“I am the boss,” he says, climbing down the ladder. “And I have rotating days off, but next Tuesday, I’m off, off. No rescue work, no coffeehouse.”
“Rescue work? You mean like helping your other neighbors?”
He smiles at that. “In a sense. I’m a volunteer firefighter and serve on a wilderness rescue team.”
“Of course you do.” I laugh. Because, of course he does. What doesn’t this man do?
“And for the record,” his serious look is back, and I’m captivated by those espresso-colored eyes, “I didn’t rescue you today. You were doing great on your own. I just gave a helping hand.”
“Well, it looks fantastic,” I praise, unable to hide my smile. “Everything came together so quickly and beautifully, thanks to you.”
“What can I say?” He shrugs, the corners of his mouth lifting. “We make a great team.”
I almost agree with him, but something holds me back. An old fear I know I need to bless and release, but haven’t just yet.
I’m not sure why I haven’t already let it go, but it’s clear in this moment that if I don’t, it will continue to run its subroutine in the back of my mind, dimming every interaction, no matter how brilliant.
I definitely don’t want that.
At the same time, I don’t have the energy for that type of shadow work today, no matter how important it actually is.
“What’s in that head of yours?” Jake asks softly, his beautiful voice bringing me back to the moment.
I answer without thinking, giving him the truth. “Just a quote.”
“What’s it say?” There’s no mockery in his tone, no guile. Only bald curiosity. He really wants to know.
So, Itell him.
“‘Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate’.”
“Carl Jung, huh?”
I meet his gaze, surprised that he knows it. He just gives me a soft smile.
“Jungian psychology actually has a lot of overlap with Stoicism and Buddhist teachings,” he explains after a moment. “I’m a fan of all three.”
Well, color me surprised.
“I didn’t peg you as the philosophical type,” I admit.
He smiles wider, his eyes crinkling at the edges. “Happy to have subverted your stereotyping.”
I gasp at being called out like that, but he’s grinning and gives me a wink, so I don’t think he’s actually offended. He follows that up with an invitation to lunch, and even though I should probably decline to protect myself from what’s sure to be future heartache, I accept. I even smile while I do it.
Maybe something really is wrong with me.
I know in my bones that’s not true, but my ego still scolds me for accepting the lunch invitation from a man I hardly know. A man who seems too good to be true. Meanwhile, my heart is skipping again, dancing to its own beat while that fluttering has kicked up again in my belly as I help Jake out the back and lock things up.
So what if we’ve just met?
A girl’s gotta eat, right?
Right.
That’s what I’m going with. No reason to make a big deal out of nothing.
As Jake heads for the shiny Bronco parked next to my 4Runner, that sense of Knowing that quietly thrummed through me earlier floods my senses again. I try to shake it off, try to deny it, but my intuition has never been wrong. Still, I do my best to ignore it, which doesn’t quite work. So, I try reminding myself that fate isn’t a thing in my life.
