CHAPTER ONE
Thorne
The leather chair in my sister’s office squeaked—a high-pitched, irritating sound that matched the grating sensation in my chest. I’d been sitting here for twenty minutes while Kate explained why our grandfather—a man who’d taught me to fish and mind my own damn business—was currently meddling in my life from six feet under.
“So, let me get this straight.” I leaned forward, my elbows digging into my knees. “I can have the land—”
“All two hundred acres, plus the cabin,” Kate confirmed, her lawyer-voice smooth and entirely too satisfied for some reason.
“—but only if I get married. Within six months.”
“Yes.”
I wanted to punch something. Preferably the mahogany desk between us, though Kate would probably bill me for the property damage and emotional distress. “It’s been six months already, Kat. The clock’s ready to run out. Why wait until now to tell me this?”
“Technically only five and a half,” she corrected, tapping the will with a manicured nail. “And I didn’t tell you because I thought maybe you’d get your head out of your ass and join the land of the living.”
I ignored her while I tried to wrap my head around the bombshell she’d just dropped.
I needed to get married.
Which was going to be hard as hell because I hadn’t been on a date in over a year. Hell, I hadn’t had sex in over two years.
As if she read my thoughts, Kate continued. “Granddad didn’t want you becoming a literal hermit, Thorne. He worried you were rotting away up there.”
“I wasn’t rotting. I was healing.” I’d left my old job as a financial manager with a soul made of jagged glass and the knowledge that the zeros in my bank account couldn’t buy back my peace of mind. The mountain was the only thing keeping me upright. I’d embraced the life fully, turning into a recluse no one ever saw.
“You were hiding,” Kate countered. She looked me dead in the eye, cutting through my bullshit with the precision of a surgeon. Or a big sister. “The point is you have options. You can walk away—”
“No.” The land was mine. It was the only place where the silence in my head didn’t feel like a threat.
“Then fulfill the terms.”
I let out a harsh, dry laugh. “What am I supposed to do? Post a notice at Mack’s bar?Wanted: Wife. Must tolerate a grumpy prick with no interest in feelings. Sex is optional, but silence is mandatory.”
Kate’s lips twitched. “That’s option two.” She pulled out her phone, tapping the screen with the confidence of someone who’d already committed a felony on my behalf. “Lucky for you, your big sister went with option one.”
“Kate.”
“I set you up onMountain Mates.”
I stared at her. “You mean that dating app?”
“It’s notjusta dating app anymore. It’s a matchmaking service too. Very exclusive. They cater specifically to rural communities, remote areas, people looking for... unconventional arrangements.” She was using her lawyer voice, which meant she knew I was going to hate this. “I may have filled out your profile.”
“You didn’t.”
“I did.” She smiled, the kind of smile that had built her client base in a very short time because everyone trusted her when she smiled like that. I knew better. “Want to know what your bride looks like?”
“My—” I couldn’t even finish the sentence. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening.
A knock echoed through the office and we both froze.
“Please tell me that’s not—” I started.
The door cracked open, and a woman’s head appeared. Brown hair piled into a messy, I just rolled out of bed and look hot, knot.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was looking for Kate Underwood.”
