Thursday

Jasper had woken up extra early to take care of his morning chores. He wanted to get the hard work out of the way early in hopes of having more time to spend the night with the mystery woman he'd met the night before. He'd found her immediately captivating, wanting nothing more than to find out who the hell she was.

The woman knew him, all of his friends and relatives, yet he didn't know her from Eve. She recounted youthful stories of time they spent together, events he couldn't deny sounded like things he would have done, but the memories only came when he focused hard on trying to recall and always through a fog.

He came in from the fields for breakfast, making sure to clean himself up before sitting down. He wanted to be presentable today; he wanted Miss Mysterious to like him.

As soon as he entered the kitchen, his mama turned on him. Apparently, Charlotte had informed her of last night's events on her way out that morning. He was faced with a barrage of comments about how second chances didn't come often, how he would end this game as soon as possible, and marry that girl this time. Mama wanted grandbabies as soon as possible.

He'd never been so confused in his life. He had no idea what everyone was talking about. In the past twelve hours, his intelligence had been insulted on numerous occasions. He'd been scolded for doing something to this girl that he couldn't remember doing.

"My my my, haven't seen you around these parts in some time, missy." He looked over at the stairs when mama spoke up again. The woman had come downstairs for breakfast, looking even cuter in the daylight. "And don't you worry about a thing. Charlotte has already informed me about your deal with my idiot son."

"Mama." Jasper groaned as he finally took a seat, placing his cowboy hat on the table next to him. "Not you too."

"This sweetheart should be my daughter in law by now, and you can't even remember her name. I call em like see em. You're an idiot boy." She knocked him on the arm with a spatula before turning back to the woman, who seemed to be enjoying his suffering, "You sit, girl, you've somehow gotten even skinnier we gotta put some meat on those bones."

Jasper disagreed; he was pretty sure she was perfect the way she was.

Jasper didn't say another word for the entire meal as his mother chatted with his mystery girl; he was racking his brain increasingly desperate to figure this problem out. He would need more information, so he pulled her aside after breakfast. "Would you care to tell me, Miss Mysterious, why my mama spent half an hour chewing me out and telling me I'd better marry you this time?"

"Wow, I knew your mama liked me, but I didn't realize it went to that degree." She actually seemed delighted by the revelation.

"Who are you?"

"Figure it out, Jazzy." She blew him a kiss and walked outside; this woman was going to drive him crazy.

He thought of her all afternoon; he and Peter were repairing fences that day, and his thoughts had him distracted and working slow. If Peter noticed, he didn't say anything. They had made significantly less progress than usual when it was time to head back to lunch. They headed down the horse trail, where he spotted the girl immediately. She stuck out on the path, the light shining through the trees, making her look as though she was glowing.

His breath caught in his throat as he dismounted, "Could I offer you a ride back, ma'am?" he asked, holding his cowboy hat over his heart.

"Sure, Mr."

"You can ride with me."

He patted his horse as Peter stared at him in shock. "You never let anyone ride Cherry..."

"We don't have enough horses." He responded simply; it was easy math: two horses, three people someone would have to double up.

"Yeah, but normally you would make her ride with me."

"Don't worry about it, Pete." He glowered at his best friend as he helped the woman onto her horse, unsure why it mattered so much to the other man. The lady was riding with him; that was the end of the story. Sure, he usually wouldn't let anyone ride Cherry. Sure it didn't make any sense that this girl he couldn't remember was the only person he had ever felt comfortable letting ride, his favorite steed. It wasn't a big deal.

After lunch, he had to drive Charlotte and the girl to a boutique for a final dress fitting. Well, he didn't have to; he had volunteered looking for an excuse to spend time with the woman. It had been a good decision, he figured. She looked amazing in the lace dress and boots Rosalie had picked out for her bridesmaids. He couldn't help the grin on his face when they locked eyes just as he assumed she couldn't help the blush that brightened her cheeks.

At this point, he was well beyond just wanting a date with a cute girl; he genuinely wanted to spend time with this woman. He approached his cousin when the girls had retreated back to the dressing rooms.

"Tell me who she is, Rosie, please?"

"Nope, I know better than to get in the middle when the two of you are playing one of your games." She'd shook her head vigorously, "But think Jas, wasn't there anyone you used to compete with all the time? Do you remember anyone specific who was involved in every single one of your youthful shenanigans? Maybe someone who was the real reason you put up with Maria after you broke up?"

Maria Moreno, they'd broken up after a month of dating had ended in disaster. He'd wanted nothing more than to stay away from her, but her best friend made that impossible. He hardly remembered the girl, her name, or what she looked like, but she was an essential part of his friend group. One he thought at the time he couldn't live without. "So, you're saying I should talk to Maria?"

"No," Rosalie sighed, "I'm saying you're an idiot."

The conversation ended when the girls returned, now back in street clothes. His jaw dropped when the smallest of the group came out, not in the tennis shoes she'd come in with but the cowboy boots that had been ordered to go with her dress. He wondered if she knew he had a weakness for girls in cowboy boots.

Later on, Emmett and Rosalie had come by the ranch for a bonfire, talking about how they wanted to spend time with family while they could. Emmett had a secret honeymoon planned that would have the pair away for a month.

As the night went on, he'd lost a beer chugging contest to the pretty pixie... five times. His ego may have been bruised, but he had to admit, it was quite a turn on. The girl was fun to be around on top of being possibly the most gorgeous woman to ever walk into his life. She was down for any challenge, no matter how ridiculous, smart, and quick-witted.

He was watching the angel in front of him. He should have been focusing on the story Peter was telling him and Emmett, but he couldn't help his eyes as they kept drifting to the woman. He knew the moment her gaze met his that he would do anything to win their game. He was falling for her, and fast.

It was only a few hours later when the pleasant night took a turn. Everyone had been drinking heavily. When he finally took the time to stop staring at the woman who was quickly consuming all of his mental capacity. It was to see his sister locking lips with his best friend and immediately saw red, unable to believe Peter would do this. He was even angrier when he realized everyone had known about this except him.

"You're not actually doing the whole protective big brother thing, are you?" Charlotte scoffed, "You of all people should understand liking your best friend's sister."

"What is she talking about?" Emmett growled, his eyes immediately darting to Jasper accusingly.

"You have no idea what you're talking about, Charlotte." He stared his sister down in warning with dark eyes. There were a multitude of reasons they didn't discuss that subject. For starters, Emmett would kill him if he ever found out about his crush. Emmett would kill him twice if he ever found out the truth about that night. But more importantly, that girl was gone; she was never coming back. He'd drank himself to oblivion and done everything he could to erase her existence from his memory for a reason. Sometimes he wondered if she'd even existed. It wasn't good for anyone to think about her.

"Oh, please, everyone..." Charlotte had started to protest only to be cut off by the mystery girl.

"It's true, he never cared about Em's little sister... I wanna go for a walk." She stood and fled to the forest, leaving him confused.

Jasper moved to follow her only to be held back by Rosalie. "Give her some space." He sat back down with a sigh, thinking his cousin was probably right.

Emmett and Rosalie had decided to leave shortly after; it had been the tall blonde's idea to get her fiancee out of there. After Charlotte's outburst, Emmett had turned silently hostile to his best man. While he couldn't prove anything, he'd developed a suspicion that his best friend may have had something to do with the night his sister disappeared, never to be seen in the small town again.

He may not remember her name or face, but he certainly remembered the pain.

He'd waited for her to drive off into the night remaining on the hood of the car where she'd sat next to him for the last time only minutes ago. He'd heard people talk about heartbreak before, but he hadn't expected it to physically hurt. He certainly hadn't expected it to ache this bad, a pulsing pain in his chest. He felt numb, frozen in place. He wanted to cry, wanted to scream. He wanted to call her, tell her he made a mistake, that she should come back.

But those were selfish thoughts; he'd told her to go for a reason. He couldn't destroy his relationship with Emmett. He seriously couldn't ask her to stay knowing the hell her father put her through. Not for him, not for some dumb guy who didn't deserve her. He'd wanted more time. He'd wanted to go to college to better himself beyond the reckless tough cowboy image everyone perceived him as.

Emmett had accused him of having something to do with her disappearance, having been the last one to talk to her. When she finally called her brother a few days later to tell him she was fine and in New York, that Jasper had actually tried to stop her, Emmett had apologized.

He'd found it funny; after all that had happened, she was lying to defend him.

Over the next year, he worked actively to forget she'd ever existed. Making a vow to never love again, if loving someone could hurt this badly, he wanted no part of it.

Clearly, that vow hadn't worked as he still couldn't stop thinking about the girl who'd recently walked into his life. Balancing his experiences with the girl from five years ago with his developing feelings for the woman he was dealing with now was where Peter found him an hour later.

"Jasper?" He looked up at his name. "You gonna hit me if I sit down?"

"No, you're fine. I'm not really that upset." He tossed his best friend a beer. "Honestly, if Charlie's gonna see anybody, I'm glad it's someone I can trust." It was true, while he and Emmett were friends by habit, it was hard to find people you really connected to growing up in a small town. They'd remained close only because they always had been despite having very little in common outside a shared childhood.

He and Peter were friends by choice, shared interests, and genuine connection. They'd met in university studying the same subject and had become fast friends. Peter had been the first friend he could really connect with since her.

When Jasper's father passed, and the ranch had been passed onto him, they'd decided to join forces. After graduating, Peter had moved into one of the buildings on the property. They'd been working together ever since.

They sat in silence for quite a while, staring into the fire when Jasper said it out loud. "I think I'm in love, Pete."