He shrugged as if brushing off the heaviness of the moment. “So yeah, that’s me. Not much to tell.”
Capri’s lips twitched into a half-smile. “I think there’s a lot more to you than you’re letting on.”
Jake chuckled, a deep, warm sound that made Capri’s heart skip. “Maybe,” he said, meeting her gaze. “But I figure some things are better learned with time, don’t you?”
Before she could reply, Capri felt a flutter in her stomach, the familiar unease creeping in. His words hung between them, filled with a promise she wasn’t sure she was ready to accept.
What happens next could go two ways—Capri could deflect again, pushing away the growing connection between them by changing the subject or pulling back emotionally. Or, for the first time, she might let the conversation linger, acknowledging the potential of something more with Jake.
She hesitated; a question lodged in her throat. After a moment of grappling with herself, Capri lifted her gaze to meet his. “Have you ever been in love?”
Jake’s eyebrows shot up, clearly taken aback. “Whoa, I wasn’t expecting that.” Despite his initial surprise, a smile tugged at his lips, and he let out a soft laugh. “Yeah...yeah, I have.”
He waited for her response, but Capri gave him a sly look, shaking her head. “Oh no, I asked you first.”
Jake’s smile softened as he ran a hand through his hair as if the memory lingered just beneath the surface. “Her name was Sophie. We met in college—she was studying journalism. She had this fire in her, always chasing the next big story, dreaming of traveling the world and covering things that mattered.”
He paused, his eyes flicking to Capri’s, then down to his hands. “It was easy between us, you know? Real. But… in the end, we wanted different things.”
Capri raised an eyebrow. “What happened?”
Jake let out a quiet sigh. “She wanted to see the world, report from places like war zones, uncovering truths that people needed to hear. And I—I wanted something simpler. A place to call home, a life I could build with my own hands. We sat down one day and realized neither of us could give up what we wanted for the other. No blowout fight or angry words…just a simple understanding that we were headed in different directions.”
He shrugged, trying to mask the lingering hurt with a casual gesture. “It made sense, practical even. But that didn’t stop it from cutting deep when it ended.”
Capri felt the gravity of his words settle between them. That was something she wasn’t sure she’d ever had. The way Jake spoke about Sophie, so matter of fact yet laced with unspoken heartache, made her stomach twist.
She’d always believed love was something she could keep at a distance, something that couldn’t touch her if she didn’t let it. But sitting here, listening to Jake talk about what he had lost for the sake of practicality, made her realize how foreign that kind of connection was to her.
Jake watched her for a moment, reading the silence in her expression. “Your turn,” he said gently, nudging her with his words. “What about you? Ever been in love?”
Capri swallowed, feeling exposed under his steady gaze. But no doubt she’d asked for it.
She shifted in her seat, almost wishing she could brush off the question.
“No,” she said quietly, admitting it to herself for the first time. “I’ve never been in love. Not really.”
The words felt heavier than she expected, like she was confessing something more than just a fact—something deeper about the way she’d lived her life, always keeping people at arm’s length.
Jake held her gaze, his expression softening with understanding. “There’s no rush, you know,” he said, his voice low and reassuring. “Love comes when it’s meant to, not when we try to force it.”
Capri gave him a small, wistful smile, feeling the truth of his words settle into the space between them. “Maybe,” she murmured. “But I’m not sure I’d even know what to do if it did.”
26
Reva sat back in her office chair, staring at the email that glared back at her from the computer screen. The subject line alone was enough to make her want to close the laptop and pretend it didn’t exist.
URGENT: Seismic Safety Mandate for Thunder Mountain Public Buildings.
The office around her was quiet, save for the faint hum of the air conditioner. The renovation had done wonders to erase the water damage from the flood earlier in the year, but now it felt like she had barely enjoyed the space before another disaster landed on her desk.
The walls were painted a soft sage, the new flooring solid beneath her feet, and yet everything felt off-kilter—like the ground beneath her feet could shift again at any moment. And it had been. Tremors had been shaking Thunder Mountain for weeks now, but this email made it clear things were about to get worse. At least for her and the municipality of Thunder Mountain.
She looked at the colorful drawing Lucan had given her a few days ago, taped to the edge of her monitor. His simple crayon strokes were a bright reminder of everything she was trying to protect, but even that small comfort couldn’t distract her from the reality spelled out in neat, cold text in the email.
The U.S. Geological Survey and FEMA were mandating seismic upgrades for all public buildings in Thunder Mountain. They needed to meet stricter safety codes immediately or face fines—and worse, the possible closure of critical facilities that the town relied on. Even the small, cherished library and the new community center, a popular gathering spot, weren’t exempt from the new requirements.
The costs? Astronomical. The town’s budget couldn’t stretch that far, not even close. The government offered loans, of course, but those came with strings that could pull Thunder Mountain into financial ruin for years.
