The Simple Wild (Wild 1)

“And you’re you,” he retorts, adding more softly, “except you’re actually smart. I’m shocked.”

“Shut up.” A spark of satisfaction flickers inside me. Jonah thinks I’m smart.

He sighs, his gaze settling on his folded hands. “Alright, alright. Look. We got off on the wrong foot and that’s on me. Yeah, I can admit when I’ve been an ass.”

“So . . . is this, like, a truce or something?” Is Jonah capable of being civil?

“Or something.” He glances at his watch and then eases out of my chair. His heavy boots thump against the floorboards as he heads for the door that leads off the porch.

“My dad told you to be nice to me, didn’t he?”

“Nope.”

I don’t buy that, especially since my dad said he’d tell Jonah to ease off me. And something makes me think they’re too close for Jonah to shrug my dad’s requests off.

“Hey.”

He pauses at the door. “Yup?”

“What do you know about my dad’s diagnosis?” My dad made it clear that he doesn’t want me to bring it up with him, and Agnes has already told me what she knows.

So the only person left to ask is Jonah.

His shoulders sag with a heavy exhale. “I know he has cancer, and he doesn’t want to talk about it while you’re here.”

“What do you think that means?”

“That he has cancer and he doesn’t want to talk about it while you’re here,” he says, matter-of-factly.

I roll my eyes at his back. “But he hasn’t let on how bad it is?”

There’s a long pause, and then he admits, almost reluctantly, “He asked me if I’d ever consider buying the company from him.”

Surprise hits me. “He’s thinking of selling Alaska Wild?”

“He’s weighing his options. He said he might want to retire.”

My dad, retiring. He’s only fifty-three. Then again, he’s been running the place since his early twenties. Maybe, after thirty years, he’s finally had enough. But what would he do?

Would he stay in Alaska?

Or would he be ready to finally try something new?

“What’d you tell him?”

He chuckles. “I don’t have that kind of money. Plus, I don’t wanna be stuck behind a desk all day long for the next thirty years. I like the way things are right now. No matter what, though, I told him I’d take over running Wild for as long as he needs me to.”

Much like my dad took over for my grandfather, when he started his treatment.

I swallow the growing lump in my throat. “That’s nice of you, to be willing to do that.”

“Yeah, well, Wren’s family to me. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him.” He clears the gruffness from his voice.

My chest tightens at the rare hint of emotion. “Do you think he’ll get through this?”

“I think . . . that if there’s any way you can stay longer, you should.”

“I could,” I blurt out, without thinking.