He laughed quietly, the sound sliding under my skin in a way that left me warm and unsettled.
Finally, as the Butterfields wandered toward the trail again, marveling over some buckthorn that looked vaguely like a swan, Carson stood and offered me his hand.
“Ready to keep going?” he asked.
I slipped my fingers into his before I could think better of it. His hand closed around mine, firm and steady, righting something inside me I hadn’t realized was off balance.
“Yeah,” I said softly. “I’m ready.”
He didn’t let go immediately, not even when we started walking.
But when I glanced sideways at him, breathless and warm, Carson’s eyes were soft.
And there was no denying it anymore.
I mattered to him.
And he mattered to me.
Dangerously so.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Carson
The truth hit me sometime around midnight the night our trip ended, after the Butterfields left glowing reviews and tagged us in six Instagram posts, labeling us as thecutest married guides in the northern woods. It hit while I was lying awake in my cabin, staring at the ceiling and listening to the wind drag its force through the trees like it was trying to get inside.
But all I could think about was the situation I found myself in.
The truth was this. I was in deep, and I didn’t know when exactly it had happened because it wasn’t because we’d slept together. It happened before then.
Not on day one, when she’d looked like she wanted to throw a boot at me during introductions. Not on the Polaris ride, though watching her handle that machine with confidence did something unsettling to me. It wasn’t even that first night we spent together in the woods, though that’s when the dominoes started falling faster than I could brace for.
But it all added up to one messy worry. I’d fallen for her, and sleeping with her only made it worse, but seeing her the morning after, with messy hair from sleep, her cheeks flushed pink with cold and leftover embarrassment, and the sexy, soft voice she had in the morning….
That was the moment. The moment I felt something shift so distinctly, I almost heard it.
But the part where she fell into the lake, and I bolted like my body had a superhero mode? That just confirmed what I already knew.
When we got back to Honey Leaf Lodge after delivering the newlywed couple to the lobby, Violet had already seen the review posted on the lodge’s official page. Somehow, Emma had managed to post it between the forest and Honey Leaf Lodge’s property.
But Violet had burst into the kitchen holding her phone like it was the winning lottery ticket.
“Five. Stars!” she shouted. “Five! Stars! For the first trip of the season!”
Fifi was clapping.
Their mom was glowing.
Beck was smirking like he knew things he shouldn’t. “So we did a good thing by adding more guide services.”
And Sienna was smiling, but in that way she got when she was trying not to look directly at me.
If that compliment had been left the day she met me, she probably would have pushed me into the lake, but things had shifted, sort of.
The trip was a success.
A big one.
