Page 11 of Anything for You (Veterans of Silver Ridge #7)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Stone

M y heart felt so full and light, I didn’t know what to do with it.

“Thanks, guys. I’m so happy, I hardly know what to do with myself. Obviously, she has to say yes, but… yeah. It’ll be good.” Kenny wiped his hands down his quads, then knocked back the last bit of tea in his cup. “Right?”

His gaze moved from Luc’s to mine.

I nodded. “It will. She loves you.”

I’d never had much experience with love until moving here and watching every one of my friends find their person. I’d seen it happen over and over again now, and so I said it with certainty.

“And she told you she was ready. She wouldn’t have said it if she didn’t mean it,” Luc affirmed.

Kenny chuckled lightly, then let out a gusty exhale. “Yeah. I know. Logically, I know that, but then another part of my brain is like, ‘dude, she’s way too good for you and this is going to crash and burn.’”

“No. Don’t think like that.” We’d all been in enough therapy to know focusing on the negative rarely helped.

“She’ll say yes. But if you’re going to do it this weekend, you better get everyone on board.” Luc’s admonition was wise.

Kenny had big plans for an engagement and impromptu wedding for him and Liz, and he’d need major reinforcements. Plus, he only had about seventy-two hours before his go time.

“You’re right.” His head perked up at the sound of a car out front. “Is that by any chance Dove?”

The sound of her name made a ball of warmth burst in my chest. “Likely, yes. Not many other people come out here except you guys.” Occasionally Adam and every so often Beast, but he’d been doting on Jess and more anxious to be even five minutes from her now that she was in her last few weeks before the baby came.

“I’m going to go catch her and check her off my list if that’s okay?” he asked me as though I was his keeper.

I shrugged. “Might as well.”

We worked together to clear the low coffee table where we’d set up the plates and tea service.

They always insisted on helping clean up even though I assured them I didn’t mind.

I looked forward to our afternoon teas, and it’d become oddly soothing not only to prepare for them, but to clean up after them.

Dr. Corrigan would say this was one of my healthy routines.

“Go on before she gets busy with something and you interrupt her,” I said, a fingernail of irritation nudging me at the thought of him getting to talk to Dove.

Not that I couldn’t. Not that it was even a thing. I just… didn’t want him to upset her. This was all good news, but I wondered if she’d have any complex feelings.

Maybe we could talk about that.

Or just… sit next to each other.

I’d planned to bake something particularly good on Saturday, just in case she needed to decompress. That way, she’d have something sweet to cheer her up, and I’d have the pleasure of giving her something, which would do the same for me.

“Everything okay?” Luc asked, sliding the last plate into the dishwasher as I hand-washed the bone china teapot.

“Yes. All good.”

His hand on my shoulder made me freeze, then turn to find concerned gray-green eyes looking back at me.

“Really?”

My stomach clenched, bracing. I didn’t begrudge him the concern or the insistence on a real answer from me. I’d relied on him and the others to force me to be honest in the past, and sometimes, I still required a bit of a push.

“I’m just thinking about how good this is. All of it. You with Elise and Kenny getting married. Adam and Jo setting a date. Jess and Beast about to have their first kid… everyone has found their person. It’s good.”

His furrowed brow told me what was coming before he ever said it.

“But?”

I loosed a small sigh. “Not really a but. Because it is purely good. And I…” What was the word? “ Je ne sais pas ?”

He huffed a laugh. “ Non. Essaie encore une fois .”

Try again.

Wasn’t that the challenge for so many parts of life?

“I started to say I’m envious, but that’s such a hard, ugly term, and it doesn’t mean I want any of you to give me what you have. I want you to have it. And I wonder what it would be like if I did, too. If I even can.”

A sound came from the doorway, a muffled, almost agonized sound. We turned to see Kenny listening.

He rushed to me, hauling me into his arms as though he was the larger of the two of us.

“You can have whatever you want, okay?” He pulled back, his blue eyes so full of sincerity and urgency, my heart clutched. “You can find someone. I know it. And I can guarantee that person will be incredibly lucky to have you.”

He cupped my face and shook, giving me a hard look until I rolled my eyes and gave him an unwilling smile.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me. It’s true. And I know that’s going to be a process for you. A lot is changing and thankfully not all of us move at lightning speed like me, but it is a lot if we think about where we were a few years ago.”

His eyes held the memories we all shared.

The deployment gone wrong. Getting out of the military.

Them carrying me through the darkest days of my life.

Starting over here. Even the first year in Silverton when I still struggled fairly regularly.

And for them? They’d struggled, too—adjusting to civilian life, making all the decisions we’d handed control over to the military for ourselves.

Even being fully open to a relationship, at least for them.

I’d never been closed to it. I’d always just known it wasn’t an option. At least after the deployment that literally changed my brain and ability to function .

“I know. It’s a process.” I patted his shoulder, and he nodded as though satisfied.

“ à demain, okay ?” Luc asked, brows raised.

“Yeah. See you tomorrow.”

They left, each giving Bear his due as they walked out. From the front door, I glanced at the cabin next door, and my pulse did something weird I ignored. After Luc’s and Kenny’s cars were out of sight, I stood on the threshold of my home and wondered.

Would it be out of place for me to go check on Dove? Would she want that? Was it weird I was considering it given that we’d received happy news?

The questions slipped through my mind, but my feet were already moving toward her porch.

I didn’t know her all that well and yet I knew with certainty we didn’t rely on pretense.

After a knock on the door and no answer, I tried once more, and then left.

Her car wasn’t there, but she occasionally parked in the small garage on the far side of the cabin, so I hadn’t wanted to assume.

She’d probably gone straight into town to talk with Jo and Elise or whoever else about the upcoming engagement and wedding. She had people. And… maybe she even had a person. She’d seemed so lonely, like she didn’t have a partner, but maybe I’d read it wrong.

I swallowed hard at the thought.

I’d hardly interacted with her, so how could I know?

It would make sense someone as sweet and lovely as she was would have a partner.

She couldn’t be married, and one might wonder why she was living out here with me—well, next to me—if she was in a serious relationship because if I had a woman like Dove, I’d do anything for her, including ask her to move in.

No matter. I’d see her again. I’d still make something tasty on Saturday, and maybe she’d drop another letter by. Not that I was waiting for one or anything.

“Bear,” I said, hand at my side. He trotted over and stayed in step with me.

We had things to do, and worrying about Dove Jensen’s feelings about our friends’ engagement wasn’t one of them.