“It makes as much sense as my friend leaving me with a legal battle after he died.”
I took a deep breath, even as my mind raced in circles. “We can’t know what he was thinking when he did what he did. The question is, does his motivation change anything?”
“It might, in a legal sense, at least.” Grant leaned a hip against the counter like he had the first day I arrived.
I rubbed my temples. “How the hell am I supposed to know what’s real and what’s not?” This would be so much simpler if I knew if the letter and will were both real. When Grant didn’t reply, I glanced up. His eyes widened, a flash of vulnerability breaking through before it was replaced with anger. “Are you only talking about the cabin now?”
Shit, I had only been thinking about the legal part of things, but he had a point. I sank into a chair, questioning everything I was thinking and feeling.
What did I really know about Grant?
About Uncle Walt?
Even after years of dating and marriage, Chad had turned out to be a different person than I’d believed. If I could be wrong about him for that long, what chance did I have of getting this right after a weekend?
Tears collected in my eyes for what felt like the hundredth time since I’d arrived, and I fought to hold them back. My new home in the woods, to lick my wounds and heal, had turned into a legal battle slash soap opera fling. I didn’t know how to navigate back to the simple path I’d wanted to walk after Chad was officially out of my life.
Grant stood there, hands on his hips, waiting for an answer.
“My divorce took it out of me,” I said, quietly, wanting him to understand where I was coming from. “I was numb by the end of it. I shouldn’t have—”
“Got it. Understood.” He marched out the front door and slammed it behind him.
The quiet in the cabin after he walked out was deafening.
I knew how I felt when it was just Grant and me—when the world and the past blurred into something distant and harmless. When his grumpiness felt playful instead of sharp, and I didn’t have to think about the battle for this cabin. Faced with this new information, I was questioning everything. Did I like him, or was this some kind of emotional rebound? He was hot and here; I was newly single and vulnerable.
Was that all this was?
The thought left a sour taste in my mouth.
But maybe it didn’t matter anymore. Grant already had walls that could defend a castle. Whatever pinhole I had made in them had been reinforced with the stupid shit I had just said.
The lawyer should be getting back to me tomorrow, and then we’d know for sure how this would all play out.
I stayed at the table for longer than necessary; my eyes kept straying to the door, half-expecting Grant to come back through it. This was stupid. We were on opposite sides of this whole cabin thing. Only one of us could win. If we didn’t get along, that would make it easier. I never should have let myself get that close to him, and now the distance was back where it belonged.
All a very logical thing to think, if only I believed a word of it.
I glanced around the small cabin, the cozy space now feeling like it was closing in around me.
I had to get out of here.
I knew there was a hotel or two in Iron Peak; I would stay there until this whole thing was figured out. I went into my uncle’s bedroom and started throwing the essentials into a small suitcase.
I’d been through enough.
Grant had been through enough.
We’d let the lawyer sort it out so we could both find the peace we were looking for.
Chapter Sixteen
Grant
“This was why it was better to be alone,” I said to Tuck as he lumbered along beside me. After I left the cabin, I started walking my favorite trail without thinking about where I was going. It was a flat, easy walk. Perfect for taking Tuck, or for days when Walt had been up to it. Usually, the familiar sights and sounds cleared my head.
Not today.
