Lumberjacked

by Alexandria Hunt

  It proved to be a long, pleasurable morning.

  21

  REAGAN

  Waking up with Aaron had been heavenly, and rediscovering each other again and again had been even more incredible than I could have dreamed.

  After coffee, spanking, sex, more sex, and finally a quick nap, we showered and dressed and decided to take a short trip to town for groceries. And of course, head right back to his place for more of the same…sex and talking, talking and sex, light spanking, sex. Did I mention sex? I just might be more than a little obsessed with him.

  But I was fascinated by his life, his outlook on life, his family…everything about him was so different than me, and yet we were so much the same. Even his house seemed like a place I would have decorated. The furniture was my taste, and the artwork all appealed to me. I felt as though I’d been here before, in my dreams or maybe another life, but I’d been in Aaron’s space before.

  We’d shared something, we had to have been connected somehow, because I didn’t do this. I wasn’t the kind of girl who fell in love at the drop of a hat and agreed to marry a man I barely knew.

  I had to believe we’d been connected previously for any of this to make sense. We were soul mates who had found each other in this world, fumbling around in the dark until we’d somehow managed to bump into each other and get pulled together.

  It was fate, and our love was inevitable.

  The drive to town was uneventful and once we were there,Aaron was stopped every two feet to talk about the show, but our non-disclosure agreement meant he could end each conversation quickly with, “You’ll just have to watch and see!”

  The moment we stepped into the small grocery store, my phone buzzed and beeped like crazy. I picked up, looked at it, and gasped.

  “What wrong?” Aaron asked, his eyes hooded with concern.

  “I have forty-eight missed messages,” I said, “how did that happen?”

  “Oh shit, it must be your cell carrier,” he said with a frown. “Some of them don’t get great coverage up here, and none at all at my place. I should have warned you about that.”

  “Oh, no worries, it’s just surprising for me. I live on my phone, it’s my portable office. I’m going to step out and go through them, if you don’t mind.”

  “Sure thing, princess, you know where I’ll be…stocking up for our next few days of not leaving the house.”

  He bent and kissed me, but I was far too distracted to respond like I normally did. I walked back out onto the sidewalk, flopped onto a bench in front of the store, and started to sift through the texts.

  A few of them were teasing messages from Melanie, convinced I was never coming back to the city. She let me know that she’d made it back and was home in time for dinner with some guy she’d met on the plane.

  That was the Melanie I knew—the moment business was over, she was right back to pleasure.

  I texted her back to playfully scold her, but smiled as it went through.

  There were a couple from Tiger’s pet sitter. He was doing fine but she did mention he seemed depressed and sad that I’d forgotten to Skype him. I let her know I’d be back in a couple days to get him and he would be perfectly fine, he was probably vying for extra treats by playing on hear heartstrings.

  I didn’t mention to her that I might be hopping on a flight right back up here, bringing Tiger with me to the land of wolves and bears and scary woods. I hoped he would adjust okay. He was so used to being pampered, and the dog park was the scariest place he’d ever been. He would love the freedom though, the ability to run out into the grass any chance he got. It would be perfect for him.

  There were a couple messages confirming my flight plans and the car service to pick me up at the airport.

  But the rest…they were from my Dad. I felt my heart do a somersault.

  He started off talking about how proud he was that things had gone well up here and how excellent the footage was. He was thrilled that Charles would make a ton of money off this project and had more work for me the moment I got home.

  The next were from after Melanie must have told him about Aaron and how the show had ended, because they got progressively meaner and meaner from there.

  “What the hell are you doing with some lumberjack?”

  “Answer me, Reagan. Right. Now!”

  “If you don’t get back to LA immediately you are going to regret it.”

  That was the last one, there were so many in between I didn’t even fully read. I couldn’t. My heart sank like a stone. I felt sick, my palms were sweaty and I wanted to vomit. After soaring for so brief a time, I was slammed back down into the reality of my life. I’d never seen this level of animosity from my own father.

  I’d always wanted to see his emotional side, and this was what I finally got? He went from completely ignoring me whenever I’d needed him to suddenly demanding I obey him? And blasting me with his anger when all I’d wanted was his love?

  I started to compose a message back, but I couldn’t find anything that could be contained in just a text. My hand was shaking with anger too, and I had trouble focusing and making my fingers work.

  “Fuck it, he’s an asshole,” I muttered under my breath and looked up as an older woman in a bright yellow jacket with a wave of thick dark hair shot me a stern look. “Sorry,” I said, standing up and holding the door for her.

  She visibly relaxed and even gave me a small smile as she walked inside.

  Great, I was already pissing off the locals, and I hadn’t even moved here yet.

  I found Aaron quickly. He was standing in the meat section holding two identical packages of steak, eyeballing them carefully.

  “What’s up?” he asked as I walked up. “Anything the matter?”

  “Nothing I want to talk about,” I replied, wrapping my arms around his waist. “Let’s just say I’m so glad I have you.”

  He turned slightly and looked down, holding his arms out so he wouldn’t hit me with the steak. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m fine,” I said as I looked up. “Now what is taking so long with these steaks?”

  “I’m trying to figure out which is the best,” he said, turning back to them. “This one has great marbling, but this one is thicker.”

  I had no idea, so I just pointed at one and hoped I chose the best.

  “Perfect,” he exclaimed as he set the other pack down. “I’ll grill these up for dinner tonight. You’ve got an eye for meat.”

  “I have an eye for one kind of meat,” I snickered and ran my hand down the front of him as he tossed the pack into the shopping cart.

  He was immediately hard to my touch and shifted uncomfortably with a low groan. “You are an enchantress,” he chuckled, turning around fully. “Looks like my body responds no matter how bad your come-on is.” He cupped my face in his hands and bent to kiss me right there in the store, in front of everyone he knew.

  It made me feel free and secure in our love. Nick had always been so weird about public displays of affection that sometimes I felt like he just didn’t want to be seen with me. It had been a long-term blow to the ego.

  His tongue was deep in my mouth, and his hands cupped my ass as I melted against him, completely unaware of the world as we kissed.

  “Aaron! So this is what’s been keeping you from your mother,” a woman’s voice came, piercing our blissful bubble.

  We broke apart quickly, and I jerked away from him but he kept his hand draped possessively across my shoulders. I liked that.

  “Mom, why didn’t you tell me you were going to be in town shopping?” Aaron asked with a grin. “This is the girl I told you about, Reagan.”

  “Well, I didn’t think I needed to file an itinerary every time I left the farm…and I’m pleased to meet you, Reagan,” said the woman with the wild, dark hair and yellow jacket I’d offended in the front of the store. Her mouth was curved into a small, knowing smile and her eyes twinkled as she watched me catch on.

  “Oh
my god,” I said, flustered and embarrassed, “I didn’t mean to…” I glanced nervously at the entrance.

  She laughed and shook her head. “It’s fine, I forgive you…you seemed very upset. I’m sorry if I came off as a prude.”

  “What’s going on?” Aaron asked cautiously, realizing we’d already apparently met. I supposed with a man like him, his finance and his mother ganging up on him so soon was a very real threat.

  “I swore in front of the store, and your mom heard me,” I explained, “not a big deal, I feel a little silly.”

  “Why were you upset?” he asked, his intense eyes piercing mine, as if seeing straight through me.

  “It’s…it’s nothing, we’ll talk about it later,” I told him, my eyes begging him to drop it for now. I didn’t want to get into my complicated history with my father in front of his mom.

  “Let her tell you in her own time, dear,” his mom said. “I’m just going to pick up a few things and head over to meet Lynn at the diner. Would you two like to come over for dinner some time this week?”

  “I’d love to, but I’m flying back to LA,” I replied regretfully.

  “When she gets back,” Aaron said with a look back at me. “Which shouldn’t be too long.”

  “Definitely, we’ll be over when I get back…uh, Aaron’s mom,” I replied to both of them and felt guilt tightening my stomach and make my throat dry up. I wasn’t sure how long I would have to stay in LA. All I did know was that I had to figure out whether my career was in bad enough ruins to abandon it and run back here to nothing but Aaron, or if I stood a chance at convincing Aaron to come back to LA.

  Or if we could manage a long-distance kind of thing. Could that work? I hated that a series of texts from my Dad could make me swing back and forth like this. I felt so certain about moving here just moments before, so what had really changed? Could I turn my back on the deepest, most intoxicating love I’d ever felt? And for what? To make crappy TV shows and movies to stroke my father’s ego?

  My life was so complicated, and not knowing what the future would hold just seemed to complicate it further. Could I find happiness up here in this tiny, backwoods town after giving up the only career I’d ever known?

  “Excellent, but call me Penny. I’ll make you my special roast moose, you’ll never eat beef again,” Penny said. “I hope you’re not a vegetarian.”

  “No, I do eat meat,” I said with a smile.

  “Oh thank god, I don’t know what I’d cook if you only ate veggies. I’ll leave you two to your shopping now, and I can’t wait to get to know more about the woman who’s stolen my son’s heart when you get back.”

  We said our goodbyes, and Aaron looked at me with his eyebrow raised. “That was weird.”

  “What? Your mom? Why? Does she hate me?”

  No,” he chuckled, “she liked you. She’s never liked anyone I bring around.”

  “How could you tell? Maybe she’s just being nice.”

  “My mom is never ‘just nice,’” he replied with a laugh as he kissed my cheek. “And she invited you for dinner…and offered up one of the roasts from her coveted moose stash. She doesn’t do that for just anyone.”

  “I guess I’m moose roast material,” I grinned, and he kissed me again.

  God, I loved being around him. Going back to LA was going to physically hurt, and that didn’t make any of my decisions any easier to make.

  If only there was some sign, or some definitive way I could tell what was best for the both of us, things would be easier.

  * * *

  Our time together went way too fast, and before we knew it, he was driving me to the tiny little airport I’d arrived in just a few short weeks before.

  Back then felt like a lifetime though. I’d been so nervous and guarded, completely unable to admit that I’d been attracted to Aaron since the moment I saw him in the bar.

  We kissed and held each other as we waited for my plane to start boarding. About ten minutes before I was set to get on and fly away, he got a text.

  “Who is it?” I asked, looking at his phone.

  “It’s nobody more important than you,” he grinned. “I’ll ignore it.”

  “No, don’t do that! I can’t stand not knowing.”

  “You did pretty well, being out of range at my place,” he chuckled as he pulled me against him, “ignoring your phone for the last couple days.”

  “I had something to distract me,” I laughed. “And I didn’t ignore it, I ignored my dad.”

  “That bastard.” Aaron’s eyes grew dark, and his face hardened. “I hate that he makes you feel like you’re unworthy.” I’d told him everything the moment we’d gotten home from the grocery story. Of course Aaron’s solution was to tell my Dad to go fuck himself, but I didn’t see that ever happening. My Dad made me feel like such a weak little girl every time I was around him. I wished I could bottle up Aaron’s confidence and take it with me.

  “You make me feel like the most worthy woman on the planet, so your powers of persuasion win over his any day of the week.”

  “Good,” he replied, and he kissed the top of my head. “Don’t you forget that when you’re down there.”

  “Speaking of that,” I said, hesitating.

  “What’s up?” he asked, looking down at me, his eyes locking on mine.

  “I didn’t know when to tell you, but I need to tell you in person. I…don’t know yet when I’ll be able to come back. Not too long, I hope, but I have to wrap up the show and deal with my father.”

  “Why not just hand the reins over to Melanie?” he asked, all playfulness leaving his tone.

  “It’s my show, and it might just be the last one I ever do,” I said. “It’s not fair to dump all that work on her.”

  “Might?” he asked, a little surprise in his voice. “I thought it was definitely your last.”

  “This isn’t the kind of thing I wanted to get into, and especially not here,” I said.

  “When should we talk about it then?” he asked, his voice growing a little more demanding. “When it was going to be a good time for you to tell me you’re not coming back to Woodbridge?”

  “I was hoping you’d come to LA, if things work out with my career,” I said quietly. This conversation wasn’t going the way I’d hoped at all. Aaron’s anger frightened me, and his naked, raw need choked my breath and stifled my desire for freedom.

  “I will never go back down there,” he replied in a low tone. “If you want to be with me, princess, you have to be here. I won’t go to the city, there’s nothing there for me.”

  “Wait, so I’m nothing?” I asked, pain stabbing my chest and tears threatening to roll down my face.

  “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. I mean, what am I going to do? Wash dishes in a lumberjack-themed restaurant? Play Paul Bunyan at Disneyland? You knew when you met me I was an Alaskan boy, born and bred. I’d never do well down there.”

  “Well, you knew I was an LA princess, born and bred,” I snapped back, my anger giving a new fire to my flame. “Why are my needs suddenly so meaningless? At least my career brings in money, I didn’t need to beg for a hundred grand to save the family business.”

  As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew they were the wrong thing to say. I regretted them the moment I saw them connect, drive home, and do their damage.

  Aaron’s eyes fell flat, and he released me. He glanced at his phone and said in a wooden voice, “I need to go.”

  “What? Why? No, I’m sorry,” I babbled as he looked at me with an icy mask glazing over his handsome features.

  “I know you are,” he said, softening slightly. “I have to go help somebody with something though, and your plane is about to leave. Let’s pick this up when you’re back home, okay? Maybe Tiger can talk some sense into you.”

  “I’m sorry for what I said,” I told him as he embraced me, a painfully long moment passing between us that made my heart sink. “Why does this feel like goodbye?”

  “Beca
use it is, princess,” he chuckled. “But I’ll see you real soon, okay?”

  “I love you,” I said, clinging to him.

  “I love you too, more than you’ll ever know,” he replied softly before he kissed my ear through my hair.

  He let me go, gave me a tiny wave, and left my sight.

  I exhaled, suppressed a sob and sank into a seat near the little screening room. I still had to go through security, but I couldn’t move at that moment.

  There was no way I could leave him like this. My words had been so awful that I couldn’t walk away and let him have that as the last thing I said to him. The last thing he remembered about me.

  “Fuck it,” I said under my breath, and an old man seated to my left turned his head sharply to look at me.

  I was beyond the point of caring. I had no fucks to give, so sorry old man, I had a hot, muscled hunk of lumberjack to go win back.

  I rushed out of the terminal, hoping to get him before he left the small parking lot. I scanned all the vehicles and didn’t see his truck. He’d already left.

  I found the number to the only taxi service in town and nearly cursed again when they told me it would be an hour wait.

  I watched my plane take off without me on it and killed time until the cab pulled up in front of me.

  It was a rattle trap old mini van with more dents and rust than original paint. The driver was a huge man, probably in his fifties, who didn’t even seem like he’d fit inside the vehicle let alone drive it.

  He was friendly though, and helped me load my luggage. His name was Joe and e talked non-stop the entire time to Aaron’s, and I realized one of the best things about a small town when I’d hopped in with no address. He knew exactly who I was talking about and where he lived.

  We pulled up the long driveway about the time it was getting to be dusk. Aaron’s truck wasn’t there though. I cursed myself for not calling him before I decided to surprise him. Now that I was here, I had no service.

  “How about I wait here to make sure you can get inside?” Joe offered, looking up at the darkening sky.