Forest Edwards is always running. Either literally, because of his dog, Fletch; running to escape his tiring work life; or, well, running away from the possibilities of love.
But when Natalie Dayholt, together with her dog, Bailey, waltzed into his...
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THE AIR SMELT distinctly of fresh pine, and oddly enough, a little like cinnamon sticks, browned butter and vanilla milk. Forest frowned, because he was pretty sure that he was the one who smelt of those.
He'd woken up earlier in the morning to make caramel cookies for his parents — it had been specially requested by them, because apparently, they 'hadn't tasted it for the longest time', and they wanted to have it in the party later on.
He wasn't absolutely convinced that they really wanted to have a taste of it again — especially since the both of them didn't fancy sweet foods. And neither was he sure that it was a good idea to have a tray of home-baked cookies, as part of the finger food in the party, amongst the others that were catered.
But since it was their anniversary, he had listened to them anyway, and the dough was now resting in the refrigerator. Forest had decided to sit at the back garden just to take a breather while he waited for the dough to form a little.
The morning air was refreshing to say the least, and as he let the cold air cool him down, he stared blankly into space. Forest had a gut feeling that this whole party was put together with a secondary aim of letting him meet a potential partner. He grimaced as the thought of having to introduce himself later on.
A few days ago, he had been tempted to come clean with his parents about his feelings for Natalie, just so they could stop with all of the nonsensical blind dates and meetings they made him go for.
Except it might have been extremely awkward to bring it up without a basis. Plus, recently, it seemed, they weren't trying so hard to get him to meet new girls. Perhaps it was because they still believed that there was something going on with him and Lauren.
He wasn't sure, but whatever it was, Forest was just glad that he got the break he needed.
***
NATALIE FELT AS thoughit was her wedding day. She narrowed her eyes, tugging at a lock of her blonde hair as it fell back onto her shoulders. She certainly was not used to her hair being in a state of loose curls, and she frowned at it.
"Natalie Dayholt, I'm warning you, don't you dare pull that again!" Haley exclaimed from behind, swatting her hand away hastily. "I'll ruin you if you ruin your hair."
Natalie scoffed in disbelief, "yeah, it's my hair."
"That I've spent an hour of my life on." Haley emphasised, "so no spoiling it."
"Hello, it only looks normal to me." Natalie replied, shaking her head, "you should work on something else. Like your own hair."
"Normal? Your hair looks so damn good. You look so good." Haley muttered, "you just never seem to think so about yourself."
