Page 26 of Challenged By the Ex-Military Lumberjack
"Because you liked him."
"Because he was already here. Seemed stupid to make him leave when he'd already decided to stay."
I watch him with his dog, and something clicks into place.
He's not as alone as he pretends to be. But Ridge is here. And right now, so am I. And he hasn't kicked either of us out.
Chapter 6 - Eli
She's looking at me like I'm something worth understanding, and I don't know what to do with that.
I've spent six years making sure people don't look at me that way. Six years of short answers and closed doors and a life built specifically to avoid this exact situation, someone sitting in my living room, asking questions, trying to see past the walls I've put up.
And the worst part is that I'm letting her.
I don't know when it happened. When I went from wanting her gone to wanting her to stay. But somewhere between the hardware store and the lasagna and standing in the rain telling her she couldn't drive home, something shifted.
And now she's here, curled up on my couch in my clothes, asking me about my dog like she actually cares about the answer.
Why does she ask so many questions?
That's what I can't figure out. Most people, when they hit a wall with me, they back off. They get the message. They understand that I'm not interested in small talk or connection or whatever the hell it is that normal people do.
But not her.
She just keeps pushing. Keeps asking. Keeps looking at me with those warm blue eyes like she's trying to solve something.
Like I'm a puzzle worth solving.
*Everyone's a puzzle,* she said.
*Then I'm one of those ones with all the edge pieces missing,* I told her.
And I meant it. Because that's what it feels like, like all the parts of me that used to make sense are gone now, scattered somewhere in the desert along with the men I couldn't save. What's left is just fragments. Pieces that don't quite fit together anymore.
But she doesn't seem to care about that. She's sitting there like the missing edges don't matter, like she's willing to work with what's here.
Why?
Why does she care?
Ridge shifts at my feet, and I realize I've been sitting here in silence for too long. Jade doesn't seem bothered by it. She's just watching the fire, perfectly comfortable in the quiet.
That's another thing I can't figure out. She said she likes people, likes noise, but she's not trying to fill every second with conversation. She's just... here. Present. Like she doesn't need me to be anything other than what I am.
When's the last time someone made me feel like that?
I think about my ex—Sarah. The way she used to look at me after I came back, like she was waiting for the person she remembered to show up. Like if she just waited long enough, tried hard enough, I'd go back to being the man who left.
But that man didn't come back. He died over there, same as the others. What came back was something different. Something broken.
She tried. God, she tried. But eventually, the trying turned into frustration, and the frustration turned into resignation, and one day she told me she couldn't do it anymore. Couldn't keep loving someone who wouldn't let her in.
I didn't blame her then. Don't blame her now.
It's better this way. Safer. For everyone.
Except—
