For Love

Chapter 5

JASON

Jason thanked the good Lord when the weather finally gave way to clearer skies halfway to Seattle. The wagon had gotten stuck worse than Clancey to Lottie's bar after a month at sea, costing them an hour on the trail. By the time the horses pulled them into town during the twilight hour, they were both waterlogged and their backsides sore. He halted the wagon in front of his cabin and took a minute to observe Laurie's reaction.

She had been quiet the entire trip, content to hold the umbrella over them both until the rain subsided. Now she was examining the cabin without expression. She had that smooth, unreadable mask in place and he would have given his third of Bridal Veil Mountain to read her mind.

Her eyes stopped scanning the outside of the cabin and settled on him, a tentative smile forming at the corner of her lips. "Home?"

"For now," he answered, certain it was exhaustion and not the cabin's appearance that made her sound hopeful. He hopped down and helped Laurie off the wagon in a single motion, lifting her by her waist and setting her in front of the porch in a single motion. With a light touch to her elbow, Jason guided her inside.

The cabin looked as it always did, although it showed signs of being used more than usual. The beds looked tidy enough, and the dishes were put away. But a sack of dirty laundry sat by the front door in a corner, waiting for Jeremy's fiancé to collect it on a dry morning; the floor looked like it could use a good sweeping; and the fireplace had only coals burning under the soot, though only sweet angels above knew why things that had never bothered him before were bothering him now.

Moving past potential embarrassments, Jason followed her gaze around the room, wanting to give her time to take it all in. The first things that seemed to grab her attention were Jason's bed against the wall and his brothers' set of bunk beds that accompanied the living area. The round table with a yellow tablecloth and a few chairs placed neatly around it was next, along with the green table lamp he'd purchased last year placed in the center. He noticed her gaze moved more quickly over other things as it flickered past the washbasin and shaving mirror near the water pump, a cupboard filled with dishes and his father's journals, the small larder he kept stocked with coffee, and a stove that was probably full of ash.

She slowed her assessment at his old black leather chair that Jason had a habit of using to lounge on while reading the paper next to the fireplace, and she took a long moment to gaze at the large model of a clipper ship he had bought as a splurge for Joshua and Jeremy his first year as their guardian. Next to it sat his father's small clock on the mantel. Last, she seemed to find the Bolt family tintypes along with his father's portrait on the wall interesting.

"Who is the man in the painting?" she asked while fixated on it.

"That was my father."

"You look like him."

"Thank you."

She smiled and moved on to the Indian blankets on the windows, and Jason felt his first marital pang. He and his brothers had never needed much since they spent most of their time at their logging camp. While he secretly chuckled over other men's homes going through a feminine transformation when they got married, it pained him to think Laurie would dress up the cabin with lace and frills as women were wont to do. The Bolt brothers' cabin was no more.

"Ah, I guess I need to explain the sleeping arrangements," he said, thumping his finger against his other hand when her eyes focused on the beds again. She politely nodded, so he continued, not liking the unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Well, I told you my two younger brothers and I live here. That's their beds," he said, gesturing to the bunk beds, "And I sleep in that one over there. But don't worry, it's only for a little while. You'll be more comfortable when we build a cabin for you and me."