I could have sworn she mumbled What strengths under her breath, but she clearly didn’t want me to hear that.
“So is this your first time in the area?” I asked, wanting to lighten the mood.
“No. I mean, it’s the first time in a long time. But I used to spend every summer here when I was a young girl.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. My parents, well, is there a nice way to say they probably shouldn’t have had children? They didn’t want to have to deal with me full-time when school was out, so they shipped me down here to my grandmother. Which was for the best. I have some of my fondest memories here. But then…”
“You became a punk-ass teenager who thought you were too cool for summers with your gran?” I asked, getting another little laugh out of her.
“Something like that, yeah. I really regret that now. And that I didn’t visit when I could have as an adult. We kept in touch, but she wouldn’t be caught dead in the city, and I always thought it would be too much of a hassle or a bore to be out here. Do you know there is, like, no cell reception? And forget about wifi.”
“Yeah, folks ‘round here tend to spend more time outdoors or with friends and family. We kinda like it that way.”
“That’s why I’m here. Well, partly. To, you know, see if I like it that way.”
“What’s the other part of why you’re here then?”
“Well, it ties into the first part. If I decide the whole gardening and living off the land thing isn’t for me, at least it gives me some time away from the craziness of the city to figure out what I do want the future to hold.”
“So you quit your old job?”
“For the time being, I’m on leave. I can work remote from here if I can find a way to get the wifi to work.”
“You can stay here then?” I asked, praying the hope wasn’t too clear in my voice. “If you decide you like gardening and shit,” I clarified.
“Yeah. I mean, I’m sure my company will want me in for a meeting on occasion, but it isn’t that far that I can’t do that once or twice a year if I have to. But I don’t think I want to do that forever. It’s a big part of the reason I felt like I needed to come here. And why I put on fifty pounds,” she grumbled, mostly to herself. “All the misery weight.”
“Well, maybe you can find some joy here and keep those pounds on as happy weight,” I suggested, letting my gaze roam over her for just long enough that it was clear I liked what I was seeing, without it being creepy as fuck.
“I thought the whole point of living off the land was to be lean and muscly.”
“Sometimes curves are superior to hard lines,” I said, grabbing another log.
“God, you can stop that. You’ve done like half of that pile already,” she said.
“In the absence of more fun ways, we gotta keep you warm, don’t we?” I asked, watching as her eyelids went a little heavy at the insinuation.
“How cold does it get here in the winter anyway?” she asked.
“Can be in the mid to high thirties. Especially up this way.”
“I’m going to need a lot more wood,” she grumbled, looking at her empty storage.
“Your gran died in the spring, right?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“It’s why it’s so empty. She would have spent the whole summer stocking up.”
“I could get a delivery of wood,” Meribelle said.
“You could,” I agreed. “But I’d be happy to show you the ropes so you can get your own. There’s no shortage of trees around here. And you still have some time. If you end up not liking it, I can put you in touch with a crew who does wood.”
She didn’t have to know that it was a speciality of my pack.
What can I say? We liked the outdoors. And we were happiest when we worked jobs that kept us in it.
“What?” I asked, catching her staring at me.
“You know I lived in my apartment for three years in the city. I never even had a conversation with my neighbors. Well, one of the neighbors dogs. He and I were good friends in the hallway and elevator. But not the actual people.”
“That’s sad, babe.”
“I’m starting to see that. Okay. Really, that’s enough for one day. You’ve been so helpful. Can I, ah, make you a cup of coffee?”
To get in her cabin with her?
Abso-fucking-lutely.
“Sounds good,” I said. “Run ahead. I’ll bring some of this in.”
The cabin itself was a small area, likely built that way because it was easier to keep it warm in the winters with just the central fireplace. There was a kitchen to the side wall and then the common area that was cluttered with overflowing bookshelves, couches, and remnants of what looked like knitting and quilting projects.