Page 54 of Wren's Winter

They were beautiful words, only thinking of the present. But the future was fast approaching, and in a matter of twenty-four hours, I was destined for home. Not here with this gorgeous man who helped me down from his truck, made me crepes, and called me by a name no one else had. Not with this man I was growing to fall in love with.

Pulling away, I made a show of checking my phone. “I should head back to the cabin. I’m behind on a few reports, and strictly speaking, I’m not on vacation from work.”

In Adrian’s expression was a fight to argue, but he held his tongue. He helped me find my discarded clothes and walked me to the cabin. Despite my assurances that I was warm enough, he built me a fire in a matter of minutes so I wouldn’t get cold. I refused his offer to make me a snack for later, giving him a quick but smoldering kiss and promising to return in a few hours once my reports were submitted. As he walked away, I watched his back. The long lines of him, with his hands in his pockets and his head down to protect his face from the icy wind. Hope bloomed in my chest. Maybe this was something I could hold on to. Maybe he could be mine.

Adrian

As dawn broke, I woke to Wren beside me. Her face slack, her pink silk bonnet on her head, and her bare shoulder a warm bronze in the early morning light. A quick kiss to that soft area between her neck and her collarbone. With a tentative finger, I traced the line of her face, the shadows under her eyes, and the curve of her lip. This is what waking up every morning should be if only I had enough to be worthy of it.

With Wren back at the cabin, I busied myself with cleaning up the house. I thought about what I might make for dinner that night. How I would ask her to stay longer. The woodpile was getting low, so I grabbed a few more logs from the side porch to bring inside. Maizie took off, chasing a small animal and barking like a maniac. Her little tongue hanging out, she ran past me to the other cabin. Already, she had chosen her person, and I was no longer it. It didn’t escape my notice the way she curled up beside Wren in bed and followed her around my home. Little traitor.

Whistling, I called her back to me. My arms heavy with wood, I heard the heavy footsteps on my porch. They didn’t sound like the soft padding of Wren as she came over. How odd that I already knew the sound of her footsteps.

Dropping the wood by the stove, I stopped at the bottom to look at the shadow through my door. It was a man—I could tell that much. Frowning, I opened the door.

He stood a head shorter than me, skinny, with dirty-blond hair. Clad in a puffy jacket and snow pants, lift tickets for Vail, Alta, and Breckenridge still hanging from the hook on his hip.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

The guy blinked at me a few times, obviously surprised to see me. He rocked back on his heels and studied the numbers of my house. “Isn’t this 143 Sitka?”

My arms crossed against my chest, I looked the guy up and down. He didn’t look like someone peddling religion, and he sure as hell wasn’t selling cookies. “It is.”

“Uh, is there another 143 Sitka? ’Cause I put this in my GPS and ...” Maizie came up, jumping on him. Her little paws left small brown spots on his jacket. The man stepped back, swearing and brushing mud off his coat. “What the fuck, man? This is Moncler!”

“Who?” I asked, grabbing my dog before she got hurt.

The guy glared at me as he wiped the little footprints off his white coat. “I wouldn’t expect someone like you to know what that is.”

My patience had worn thin with this guy on my porch. Who insults another man’s dog and him at his own home? “You still haven’t told me who you are or why you’re on my front porch.”

“Beaufort Terrence Rebel Lark the Fourth.” He stared me down as if the name should be impressive.

Scoffing, I shook my head. What a ridiculous name... Then it dawned on me. “You’re Buck.”

This guy was the ex? I couldn’t be the best at determining what was attractive in a guy, but this boy was not what I expected.

He raised his chin. “How did you know that?”

Not owing him an explanation, I shoved my feet in the boots beside the door and pushed past him down the steps.

Wren opened the door, her amber eyes lighting as she saw me. A good sign. “Hey, I was just about to…” Her voice trailed off as she caught sight of Buck behind me.

“Oh.” A darkness descended over her face as she took him in. Her eyes darted between me and Buck.

Buck brushed past me, walking to her side. “Wrenny, do you have any idea how long it took me to find this place? It’s out here in butt-fuck nowhere. I don’t know why you wanted to come here. It’s not as bad as that place in Kevo’s Pond we went to last summer, though. That was wild, right? Remember how the bathroom doorknob broke off in your hand and I had to get maintenance to let you out?”

Her face still, a frozen mask of uncertainty. He leaned in, kissing her on the cheek. The move so familiar between them, I could tell it was a reflex by now. She didn’t push him away. Instead, she leaned into the kiss. That’s what they had together. Reflexive touches inside jokes. Her eyes wide as they darted to me. In the short time I knew her, I had seen many expressions on her face: annoyance, sadness, glee. But I had never seen such heavy guilt clouding her features.

“So, you two met.”

“Yeah, he showed me over here. The directions you had sucked, by the way.” Buck turned to face me. “I didn’t catch your name, though, man.”

I waited for a moment, hoping that Wren would introduce us, that she would tell him who I was to her. That I could know what I was to her.

Say I’m yours.

“Buck, this is Adrian. He’s, um. He’s been, well. He…” With a shaky breath and fidgeting fingers, she gulped audibly.

---