Page 99 of The Aster Valley Collection, Vol. 2
I began gathering the bags from the pharmacy. “Nope. It’s my place. I’m going to stay with you tonight. You can decide if you want to stay here at my place or have me stay at yours. I’m fine either way, but I’ll need to pack a few things and deal with my dog if you want me to stay at yours.”
He looked over at me as if to assess whether I was being truthful. “You’re going to stay with me? Really? Why would you do that? You don’t even know me.”
“You need someone around to help, and… to be honest, I could use the company. I moved to Aster Valley a few months ago, and…” I felt the heat of embarrassment on my face. “I don’t know a lot of people here yet.”
BJ’s eyes widened. They still held the glassy sheen of the pain meds, but they looked warm and welcoming. I took a breath and tried to stave off any hesitation he might have. “Parker can vouch for me. I saw you were skiing with him today, and he knows me. We skied together in college.”
“Oh, I… I don’t really know him. I only met him today. Well… I mean… I met him earlier this week, but that was a misunderstanding.”
I waited for him to tell me that wouldn’t be enough of a personal reference for him to feel comfortable staying with me, but he surprised me.
“You sure you don’t mind? I really don’t want to go back to that big house tonight. I don’t have any food, and it’s too far out for delivery?—”
“No,” I blurted. “No, that’s great. Let’s get you inside.”
I raced around the truck to help him out.
With my arm around his smaller body, I managed to get him into the house without him having to put weight on his injured leg.
If I’d thought he would have let me, I’d have carried him bride-style.
Instead, I helped him hobble over to the sofa, nudging a very nosy corgi out of the way in the process.
“Who’s this?” BJ asked with a grin.
“Her name is Cosi. My niece started calling her Cosette during a Les Mis phase, and it stuck.”
“Cosi the corgi. I would not have pictured it,” he said with a genuine smile. “She’s flipping adorable.”
“What do you mean? I don’t look like the dog type?”
BJ glanced up at me. “You look like the dog type, but something bigger like a retriever or Rottweiler. This girl is pristine. Look at her coat. Surely she gets regular grooming with a coat like that.”
I nodded and pretended to be serious. “Only the best for my girl. We had a time finding a new salon when we moved here. Thankfully, the woman at the realty place hooked me up. Louisa at the Barking Lot is a miracle worker.”
Once I got him settled on the sofa with a blanket and the remote, I took Cosi outside for a quick break. As soon as we returned inside, she bolted over and took a spot on the floor closest to where BJ’s hands could reach her for pets if, by any chance, he was inclined to want to do such a thing.
What followed was the fastest mutual love affair I’d ever witnessed.
BJ cooed at her and scratched her ears, giving her all the attention she demanded, while she sprawled shamelessly on the floor and panted her approval.
I shook my head. I refused to be jealous of my own dog. I made my way into the kitchen to put some things away and see what I could fix us for dinner.
I enjoyed cooking, but I rarely did it for just me. So I took the opportunity with BJ here to make a chicken pasta dish I liked that would also be easy on his stomach.
Once I had everything ready, I brought it back to the living room, where I discovered him asleep with Cosi belly up between BJ and the back of the sofa. His arm was wrapped around her protectively in an adorable snuggle, and I couldn’t help but be creepy and snap a photo with my phone.
He was attractive and kind.
And he liked my dog.
I sighed and set the food down on the coffee table.
Why did I get crushes on random strangers?
I didn’t know anything about this guy other than seeing his cheerful interaction with people in the restaurant at lunch and his gentle affection for my dog.
But something about him was calling out to me to look out for him. Keep him safe.
Make him happy.
I returned to the kitchen to grab the two tall glasses of ice water, and when I returned, Cosi’s wriggling interest in the food on the table had awoken BJ.
“Sorry,” I said, reaching over to pluck my dog up before she could cause him any discomfort. I shooed her back to the kitchen, where her own dinner was waiting, but she declined my suggestion and took a spot by the coffee table instead.
BJ winced when he tried to sit up, so I raced over to help him rearrange himself in a more comfortable position for eating. “Thanks,” he said. The pain was clear on his face, so I checked the time to see if I could give him another pain pill yet.
“You can have another pill in twenty minutes,” I said. “Do you think you can eat in the meantime? It’ll help.”
He nodded and took the pasta bowl I offered, inhaling the aroma appreciatively. “God, this looks amazing. You made this?”
“Yes, and I’m glad you’re here so I had an excuse to cook. I used to make this when I had friends over in Park City, but now that I’m in Aster Valley, I don’t have anyone to host for dinner.”
“What about Parker? You said you two are friends through skiing.”
I explained that Parker lived and worked on the slopes in Vail and was only here for a visit. “I didn’t even know he was here until I saw him out there today. He’s friends with my bosses at work.”
Tiller and Mikey had invited me to join their group of friends for dinner at their lodge, but I’d already declined before BJ’s injury.
I’d accepted their invitations to meet for pizza and beer in the past, but I’d known meeting them for dinner would be more than I could face after a long day on the mountain.
They were part of a group of established couples, and being around so many happily paired-off guys was hard when I wanted nothing more than a committed relationship for myself.
As we ate, BJ asked me about my move from the ski resort at Park City to the new operation here in Aster Valley. I explained that the Aster Valley opportunity was a chance for me to move closer to my family in Greeley and also be a bigger fish in a smaller pond at work.
BJ told me about how he’d only been in Jackson Hole a couple of years but that he liked living in a ski community.
“I grew up in Louisiana and then moved to Santa Fe when I turned twenty. There was a yoga instructor there I wanted to learn from, and she was incredibly generous in her teachings. She helped me get a placement at a resort teaching classes, and then a year later, the company moved me to their location in Jackson. And now… well, I guess I need to figure out where I’ll go next. ”
I couldn’t believe my ears. Yoga was the reason I was able to do what I loved for a living. “You teach yoga?”
BJ’s face lit up. “Yeah, have you tried it?”
I didn’t even know where to begin. “I-I… I love yoga. I practice it daily. Yoga has given me the flexibility and core strength to continue skiing. I was in an accident on the slopes in middle school and thought I’d never be able to ski again.
My aunt made me try yoga when I couldn’t get my range of motion back all the way. It changed my life.”
We spent the next hour happily sharing stories about our love for yoga, the different types we’d tried, and our favorite positions. When I finally noticed the tightening around BJ’s eyes, I realized I’d forgotten to give him his pain pill.
“Oh fuck,” I blurted, jumping up to get the prescription from the kitchen. “I’m so sorry. Here, take this, and let me show you to the guest room.”
Cosi followed us as I helped BJ to the small guest room with my sister’s hand-me-down double bed covered in a heap of old homemade quilts.
I tried not to focus on how nice it felt to have him here, but I couldn’t help but feel a warmth in my chest when I saw him nestled down in my guest bed.
“Dallas?” he asked as I was turning off the bedside lamp.
“Yeah?”
“I don’t suppose you, um, wax . Do you?”
Did I wax? I blinked. The pain pill must’ve been hitting him hard already, poor guy. “Nope. My chest is pretty smooth already, and my skin’s kinda sensitive, so…”
“Right. Right.” He reached out and grabbed my hand. “Thank you for bringing me here. If I’d gone back to the rental alone, I would have ended up feeling pretty sorry for myself.”
I squeezed his hand, wishing I could hold on to it a little longer. “Thank you for letting me. If I’d come back here alone, I would have ended up feeling sorry for myself, too.”
We looked into each other’s eyes for a few more beats before I lifted up his hand and pressed a kiss to it. It maybe should have felt awkward, but it didn’t. In fact, it had been a long time since something had felt so right. “Shout if you need anything. Anything at all.”
The soft smile on his face as I left the room stayed with me for a long time.