Chapter Eight

 

 

The temperature in the cabin wasn’t too cold if you were in the main room with the large fireplace or the attached dining room. The rest of it, however, was quite chilly. Thank goodness each bedroom had a fireplace in it. Since he and Cora had only arrived that morning—had it just been a few hours ago?— her fireplace would need to be lit. He volunteered to accompany her and help, and she agreed.

Frosty air engulfed them the moment they opened the door to her room. Cora crossed her arms in front of her. “It may be a while before it’s warm enough to go to sleep.”

Grey thought about last night and how comfortable it ended up being in the little cabin. Between the warm fire, blankets, and sleeping so near the hearth, he hadn’t felt the effects of the cold weather outside at all. And the company? Well, that was complicated.

The only light in the room came from Grey’s flashlight. He handed it to Cora who kept the beam trained on the hearth. It wasn’t long before he had a roaring fire going. The flames cut through the darkness just like the warmth began to carve a space in the night’s chill.

He got the comforter off the bed, folded it, and set it on the floor near the hearth.

“Thank you.” Cora smiled at him as she sat down and scooted closer to the fire. “I remember the first time I watched you build a fire.”

Grey eased himself down next to her. “Our senior year. You were so nervous about going camping for the first time.”

When Grandpa Jackson heard that Cora had never been camping in her life, he knew they had to change that. Their church organized a family campout every summer, and Grey invited her to come along. He never had to worry about whether she’d do okay without the many comforts of home. The poor girl had just been excited to get away from her parents.

She’d taken everything in from how to build a fire to roasting marshmallows over it.

The memory of kissing away a bit of sticky marshmallow from the corner of her mouth flooded his mind.

With the way she was staring into the building flames with a faraway look, he wondered if she was remembering the same thing.

“It was really nice of your mom and Grandpa Jackson to include me as much as they did. I’ve always appreciated that.” She rubbed her hands together in front of the fire, clearly enjoying the warmth that emanated from the flames.

“What’s going on with your parents now?”

She shrugged. “They’re still together in a very dysfunctional marriage. He’s gone half the time, but I don’t think she really cares. They still like to throw it in my face that I couldn’t hold my marriage together while theirs is still successful. Well, their definition of successful, anyway.” Cora glanced at him with a cringe. “Sorry.”

He held a hand up to let her know he hadn’t taken offense. It didn’t surprise him at all that her parents had rubbed Cora’s nose in it.

“Anyway, they still live in San Antonio. I think it’s been over a year since the last time I saw them, and sadly, that’s okay with me.”

“Putting space between you and the two of them is good.” Grey had always felt they had a toxic effect on Cora. The few times he had been around her parents had left him feeling helpless and angry about the way they treated her. “In my opinion, the kind of relationship your parents have isn’t healthy, regardless of whether they are married or not.”

“I agree with you.” Cora’s hands must have warmed up enough because she let them fall to her knees. “But it does sting a little, you know?” She gave him a sideways look. “There were only a handful of things I was determined to do better than my parents, and marriage was one of them.”

“Well, it wasn’t just you.” Now that the fire was burning steadily, Grey was able to relax more. His arm rested against hers. She didn’t shift away and neither did he. He didn’t want to.

For now, he wanted to steer their conversation back to a simpler time. “We did have a lot of fun back in the day.”

“We sure did.” Cora’s voice sounded wistful. “I miss it.”

“Yeah. Me, too.” He paused. “I miss us. The way it used to be between us.”

She let her head tilt a little to rest lightly against his upper arm. She said nothing, but her action spoke of a similar feeling of loss.

Grey had been convinced that keeping his distance after the divorce was the smart thing to do. Maybe it was—in the beginning.

Now? Sitting here with Cora felt like all kinds of right.

 

~*~

 

Cora’s heart pounded a warning as she leaned into Grey’s arm. Seriously, this was one of the stupidest things she could be doing right now. Yet, the intense feeling of security coupled with the overwhelming sense of nostalgia meant the last thing she wanted to do was move.

She’d spent months—years—moving past all of this. She’d left Grey and their love behind. It hadn’t been easy, but she’d done it.

This right here felt like a giant step backwards. A step she wasn’t willing to take, no matter how temping it might be. Besides, sitting together in the dark out of necessity given the circumstance didn’t exactly create the perfect get-back-together scenario. The truth of the matter was, as soon as the roads cleared, they’d both go their separate ways. To their separate lives.

Cora suppressed a groan. The warmth of his arm penetrated her temple. When he rested his cheek against the top of her head, her right hand itched to reach for his. As though, even after all these years, they knew they were supposed to connect. The need to thread her fingers through his was so insistent, it finally gave her the strength to put good sense into action. She abruptly sat up straight and then tried to make it look subtle. At least he couldn’t see the pink tinging her cheeks in the firelight, right?

“You said you didn’t have a girlfriend right now. Why is that?”

Grey shifted away from her and reached for the fireplace poker to move a log a little closer to the flame. He didn’t look at all comfortable with this line of conversation. “I haven’t done much dating the last couple of months. I broke up with someone right before Grandpa died, and then I guess it just hasn’t been a priority since then.”

“I can imagine.” Cora had to make a conscious effort to keep her face neutral. Of course he dated. She truly wasn’t surprised. It sounded like he’d probably be seeing someone now if it weren’t for the trauma of Grandpa Jackson’s passing.

“What about you? Why aren’t you remarried?” He spoke the questions simply, but his voice sounded strange.

Cora blinked at him. He was watching her carefully now as she considered her words. “I don’t know. If I couldn’t make marriage work with my best friend… I guess I’m not sure I’d want to risk messing that up a second time.” She hadn’t meant to be quite so honest with him. “As for dating, my friend likes to regularly set me up with guys without letting me know ahead of time. I can’t say I’m a fan, and I don’t think she cares.” She forced a small laugh. “I prefer group gatherings. Takes the pressure off.”

Grey nodded. “That makes a lot of sense. It’s easier to get to know someone and see who they really are that way.” He studied her thoughtfully.

Was he mentally reliving the many group gatherings they’d gone to before finally dating each other? That was how Cora had discovered he was a gentleman, and that he’d defend just about anyone who was getting picked on, no matter who they were.

And that included her. She’d never really fit in at school and was often a target for bullies.

Man, Grey was her hero back then. She’d looked to him for everything from reassurance to friendship. She’d like to think she’d been there for him, too.

She wished she could go back and pinpoint where it all went wrong with them. She suspected it was a lot of things that gradually grew into something much bigger.

“Grey?” The word was out of her mouth before she realized she was going to say it.

“Yeah?” She shook her head, but he cupped her elbow in his hand to bring her gaze to his. “What is it?”

“When we were married, it felt like we went from being happy to everything falling apart around us with very little in between.” She paused. “Was it like that for you, too? Or was I just naïve? Or stupid?”

“If you were, so was I.” He gave her a sad smile. “That’s how I felt, too.” His hand moved from her elbow, down her arm, and paused when their hands touched.

Electrical impulses sparked at every point where her fingers met his. In that moment, it’d be too easy to pretend as though they were reliving a simpler time in their lives. Too easy to allow herself to lean into him and forget the pain that had punctuated the last six months of their marriage and the years that followed.

He must have come to the same conclusion because they moved away from each other at the same moment.

“I’m going to go and let you get some rest.” He tried for a normal smile and nearly succeeded. “Good night, Cora. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good night.”

He closed the door softly behind him leaving Cora alone. Instead of letting her mind wander, she busied herself changing into sweatpants and an oversized, long-sleeved shirt to sleep in. By the time she’d used the bathroom and brushed through her hair, the room was nice and warm. She crawled between the sheets of the bed and allowed her head to sink into the oversized pillow.

Had she really only flown into Colorado yesterday? It felt like so much longer since she’d left Denton. She thought about her life and everything she’d accomplished in the last few years.

Being a nurse was a dream come true. She could help others, and she was respected. During her shifts at the hospital, Cora was truly happy to be needed and to make a difference in other people’s lives. But when she went back to her apartment at the end of the day? The time dragged, and Cora often felt trapped. Technically, she had everything she needed there, but it wasn’t home.

The realization hit her with a flood of emotions that she had to work to swallow back. To her, home had been Grandpa Jackson and Maria’s house. Later, it’d been the home she shared with Grey.

“I’m in a good place right now, God. I know that, and I’m thankful.” Cora swallowed her tears as she stared at the weird shadows that danced across the ceiling in time to the flames in the hearth. “I just sometimes wonder if I’ll ever get to a point in my life when it feels like home again.”

 

~*~

 

After Grey left Cora’s room, he’d gone back downstairs to help Mom with anything he could possibly think of to do. The last thing he wanted was to replay his conversation with Cora. When he got to his room, he found Dare had beat him there and already had the fire blazing. The warmth welcomed him in, and Grey collapsed onto the small couch.

“That bad, huh?” Dare was looking at him with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. “You and Flynn haven’t been in a fistfight yet, so I’d say the weekend is going better than a lot of us feared it would.”

“Funny.” He looked for something nearby to chuck at his brother and finally resorted to one of his own shoes. Dare easily ducked out of the way. Grey took the other off and tossed it to the floor.

“In all seriousness, though, is Cora doing okay? All of this can’t be easy.”

“I think so. She didn’t really want to talk about it.” He gave his brother a pointed look. Maybe Dare would get the hint and realize that Grey didn’t particularly want to talk about Cora right now, either.

Dare joined him on the couch. “So, what’s it like?”

“What’s what like?” As if he didn’t know. But if Dare was going to ask a stupid question, Grey was going to make him ask a complete one.

“Spending time with Cora?”

Grey decided to go with nonchalant. “It’s been fine. I found out she’s living in the Fort Worth area, too. Neither of us had any idea we lived so close.” 

“That’s pretty interesting.” He was clearly waiting for more information. “So that’s it? All is fine in the world of Grey and Cora? Wow, how dull.”

“I’m sorry if our relationship bores you.” Grey shot him a sharp look.

“Then there’s still a relationship?” Dare’s eyes twinkled.

It was a slip of the tongue, but that didn’t matter now. Once Dare grabbed a hold of something, he rarely let it go. He was a lot like a pit bull in that respect. “No, no relationship. I should’ve said friendship, and even that is shaky at best.” He tried to shove Dare off the couch, but his younger brother swerved out of the way and stood again.

“Are you telling me there are no sparks this weekend? No interest at all between the two of you?” Dare’s voice sounded dubious. “I find that very hard to believe. I’m pretty sure Grandpa had the two of you in mind when he concocted this whole weekend.”

Grey would find this whole thing amusing if it didn’t center around him and his lack of a marriage. Grandpa had been an old romantic, and Dare had certainly inherited that trait. If Dare ever met the right woman and put his mind to it, he would have no trouble wooing her. “Or maybe Grandpa was hoping to smooth things over between the two of us and Flynn.”

“Well, yeah, that too.” Dare gave him a confident grin. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“We both went our separate ways. Five years is a long time, Dare, and if you or Grandpa thought that a weekend would change that, you are seriously reaching.”

Dare didn’t look convinced. “Well, that works out pretty well for me.”

“How do you figure?”

He put a hand to his chest then pointed to the wall between their room and Cora’s. “Come on, Grey. A smart blonde who’s dedicated enough to go back to school to pursue a career? She’s totally my type. And now that we’re both single and unattached, the timing could be right.”

Grey pushed himself off the couch and stood toe-to-toe with Dare. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking Flynn’s the only one I could get in a fistfight with.” They’d only had one, and it was back in their teen years. Their family didn’t let them forget it, though.

Dare put a hand on Grey’s clenched fish and pushed it down. “Easy, boy.” He laughed.

Grey seriously considered punching him anyway. “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself.”

“Maybe you should think about whether you object to the idea of my dating Cora because I’m your brother, or if it’s because you’ve still got the hots for her and won’t admit it.” Dare whistled as he strutted to one of the beds and flopped onto his back.

He wasn’t sure what annoyed him more: That Dare had baited him into responding, or that he was partially right.

Dare spoke again from the bed. “Maybe all of this is God’s way of giving you two a second chance.”