by AG Meiers
Sven vaguely remembered some disconcerting dreams about Jayden and a puppy. City Boy was turning his life upside down, and Sven wasn’t sure he was ready for it. For a few long minutes, he tortured himself by watching Jayden sleep in his arms, but then he untangled himself, dressed quietly, and fled the intimacy of the cabin. The intensity of last night had him slightly shaken, but also craving more at the same time. More of Jayden. So, it was either leave or crawl under the covers and lick every inch of Jayden’s body just to get another taste.
As always, Orla was already up and serving breakfast to members of Fire and Rescue. Despite the early hour, it was pretty busy. The foresters usually started their day later, but Petrovic was sitting at a small table in the corner. He had a plate filled with scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast in front of him and was doctoring his coffee with huge amounts of cream and sugar. Sven grabbed a coffee from the bar and joined Pat at his table.
“Hi, boyo, where’s your little sidekick?”
“Asleep,” Sven said.
“Ahh, the good mountain air.” Petrovic chuckled, raising his eyebrows, insinuating something much less innocent while he poured another pack of sugar into his cup. Besides Orla, he was the one member of Sven’s extended family who from the start had had absolutely no issues with Sven’s sexual orientation. “Seen too much shit to care” had been his only comment when Sven had come out to his family. And that was probably true if only half of the stories that circled about his past were accurate.
Petrovic had shown up in Cold Creek around the same time that Sven’s adoption had gone through, so the cynical older man with a shady past had been a part of Sven’s growing up. Most people stayed clear of the intimidating ex-con, but Orla and Duncan had welcomed him from the start, so he was intensely loyal to Sven’s family.
That didn’t, however, stop him from poking fun at any opportunity. Before Sven could say anything to defend himself against the old man’s insinuations, Orla came rushing to their table. “Sven, sweetie, what are you doing up so early?” She ruffled his hair.
“I have a deadline today and a ton of work to do.” It wasn’t quite true; he still had another two days to finish the first draft for his editor, but he needed some time alone to sort himself out. As amazing as last night had been, maybe it shouldn’t have happened. Jayden’s whispered offer in the dark had simply pushed him over the edge. Jayden—
Sven let out a surprised yelp as Petrovic kicked him hard against his shin. Orla looked at him with a frown, clearly expecting an answer to a question he must have missed. He glanced across the table to see if the old man would help him out, but no such luck. Instead Orla broke the silence. “Are you okay, honey? You’re not getting a cold from all this damp weather, are you?” Orla moved her hand to Sven’s forehead and then his cheek, as if she was checking his temperature. Petrovic snorted into his coffee.
Sven blushed. “Sorry, no, it’s early. I guess I need more coffee. What did you say?”
“I asked you what you want for breakfast. I made a fresh batch of eggs or I have oatmeal ready. I’ll bring something over for you. Is Jayden coming too?”
“Nah, it’s just me. He’s still sleeping. I’ll have some coffee first and get something later. Thanks, Mom.”
“Okay, come into the kitchen whenever you’re ready. Pat, you need anything else?”
“Thanks, Mom, I’m good too,” Petrovic joked.
Orla rolled her eyes and then rushed off again. Petrovic grabbed his fork and started to dig into his breakfast. Sven nursed his coffee, taking small sips. They sat in silence for a few minutes until Petrovic said, “The boy’s got your brains scrambled.” Great visual as the other man was shoveling a forkful of eggs into his mouth.
Sven huffed out a laugh, because Pat had nailed it. Jayden had crashed into Sven’s well-ordered existence and brought deeply buried dreams to light. And, of course, immediately pictures of Jayden’s naked body sprawled out in Sven’s bed flashed through his mind. His breath quickened, and he promptly choked on his coffee. Goddamn. Larson, get a grip.
“Got something on your mind you’d like to talk about, boyo?”
“I guess.” He chose his next words carefully. “Pat, I don’t know what to make out of all this. I mean Jayden. Okay, so maybe I like him—but he’s a complete stranger. I’ve only known him for a few days. And I feel—” Yeah, hell no. Sven wasn’t going to confess his jumbled feelings to anybody in his family, so he quickly changed the topic and tried to explain his struggle from a different angle. “I’m not a big fan of online dating, but even I know usually it works differently. You pick someone yourself . . . you know, somebody who catches your attention. There is a lot of hit and miss involved. And the last guy I dated, we spent a lot of time talking before I felt a connection. But Jayden, we—” Petrovic was looking at him as if he had sprouted a second head. Lamely, Sven ended with, “Do you believe in a perfect match?”
“Nope.” Pat snorted and rolled his eyes. “And that agency—it’s a whole lot of bullshit if you ask me.”
Sven—accepting defeat when it came to explaining himself—went with the abrupt subject change. He glanced around to make sure that Orla wasn’t close. “Perfect Match? It’s a lot of crazy promises. A few questions, one call, and boom, here is the love of your life, neatly packaged up and delivered to your door step.”
Petrovic lowered his fork. “You mean one big check and boom . . .”
“You think something is wrong?”
“Well, I’m an old dog. If somebody charges a lot of money for bullshit, I get suspicious. That’s just me. I used to spend my days thinking about how to scam people and honestly this is a good one.”
Sven shook his head; that was such a Pat thing to say. He’d been born in a time before there was any online dating.
Pat picked up his fork again and pointed at Sven. “As I said, it’s too much money and then . . .” Pat hesitated, which was unusual, because most of the time the forester came right out with his opinion. “I think . . . well, actually I know your boy is hiding something.”
“What?”
“Yeah, sorry, maybe I shouldn’t tell you. It’s probably harmless, but you better know before you start sprouting shit about a perfect match.” Pat took a deep breath, obviously trying to make up his mind. “Remember the night he arrived, all the stuff fell out of his pockets when I hung his jacket up next to the fire? His boarding pass fell out. Jayden didn’t come from Philadelphia like he said. He came from Cody, Wyoming. I straight out asked him about it a day later and he . . . he lied. Can’t think why he’d lie about that unless he’s hiding something.”
Sven felt like somebody had just pulled the rug from under him. He vaguely remembered Petrovic’s question regarding the flight. More clearly, he remembered his and Jayden’s talk at the waterfall. “Wyoming is a little bit like this.” And then Jayden had mentioned pictures from Yellowstone. Jayden had lied to him. Why?
“Sven.” The urgency in Pat’s voice made Sven realize that he’d completely tuned out the old man. “Sven, listen, man, there are many reasons why he might have said what he said. I’ve lied plenty in my life. I’m telling you this because it’s clear you like the guy . . . Truth is, I like the kid—” Petrovic raised his hands. “Not like you like him. Fuck, what I’m trying to say is that you need to go into this with your eyes wide open.”
The coffee turned sour in Sven’s stomach. He ran his hand through his hair, trying not to pull it out in the process. When he was with Jayden, he forgot all about his normal reservations about online dating and match-making algorithms. And it was in part because Jayden insisted that it was real. But now Petrovic had exposed a lie. Jayden was lying. There could be a million reasons why Jayden hadn’t told Sven the truth, but he couldn’t really think of one good one. Sven couldn’t help the nagging feeling that he was missing something. Something didn’t add up, though he couldn’t put his finger on it.
“Maybe you should try and talk to Jayden about it?” Petrovic asked betwe
en a few more bites of his breakfast.
“Yeah, I guess.”
Pat raised an eyebrow but went on eating.
Sven relented. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll try and ask him about the flight.”
Petrovic nodded knowingly. “You should. Never good to let lies fester.”
“Jayden isn’t a liar. It’s just not in his DNA. I’m sure there’s a perfectly fine explanation,” Sven said with little conviction.
Petrovic gave him a slow nod. “Yeah, I agree with you there. As I said, I like him.” He stopped eating altogether now and toyed with his coffee cup. “Sven, forget that agency. Forget these stupid promises; look at the man, and that’s all that should matter. Just don’t do all your thinking with your dick in charge. That’s all I’m saying.”
More questions. More confusion. Sven’s frustration ratcheted up a notch. He wasn’t good at talking things out. He let out a low curse. “What were you guys thinking? Going online. Filling out a profile and inviting him here.”
Petrovic shrugged. “I tried to talk to Orla, but, hell, she was dead set on finding someone for you. After losing Duncan, she was afraid you’d end up alone if anything were to happen to her.”
“I hate when she says stuff like that.” After a moment of silence, Sven added, “I wish she had just talked to me instead of paying a shitload of money.”
“Heh, Sven, please don’t take this the wrong way, but . . .” Petrovic reached across the table and awkwardly patted Sven’s arm. “There was no talking to you, son. You probably didn’t notice, but you walked around like a zombie the first few weeks. And I get it. I know what Duncan meant to you. You guys were close and losing him was hard, but . . . Orla wasn’t the only one worried, I admit. You freaked all of us out.” The older man’s eyes were full of sympathy. Sven tried to breathe through the lump forming in his throat and was grateful when Petrovic pulled his hand away.
“Duncan O’Conner was a great man and an awesome friend, but you can’t get lost in grief. He would want us all to move forward, especially you and Orla. He loved you like nothing else.” The sleazy grin that suddenly appeared on Petrovic’s face told Sven he had to take the next words with a grain of salt. “And now, when I see you with that kid, I tell ya, Orla was on to something. She knows you pretty well, better than you may think. You know, City Mouse is fun. Mixes things up. Besides the blasted rain, not much happening in Cold Creek otherwise.”
“I guess,” Sven conceded. “Orla likes him, right? I mean no matter why he is here and how he got here, Jayden is good for her. You said it. They have fun together.”
Orla had been laughing more these last few days. She didn’t seem lost in her own thoughts when Jayden was around. Whenever the two of them were together, Sven saw a glow of cheerfulness slowly return. Jayden didn’t even seem to know that he had a talent for making people around him relaxed and happy.
Sven just had to make sure he kept his distance at night. Anyway, he was still shaken by how much Jayden affected him. They only had a few days together. Sven couldn’t let himself get too involved.
Petrovic snorted again. “Yeah, Orla likes Jayden. He makes her laugh and listens patiently to all her endless stories while messing around in her kitchen, but”—now, the older man seemed to be having a really hard time containing his amusement—“Orla isn’t sporting a hickey from Jayden . . . like some other people.”
Petrovic’s roaring laugher at Sven’s instant fire-red face brought all discussion in the large room to a halt. Everybody turned their heads, and Sven, for the second time this morning, fled in a hurry.
Perfect Match Commitment #9:
Once we have found your match, why wait? We’ll make sure you get together as quickly as possible. All travel arrangements to bring love to your doorstep are on us.
“It’s okay, sweetie, not every recipe works out.” Orla gently patted Jayden on the back as he scraped the swampy dough out of the mixing bowl straight into the trash. They had been trying a scone recipe from one of his favorite websites, but somehow the measurements had been off by a lot, and there was just no way the soup-like gunk in his bowl would turn into perfect mocha chocolate chip scones. And Jayden couldn’t try another batch, because he’d used up the last pack of chocolate chips. Clearly, it was going to be one of those days.
He’d woken up in bed alone. Not only had Sven snuck out of bed early, but he had then proceeded to avoid Jayden all morning. Jayden had been disappointed and a little hurt, but he was expecting too much. Maybe their first sexual encounter hadn’t meant much to Sven. They’d got off together . . . so what?
Jayden tried to pull himself back to the baking challenge ahead of him. “I really like that website. They have interesting recipes and aren’t afraid to make some unusual choices, but they have stupid errors sometimes. The liquid-to-flour ratio is off for this one. Somebody should write a review and tell them, before people keep wasting perfectly fine ingredients. The last piecrust recipe I made from this site had an issue too. Timing and temperature just weren’t right. It burned. Completely unusable.” To his shock, his eyes were itching, and he could feel a lump forming in his throat. Oh shit, he wasn’t going to tear up over ruined scones and burned piecrust. Jayden rushed to the sink to get away from Orla’s curious looks.
“Why don’t you write to them, then? You’ve done some pretty amazing baking since you arrived. And your instincts are dead on. Remember yesterday, when you decided to add some buttermilk to one batch of your banana muffins and they came out better than the original recipe?” While talking, Orla walked over to the counter and pulled her own recipe book out of a drawer. She had an old diary, which she had turned into a collection of recipes. The book had one of these small locks, and she always carried the tiny key around in her purse. Jayden loved the secrecy of it. As if her recipes were a national treasure.
Still frustrated, he dumped the plastic bowl into the sink with slightly more force than necessary. He felt guilty when he looked up and saw Orla watching him with a wistful smile.
“Jayden, promise me you’ll write to those people. Don’t hold back. Trust yourself. There will be times you’ll know what’s right and you’ll just have to go for it.”
“Okay.” Jayden couldn’t come up with a better reply. Are we still taking about mocha scones?
“Oh, stop with the sad face and come here.” She waved her small book in front of him. “I’ll share my grandmother’s secret blueberry scone recipe with you.”
“A family secret? And you’re sharing it with me?” Jayden quipped.
“Well, I’m not sharing it with just anybody, but I promise it will get you smiling again. Best scones you’ll ever taste. And once we have the first batch in the oven, we can put some lunch together for Sven, and you can take it up to him.” She gave Jayden a little wink. Orla was awesome. Jayden didn’t need the secret blueberry scone recipe to feel better.
An hour later, armed with a tray full of lunch goodies, Jayden walked up the stairs to Sven’s office and knocked. After a few seconds, there were steps on the other side and Sven opened the door.
Despite the fact that his heart was pounding so hard he almost felt sick, Jayden put on his most cheerful smile. “Sven, you missed lunch. Orla made you a sandwich and asked me to bring it up to you. Am I interrupting?”
The initial smile on Sven’s face was quickly taken over by a frown, and Jayden wilted under Sven’s gaze. “Probably a stupid question. I guess I am. I’m sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have—”
“No, no, come in.” Sven held the door open for Jayden and then sprinted back to his desk to make room for the food. “Thanks for bringing up lunch. I didn’t realize how late it is already.” Jayden carefully placed the heavy tray on the edge of the table.
“What are you guys up to?” Sven asked. “I’ll be stuck here all day. My deadline is coming up. Sorry. I hope you’re doing okay?”
“I’m fine. Orla asked me to help her with grocery shopping this afternoon. Elliot’s driving us to New . . . Newport
?”
“Newbury. It’s the next town, about an hour from here.”
“Yeah, Newbury. Orla’s preparing for a training seminar next week. About twenty people, she said. It’s a larger group than usual. She’ll probably need all rooms up here and a few of the cabins. She has a real long list for the store and—” Jayden shut his mouth abruptly to cut off the word ramble. What was he doing? Event planning?
Sven looked slightly surprised as well. “So, the bridge is okay, then?”
Oh no. Jayden shouldn’t have said that.
“Yeah, seems like it. I mean, Elliot checked and said he could make it across.”
A slow nod was Sven’s only reply as he moved the food, plates, and flatware off the tray and onto the table.
Jayden attempted another conversation starter. “Orla and I tried out her grandmother’s blueberry scone recipe this morning.”
That brought a genuine smile onto Sven’s lips. “Wow, I hope you know what an honor that is. Usually Orla shuts everybody down when they dare to ask for the ingredients.”
“I know, she told me. Cool, right?” Jayden smiled back, and for a whole minute the world was a beautiful place because he and Sven simply stood there, looking into each other’s eyes grinning like idiots.
Jayden took a slow, hesitant step toward him. “Last night was nice.”
“‘Nice’?” Sven asked, his voice a little husky, which sent shivers down Jayden’s spine. “Just nice?”
Nice. Did I say “nice”? Last night had been the single most amazing sex Jayden had ever had. Ever.
“No, I mean, great, amazing . . . really, really nice. You know I . . . We could do it again . . . I mean, if you want—”
But it was too late; Sven’s scowl had returned full force.
“No. Not a good idea.” He seemed to choke on the words as he turned away, staring out the window.