by L. B. Dunbar
“Fucking James.” Giant doesn’t look back, and neither do I, as I’m too stunned. It feels like we’re fleeing a crime. Fugitives on the run.
We bounce down a worn path, crushed between a wall of trees. Giant wants to speed, but the rough terrain prevents it.
The time passes in silence.
“Say something,” he commands, his voice full of an emotion I don’t recognize. I don’t even know if I can speak my full name.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Anything. Just talk.” Your silence makes me nervous. He swipes a hand over his longer beard, and I realize how damp I am. Everything processes in slow motion. My clothes are soaked. Dirt coats the front of me. My hair is a mess. Giant has a truck.
“Should we have searched for James?”
Giant swipes a palm over his hair and then slams the palm on the steering wheel. He shakes his head, lips clamped in refusal to discuss his brother.
“Ask me anything else.”
“How long has your truck been up here?” It seems like a silly thing to ask. He obviously parked up here and unloaded to prepare for us. Then he came down the mountain to get me.
He quickly peers over at me and then away without an answer. What’s happening?
“Explain to me what happened here?” I bite my lips, chewing at the tender skin as thoughts ramble through my head. Did he plan all this? Did he hope to seduce me? What am I missing?
“James fired a gun, and I got us out of there.”
“Not James,” I snap, my irritation growing although I’m not certain what I’m irritated about.
Processing: Giant drove up here. He set up camp. He knew I’d show. Did he set me up?
“Was this a game to you?” The thought surprises me, but I need to ask.
“What do you mean?”
“You brought me up here, but did you lead me on? I thought we were without amenities or transportation, and it was here all along. What were you doing?” Withholding running water and electricity feels like the least of my issues, though. He sighs and swipes at his hair again, but he isn’t offering an answer. In fact, he sheepishly avoids looking back at me, and his jaw clenches, reminding me of our second meeting when he proposed the camping trip.
“You tricked me into going.” But did he? I’m the one who went to his cabin. I’m the one who went up this mountain without coercion. What was I thinking? The land. I wanted the land, but was that really the only reason? my heart whispers.
“I did no such thing,” he snaps, side-eyeing me. “You came willingly.”
Oh, I came all right. Six, seven times in three nights.
Three nights. That’s how long I think you’ll last before the land breaks you.
He was so wrong. Three nights and he broke me because my foolish heart started to believe it was more, it was something else.
His cabin comes into view in the distance. His cabin. The place he inherited from his pap. On the land he isn’t going to sell. My gut realizes it although my heart doesn’t want to accept it. What was all this about then? Why did we play this game?
“Three nights,” I whisper. “You lied to me.” The words feel thick and heavy, and I’m shocked by the underlying truth. My body feels dirty, and it’s not from the grit mixed in my hair or the mud splattered on my shirt. “Why would you lie to me?”
Again, he doesn’t speak. He doesn’t defend himself. Instead, he slows the truck, pulling up to the cabin and shifting into park.
“Answer me,” I bark, and he flinches. His eyes close, and his knuckles turn white on the steering wheel.
“I’m not giving you the land.” This is no longer an acceptable answer or even my question.
“Meaning?”
“I had no intention to sell. Ever.”
Ever. The word echoes through my hollow heart.
I didn’t plan to marry you, Letty. Ever. Hudson’s admission pales compared to Giant’s. I feel my dreams crumble and filter through the wind like paper torn to shreds and tossed into the air. Giant’s rejection feels like something more, something deeper. It feels so much worse than Hudson’s. But why? I hardly know this man. Admittedly, our current situation proves I knew less than I thought.
“Then what was this all about?” Three nights. Sleeping with him, enjoying him, falling for him. I glare at Giant, cursing him in my head as the stranger he is, and aching for him as something more in my heart.
His eerie silence is my answer.
“I see.” I slowly nod even though I don’t see. I don’t understand anything. “Foregone conclusion, wasn’t I? You challenged me, and I accepted. And for what? For sex?”
What did he want from this arrangement?
“It wasn’t just sex,” Giant mumbles, but I dismiss the statement as any emotion is absent.
“Did you do it to make me feel…stupid? City girl and mountain man, or something like that?” But that’s not what I felt. Used. Betrayed. Hurt. So very hurt. But not stupid.
I nod as if he spoke, as if he said something, anything to contradict me and give me hope I wasn’t a joke. “Did you think if I slept with you, I’d forget the land?” Then another question dawns. “Or do you think I slept with you to get the land? To make the deal?”
He turns on me, his eyes narrow and dark. “Didn’t you? You with your eager eyes and your pert smile, hoping to butter me up and take this from me. Telling me everything has a price. Well, this doesn’t.” He waves a hand toward the windshield and then slams it against his chest. I don’t understand the motion and absentmindedly look at the cabin I’ll never enter.
Cozy. Homey. Inviting.
I’ll never have a home like this.
I’ll never have a man like him, who loved a woman so much he washed her hair.
“You wanted what’s mine, and I wasn’t going to give it to you. It wasn’t even a thought until…” His voice drifts, but I’ve heard enough.
“How could you think such a thing of me?” My lips instantly quiver. An ax thrown at my sternum would be less painful than what he’s suggesting. I would never do such a thing. Ever. The word reverberates in my head. Sleep with the enemy. I’ve already done that with Hudson. Sleep with a client to score a commission. Not on my watch.
Then I hear Uncle Frank’s voice. Anything. I continue to shake with disbelief. Not like this. I would never strike a deal like this. This wasn’t a deal. Things changed. Something happened, at least for me. This was so much more, and for what? Why did I go with him? Why did I sleep with him? These questions have no answer, and it’s all a reminder that Giant and I are strangers. I lean forward and rummage through my bag for my car keys.
“I see,” I repeat. Licking my lips, I reach for the handle to release me from the truck. “Well, enjoy your land, Mr. Harrington.” I realize when a real estate deal has failed, but once again, I’ve failed to recognize a hopeless relationship.
It wasn’t a relationship. It was only sex.
I don’t offer a conciliatory handshake as I pop open the door. I’ve already wasted my heart on Giant and my body, which aches for his, even now, especially now.
Say something to change my mind.
“Officially off duty, sir,” I spit, reminiscent of stating I reported for camp when I accepted the challenge. The challenge of this land. The challenge of this man. I salute him with one hand while my other grabs my backpack at my feet. With strength I don’t feel, I carry the suddenly too heavy pack a few feet to my car and toss it over my front seat once I’ve opened the door. I collapse into my rental and reverse, narrowly missing the back corner of his truck.
With liquid blurring my eyes, I peel down the two-tire lane with a sad tune in my heart.
Country road, take me home, to the place, I belong…Chicago.
15
Intent to purchase or not
[Giant]
Eight days. Eleven hours. Twenty-seven minutes. That’s how long it’s been since she drove off, and I didn’t say a word to defend myself or apologize for my
accusation.
The pain in her eyes undid me. The tears she fought. The courage it took her to get out of my truck.
I wanted to pull her to me the minute I said what I said.
Didn’t you?
Didn’t you sleep with me in order to obtain my property? Didn’t you mess with my heart to get to my land? Didn’t you want to stay? Didn’t you feel something for me? Didn’t you see I’m falling for you?
Three short nights.
I slam back the beer, hardly tasting the crisp October blend. My brother Charlie asked me to meet him at the pub for lunch. Being in public is the last place I want to be, but going back up the mountain isn’t a possibility for me. She ruined it. My haven has been invaded by memories of a woman with blistered toes, a sweet laugh, and a delicious body.
Charlie is the mayor of Blue Ridge and the baby brother of our family. He took up politics after some of the corruption from our previous mayor came to light. He’s been good for the community, working to keep the locals happy and the tourism thriving. The economy has been restored under his reign, especially with the help of one particular business.
Blue Ridge Microbrewery and Pub is my other brother’s business. Billy didn’t want to work in the factory, but when he dropped out of college, he didn’t have a choice. Eventually, he broke free and built a place for people to enjoy our family’s brew—and party—which he knows best. Celebrate has been Billy’s motto since his divorce from his high school sweetheart, or potentially the cause of it. He’s been in business for about fifteen years and along with him, Giant Brewing Company has grown under me.
I thought I’d be military forever, but with the gunshot wound and a medical discharge, here I am.
Alone again.
It sounds like a song Mati’s new beau might have sung back when he was a rock star. Matilda’s our little sister, the real baby of the family, and the princess as the token daughter after four sons.
“Want another?” she asks me as she works the lunch shift before coaching volleyball in the evenings for the local high school. Her lion-red hair doesn’t match any of us boys, as we’re all shades of gray at this point. I’m still the lightest although I’m the oldest.
“Keep ’em coming.”
Mati pats my shoulder and walks away. Charlie approaches, weaving here and there to greet people as he makes his way to the round table in the back corner. He’s like a local hero. James is the real hero in our family, but he disowned us. For the past week, I’ve tried to figure out what he was doing up at the ranger station and if he was the one shooting his gun. His bike was gone when Letty and I arrived for my truck, but that doesn’t mean anything. He’s mixed up in some bad stuff, hanging with the Rebel’s Edge MC outside of town, and I’m hoping to ask Charlie if he knows anything while we have lunch.
“Good to see ya,” he says, slipping in next to me. The table seats four, but he pulls up a chair next to mine.
“Hey,” I grumpily reply.
He waves at Mati, who holds up her finger, and Charlie nods. She’ll be bringing over a beer for him as well.
“How are you doing?” Charlie asks, and I hate the suggestion in his voice, questioning me on a deeper level. Everyone worries about me. My mental state after returning home. My mental being after losing Clara. My mentality taking on the family business. Now, I have my mother worrying about my sex life. She tried to set me up with Alyce Wright again.
“I suck,” I say, surprising myself as I don’t give my standard answer of I’m fine. I’m not fine. I miss Letty something fierce, and I don’t know what to do about it.
How could you think such a thing of me?
“Really?” Charlie’s voice hitches. “Does it have anything to do with a request to purchase Pap’s land?”
“What?” My head snaps in Charlie’s direction, and my eyes narrow. How does he know about this?
“A request to purchase uninhabitable”—Charlie air quotes around the word—“land came through the zoning office. Of course, Betty knows the property belonged to Pap, so she brought it to my attention.” Betty Jean Murphy was an old family friend of our parents.
Charlie pulls a copy of a legal document out of a leather portfolio he carried into the pub with him. My eyes leap to Mullen Realty Company of Chicago and the name Frank Mullen.
“Goddammit,” I hiss under my breath.
“Do you happen to know an Olivet Pierson from this real estate agency?”
“What?” I snap, glaring at my youngest brother.
Charlie examines my face for a minute and then nods. “Huh. That’s what I thought.”
“What do you mean?”
He rubs a hand over the leather binder. “Last Thursday, I got the strangest phone call.” He pauses a second. “A woman with a Yankee accent is on the line, and she starts telling me this story. How she might lose her job, but she wanted to tell me how her company wanted to acquire Pap’s land. As I’m listening to her, I look up the company, and they’re no small business in Chicago. They buy and sell real estate for all kinds of companies, and they represent a hotel conglomerate who uses their service to secure property for resorts and such.” Charlie pauses. “You following me so far?” His brow hitches, teasing me.
“Get on with it,” I bark, my eyes aimed at the document, but the words blur.
“So, this chattering woman tells me how she found some loophole. How the property cannot ever be procured for commercial use. Not only as it’s private property, but because it’s private property.”
I could have told her that, I think. But you didn’t, my heart reminds me. You let her believe she was going to get the land after a three-night camping trip.
I have no intention to sell the land. Ever. The look of horror on her face, as if I’d just stabbed her, slayed me. Did she want the land that badly? Did she really think it was that easy? Fool the mountain man, lure him into lust, and take what’s his? I pause at the thought. I don’t actually believe that’s how things happened between us. In fact, everything happened so fast I’m not certain what the intention from either of us was.
My heart skips a beat. You knew what you were doing, it patters. You saw a spark in her, and you wanted the spontaneity of a flame.
“Land held in a land trust means it can only be inherited, not sold. It doesn’t qualify for purchase. Nor can it be divided for commercial use. In the case of Pap’s, if no family was living to claim the land, it reverts back to the state.”
I know all this, and I’m a little surprised Letty didn’t. Did she not do her research first?
“Now, you might wonder how this woman knew all this or why she shared it.”
Is Charlie a mind reader all of a sudden?
“Turns out, her company set forth this petition, trying to acquire the property to the left of Pap’s, but as you might recall, it’s unobtainable due to zoning and dimensions and…” Charlie pauses to wave a hand, knowing I’ll drown out the legal jargon. “Anyway, they hoped to squeeze you out in the deal, but she wanted to assure me she was working on something as she disagreed with their sneaky antics.”
“Cut to the chase, Charlie.” My heart hammers in my chest.
“She says upon her visit to the area…Did you know she visited the area, Giant?” He pauses again for effect with an eyebrow hitched, reminding me of our mother. “She found the property uninhabitable. Something about no running water, no electricity.” Charlie’s voice slows. “Do you know anything about this?”
I don’t answer my brother. Instead, I lift my glass and down the rest of my beer.
“Then she yammers on about how she learned the mayor of the town was the brother of the property owner, and she wanted to inform me of these loopholes.” Charlie chuckles like it’s the most ridiculous thing he’s heard. He’s a lawyer. He’s my sibling. He knows all this information. “Seems her research skills failed her if she didn’t know this information before making a trip down here. Then again, maybe she’s their bulldozer. Send her in to handle the locals and
hope they don’t know anything about their land rights.” Charlie snorts, but I’m failing to find the humor in anything he says.
“So?” I grunt. They never would have gotten my property anyway. Charlie already knows this. I know this. What game is she playing now?
“She wanted to personally let me know that the company repeals the petition. She was making certain of it. They were no longer interested in the property. And here’s the weird part. She was adamant I know and equally persuasive in suggesting I inform you. Isn’t that the damnedest thing?” Charlie’s voice lowers, and I feel his eyes zeroing in on me, but my eyes remain on the document before me on the table.
I huff. Based on Letty’s grand exit, I assume she’ll never look back. The property isn’t the only thing she’s no longer interested in.
“Then”—Charlie chuckles—“she goes on to tell me we should consider an ax-throwing facility or perhaps a court at the pub.”
“What the fuck?”
“I know, right? I mean, that sounds ridiculous. Who throws axes for fun?”
Exactly, I think, exhaling heavily as my heart is ready to burst through my chest.
“However, she mentioned how she learned to fling an ax from an ax master when she was in the area.” Charlie’s voice rises, thoroughly enjoying this little tale he’s sharing. “Then she ends by telling me how sorry she is that her company won’t be building in the area because she just loved her time here. The land was so beautiful, she said.” Charlie mocks her Yankee accent. He flips a few pages of the document before me.
“The funny thing is, she sounded relieved the project wouldn’t happen, despite all her chatter about how great our community seemed. We have the nicest people here, she said. She loved the stars at night. Even the rain was wonderful.” Charlies snorts again. “She had the most amazing adventure in the woods, experiencing nature, and really came to appreciate it. No, love it were her exact words.” Charlie lets out a breath. “And man, does she have words. She’s a talker.”
Cricket, my heart sings. Always chirping.