If I felt trapped in the car on the way to Elijah’s parents’ cabin, I definitely feel trapped now. He was asleep when I tiptoed back into the room—or at least, he was pretending to be asleep. Either way, it suited me just fine. I didn’t want to talk to him anyway.

When we woke up, he didn’t say a word to me. He’s been overly pleasant to the rest of the family while he’s been giving me the silent treatment. It’s driving me crazy. It feels so, I don’t know… petty and manipulative. It’s not how two adults should treat each other.

But it’s Elijah, and I’m marrying him.

Why does that sound more like a prison sentence than a celebration?

The doorbell rings after an agonizing day, and I paint a big smile on my face. I’m about to meet old family friends: the Harveys.

Mrs. Matthews flies to the front door, and I stretch my ears to hear the hellos that are happening. After a few seconds, the Harveys come around the corner. Elijah jumps up off the couch and flashes his most brilliant smile. He pumps Mr. Harvey’s arm up and down as they greet each other, and then kisses Mrs. Harvey’s cheek. He introduces me to the parents and then turns to the young woman beside them.

A pang of jealousy goes through my chest when I see him wrap his thick arms around her and spin her in a circle.

Even I have never gotten that kind of treatment, and I’m going to be his wife!

Jesse’s staring at me, and I take a deep breath. I’m being ridiculous. I’m confused and hurt because of my fight with Elijah last night. Plus, Christmas is a stressful time to begin with.

There are too many memories that come flooding back this time of year. My father, passed out on the floor after drinking a full bottle of whiskey. Or him screaming at my mother, smashing glasses while my sister and I huddled upstairs. Maybe I’m just on edge.

Jesse takes a step beside me and gives me a comforting squeeze of the elbow.

“Everything okay?” He asks quietly. I force a smile and swallow back the flood of memories.

“Yeah, everything’s fine.”

“I hate these things as much as you do.”

“I don’t—” Elijah finally puts Sally down on her feet and turns to me. He still has his arm around her back, and I bite back the jealousy that gnaws at my insides.

“Nice to finally meet you,” I lie. “I’ve heard a lot about you and your family.”

That’s another lie. I hadn’t even heard of the Harveys until this morning, and I certainly hadn’t heard about Sally.

Sally smiles at me and plants a big kiss on my cheek. “So nice to meet you,” she says, squeezing my shoulders. “I never thought Elijah would settle down. You must be very special.”

Elijah gives a tight-lipped smile, and we all head back towards the living room. I can feel Jesse’s eyes on me from across the room.

Why does it feel like he and I are connected? It’s like there’s a string that vibrates between us, and I can sense all his movements no matter where he is in the room.

Am I really that desperate? All he did was take a splinter out of my palm. I need to get a grip.

I sit down next to Elijah and put my hand on his thigh. He turns away from me, leaning towards Sally as they reminisce about times at the cabin when they were teenagers.

This is torture. When Shannon offers me a glass of wine again, I almost feel like accepting it. It would go against everything I believe in, obviously. And it wouldn’t solve anything. But at least it would take the edge off this evening.

“Do you remember the summer when we invented that card game—Crazy Ball?” Sally laughs.

Jesse glances at them, and then at me. His eyes are full of pain, and then he swallows and the look is gone. His gaze flicks to my mouth for a few torturous seconds and I can’t stop myself from swiping my tongue across my lips. His mouth drops open and heat zips through my body.

“I still have the playing cards in my room!” Elijah exclaims. “Come on, I’ll show you.” He turns to me and plants a kiss on my cheek. “Be right back.”

I smile and try to ignore the nausea induced by the thought of him taking Sally back to his bedroom to talk about old times. At least he finally spoke to me, I guess.

As if he can tell I’m struggling, Jesse stands up. “Looks like we’re running low on firewood, I might go out and chop some more. Farrah,” he says, turning to me. “You ever chopped wood?”

“Once, I think. I wasn’t very good at it.”

Jesse flashes me a smile that makes my heart melt. “There’s nothing to it. I’ll show you how.”

He extends his hand towards me. I slip my palm into his and I laugh as he pulls me up. He’s either stronger than he thought, or I’m smaller, because I go flying straight into that magnetic, muscular chest of his.

All I can smell is sandalwood and manliness and it’s making my head spin. How can one man smell so good?

Giving one more glance towards the hallway where Elijah and Sally disappeared, I shake my head and follow Jesse to the back door.

We pull on some boots and jackets, and then he leads me around the back of the house towards the wood shed.

“I think there was lots of wood left,” I say when we are outside.

Jesse just laughs. “Yeah. Probably enough for a few days. I just needed to get out of there.” He glances at me and grins. “And it kind of looked like you needed to as well.”

“Me? I was fine,” I stammer.

“Come on, Farrah,” he says gently. “You don’t have to lie to me.”

“I’m not—” I stop when his grin widens. He brushes his thick mop of dark hair off his forehead and arches an eyebrow, and I finally laugh. “Fine. It was a bit stuffy in there.”

“Stuffy is one word for it,” he says, stripping his jacket off and pulling his sweater off over his head. I try not to stare at the bulge of his biceps against his tee-shirt, and the strip of skin that reveals his powerful lower abdominal muscles. They look just as good as they did yesterday. I turn to look at the lake and give my cheeks a chance to cool down.

I jump when I hear the sharp crack of an axe hitting wood. I look over to see a log split into two neat pieces. Jesse looks at me, grinning.

“Your turn.”

“You trust me with that thing?” I eye the axe he’s holding out to me. It looks like it’s about as big as I am.

“You look like a woman who can handle a big axe.”

My eyes widen as a cocky grin spreads over his lips. I laugh, shaking my head. I take the axe from him, feeling its weight it my hands. My eyes are locked on his, and my voice is low and husky.

“Big axe is right.”

His pupils dilate and my heart hammers against my ribcage. When did I get so flirty?

The tension in my shoulders melts away when Jesse smiles at me, and I grin. He sets another log on the chopping block. Then, he puts his hands on my waist and guides me towards it. The heat pools between my legs and I inhale the spicy, exotic scent that clings to him.

Jesse stands behind me so that I can feel the heat of his body against my back. I lean into him, closing my eyes for just an instant. He places his hands over mine, sliding them along the axe handle until they’re spread out.

“There,” he says. His voice is low when he speaks into my ear. His breath tickles my neck. “If your hands are too close together, you’ll have no power.” He leans me back against him, swinging the axe slowly in a big arc along the ground.

I can feel the muscles in his legs tensing against mine as he swings the axe. His chest is so broad it feels like I could lose myself in it. If I pushed my ass back, would I feel his…

“You want to use the weight of the axe to help you, like this.” I snap back to what he’s saying. We swing the axe back and forth a few times, and then he steps away. I miss the heat of his body behind me as soon as he leaves.

“Now just swing it up and down onto that log.”

I glance at Jesse, and he gives me an encouraging nod. My eyes linger on his shoulders. I look back at the big log in front of me and take a deep breath. Jesse obviously believes in me, so how hard could it be?

I swing the axe back and up over my head, finally bringing it down on the log as hard as I possibly can. All the tension, the aggression, the frustration that has built up inside me over the past couple days comes down with the axe.

I channel it all into that one swing. All the jealousy and feelings of inadequateness—they all come out. My jaw is clenched and my eyes are set on the log. When the axe is up overhead and I start to feel it come down, I let out a loud, low growl.

It’s not just my feelings for Elijah that come out. It’s my feelings for Jesse, too. Ever since I met him, with that towel wrapped around his chiseled waist, I’ve felt like my whole world is off-balance.

The feeling of the wood splitting under the axe is the most satisfying thing I’ve felt in a long time. The axe embeds itself in the block and the log falls apart on either side of it.

Jesse whoops and laughs as he comes near me, yanking the axe out of my hand and staring at me. His eyes are sparkling.

“Looks like you had some anger to let out.”

“Give me that axe again,” I say, laughing, “might have a bit more aggression that needs to be let loose.”

Jesse grins, arching an eyebrow. His grey eyes are sparkling. We stand there staring at each other, unmoving. His eyes drop down to my lips, then my chest, then my hands. He clears his throat, and then sets one half of the split log back on its end. He hands me the axe. “All yours.”

With another grunt, I split that piece of wood, and then another, and then another. Jesse sets them up for me, giving me small pointers and then letting me do the work. Soon, beads of sweat are dripping down my forehead as I push my hair back.

I sigh, shaking my head.

“I never knew that could be so satisfying.”

“Almost as good as playing football,” he grins. He takes the axe from my hands, and the touch of his fingertips against mine makes heat flood between my legs.

“You looking forward to getting back?”

“Yeah,” he says, leaning the axe against the edge of the shed. “We have a couple big games coming up and I’m feeling a bit of cabin fever up here.”

“More like mansion fever,” I laugh. “I find it so funny that you guys call this thing a cabin.”

Jesse laughs, glancing towards the huge log house. He nods. “It’s a bit over-the-top, isn’t it?”

“It’s bigger than every house I’ve ever had, combined!”

“Well, I’ve been getting mansion fever, then,” he grins. “So my mom told me you’re in finance?”

I nod. “I’m a financial manager at a construction company in New York.”

“Smart and beautiful,” he grins. I blush.

“It sounds like a boring job, but it really isn’t. I get to work on all kinds of projects and, I don’t know, I guess I get a bit of a thrill when I win some tough negotiations.”

“Wow,” his eyebrows twitch upwards. “Impressive. So what do you want to do long term? You want to keep doing that job?

“What do you mean?” No one asks me that. Everyone assumes that I’m just going to be ‘Elijah’s wife’ and nothing more. Jesse laughs.

“I mean, what are your career ambitions?”

A smile flashes on my face, and I think of the job I applied for at Rachael’s company, Angel Investments. They invest in both non-profit and for-profit companies that actually do good in the world. I’d love to do something like that. I glance at Jesse and shrug.

He laughs. “Come on, you can tell me.”

“What made you so interested?”

“Maybe I want to get to know you.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

He licks his lips and my stomach turns to goo. I wonder how his lips taste. What would it feel like if he took those muscular arms and caged me against the side of the shed, and slid his broad hands down my sides? If he crushed his lips to mine and pressed his long, hard—

I shake my head. The air is heavy. Jesse takes a step towards me and my breath catches. He opens his mouth and then stops. He kneels down to keep stacking the logs we’ve chopped.

“What?”

“Huh?” He says, not looking at me.

“You were going to ask me something.”

“Oh. I just…” he pauses, crouched below me with a log in his hand. He glances up at me and his eyes look almost tender. “I was just going to ask if you’re okay. I heard you and Elijah have an argument. I didn’t hear anything!” He adds quickly. “But I just… I can imagine it would be tough to be around your fiancé’s family stuck up in the woods in the middle of nowhere when you’re not feeling great.”

A smile tugs at my lips and I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “Thanks, Jesse,” I say. “I appreciate that.”

He stares at me for a moment and then shrugs. “I know how Elijah is. He can be a bit of an…”

“Ass?”

Jesse grins, shrugging. “Your words.”

“I know I shouldn’t say that, but sometimes he just is so stubborn and it’s like he doesn’t even care that I exist.”

He stands up and nods to my arms. I hold them out for him to stack some logs into them. “Trust me,” he says, not looking at me. “I know exactly what you mean.”

His lips are a thin line, and I decide to not ask what he means. That’s between him and Elijah.

“It’s just a tough time of year,” I say.

“Christmas?”

“Mm. Christmas was always really stressful. Too much drinking.”

Jesse stands in front of me and then tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. I close my eyes for an instant, loving the tenderness of his touch.

“Is that why you don’t drink?”

I nod, and a bitter laugh escapes my lips. “Not all families could be on a Hallmark card like the Matthews.”

“We’re not as perfect as we look.”

“No one is.”

He stares at me, and I feel like he knows my pain. Even though I’ve never told him anything, even though I met him yesterday, I feel like he gets me in a way that few other people do. I look towards the house.

“We should go back.”

“Yeah.”

Neither of us move for a few seconds, and then Jesse sighs and turns towards the house. The heaviness in my heart returns when we get to the house.

When we go back inside, Elijah and Sally are back in the living room. I see Elijah’s eyebrow arch when I walk in with Jesse. Even though I know it shouldn’t make me happy, I get a small amount of satisfaction knowing that he’s jealous, too.

That’s probably not healthy, and probably not what a relationship should be like. But right now, it’s exactly what I feel.