“She should be here.”
“Yes.”
“I hate that I’m here with you and thinking that.”
Sophia’s own eyes watered.
“I don’t.”
Jake stared.
She continued.
“I’m not grateful she died so I can be here.”
“That would be monstrous.”
“I wish Avery had her mother.”
“I wish you had all the years you were supposed to get.”
“And I still want to stand beside you now.”
“Those do not cancel.”
Jake lowered his head.
Sophia reached for his hand.
Waited before taking fully.
He turned palm up.
Permission.
She held.
They went back inside before Avery’s solo.
Three weeks later, Grant returned.
Not alone this time.
Sophia’s brother Adrian came too.
Adrian Lauron was forty-one, pragmatic, sharply dressed, and less condescending than Jake expected.
He asked Jake for coffee in town.
Jake almost declined.
Curiosity won.
They sat at Evergreen.
Adrian went straight.
“Sophia plans to keep lodge.”
“I know.”
“She says it isn’t because of you.”
“It isn’t.”
Adrian studied him.
“I believe her.”
Jake waited.
Adrian continued:
“My concern is she has history making emotional decisions after relationships.”
Jake stiffened.
“She left Grant.”
“Correct.”
“Good decision.”
“I agree.”
Adrian sipped coffee.
“But she also abandoned a major expansion project afterward because she wanted distance.”
“She gave up board seat.”
“She has pattern of burning bridge to prove she can survive without it.”
Jake’s face changed.
“What do you want from me?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why tell me?”
“Because if you care about her, do not reward every act of self-denial as independence.”
Jake considered.
Adrian was not warning him off.
He was asking him not to romanticize Sophia’s tendency to run.
“You think lodge is running?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s what scares me.”
Jake nodded.
“Have you asked her?”
“She hears family questions as pressure.”
“Maybe because they are.”
Adrian smiled faintly.
“Also possible.”
Jake liked him a little against will.
Adrian said:
“My sister has more money than she will ever need.”
“That does not mean every expensive choice is healthy.”
“Likewise, staying in Montana because something feels authentic can become another costume.”
Jake stared.
“You people really like analyzing each other.”
“It is cheaper than therapy.”
Jake laughed.
Later that night, he told Sophia.
All of it.
She was furious at Adrian.
Then quieter.
“Do you think he’s right?”
Jake asked.
Sophia stared at fire in caretaker cottage.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you want me to say no?”
“Yes.”
“I won’t.”
She glared.
“Terrible boyfriend.”
“Not boyfriend until you say.”
Sophia looked over.
“We are absolutely dating.”
“Technical clarification.”
She threw cushion at him.
Then serious:
“I don’t want the lodge to be rebellion.”
Jake nodded.