I don't know about thebest man in the whole world, but Bill is definitely the wimpiest man in the whole world. Every time I see him, he looks positively terrified of my cousin. I'm sure he's a nice enough guy, but just like the pink celebration, he wouldn't be my choice of fiancé.
"After all, I'm only going to do this once," she says. "It has to be perfect."
"And I'm only going to do it once, too," Aunt Beryl adds. "I can't imagine you'll ever get married, Ella."
Her comment hits me in the gut the way it always does. It's not the first time she's made such a comment. And it won't be the last. Both Aunt Beryl and Clarissa never miss an opportunity to tell me how I'll never meet a man who will love me.
Still, the comment stings a little sharper than usual, and I'm replaying it over and over in my head long after I escape the bridal shower and am tucked into bed with a bowl of popcorn and my laptop.
Maybe they're right? Maybe I will never meet the man of my dreams. I'm certainly not going to meet anyone working from home with my head stuffed in my laptop, building websites for other people.
Putting the popcorn aside, I click on the website I've had bookmarked on my browser for over a year since my best friend Ava told me about it.
Mountain Mates.
When Ava first confessed that she'd signed up to the mail-order bride website and only days after getting her match, had hopped a bus to meet the mountain man who had since become her husband, I thought she was insane.
But they'd been happily married for almost a year—correction, they were deliriously happy—and they'd just welcomed their first baby.
Maybe there was something to the whole mail-order thing?
Before I can talk myself out of it, again, I type in my information and click submit.
There's only one way to find out.
Jamie
The weight of the mission still clings to me as I push open the heavy door of the Rock Creek Search and Rescue office in Rock Creek. The small room smells of stale coffee and damp clothing. I step inside and let the door swing shut behind me.
I drop my bag on the chair and attempt to roll the ache from my shoulders. All my muscles scream in protest, and my mind still replays the chaos of the last forty-eight hours.
"I didn't expect you back here tonight," a familiar voice comes from across the room. "It's late, Jamie."
"I could say the same to you."
Briggs, leaning back in his chair with his boots propped up on the old wooden table, smirks at me. His green eyes, although exhausted the way we all are, glitter with amusement.
"Someone has to hold down the fort," he says.
Ignoring him, I cross the room and grab a water bottle from the fridge. "It was a team effort," I say after draining half the bottle. "And you know it."
He nods in agreement. Rescuing the lost hiker from the mountain had gone smoothly as far as rescue operations go,but that's only because all of us work so well together and have mutual respect for each other's skills.
Plus, we're all close in real life. It helps to know the guys who have your back on the mountain also have it at home.
"You should go home and get some sleep, Jamie. You look exhausted."
If anyone should go home, it's him. After all, he was the one with a wife and twin babies. "Shouldn't you be the one leaving?" I drop into the overstuffed chair across from him. "To my sister." The moment the words are out of my mouth, I regret them. "That will never stop being weird."
Briggs is my best friend and now, also my brother-in-law. My kid sister surprised me with a visit to Rock Creek when I was away on a training mission, so I put my best friend in charge of keeping her safe until I got back, and...well...like I said, they're now married—very, very happily—and have twin babies.
Don't get me wrong. I love to see Mia happy. She means everything to me. And Briggs is a great guy—otherwise, he wouldn't be my best friend—but it's still strange seeing them make out in front of me. Which they did. A lot.
"You love it," Briggs says with a laugh, and when I raise my eyebrow, he adds, "Well, maybe you don't love all of it. But you'd feel differently if you had your own woman."
I shake my head and finish off my water. Maybe. But I can't possibly know that. Because I don't have one. And in a town as small as Rock Creek, it's not like there are a lot of options.
"I don't see that happening, Briggs. Not all of us are lucky enough to fall in love with our best friend's sisters." I crumple up my empty bottle and toss it into the recycling bin. "Unless you have a sister you haven't told me about yet?"
