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“Sure is cold out today.” There was no mistaking the mischief in Chloe’s eye. She was trying to make a point.
“Yeah.” Best to let it play out and see which tact she’d decided to take this time. Not that he really wanted to go down that road again, the one that led to his own guilt trip about abandoning her.
“Winter’s almost here. Farmer’s Almanac is predicting a nasty one.” No road signs were needed to figure out the argument she was about to put up. Best to nip it in the bud.
“All my furniture is about to be sold.”
“When?”
“Put it on an app. Folks will start showing up tomorrow to pick up their items,” he said.
“That fast?”
“I put them up on a neighborhood for sale site the second I was told about Beaumont,” he explained.
“You work fast,” she quipped.
“It’s a helluva lot easier when you only have yourself to think about.” Kade regretted saying those words out loud. “Grayson is amazing, and I wasn’t—”
Chloe cut him off with a snort-laugh. “I get it. Life is easier when you only have to consider your own needs.”
“Don’t listen to me. I’m a selfish sonofabitch.”
“You’re not,” Chloe argued. “I just wish you’d stay around. It’d give Grayson a chance to get to know his uncle.”
Those words stung. “I took the job. What do you want me to do, Chloe? Quit? Talk to my old landlord and see if I can rent my old place after it’s already been committed to someone else? What exactly would I be coming back to Saddle Junction for?” He took a sip of coffee to stop himself from continuing down that road. “And since when did you start following weather patterns?”
“You’re not the only one who knows how to use an app.” Chloe nodded toward her phone on the countertop. “It just feels like I barely get to see you, you’re barely home, and you’re already leaving again—”
“Not leaving. Not shipping out. Moving. There’s a difference.” His tone came out harsher than he’d intended, and he felt even worse when Chloe winced like he’d knocked her off balance.
“Can I ask what’s so great about living in Alaska?”
“The wildlife. Three million lakes. The open plains—”
She studied him. “Did you know that in January, it’s not uncommon for it to be minus one degree? There isn’t a sweater warm enough for that, and you don’t even own a winter coat.” A smug smile crossed her lips. “You’ve hated the cold your entire life.”
“It’s better than the desert.” Anything was better than the fucking Middle East. Even sixty degrees below zero, freeze his balls off and hibernate in the winter, cold Alaska. “And there are bears. When do we ever get a chance to see those?” He’d seen a helluva lot of things overseas but never bears.
“When did you become so fond of bears?” One look at his sister said she was cooking something up in that overactive brain of hers.
“Who doesn’t like bears?” he fired back, trying to lighten the mood.
“Salmon, for one.” She had a point there. He laughed, and it was a good break in tension.
“Did you know that Alaska accounts for twenty-five percent of all oil produced in the United States?” He was going for the job, the fishing, and the fact that it was away from everything familiar.
“Since when do you hate Texas so much?” she asked, her tone softer now.
“Never said I did.” He hated what it represented. He couldn’t stand Beaumont. As much as he loved the land, the ranch was Beaumont. A man who used the catchphrase,“If you can’t use ’em, shoot ’em.”
“Sure seems like you’re in a hurry to put it in the rearview mirror.” She had a point. Coming home on a plane while his best friend rode in a casket had made him ready to shake the dust of this town off his boots as fast as possible.
“I wouldn’t say that.” Kade needed to be alone. Alaska would give him time to get his head on straight.
Selling off his possessions had been easier than he’d imagined, not that he had much. Nothing came to Alaska that didn’t fit into a nineteen-by-thirty-inch suitcase. Kade wasn’t ready to “integrate” back into society after sixteen years of military service.
“I’m guessing you can’t re-enlist.” How many times had he heard Chloe’s speech that joining the military had been about him dropping out of society? Moving to Alaska fueled her stance even more.
