When he found what he was looking for, he booked it fast:Dublin.December 20th.Return date flexible.The cursor pulsed like a heartbeat he couldn’t slow down.
He told Zach, Karen, and Finn because the people paying his salary absolutely needed to know he was running off with barely a moment’s notice.
Cody still didn’t tell Fern.Not yet.
Chance caught him wrench-deep in the baler behind the arena on a brittle Tuesday morning.Snow squeaked under Chance’s boots as he leaned into the open bay.
“You lost your mind, wee brother?”
Cody grunted, not looking up.“What do you want, Chance?”
Chance crossed his arms, expression sharp as the cold.“Not that he was telling tales out of term, but it came up in passing.Now I’ve heard and now I know.Zach says you’re bailing to Ireland for Christmas.Family reunion I’m not invited to?Or something you’re not saying?”
Changing position, Cody swore as his shoulder muscles froze.The bolt he’d loosened slid from his fingers and clinked off the frame.
His left hand just couldn’t hold it.
“Just wanted to see my mom,” he lied.“And Dad, of course.”
Chance eyed him.That seeing-right-through-you look only an older brother could perfect.“You sure it’s not about Fern?”
Cody scraped grease off his palms with a rag.“Leave it, Chance.”
“You’re not denying she means something to you.”
“Drop it,” Cody ordered with a hint of desperation.
A quiet settled, broken only by the horse paddock gate clanging somewhere behind them.
Finally, Chance’s voice softened, the Irish burr thick.“You’re an eejit.Some messes are worth sticking around to fix.”
Cody turned away, pretending to hunt for a wrench.Pretending his whole chest hadn’t squeezed at hearing that single truth.
Long after his brother left, Cody sat on the bench by the arena.The cold wind bit through his warmest jacket.He forced his left hand flat on his thigh yet watched as a faint tremor danced through the fingers.
He wanted Fern.He wanted her so bad his teeth ached with it.But wanting and deserving weren’t the same thing.
Cody shut his eyes and pictured Fern’s smile.The one that made him hope for forever.
Worth the mess,Chance said.Cody wasn’t so surehewas.
She’s worth everything,he thought.So he’d care enough to let her go if that’s what it took to keep her whole.
Thesnickof Fern’s Bluetooth stylus whispered through the gallery’s upper rooms.Below, Chance’s voice drifted up now and then as he led a small school group past the new landscape series.Outside, Heart Falls slogged through an unexpected mid-December drizzle.Neither snow nor rain, just enough slush to smear the windows and grey the sky.
Fern forced herself to focus on the layout proofs for the spring art auction pamphlet.She highlighted an entire paragraph, deleted it, rewrote it, deleted it again.
Cody hadn’t texted in three days.
Not since she’d sent him a dumb selfie.Her wrapped in a scarf with frost on her eyelashes, teasing him to come rescue her from freezing in the parking lot.Normally he’d fire back some smart remark.Instead…
Nothing.
Downstairs, the front door chimed and soft laughter mixed with the hush of December wind.A few minutes later, Chance’s shoes thudded up the stairs.
He ducked under a hanging display of dried paper lanterns and propped himself against her desk.His expression was soft but edged in that big-brother caution Fern had learned to spot.
“Got a sec, sunshine?”
