He had not meant to think of her. That was the truth of it. Honest and simple. He had come for the road. For the pause before motion. For the space between leaving and arriving. But she had a way of finding him in those spaces….

Bella told herself she wasn’t looking for him. She typed another sentence on her blog, paused, deleted it, and glanced toward the stage lights warming against the evening sky. Echo shifted under the café table, ears flicking at the distant sound of a guitar being tuned. It wasn’t even his set yet. Still, Bella felt it — that pull. The awareness of him somewhere nearby. Jasper Whitlock didn’t enter a space quietly, even when he tried. It was in the way the air tightened. The way…

The June Wedding…

The Proposal…

The Road Trip to the Lake – story 1 EPISODE 10…

“Jasper?” “Yeah, darlin’?” There it was again. That word. It landed on her like a physical touch, and she watched herself shiver in a way that had nothing to do with the cold. “What’s happening?” she asked. Her voice was small, honest. “Between us. What is this?” He could have lied. Could have deflected, played it safe, given her an easy answer that would let them both pretend this was normal. He didn’t. “Something good,” he said. “If you’ll let it.”…