Page 59 of Off the Beaten Path

Wren sits up straighter in her seat, excitement coloring her features. “Absolutely. Let’s see what I can expect when my cabin is finished.”

A laugh rumbles through my chest. “It’s just a little bigger than yours.”

“I wish my cabin was bigger,” she says with a sigh. “It was all that was in the budget, though. And even then…”

I haven’t asked her about her finances since that day in her cottage when she cried on me, her tears seeping through the fabric of my flannel. Mostly, I’ve just chosen the cheapest materials available that are still decent quality, and that haunted look hasn’t returned to her eyes.

“Can I ask you a question?”

Wren shifts in her seat, turning to face me. “Why did I buy the cabin if I didn’t have the budget to fix it up?”

My lips twitch at her bluntness, because truly, that’s probably how I would have asked, and I think she knows that. “Yeah.”

“I think you’ve figured out that I sometimes jump into things without thinking them all the way through.”

“Like joining an anonymous dating app in a town this small?”

A smile stretches across her face. “It worked out for me, didn’t it?”

“I don’t know, Red. You’re dating a single dad whose wife left him to move to a city she’d never even been to.” I don’t mean for the words to slip out the way they do, but as soon as it happens, I regret it. Silence hangs heavy in the cab of the truck, and I hate myself for bringing the easy conversation to a screeching halt.

My hands tighten on the wheel as the silence stretches. When she finally speaks, her voice is a thick rasp. “You really think that’s all you have to offer?”

The words are a shock to my system. I don’t know whythatresponse rocks me to my core, but it does. I feel heat licking at my sternum, a sharp prick at the backs of my eyes, a lump in the base of my throat.

At my silence, Wren shifts in her seat, her hand wrapping around the crook of my elbow. I can feel the warmth of her skin seeping through the fabric, and it grounds me probably more than it should. I don’t know how I went from being annoyed by her mere months ago to needing her touch to reassure me. I can’t say that I regret it, though. Maybe that should scare me, but it doesn’t.

“Holden,” Wren says slowly, soft and honeyed. “You’re good right down to your bones. You may be grumpy or prickly sometimes, but it has nothing to do with what’s in here.” She pokes at my chest, right above where my heart is beating wildly. “You’re the best dad June could ever ask for, and you stepped right into my life and picked up all the broken pieces I’d scattered everywhere. You didn’t deserve how she treated you.”

Words stick in the back of my throat, thick and heavy. Mom and Finley and even Grey have always talked about what an awful person Mia is, how she was so selfish to leave, but they’ve rarely ever mentioned that I was worth staying for. Until now, I didn’t realize it was something I needed to hear.

“You know what you are, Holden?” Wren asks, just a whisper against my neck where she’s leaning into me over the console. I don’t answer, but I don’t need to. “You’re like our little spot off the beaten path. You have to work to find it, but when you do, it’s breathtaking.”

We’re on a winding country road leading up to the cabin in the mountains, but it doesn’t stop me from pulling the car over right here. It doesn’t stop me from unbuckling Wren’s seat belt and hauling her over the console and into my lap so her knees cradle my hips. A sharp gasp seeps out of her when my hands slip around her neck, threading into her hair before I pull her lips down to mine.

The thing I love most about Wren is that she always takes whatever I throw at her. I just swerved off to the side of the road and pulled her into my lap and kissed her, and she didn’t miss a beat, her lips sliding against mine like this was her idea, her hands smoothing up over my chest before dipping below the collar at the back of my neck.

She fits against me like she was made for me, and my head spins at the contact, at how long it’s been since I’ve been touched like this. I want to breathe her in like she’s my last breath of oxygen before the world goes dark.

My hands smooth down her sides, finding that spot on her hips where they fit perfectly, the fabric of her dress bunching up beneath my palms. I want to tug it up, feel her skin against mine, but I hold back, slowing the kiss down until we’re less frantic, our teeth no longer crashing, our moans no longer filling the quiet cab. The kiss turns leisurely and gentle, like a lazy morning twisted up in bedsheets, and when the thought takes shape in my mind, I want it more than anything.

I want Wren in every way. Stolen, needy minutes in the cab of my truck, unhurried hands in my bed on a Saturday morning, soft, quiet nights on my couch, wrapped in a blanket with the TV playing a movie we’ve long since given up watching. I want all the small and big moments with her.

I break the kiss, my forehead resting against hers, our breaths sounding loud in the quietness of the truck. I can feel every intake of her breath under my palms, every exhale against my cheeks. Suddenly, I feel overwhelmed that I get to exist with her, that somehow, in all of time and space, we turned out to be neighbors, we became friends on an anonymous app, and we ended up in my truck, breathing the same air.

Just the thought of getting to exist with someone as pure as Wren makes my heart ache in my chest.

“What was that for?” she asks, her hands slipping out of the collar of my shirt to slide down over my rapidly beating heart. I like that she can feel it there, beating for her, that maybe she feels as connected to me as I do to her in this moment.

“I’m just glad you exist.”

Even in the darkness of the cab, I can see the quicksilver glint of her smile stretching across her face, feel the happiness in the change of her body, the way she sits up straighter, her eyes glinting in the moonlight. “I’m glad you exist, too, Holden Blankenship.”

“Youdidallthis?”I can’t help the wonder in my voice as I look around the cabin. It’s massive, making my little place in the woods look like a tiny home, and the entire color palette is shades of warm neutrals. It’s not what I would have chosen for my own house, but it’s lovely just the same. The layout, however, is my dream. All tall ceilings and large floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking what I’m assuming is a stunning view of the mountains beyond.

Holden leans up against a wood pillar below the loft, arms crossed over his chest as he watches me move around the space. “Don’t sound so surprised.”

I glance over my shoulder at him, my heart rate ratcheting up just looking at him. I’m not sure how things changed between us, just that I’m glad they did. Something inside me snapped at the broken, hollow sound of his voice in the car when he was talking about Mia. I couldn’t fathom how someone asgoodas him would ever doubt his worth. I have to wonder, though, how many people have really told him otherwise since she left and how many people have solely focused on June’s wellbeing. It makes me want to spoil him, which he will probably never allow. But it’s my mission anyway.

---