Page 29 of Second Chance for the Grump

But maybe for the better.

I stood right outside my front door as Rowan threw his duffel bag into the backseat of my car. A sigh left my lips without my permission. This whole scene was wrong.

Everything was terribly wrong.

Wasn’t it just a few days ago that Rowan saved the day and Charlie too? I spent so much energy finding my dog that I never stopped to think consider what came next for us. How did we make it work? Sure, we had the idea, but what steps would it take?

The afterword.

Now it was here, and that meant Rowan was leaving. Alaska waited for him. The roads to his cabin were already closed because it was so late in the year. He had to fly into Anchorage and then charter a plane to a small airstrip before boarding a snowmobile to get him the last stretch home.

He had a life there. Waiting for him.

But I was here.

Going to Alaska with him wasn’t a short visit. It wasn’t a vacation.

It was forever.

The thought of leaving Maple Lane Falls twisted my stomach.

But the thought of never seeing Rowan again was worse. Much worse.

“Hey,” he said, approaching me on my stoop as if he’d read my mind. He sighed. “You’re thinking again. Aren’t you?”

His words brought matching smiles to our faces, as if we had some small inside joke. “Dangerous, I know.”

Rowan ran his hand through his hair. Man, I loved his hair. And his smile. And his lips. I loved everything about him.

Loving him was the easy part.

Giving up this town and everything and everyone in it made it hard.

“Maisey, I don’t want you to come because you think you have to. I’ll understand.”

My chest tightened. Why did he have to be such a nice guy? “I know.”

“I’ll be fine in Alaska without you.” His lip twitched, and his eyes widened. He was the worst liar ever.

It was so bad, I almost laughed. “What if I hate it in Alaska?” I asked. Being alone with him and Charlie sounded great, but what if the other people on the mountain—his military buddies and their girlfriends—hated me? What if I got cabin fever?

“You won’t,” he said, not lying that time.

Why did everything he said sound reasonable? It almost made me believe him. “You can’t know that.”

“I know you.” Rowan approached me, wrapped his muscular arm around my back, and snuggled me next to him. “And I know me.”

My throat tightened.

“We’ve already made the mistake of thinking we could do this alone. Let’s not do it again. You’re brave, Maisey. We can do this.”

His confidence filled me with hope. If I had Rowan there, I could handle anything Alaska threw at me.

Then his lip twitched in just that way. “And I know you’ll spend the first few months of spring trying to pet every animal you see.”

I laughed even though it came out a little jutted. “Probably.”

We stared at one another, each of us waiting for the other to speak. Somehow that made me feel even worse.