“You think I can ride with you to your place and call her?” I ask. She looks to her brother, and I think she’s wanting him to guide her response, but he doesn’t.
He’s quiet. Too quiet.
“If you want to, I suppose I can,” she finally says when Wilder doesn’t speak. Or maybe they are doing their twin thing and talking silently to one another. Or maybe he’s thinking I should go after what I said.
“Let me get my stuff.” I walk past Natalie and enter the laundry room.
I almost pee myself when I see a giant-ass dog lying by the backdoor. Then I remember Natalie talking about her dog Teddy Bear before. She always jokes that he's her boyfriend. The dog really is the size of a damn bear. I remember her telling me he fought off a pack of coyotes for her once.
“Hey boy.” He sits up, and his tongue lolls out the side of his mouth. I give him a pet on the head before I grab my boots and go back into the kitchen to wait. It’s a good five minutes before Natalie and Wilder appear, but Wilder comes straight for me.
His big hands cup my face, and it feels like he’s looking right into my soul. “Make your call or do what you need, but know this. You’re mine.” He leans down and kisses me long and hard before he releases me. Once he’s let me go, he turns and stomps through the house, then a second later, the front door slams.
“We’re going to end up with firewood for the next three years,” Natalie says.
“What?” I asked, confused, before I hear the sound of cracking wood and it clicks together that Wilder is out there chopping wood again.
“Come on. Let's go girl talk at my place.”
“Are you mad at me?” I ask.
“Nah.” She smirks. “I think everything is going to be okay.”
I wish I had her faith. I could use some right now.
Chapter Fourteen
WILDER
An hour goes by, and I’ve cut all the wood I had stored in the shed. It’s not enough. My body is still shaking, and everything in me is telling me I need to move. Somehow I’ve got to get closer to Bri, and maybe then I’ll feel better.
I check the road going down the mountain and see that it’s still not safe enough to drive on. It’s too far to take the four-wheeler, and I know Natalie wouldn’t put Bri or herself in an unsafe situation. So that leaves Natalie’s place.
Going over to the garage, I open the double doors and grab the keys for my snowmobile. I’m just going to ride over and make sure they got there safely. The sky might be clear, but the snow is deep, and I don’t want anything to happen to them. At least that’s what I tell myself as I pull out of the garage and onto the back path.
It doesn’t take me long before I reach Natalie’s place, and I can see the tracks her four-wheeler has made. Up ahead, I see the lights on, but I park my ride a distance away so they don’t hear me coming.
“Just one look,” I say to myself as I get off and creep a little closer. I just need to make sure she’s okay.
When I glance inside, I see Teddy Bear in front of the fire and all curled up. He’s not much of a guard dog in the house. When he’s outside, he’s on red alert but in the house, he’s a big ol’ lazy boy.
Peeking a little farther inside, I see Bri in the kitchen giving Natalie a hug. I can’t see her face, but it crushes all the hope I have left. She’s probably in there crying about what I did and how she can’t be with me.
I thought that my love would be enough. I thought that what we felt was all we needed to keep us going. I guess I was wrong. I’m not giving up yet, and I’ll convince Bri to give me another chance even if it takes me until we’re old and gray. I’ll make her see that loving me isn’t a mistake and that I can be the man she needs.
Deciding to give her the space I promised her I would, I turn away from the cabin. My feet are heavy as I trudge back to the snowmobile, and it’s not because I’m wading through slush. It’s because my heart has sunk to my toes and now I don’t know if I can pick them up anymore.
I put my hand on the side of the seat to brace myself when I hear a noise. Looking up, I see Natalie’s front door open and then Bri is standing there. Her eyes widen when she spots me, and I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I’m frozen in place as it begins to snow again, and somehow this feels like magic.