Page 12 of Claimed By the Lumberjack

His laugh is bitter. “It’s not even really me they’re seeing. It’s a version. A filtered daydream in plaid. No one wants the guy who couldn’t save his brother. They want the guy with an axe and a beard who chops wood for fun.”

“Jesse’s death wasn’t your fault. You said it yourself, the roads were icy.” I take a deep breath. “I think you are so much more than a guy with an axe who chops wood.”

He finally looks at me, and his expression shifts. There’s no wall between us now. Just Sawyer, raw and unguarded, looking like he’s standing on the edge.

My hand finds his before I even realize I’ve moved. I lace our fingers together slowly, giving him the chance to pull away. He doesn’t.

His thumb brushes over the back of my hand, tentative, like he’s not used to being touched. Or maybe he is, but not like this. Not in the kind of silence that saysI see you, and I’m not running.

“I’m tired,” he says after a minute. I can see in his eyes that it’s not a physical exhaustion but something much deeper than that.

“Me too.”

He looks at me, and I realize I haven’t told him anything real yet. Not like he just told me, and I want to share a part of myself with him. I squeeze his hand and let the truth fall out.

“I thought I wanted to tell stories. Important ones. Ones that mattered. The only job I was able to get was writing fluff pieces and gossip. I wrote an article that lists the top ten most dateable dog dads in Brooklyn. Deep dives on the latest TikTok breakup drama. You know how long I spent writing about a woman who convinced her followers she was married to a ghost pirate?”

His eyebrows lift.

“Three weeks,” I say grimly. “He ‘cheated’ on her with her best friend’s ghost. There were charts.”

Sawyer doesn’t laugh, but something close to amusement flickers in his eyes.

“I thought this assignment would be different,” I admit. “Even if it started silly, I thought maybe, being here, chasing this story, I’d feel like a journalist again.”

He’s quiet for a second. “Do you?”

I nod slowly. “I think I’m remembering what it feels like to care about something real.”

The space between us shrinks. I don’t even realize we’re leaning until I feel his breath against my cheek. He’s so close. His hand still in mine. Our knees are touching. His eyes locked on my mouth.

I can’t breathe. I can’t move. My heart is thudding so loudly that I’m sure he can hear it. He shifts forward, just an inch, and I tilt my head, lips parting without thought. His hand slides to my jaw, slow and reverent. His thumb grazes my cheek. And then—

Bang!

There’s a loud thud against the cabin wall. We both jump. Sawyer is on his feet in a flash, muscles coiled, instincts sharp.He crosses the room in three strides and throws open the front door.

Nothing.

The wind picks up, tossing branches across the clearing. Something clatters off the porch—a loose shutter knocking against the side of the house. He steps out, checks the perimeter, then comes back in and locks the door.

“I think it was the shutter,” he says gruffly.

But the moment is gone.

Whatever it was that passed between us, whatever we almost did, it floating somewhere in the smoke of the fire, already cooling. I pull my legs up onto the couch and hug the blanket tighter.

Sawyer sits across from me this time, not next to me, and we don’t speak for the rest of the night. I don’t miss the way he looks at me when he thinks I’m not watching or how I already know I’ll never forget the feel of his hand in mine.

Chapter Six

Sawyer

I hear her gasp before I see the screen. Tessa’s sitting on the porch, legs tucked under her, scrolling her phone like she does every morning. But this time, she’s frozen, her coffee going cold beside her, eyes locked on the glowing glass in her hands.

I wipe my hands on a rag and walk over, my chest already tight. “What is it?”

She doesn’t answer right away. Just tilts the screen toward me. I stare at the image. It’s us. Taken from a distance, through the trees. Tessa sitting on the porch in my flannel. Me bent over near the woodpile. The photo’s slightly blurry, like whoever took it zoomed too far in, but it’s unmistakably us.

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