I’d ever even paid attention to how they looked. Surely, handsome guys had noticed Nora before. I’d never noticed anyone noticing her, not until this afternoon, and now again, tonight.
While I didn’t bat for that team, I knew the guy sitting beside her tonight was handsome. His name was Nick something or other. I couldn’t even hear what they were joking about because the table was full.
Cat happened to be sitting beside me and asked, “What’s wrong?” She peered up at me with her slate-blue eyes, so similar to Flynn’s and just as perceptive.
“Nothing,” I replied, annoyed with the internal flare of defensiveness that rose inside.
Cat took a bite of her food, her gaze shifting away from me. Meanwhile, I couldn’t resist glancing toward Nora again, only to see her laughing at something handsome Nick said.
Fuck this. It was hard enough to come to terms with my feelings for Nora. I did not appreciate, not one bit, the experience of jealousy.
“You’re jealous.” Cat’s voice reached me, sounding amused.
I slid my eyes sideways, incredulous she’d commented on that.
Her eyes twinkled. “Just saying.”
“I am not,” I lied, injecting firmness into my tone. The whole thing was ridiculous.
Cat snorted a laugh. “Yeah, right. You just keep telling yourself that.”
Fuck my life. I had a seventeen-year-old girl giving me shit about being jealous. By the time dinner was over, I was strung tight with annoyance and a sense of possessiveness. As fierce as my need for Nora ran, my feelings left me unsettled. I slipped out the back while she was in the kitchen helping Daphne, Cat, and Flynn clean up.
The autumn air was crisp. A light breeze gusted, carrying the spruce scent and causing the damp earthy leaves to fall to the ground. I walked into the trees behind the resort with quiet footfalls. I took a gulp of air, letting it out slowly as I paused to look through a clearing in the trees. It offered a view of a mountain ridge in the distance, the rising half-moon casting a silvery glow on the snowy peaks. The upper elevations had gotten more snow recently, a clear signal that winter was coming.
After another few breaths, I felt more like myself again. Turning, I kept walking, stuffing my hands in my pockets. I paused and glanced around when I heard a subtle scuffing. In a moment, my eyes found the source of the noise. A porcupine waddled through the trees, the tips of its quills gilded from the moonlight. I waited to move until it was a little farther away. Not because I was nervous about getting quilled, but because porcupines were shy creatures and mostly harmless unless they felt genuinely threatened. There was no need for me to frighten it. It was likely making its way to wherever it planned to sleep for the evening.
The trees opened up a few minutes later after I resumed my walk. I lifted my eyes to discover the staff house was dark. It appeared most were lingering back at the resort or heading into town to the bars. I’d lost all interest in going to town at night once I’d given in to my need for Nora. I was so accustomed to the fire that burned for her that it felt a part of me, woven into my veins and bones.
As much as I wanted to see her, my frustration with feeling possessive and jealous clashed with that desire. Just as I was about to move in the direction of the staff house, the sound of footsteps reached me.
Turning, I recognized Nora’s silhouette through the trees instantly. I felt a tug in my heart, followed by that familiar jolt sizzling through me like fire.
She stopped at the edge of the trees, looking at me across the small clearing. After a beat, she approached me, stopping a few feet away. “I wondered where you went,” she said.
For a second, the urge to make a flippant comment was right there, hovering in the edge of my consciousness. I didn’t because that guy, the one who relied on dismissive comments, was the guy who had hurt Nora before. I felt thrown off my equilibrium, and I didn’t know how to catch my balance again. I closed the distance between us with careful, deliberate strides.
When I paused in front of her, that sense of possessiveness flared. “I’m not sure where I was going either.”
Her dark eyes widened. We were illuminated solely by the pearly glow of the moon.
I took a breath,