“On the stolen bike.”
“Borrowed,” she said with a little smile.
It was the first smile she’d given me, and I had to imagine that after the day she’d no doubt had, it was probably the first one.
“I’m going to return it. I just needed to…” She blew out a breath and let her shoulders slump.
“I’m glad you left.” The words fell in the silence between us for a beat before she looked up again.
“Me too.”
There was nothing else to say, not right away anyway, so I crouched in front of the wood stove and worked to get it lit. It had been a while since anyone had been out here, and probably even longer since the stove had been used, but thankfully, it wasn’t clogged up with soot or random animal nests, and it didn’t take long to get a fire going and for the room to warm up.
With the storm raging outside and the rain pummeling the tin roof, it was no doubt going to get cold in the little cabin. And even though Brody thought I was taking half the store inventory, I really didn’t have much in the way of supplies.
I’d make it work.
I took a few extra moments fussing with the fire before turning back to Jess. I still couldn’t believe she was sitting there. It was my first experience with a runaway bride, and I had no idea how I was supposed to react.
Finally, I exhaled, put my hands on my knees, and stood.
She was still sitting on the bed when I turned around. All her attention was now on Summit, who had joined her and had flopped his fluffy, still-wet head in her lap. I watched the gentle way she stroked his fur and scratched behind his ears, the small smile still on her lips.
“You look different,” I said after a moment.
“It’s not every day I’m dressed like a bride.” She laughed. “Well, half a bride anyway. I don’t suppose many actual brides wear a velour jogging suit down the aisle.”
“No.” I chuckled. “Not that I’ve seen anyway.”
“And you’ve seen a lot of weddings?”
“Enough.” I shrugged. “Most of them have the bride inattendance, though.” Her smile slipped a little, and I instantly regretted my comment. “Not that I think you should actually be there,” I added quickly. “You already know how I felt about that.”
We weren’t close friends, and maybe we weren’t even really friends at all, which was why I was pretty sure I’d already overstepped whatever boundaries existed when it came to telling her what I thought about her fiancé. Never mind the rest of the boundaries I was pretty sure I’d been getting way too close to.
“Oh, I know.”
“I should probably apologize for that,” I said. “But I’m not going to, because I stand by it. You deserve better. That’s not enough for you, Jess. You deserve so much more.”
“You know it was about more than that.”
“You said.” I shrugged. “But it doesn’t change the fact that you deserve more.”
She’d stopped petting the dog and stared at me, her expression unreadable.
“I’m sorry,” I said when the silence became too much.
She tilted her head, and a few curls spilled over her cheeks. “I thought you said you weren’t going to apologize.”
I shook my head. “I’m not sorry for what I said.”
“Then what?”
I crossed the floor and grabbed the single stool in the room to sit across from her. “I’m sorry you’re sad.”
“Sad?” She blinked slowly, and then again, her long, dark eyelashes fluttering against her cheeks for a moment. “I’m feeling a lot of things right now, Preston. But sad is not one of them.”
“No?”
