Page 112 of Just Act Natural

Is there a point in keeping this secret? Do I even want to?

“A woman I met on the hiking trip. She’s…radiant sunshine. She’s all heart and spirit and drive. She can be soft and gentle one minute, and the next, she’s ready to burn the world to the ground to defend her people. She’s like…coming home to a place I’ve never been but knew all along was waiting for me.”

Lila fills my thoughts, photos overlapping in an endless montage: Exhausted but laughing on the trail. Sweetly snuggling with August. Going to battle to protect me from my parents and Kelsey. In my arms in the lake. In my arms last night…

“I’m in love with her.” Saying it out loud is like a bird released from a cage, finally able to soar. Hmm—bad analogy for Lila. But thefreesensation doesn’t fade. It grows until it presses up against my ribcage with an aching longing.

Because Rhett’s not the one I really want to tell.

“Wow, man! Congrats! That’s the best news.”

His enthusiasm has the opposite of his intended effect and brings my feet back to earth.

“She’s building a life here, and my life is in Magnolia Ridge.” A truth I’ve been only too happy to avoid looking at straight on for weeks now.

“I know my advice is suspect. I don’t have the best romantic track record. My exes would say I’m the last guy you should listen to.”

“You’re really selling it.” I’ve talked with some of his exes—he’s barely scratched the surface of what they say about him.

“But if I felt about someone even half the way you sound when you’re talking about her, I would risk anything to hold onto her.”

A tiny spark of hope lights up inside me, searching for something to cling to. “I want to, believe me, I do. But everyone’s counting on me. You need me there.”

“Weneed you? Since when?” He coughs. “Uh, respectfully.”

I sigh as I barge through my cabin door and storm around the tiny space. “You’d be surviving on granola bars and beer if I weren’t there to check up on you. And Dean…”

“This will be good. Please explain how our happily married, home-owning, ultra-responsible sibling would be lost without you here to big-brother him.”

“Fine. I can’t.” If anything, Dean’s taught me lessons these last couple of years. He’s found what’s most important to him and built his life around them.

“And for the record, I like granola bars and beer. I get it. You had to step up a lot when we were kids, but I’m thirty, man. Don’t use me as an excuse not to chase your own happiness.”

Lila’s voice echoes in my mind, telling me to create a life I don’t have to take a vacation from. If I could lay out the plans and make it happen, what would that look like? Easy—beingwith her. The rest—where I work, where I live—isn’t nearly as vital as that one all-consuming point.

“She is my happiness, but I’ve worked too hard at the business to just walk away without a second thought. I don’t know if there’s a way to have both.”

“We’re two reasonably smart guys,” Rhett says. “I’m sure we can figure something out. There’s a solution here somewhere. You could work remotely. Do something else entirely. Enact a hostile takeover of the closest outdoor store and raise the Irwin flag. Whatever it takes.”

“If only it were so easy. There isn’t anything like that in town. The closest one is—” Wait.Wait. Did Rhett really just solve my problem? I’ve been so stuck on this idea that it could never happen, I couldn’t see the solution right in front of me. “You’re a genius.”

“Finally.” He sounds like he’s puffed out his chest to receive a gold medal. “Some long-awaited recognition.”

“We can revisit the recognition later. I need to make some calls.”

“Nope. First, I need a name.”

“Lila.” It’s a sigh on my lips, and I do not care a bit.

“Pretty. Second—it was the shirt I sent that won her over, wasn’t it?”

THIRTY-FIVE

LILA

I checkout my reflection in the peach minidress and spin to watch it twirl. It’s probably too much for a late lunch at Magnifico, but I want to dress up a little for Grant. If these are our last few days together, I’m going toLive, Laugh, Lovethe heck out of them. That includes wearing cute dresses and doing my hair because that’s just how I am.

My phone buzzes on the dining table. It’s gone crazy ever since I posted my Instagram update. It turns outa lotof women can relate to having to start over. I’ve received hundreds of comments and DMs with a similar theme:

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