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CASE

“Where are you off to?” Sutton asks from the couch, switching his attention away from the hockey game on the TV.

Jude sits in the corner armchair, his nose in one of his books, while Will and Birdie are cuddled close on the other end of the couch from Sutton.

The only person not home tonight is Wy. He’s gone down the mountain to meet up with his dad and stepmother who came to see him and grab some furniture from the town’s store.

“Just goin’ outside to sit in that hangin’ chair of yours. Why? You goin’ to miss me?” I shoot back.

“Hangin’ chair. Also known as the expensive porch swing that Sutt thought would add to the ambiance of the place?” Jude snickers.

“Hey! I’ll have you know, it does give the place a more homely feel. You’ll be eatin’ your words come the end of summer when you’re fightin’ me to sit out there.” Sutton turns his attention to me. “Everythin’ OK?”

“Yeah. I’m good, I swear,” I reply, “I’ve got a call to make and a date to organize.”

“I knew my meddlin’ would get you two together,” Birdie says, puffing her chest out and gazing at Will. “Did I not tell you they were goin’ to hook up?”

I cock my head at her. “There’s been no hookin’ up.” Not yet, anyway. “And we met months ago, remember? Before we even moved to Timber Falls, which was before Will had even met you.”

“Well, yeah ,” she says with a scoff. “Doesn’t mean me suggestin’ you come flower pickin’ on Sunday and gettin’ Will to trick you into comin’ to the diner today didn’t help move things along.”

My future sister-in-law looks so damn hopeful I don’t have it in me to tell her that I don’t plan on letting Isla slip through my fingers a second time. Not now. Not ever.

My beautiful stranger lights me up inside just by being near her. There’s no pressure to be anyone other than myself when we’re together. I don’t have to hide and have no desire to. I just want to be with her. Talk to her.

After today’s talk at the diner when Birdie was trying her hand–albeit unnecessarily–and bringing us together, I’m not worried about our date.

We could do anything, go anywhere, and it wouldn’t matter.

The only important thing is that it’s with her.

That’s not to say I don’t want to come up with something memorable.

Will watches me, his expression as if he’s waiting for something… or for me to say it.

“You don’t think this could be it, do you?” I ask him.

His gaze softens and he glances down at his soulmate cuddled into his side. “Do you think about her all the time?”

“Don’t think I ever stopped. Definitely not since I saw her again.”

He seems surprised by that. “Even though you didn’t know who she was or anythin’? You just knew ?”

“Learned everythin’ I needed to know that night we spent together.”

“But didn’t do anythin’, right?” Jude asks, the book in his hand long forgotten as he leans forward in his chair.

“Baby brother, a man and a woman can spend time together without doin’ anythin’.

We just talked. Her about her mom, her job, her life changin’.

Me about my depression, my life… all of it.

One minute I was eatin’ at a random diner in the middle of Anchorage and worried about what the next day would bring.

The next I was gazin’ into the most beautiful brown eyes I’d ever seen and talkin’ about pecan pie. ”

“All of this happened while you were eatin’ pie ? You didn’t even try to pick her up or anythin’?” Jude asks, his voice full of disbelief.

“You might’ve met your One eatin’ pie in a random city on an otherwise inconsequential night,” Sutt says, shaking his head. “Maybe I need to up my game.”

I snort. “Like you have game, Sutt. We all know that when they were handin’ out qualities and dishin’ it out between the two of us, I got all the charm and you got the–”

“Yeah,” Birdie interrupts. “How ‘bout you don’t finish that sentence, Case? Cause I'm sensin' that this conversation is headin’ toward the gutter.”

All of us Cooper brothers start laughing, Will pulling Birdie into his side and brushing a kiss over her temple. “You’ve already got our number, honey.”

“Like it’s hard,” she scoffs. “You’re all over thirty but when you get goin’, it’s like I’m livin’ with a bunch of teenagers.”

Will’s lips twitch. “You sayin’ I’m young at heart.”

“She’s callin’ us immature,” Sutt replies. “And here I was thinkin’ Jude offended me when he rubbished my chair.”

“ Anyway , back to Case,” Jude says, getting the attention of the room again. “Are you sayin’ you think Isla is your One? ”

Do I? I’ve never felt so connected to anyone before, not even my twin who I shared a womb with. Not my brothers who I know love and support me and have–and always will be–there for me.

What I feel with Isla is a whole new level of something … and I want to explore it more than anything.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I don’t have enough going on in my life right now. There’s the tree farm and the slowly progressing guest cabin renovations, the donkey that claimed us and refuses to leave, and our two cattle steers that came with Wyatt but hate anyone getting close to them.

Even still, I’d let it all fall by the wayside if it meant spending time with my beautiful stranger.

My eyes move to Will and Birdie, knowing they’re the only people who know what it feels like. “What does it feel like to know you’ve found your One?”

The happy couple share a look and if I wasn’t invested in Isla and everything she’s made me feel since I met her, I’d be cracking jokes and telling them to get a room.

“I thought I was just fallin’ in love,” Will starts. “But there were signs I didn’t put much stock into at first that I look back on now and wonder how I didn’t know.”

I lift a brow. “Like what?”

“My heart goin’ crazy every time I saw her, for one.” Tick .

Birdie melts into him. “Mine too. Oh, and the goosebumps, the hairs on my arms standin’ on end, the need to just be with him, and touch him.” Tick . “Then there was the fact that I’ve always wanted to find a love like what exists in Aster’s book,” she continues.

Aster Hollingsworth is a romance author who writes about the Mountain’s Call and about the men and women connected to the Cooper bloodline who meet their soulmates thanks to spirits living deep within the mountains.

She also just happens to be married to one of our long-lost cousins who lives at Moose Mountain.

Birdie keeps going. “When I first met Will, there was just somethin’ there for me. It was like–”

“Somethin’ clicked,” I say, finishing her sentence.

Her eyes light up. “Yes! Oh my goodness, you are feelin’ it. Aren’t you? This is so excitin’.” She claps her hands and I can’t help but chuckle.

“Now you’ve gone and done it,” Will says, laughing along with me.

“What?” Birdie asks. “Can’t I be over the moon that–by some happenstance–my future brother-in-law is feelin’ it for my best friend? I’m the happiest I’ve ever been and now I get to feel that while watchin’ two people I adore have their own journey toward forever.”

“When you put it like that, I’m kind of jealous,” Sutton says, his gaze sliding over to where I’m standing. “I knew there was somethin’ different about you after the will was read. You were sad, but it wasn’t your normal low. It was–”

“Regret. She’d left me a note but I had no way of findin’ her, or her me.”

“Until you walk into the same bar you’ve visited many times and there she is,” he says quietly, but no less meaningful.

I nod. Trust my twin to take my thoughts and verbalize them.

“It’s almost like it wasn’t your time yet–not back then, anyway,” Jude says, thinking out loud.

“Yes! That’s it,” Birdie says, sitting up straight and pointing my way. “You guys forged a connection when you were both havin’ a hard time, but that was all you could give each other back then. Now, though…” Now I’m not missing out on my chance.

The old grandfather clock chimes from the dining room, signaling eight o’clock. “And that’s my cue.”

“Callin’ Iz?” Birdie says, her smile so contagious I can’t help but grin back at her.

“Somethin’ like that.”

“Wait, are you goin’ to tell her?” Jude asks. “You know, about the Call?”

“Sure,” I scoff. “I’ve only just found her again and hopin’ to organize our first of what will be many dates, and you want me to tell her that there’s a family lore where the mountain spirit rewards us with our soulmates?”

He frowns. “Why not?”

“Because I don’t want to scare her off,” I reply, and out of habit, my eyes lock with my twin’s.

We stand there staring at one another for what seems like a long while, but in reality, is only a few moments.

“Remember when we were twelve and Gramps took us to the dock on the outskirts of town to go swimmin’?” Sutton says. I nod, wondering where he’s going with this. “I was scared but tryin’ to put on a brave face because I wanted Gramps to think I was strong and confident like him?”

“That’s—”

“You stood beside me, grippin’ my hand like I was the one holdin’ you up when the truth was my legs were shakin’ so bad I swear the wood was vibratin’.

” He smiles at the memory. “You never left my side. You never let me go. You told me we’d be fine, and that whatever happened, we’d always do it together, yeah? ”

“Yeah…”

“Then you counted down from three and just like you said, you were right there with me, jumpin’ off into the water and yahooin’ while doin’ it.

” I grin then, still trying to work out where he’s going with this story.

His eyes crinkle at the sides. “So what makes you think that it would be any different now? You’ve got this, Case.

I’ve never been more confident of anythin’.

When all four of us agreed to move here and take on this ranch–this mountain–I wasn’t worried.

That’s because I knew that whatever happened, we’d all be in it together.

The Call is no different.” He looks over to the couch.

“We were here for Will and Birdie and we’ll be here for you and Isla.

Just like we’ll all stand by when the unlucky lady destined to tame Jude arrives too. ”

“Hey! I’m offended. I’m a catch,” our baby brother says, making me grin.

“You’re not alone anymore, Case. You never were.”

You’re not alone anymore. You never were.

Then it hits me that there’s one person who knows Isla better than anyone. “Do you think I should tell her?” I ask her.

“I think you should follow your heart. Follow your feelings. Don’t worry about a timeline or a journey or whatever might happen in a week, a month, or even a year . The heart doesn’t have a clock and isn’t on a deadline. Not when it’s meant to be.”

“Do you think that? That it’s meant to be?” I’m surprised by the hopefulness in my voice.

Birdie’s lips tip up into a knowing smile. “Oh yeah. There’s just somethin’ about this whole love story that has ‘romance for the ages’ written all over it. All I ask is that you make her happy, and be there for her, even when she says she’s OK.”

“She’s not OK?” I growl.

Birdie’s smile falls a little. “Oh, she is. Don’t get me wrong.

But if anyone deserves to have a good man to have her back and protect her front, it’s my best friend.

She gives so much to everyone else that sometimes she forgets she deserves to be taken care of as well.

You know?” I nod. “Kind of like you, come to think of it. Maybe you are destined to be together. You’re like two peas in a pod. ”

That thought makes me smile. Because if that’s what Isla needs from me, then that’s exactly what I can be for her. Her anchor. Her port in a storm. Because that’s what she was–what she has been–for me.