If a fake relationship brings my uncle peace, I’ll do it. Even if it destroys me later.
REENA
My uncle raised me.
He taught me how to change my oil, how to throw a punch and how to survive my first heartbreak.
But now sometimes he forgets my name when he looks at me.
The doctors say I can’t care for him at home anymore. That it’s time for assisted living. Twenty-four-hour staff and locked doors with alarms in case he wanders again.
He refuses to go.
Not until he knows I won’t be alone.
So I lie.
I tell him I’ve met someone. That I won’t be coming home to an empty house. That there’s a man who will notice if I forget to eat because I’m buried in work.
The problem?
He wants to meet him.
The facility's director says she knows someone who’d be willing to help. A good man. Quiet. Keeps to himself.
The lumberjack I’ve seen around town but never spoken to.
She was right.
He agrees to help.
Just long enough to give my uncle peace.
I tell myself that’s all this is.
But grief—and love—is strange.
There''s something about losing someone piece by piece that makes you cling harder to the person standing next to you.
PORTER"No." That was my answer.
I like my solitude.
After years spent in combat, I built my life on routine and the quiet of these mountains on purpose. Chop wood. Stack it. Keep my world small.
Then Dr. Nance tells me this is about her, Reena Crawford,and how the only father she's ever known is slowly slipping away. The same man who showed up at my cabin the week I got here, handed me a thermos of coffee and said, ‘If you need anything, you've got a friend in this town.’
I don’t forget things like that.
When I hear he won’t move into care until he knows his niece will be safe— cared for—loved?
I understand that kind of commitment.
Because where I come from, you don''t leave until the man next to you makes it out too.
So I change my mind and say yes.
I’m not good at playing house, but if I can help give him some peace then I'll do my very best.
Except when I hold her in my arms after her uncle forgets his story mid-sentence, it stops feeling like pretend.
This was supposed to be temporary.
But somewhere between hospital corridors and quiet nights on her porch, I stopped thinking about when this would end and started thinking about what it would take to stay.
Tropes you'll find in Lonely Lumberjack, a Sweetly Steamy Small Town Romance:
Mountain Man
Fake Relationship
Wounded Veteran Hero
He Falls First
Curvy Heroine
Found Family
Grief
Caregiver
Genre: Romance
REENA
My uncle raised me.
He taught me how to change my oil, how to throw a punch and how to survive my first heartbreak.
But now sometimes he forgets my name when he looks at me.
The doctors say I can’t care for him at home anymore. That it’s time for assisted living. Twenty-four-hour staff and locked doors with alarms in case he wanders again.
He refuses to go.
Not until he knows I won’t be alone.
So I lie.
I tell him I’ve met someone. That I won’t be coming home to an empty house. That there’s a man who will notice if I forget to eat because I’m buried in work.
The problem?
He wants to meet him.
The facility's director says she knows someone who’d be willing to help. A good man. Quiet. Keeps to himself.
The lumberjack I’ve seen around town but never spoken to.
She was right.
He agrees to help.
Just long enough to give my uncle peace.
I tell myself that’s all this is.
But grief—and love—is strange.
There''s something about losing someone piece by piece that makes you cling harder to the person standing next to you.
PORTER"No." That was my answer.
I like my solitude.
After years spent in combat, I built my life on routine and the quiet of these mountains on purpose. Chop wood. Stack it. Keep my world small.
Then Dr. Nance tells me this is about her, Reena Crawford,and how the only father she's ever known is slowly slipping away. The same man who showed up at my cabin the week I got here, handed me a thermos of coffee and said, ‘If you need anything, you've got a friend in this town.’
I don’t forget things like that.
When I hear he won’t move into care until he knows his niece will be safe— cared for—loved?
I understand that kind of commitment.
Because where I come from, you don''t leave until the man next to you makes it out too.
So I change my mind and say yes.
I’m not good at playing house, but if I can help give him some peace then I'll do my very best.
Except when I hold her in my arms after her uncle forgets his story mid-sentence, it stops feeling like pretend.
This was supposed to be temporary.
But somewhere between hospital corridors and quiet nights on her porch, I stopped thinking about when this would end and started thinking about what it would take to stay.
Tropes you'll find in Lonely Lumberjack, a Sweetly Steamy Small Town Romance:
Mountain Man
Fake Relationship
Wounded Veteran Hero
He Falls First
Curvy Heroine
Found Family
Grief
Caregiver
Genre: Romance