winter break, so I could drive to you and drag you out myself.”
Laughing, I replied, “Your kids need you.”
The kids I was referring to were Waverly’s students. She was a teacher, and since school was in session right now, we hadn’t really had an opportunity to see one another.
“You need me, too,” she said softly.
Warmth moved through me. Sometimes, I wondered if I was being greedy. Waverly was the best of the best that I could have asked for in a friend, and somehow, she’d always felt like family to me.
I’d been slowly convincing myself that it was okay to let go of the dream I had to have a family of my own, and maybe I didn’t need to do that. Maybe I already had it with Waverly and her family.
“I always will,” I assured her. “But I promise that I’m okay now. In fact, I’ve just discovered audiobooks, and I’m listening to them all the time while I try out new crockpot recipes. And I even listen to them while I’m baking.”
“I saw those photos you sent me of the brownies and the cookies,” Waverly returned, clearly unimpressed. “And as happy as I am that you’ve found something you enjoy doing, you aren’t going to find a guy by staying inside listening to books and eating delicious treats.”
As though on cue, something caught my attention from the corner of my eye. I twisted my neck fully and looked over the back of the couch and out the window.
There he was again.
My neighbor.
I didn’t know anything about the man. I hadn’t even officially met him. But I saw him outside frequently as he chopped wood often and tended to some animals. I was mostly surprised by the fact that anyone would be willing and able to do what this man did out in this kind of weather.
My neighbor seemed to do it effortlessly, and it wouldn’t have surprised me to see him wrangling bison next.
Truth be told, as long as they stayed far away from me, I didn’t care what he did with any of the animals.
I wasn’t an animal hater, or anything like that, but I knew my limits. The thought of having that kind of contact with most large animals scared the crap out of me.
Watching as he took his ax and walked toward a tree he’d cut down yesterday, I said, “I’m not looking for a guy, Waverly. It’s too… soon.”
My words indicated I was still torn up over my failed marriage. To some extent, I guess I was. I mean, I had no intention of seeking out a man just so I could find what I’d been desperately craving in my life. I’d lost out big on a family twice now. Setting myself up for failure again so soon after the last one just seemed foolish.
But the reality was that I’d found myself thinking less and less about Tom as the days passed. I focused more and more on myself, what I wanted in my life moving forward, and how I’d find that happiness.
Watching my neighbor chop wood was one of the ways I found it. I was divorced, not dead.
Of course, I hadn’t mentioned the existence of my neighbor to Waverly. I knew her, and I knew she’d push me to go and introduce myself. While I didn’t necessarily think there would be any harm in being a friendly neighbor, I refused to be that way with this guy.
Even from the distance, I could see how a man like him would have a woman like me captivated. The last thing I needed in my life right now was anything that could disrupt my plans to focus on myself.
Besides, a man like him definitely wasn’t the kind of guy I went after.
