He answers on the first ring.
Why so eager at fucking six a.m.?
I’m starting to have a bad feeling about this.
“Wyatt, how are you doing this morning?” he asks in his booming voice.
“Can’t complain, Mike. How are you and that brave woman that married you doing?”
He laughs. “We’re doing well, son, we just wished we could see more of you around here. Everybody misses you in town.”
I smirk. “Yeah, right.”
“They do,” he insists.
Mike and Livvie might miss my company, but they are certainly the only ones who do. Not that I can blame the townsfolk from keeping their distance from me, I’m not exactly inviting and open, but my friend and his wife don’t see that.
They’ve been kind like surrogate parents to me since I moved here and not counting Jonny, they are pretty much the closest thing to a family I’ve ever had.
Mike is awesome at his job and has been completely dedicated to it since he was first elected twenty-five years ago, and I don’t think Jewel could have a better sheriff. Livvie is the town’s resident veterinarian and she’s a total sweetheart.
They don’t have children or any family, they only have each other, and they understood my situation and my need for space from the start. Mike has a military background as well and from the stories we’ve traded, I know he had to see some pretty heavy shit back in his day.
He is one of the few people in the world, aside from my Army brothers, with whom I can really talk about all the things that would make civilians balk.
I didn’t come ready to make friends, I have to be honest: I only wanted to do my job and be left to my own devices, but they wouldn’t let me and they slowly worked their way past my defenses.
I’m glad they did, they are wonderful people and I would have missed out by keeping them away.
There’s only one problem with them, with Livvie, especially: they can’t seem to accept that I don’t want ’someone special’ in my life.
“Was there a reason why you needed to talk with me?”
I might as well cut the chase.
He sighs. “Why, yes.”
“Has another black bear been seen lurking around town?” I ask, hopeful.
Our conversations seem to be all about bears or women lately and I’d much rather talk about the presence of the former over the lack of the latter.
“No, listen, son: Livvie and I want you over for dinner at the weekend.”
“Oh, well, that would be nice.”
And it will give me an excuse to get rid of some of the excess froyo.
Mike goes on: “Someone very dear to us that we haven’t seen since she was an itty-bitty thing is about to move here.”
I roll my eyes. Damn, I walked right into that one. “Um, then maybe I shouldn’t intrude. I mean, you guys should be given time to catch up and all,” I try halfheartedly.
“Nonsense, son! Livvie says she would be bored to tears spending the evening with two old-timers like ourselves and she’s right. Now, if you were to come around, I’m sure you young people could find something to talk about.”
“Mike, I’m feeling your wife’s matchmaking all the way from here, and the answer is still no.”
He chuckles. “We aren’t trying to get you a date, son, we’re simply attempting to get that girl a friend close to her age here in town so that you guys can hang out together.”
“I don’t hang out,” I mumble.
“Okay: brood out together then. Listen, the poor girl could use a friend: she doesn’t have much of a family and hasn’t been in Jewel since she was knee-high to a grasshopper. Remember that whole mess with the Lodge over on Hope Chest Street?”
I do remember.
Some old viper trying to forge a will to steal ownership of a B&B from the late Ms. Bellewood’s sole heiress.
It was the talk of the town a month ago or so, though not because it was particularly scandalous, to be honest: in a town as small as Jewel, anything slightly out of the ordinary can become the talk of the town.
I clear my throat. “Yes…”
“Well, she’s Sylvianne’s niece and she’s about to finally take possession of the Lodge as she should.”
I shrug. “Good for her,” I say noncommittally.
Mike groans and I hear fast-hissed whispers on the other line.
I shake my head, grinning.
“Tell me you’ll come, Wyatt…” the other half of the sentence I can imagine even if he doesn’t say it: ‘or I’ll never hear the end of this’.
“I might have a thing at the weekend now that I think about it.”
I love these guys as if they were truly parents to me but I’m not about to sit through an entire dinner with some chick they want to foist on me and nowhere to hide, I’m a brave motherfucker, but that sounds downright scary to me.
“You might?! Cut the crap, Wyatt: you know you’re coming. You might as well spare us both and say yes unless you want my wife to bother you until you say you will.”
I hear a protest from her, like he just offended her by stating something that’s utterly true.
Livvie can be persistent when it comes to this shit. I’ve been successfully dodging her attempts at pairing me off with some woman or another since I moved here, but she still won’t give up.
“Mike, sorry. I gotta go. We have a staff meeting today at the station and I haven’t had breakfast yet.”
I hear a slight commotion, a rustling, and a ‘Hey!’.
“Nice save, son, nice save, but this isn’t over,” Livvie says in the phone and hangs up before I can reply.
I shake my head as I slide a bowl onto the counter and start to crack eggs in it.
Meet some girl and keep her company should be a normal thing, I’m only thirty-seven after all, but it just isn’t for some reason.
I haven’t been close to someone for over twelve years now, I just don’t have the drive for it anymore, I guess.
It feels like that part of my life is over and done with, which is weird since it never really started.
I’ve never been in a relationship or anything, but I always thought I would find a nice girl, settle down and have a big family at some point, maybe it had to do with the fact that I didn’t have anyone growing up, so I wanted it all, but now… I don’t know…
I was never looking while being in active service: I didn’t think it would be wise to have a girlfriend, but I never pictured myself alone like this and perpetually single.
I guess there has been another side effect from my TBI after all: every time I think about maybe getting out there and finding someone it just feels wrong when it never did before.
On cue, the ache in my chest suddenly intensifies and I rub at the pain, with a frown on my face.
Chapter 5
KENNA
I smile at the passing scenery and hit the button to roll down my window so I can breathe in the cool mountain air, it immediately cleanses me, the nippy breeze jolting my senses better than any cup of java could.