“I just need quiet, and I wouldn’t get that with my family.” Fatigue overwhelmed me. My adrenaline was crashing. Weeks of late nights following days of running between appointments for cake tastings and with photographers and the church staff were calling in their debts now. I rubbed my eyes, letting out a long sigh.
“Take the guest room upstairs. Go get some rest.”
The guest room had been his bedroom, once upon a time. Before the accident that had claimed his brother’s life and left Jonah with lifelong injuries. If Jonah knew the role I’d played that day, he’d kick me out and make me walk home.
CHAPTER THREE
Jonah
I wasn’t used to having someone under my roof—not as a guest and definitely not overnight. I wasn’t accustomed to noticing my cabin and wondering what Summer would think of it. Would she think I should decorate better? I had few pictures up. No knickknacks. I let the wood and the view through the windows showcase the beauty.
Would she notice all the canes I had propped against walls? I didn’t rely on them in the house as much as walking outside and in town, but they were handy if I was stiff or especially sore after working in the yard or in my shop.
The shop was calling my name. I’d taken yesterday off, taking way too fucking long to find a pair of slacks and a shirt that would work for today, and I had plenty of projects to catch up on. My productivity always tooka shit this time of year. I didn’t mind being plugged in by snow or storms, but then delivery trucks couldn’t get up or down the mountain.
I roamed the kitchen, my limp echoing louder than ever. I had on my boots. I’d been determined to keep my day normal, but last night, Summer had disappeared upstairs in her elaborate wedding gown after we had arrived and I hadn’t seen her since. Now, it was midmorning. Should I check on her?
My left knee fucking hated stairs. My left foot wasn’t far behind.
I went back out to the living room and gazed up the stairs, as if I could ascertain how she was doing through her closed bedroom door. Everything was quiet. She’d left the light off in the library nook I had made when I first moved in. Nothing of hers littered the landing from what I could spy between the slats of the carved wooden railing.
She must still be sleeping.
My phone rang. I didn’t have to look to know it was my mom. She was the only one who called, but she’d been trying to get ahold of me since I’d left the wedding yesterday. I’d sent her a message, but she wouldn’t quit until she heard my voice.
I answered on the way back to the kitchen so I wouldn’t wake my guest. “You don’t have to worry.”
“Of course I do,” she said without hesitation. “How is she?”
I had no fucking clue. “Sleeping.” Maybe.
“Poor thing. You know, I saw them together once and you just get that sense. I didn’t like him.” The corner of my mouth tipped up. Mom said it like herfeelings were a secret and a warning. She didn’t like him, so he must be a miserable person. Most of the time, she was correct. “Her brothers were so upset after you left. And the rest of us were... well, confused. I know I was.”
Mom was baiting me and I knew it, but there wasn’t much I wouldn’t give her. Except a daughter-in-law and grandkids. I’d failed miserably on that account. Sometimes I was angry with Eli that he wasn’t here to give her the dream grandchildren she desired.
“How did you get involved?” Mom didn’t beat around the bush. I wasn’t answering and she’d continue to rain questions down on me.
“Right place, right time.” Wrong place, right time? I wasn’t sure. I hated being dragged into drama, but I wouldn’t change stopping that asshole from hitting her again. He’d slapped her knowing it likely wouldn’t bruise before the ceremony was done and he’d been about to hit her again where no one would have seen the mark he’d leave behind. My blood boiled.
Something Mom said sank in.And the rest of us were... well, confused.
How many in attendance other than family knew Summer had left with me? Goddammit, how had it looked? “Is there speculation?”
“Oh, you know, there’ll always be speculation, but don’t worry. Tate told me that she’d left with you and asked me to keep it to ourselves. There weren’t many others from Bourbon Canyon there. Anyway, I didn’t realize you two had kept in touch.”
Mom and Dad wouldn’t talk. They were more aware than most. After Eli’s death, talk about how nineteen-year-old Eli was a closet drunk and that we might’ve known had run rampant through town. People had speculated that his crash had been inevitable. He had partied and made stupid decisions like a lot of small-town teens, but his accident had been in the middle of the damn day, with no one else around but me.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. My brother had been on my mind heavily lately, but with Summer under my roof, he was a constant presence. He and Summer could’ve given Mom those grandkids. Summer was the daughter Mom always wanted. I could’ve been the cranky uncle who taught them how to hunt and fish and camp.
“She just needs space,” I answered, “and when shit happens, family is sometimes the last to give you room.” Didn’t I know it. “I just happened to be around with my pickup keys. Nothing more.”
“Right. Yes. She knows you, and I’m glad that you were willing to help.”
The level of willing I’d been—to drop everything and bring Summer to the safety of my house—burrowed into my conscience. “Couldn’t exactly feed her to the wolves.”
Mom snorted. “Well-dressed wolves. That mom of the groom. She was intimidating. You should’ve seen the way she looked at my dress. And I think . . .” She dropped her voice to whisper, “I think the groom’s father was already drunk.”
“He was.” Loud and boisterous and flashing a flask. He came off as charming and suave but a little too tipsy for moments before his son’s wedding. His boasting about the cost of the whole event had been part of thesensory overwhelm that had prompted me to find a bathroom.
