Discovering You (Miller Lodge Romance Book 1)

by Jadelynn Asher

  He jogged through the shin-deep snow to catch up to the truck, jumping up and riding on the sideboard as Jason rolled down the lane into the lot. Jason stopped somewhere near the middle in order to avoid the worst of the drifts and got out, grateful for tall boots. He half closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. The air was crisp and cold and smelled of snow and sunshine. It wouldn’t take too long for the sun to burn the clouds away. It was the perfect kind of day to hit the slopes, and maybe if they were fast enough here, he could get in some skiing for fun before taking his shift watching over the night skiers.

  “Dude, you coming?” Connor’s voice broke into Jason’s musing and he nodded.

  “Yeah, yeah. Right behind you.” Since he had no idea what they were going to encounter inside, he grabbed a roll of industrial sized trash bags out of the tool chest on his truck and trudged through the snow, following the path Connor broke.

  By the time he hit the front porch, Connor was opening the door, and Jason immediately wished he hadn’t as the pungent aroma of infuriated, hungry skunk rolled out to greet them. Jason gagged and turned away, spitting into the snow. Of all the possibilities, skunk was at the top of his ‘worst’ list.

  “Oh…no. Why? Why a skunk?”

  Connor slammed the door shut, covering his mouth and nose with his gloved hand. “Dude, that is just rank.” His words were muffled by his hand, but Jason heard him clearly enough.

  They both leaned up against the lodge, letting the scent drift away on the breeze while they decided what to do.

  Connor shook his head. “Okay…if we go back down without taking care of it, our parents will kill us. We’re big, tough, capable guys, right? So, how do you want to do this?”

  In the moment any ire Jason had with Connor was dismissed as they became brothers-in-arms in the war against the stink and the creature that was causing it. Jason thought for a moment and then pushed fully to his feet. “Right. I have a couple of painter’s masks in the truck. They aren’t nearly as good as other things, but they should help. We can wear trash bags to keep some of the smell out of our clothes.”

  Connor grinned, his breath rising in steam around his face. “You mean like when we were little and Grandpa would take us to the rodeo?”

  Jason had to laugh at that, memories of summer rodeos in the pouring rain filling his head. He could almost smell the mud and the manure despite the snow and the lingering eau de skunk. “Just like that. Then we use more trash bags like a shield. Hold them up and toss them over the trap. I saw it on Dirty Jobs once. Then we can just carry the whole thing up into the woods and press the release and leave it there until summer. I will pay for a new one, cause I ain’t bringing it back down.”

  “Solid plan. We’re going to have to open the place up after that and call Uncle Donald and your mom. I have no idea how to get skunk smell out of the place. And I don’t want to be the one responsible for doing it.”

  Jason wrinkled his nose at the very thought. “Yeah. We can burn that bridge when we get to it, but I’m not volunteering either. I’ll go get the masks and anything else that looks helpful. You go around the lodge and see if you can find where it got in.”

  Connor gave Jason a mock salute and tromped off toward the back of the lodge, getting more snow on him than Jason thought was wise, but it wasn’t any of his business if Connor rode home wet and uncomfortable. He was a grown up. Jason made the trip between the truck and the lodge quickly, grabbing not only the painting masks, but a bunch of tools that might prove useful. If the skunk had made a hole somewhere they’d have to patch it up.

  He circled the lodge and found Connor on the back porch near a small hole in one of the window panes. Fortunately the windows were a series of small panes bound by wooden cross bars so it was only the one square that was a problem, but it was a big enough hole that it explained where the skunk had come in. It was also a big enough hole other things could have joined him. There was a happy thought.

  Jason walked up to get a good look at the break, noticing fur on the remaining glass, but there didn’t seem to be any blood. He was glad for that. If the skunk was really hurt, letting it go in the forest would be cruel, and he really didn’t want to have to kill it.

  Connor stepped back, letting Jason through. “So plug the hole first or after?”

  “First. I’m not in a rush to get in there and see the skunk.” Jason looked at the small planks of lumber he’d grabbed and decided that two of them would cover the bottom part of the window nicely until someone could get up here to properly fix it. He pulled out a small hammer and a little plastic tin of nails. “Hold this in place.”

  Connor accepted the direction, gamely holding the plank up against the window as Jason began to pound away. In between strokes Jason’s thoughts drifted back to Lisa. They’d been doing that a lot lately. He thought about things he wanted to tell her when she wasn’t around, and looked forward to seeing her again. He both wanted her to get into the program at the University of Denver and then didn’t on the same breath. What would he do if she was there and he was working at Snow Boulder year round? What if he found a job in Denver? Would that be creepy? Would it matter to her?

  He glanced at Connor, who looked as cold as Jason felt, and then back to the wood. They’d been really friendly. Did she want to date Connor? Would he follow her to Denver? Was he really interested at all, or was she just on his list of honeys? Jason remembered that Beth had said Connor had been coming to movie nights.

  “So, Beth says you’ve been hanging out with her and Lisa.”

  There. That was smooth. Non-confrontational.

  Connor picked up the second board and lined it up before shrugging. “Yeah, off and on. She’s pretty cool, even the stargazing thing was worth the time. She once even let Beth put on Aliens for movie night. Gotta love a girl who willingly watch that flick. Ya know it ages pretty well for an 80’s movie. Still scary as shit.”

  “Uh huh. Are you going to ask her out?”

  The words fell out of Jason’s mouth before he really thought about what he was going to say. The heat of embarrassment raced through his body, but he kept his focus on covering the window.

  “I might. She’s pretty damn hot and feisty, and there’s the movie thing. I’d do her.”

  The next swing of the hammer missed its mark, slamming into the wood next to the window instead of the nail Jason had been aiming for. It left a big dent that showed the pattern on the hammer head.

  “Don’t talk about her like that.”

  Connor’s eyes darted to the hammer, but he kept going as though Jason wasn’t obviously annoyed and armed. “Oh, come on, man, you’ve never wondered what she looks like under her sweater? I’ve only known her since the winter, but I bet she’s pretty sweet in a bikini. Oil her up and…”

  Some shred of common sense made Jason drop the hammer before he shoved his cousin off the porch. It was a good shove, solid and angry, catching Connor in both shoulders and sending him cartwheeling over the deck rail and into the shoulder high drifts. Jason stomped down the stairs, his inner barbarian intending to follow up the shove with a righteous pounding, but when he reached Connor his cousin was laughing like a lunatic. Something about the laughter breeched the red Jason was seeing, and he stopped a couple feet away.

  “What in the hell is wrong with you?”

  Connor kept laughing as Jason stood over him, seething. Finally, Connor drew breath. “Dude, you should see your face! Beth was totally right.”

  Beth? What did Beth have to do with anything?

  “Right about what?”

  “About you and Lisa. You like her.”

  Jason rolled his eyes and sniffed, the cold was staring to make his nose and cheeks burn. “Of course I like her. What does that have to do with you being an idiot?”

  “You don’t just like her, man. You like her like her. You’re smitten, twitterpated, falling for, whatever other phrase you want to say you love her.”

  Jason’s brain flashed through a mill
ion small moments, from watching her drift off in class to her sitting next to him and pointing out the stars. The brush of her lips on his cheeks was a particularly strong memory. “I do not. We’re friends. That’s all.”

  Connor started extricating himself from the snow, pounding the powder off of his coat. “Bullshit. If you were just friends then you wouldn’t really care if I dated her. You still might have shoved me for suggesting your friend was fine under her sweater, but you were thinking murderous thoughts, Bro. I saw your face. A dude doesn’t get that fierce over some girl that’s just a friend. Your brain may be in denial, but you love her.”

  “I…” Jason stopped himself and took a deep, cold breath, turning his back on Connor and returning to the window. Jason picked up the hammer, running his fingers over the polished wood. He loved her. He ran the thought around in his mind, trying to find holes in the idea, but it felt right. He wanted to be where she was, and he seriously didn’t want Connor dating her, kissing her, or loving her. Or anyone else. Ever. A warmth that filled his chest even in the cold.

  “Dammit.”

  Connor came up behind him and slapped him on the shoulder. If not for the presence of cold weather gear, it was a solid enough slap it would have hurt. As it was, it just knocked Jason forward a couple of steps. “So you love her. What you gonna do about it?”

  Jason shook his head and picked up the nails he’d been working with. “I…have no idea.”

  24

  Lisa tossed her backpack on the floor and flopped onto her bed, groaning. It had been a stupid day and it was only noon. She sighed, staring up at her ceiling. It was hard to put a finger on a particular reason that the day was so stupid and she was so grumpy. It was just one of those days when a million small things were bugging her. Her mother always called them ‘nibbled to death by baby ducks days’. The so-called group project for her English course was a disaster—why anyone still bothered with group projects was a wonder—and she’d taken so long trying to work those details out that she’d missed breakfast and had to run right to a Stats class where she’d found that she’d left her calculator in her bedroom.

  On top of all of that, she hadn’t seen Jason since the star gazing on Friday, and he’d missed class. She was worried about him, but neither he nor Beth had responded to messages yesterday or today. Even Connor was silent. It was like a family conspiracy to drive her out of her mind. If she had a car she would have driven over to someone’s house and demanded answers. As it was, all she could do was wait for her phone to buzz.

  She wasn’t even looking forward to the dorm celebration of St. Patrick’s Day anymore.

  Her stomach growled, reminding her that it was lunch time and she only had an hour before she’d have to run to another class. She didn’t feel like eating at the cafeteria or hiking over to the food court, so she dug around in her dresser until she found a box of protein bars. That would do. She unwrapped one and started munching, pulling out her notebook and reviewing everything that needed to be done today.

  Halfway through the list her phone buzzed. She grabbed for it, hoping it was Jason or Beth, but instead it was the dorm notification app letting her know she had a package downstairs.

  Lisa grumbled, but rolled off the bed. She couldn’t think of who would be sending her a package, and she hadn’t ordered anything from the internet, so she was curious what it was. Likely it wasn’t even for her. She’d been buzzed for packages for the next door down twice this semester. This was one of the moments she missed sharing the tiny room with Beth. Yeah, it was nice to have the whole thing to herself, but when they’d lived together she had someone to gripe with or at least talk to while making the journey downstairs.

  She approached the front desk and the woman who manned it, a lovely black woman named Jess only a few years older than Lisa, offered her a smile and a thick priority mail package. “Hey, Lisa. Doing anything fun for St. Patty’s?”

  Lisa took the package, surprised at the weight of it, and shook her head. “Not really. I might spend the night fixing issues with the group project for my English 215 class.”

  Jess’s expression turned to sympathy. “Is this one of those group projects where one member of the group is failing the project and everyone else’s grade relies on them?”

  “Yep. One of those.”

  Jess snorted, resting her elbows on the counter and her chin on her elbows. She had long nails which were painted bright green for the holiday. “I’m pretty sure every professor who assigns those is doing it out of revenge for the projects they had to do. They never go well.”

  Lisa sighed, shifting the package around. “I can’t say never, but pretty close. There’s always that one person who doesn’t want to do the job, but what can you do? I don’t want to get a crap grade out of a basic English class because someone can’t be bothered to do their research.”

  “I think the professors should take that into consideration, myself.”

  “Yeah. There are probably some who do, but Professor Huntsmaker doesn’t even want to teach this class, which doesn’t make him overly sympathetic.” Lisa twitched her hair out of her face. “I’d better go finish eating and see what this is.”

  “Go ahead, girl. But consider coming to the party tonight. It’ll be fun.”

  Lisa chuckled and turned away. “I’ll think about it.”

  Despite her curiosity Lisa didn’t open the package in the elevator, deciding that if there was anything inside that could be dropped or lost she didn’t want to lose it in the box. She hurried to her room and sat in front of the little desk. Finally alone she took a good look at the package and as her eyes scanned the return address her hands began to shake. University of Denver. Science Department.

  She pressed her hands against the box, taking a deep breath to steady herself and then pulled the tab to open the box. When she tilted it a thick book and a stack of papers slid out into her hands. She picked up the top paper which had all the hallmarks of a business letter. Return address, her name.

  Dear Lisa….Unqualified acceptance…Glad to welcome you…Classes start in fall…Final registration by March 31.

  She read it twice. It didn’t seem real. Any minute someone was going to call or knock on the door to tell her it was a mistake.

  She read the paper one more time. She’d been accepted to the program. Not only that, but they were offering her a partial scholarship. She would be able to afford the program, and if her grant still came through, they’d pay for housing. It was all coming together. She could do this.

  Lisa grabbed for her phone, realizing both of her parents would be at work, but she rattled off a text message anyway. Both responded within moments with hearts and congratulations and promises to call as soon as they were both home. She shot Beth a message and then scrolled to Jason’s name and stopped. She wanted to tell him. She needed to tell him. His confidence had given her the courage to do this.

  But what did it mean if she left? Who would she do breakfast with? Who would argue with her over remakes and reboots? His family was here but…she needed him with her. The thought stopped her cold and she laid back on the bed, her heart pounding.

  She needed him.

  She’d told Beth that Jason didn’t meet anything on her list, but somewhere in the last two months her list had stopped mattering. He supported her and made her laugh. He understood her and he never tried to change who she was, even as she found she wanted to be more who he wanted.

  They’d never been on one formal date, but in the last few months he’d become more important to her than anyone but her parents.

  She loved him.

  And she was leaving in May.

  What was she going to do about it?

  “That was the most disgusting St. Patrick’s Day ever!” Beth wadded the paper jumper up and shoved it into the bag Connor was holding.

  Jason signed and nodded, stripping out of his own paper suit. He was careful to fold it in on itself and keep the smell with it. None of them smelled great ev
en out of the suits, but it was much better than it could have been. If Grandma saw them like that she’d laugh so hard she’d fall off of her scooter. For her a skunk, and skunk smell, would have been nothing. She insisted she was just ‘made of sterner stuff’. Jason didn’t want to be made of stern stuff if it meant embracing skunk smell.

  Connor wrapped the bag around all of the suits and cleaning supplies and tied it off, ready for the garbage. “Yeah, well, I need a beer. And the next time Uncle Gordon calls I’m not going to answer. Dude. Nothing good ever comes of talking to him. I always get talked into helping with weird family crap.”

  “I don’t disagree, but he was right that it needed to be done sooner rather than later. We get to check off our good deeds for the day.”

  Connor glared at him, and Jason was surprised when his cousin didn’t flip him off. Then again, his hands were as full of cleaning supplies as Jason’s were.

  Beth double checked that the doors to the lodge were locked and then fell in with the boys as they returned to the truck. “I’m just glad it’s over, and we can still get back into town before all the fun is over too.” She checked her watch. “Can we stop at the iBad repair store on the way back and see if my phone is fixed? I feel like I’ve fallen back in time to the 1980’s without it.”

  Jason lifted his load into the bed of the truck. “Don’t dis the 80’s, Brat.” The nickname left his lips without thought, though it made him think of Lisa and her analysis of name calling. He hadn’t seen her in almost four full days now, a fact which was driving him crazy. Yesterday he’d slept through class and had had to work an extra shift he’d agreed to over a week ago, but he kept thinking about her. Then today had been turned into family obligation day. He wasn’t mad at his folks for calling on him, that was part of why he was living in Boulder, but the timing was the trick.

  Then there was the part of him that didn’t know what he would say to Lisa when he next saw her. He didn’t think he could keep the realization of his feelings off of his face, but he wished he could be sure what she’d say. Sure that she felt something too. He thought she did, but he didn’t know for certain.