CHAPTER 4

Jasper had moved from his little studio apartment and into his grandparents' house on their ranch after his grandfather died last year. He'd inherited the house and the land and everything on it, including the cattle operation his grandfather had run on it as a hobby. The house itself was beautiful: white with solid cypress beams and a matching front door, a big wrap around porch, gorgeous hardwood floors and crown molding throughout, and tall vaulted ceilings with a floor to ceiling fireplace in the living room.

As big as the house was, it still felt as cozy as his little apartment had—with moody paint tones and varied textures in his furniture. As much as Jasper traveled, it didn't take long for him to fill the place with the random oddities and souvenirs he'd found. It was a space that fell somewhere between an old mountain man's hunting lodge and a prohibition whiskey and cigar bar, which oddly enough, matched Jasper's personality exactly.

While Jasper went to get drinks in the kitchen, I stayed in the living room with his dog, Dally. She was a sweet little brown mutt with white feet and cute floppy ears, and she immediately cuddled up to my side when I sat down on his couch. He'd had her for just over a year, and she went just about everywhere with him when he traveled.

When Jasper came into the living room with our drinks, we started to eat the take out we had gotten on the way home.

"So… how's work?" I asked him softly. It had been months since I'd had a conversation with him that didn't revolve around trying to take down his ego, and I wasn't exactly sure of where to start.

Jasper shrugged. "Work. Same as always. You know Rosalie and Tanya are control freaks. I'm just there to make sure they don't choke anyone out at meetings."

Aside from the ranch, Jasper, along with his dad and sisters, had gotten a part ownership of his grandfather's distillery, which was going on to its fifth generation of being in the family. Jasper, Tanya, and Rosalie had already been doing a lot of the legwork of the family's role in the business since their grandfather had gotten sick, but I knew not having him there with them was a big adjustment for all of them.

I smiled to myself. "They just know you like to travel and don't want you to have to worry about it while you're on the road."

Jasper rolled his eyes. "That's just a convenient excuse."

"Your family has a knack for finding those, don't they?"

Jasper smirked but otherwise didn't acknowledge my comment. "Well, I can't say I can complain. It is nice to be able to still get around a bit. I'm headed to Kentucky in a few weeks after New Years."

"What's in Kentucky?"

Jasper shrugged. "Research."

"You're gonna spend weeks getting trashed on whiskey?"

He smirked. "Your faith in my alcohol tolerance wounds me, Bella."

I rolled my eyes.

"The equine industry is quite large there as well, ya know."

"We both know you're not going for the horses." I deadpanned.

He chuckled before changing the subject. "So, what's your evil plan for your brother's wedding?"

"I don't know." I admitted and then took a bite of my sweet and sour chicken.

"Well, I guess that's something we should probably figure out."

"There's the obvious. Fucking with the wedding dress. The rings. Mixing up catering and seating arrangements. None of that's going to break them up, though. It'll just make her life difficult, which I am not at all opposed to."

"Do you think she still has that list you told me about?" Jasper asked. "If we got our hands on that, it would probably make our lives a hell of a lot easier."

"I don't know." I admitted, letting my mind wander back to earlier in the day and again wondering if maybe she had changed.

Over the next few hours, we plotted ways to try to make wedding planning as awful as it could be for Victoria. Before we knew it, it was already almost midnight. I couldn't fight my yawns anymore, and Jasper offered me one of his shirts to sleep in and told me to take his room and that he'd sleep in the living room since his guest room wasn't quite usable at the moment.

My sleep was restless that night, and at about two thirty in the morning, I threw the covers off of my body and quietly snuck into the kitchen to get a drink. Jasper was also awake, drinking a beer in the kitchen.

"Can't sleep?" He asked.

"No." I admitted softly and got up on the kitchen counter, sitting across from where he was standing.

"Thirsty?"

"Parched."

He smiled a little and went to grab two more beers from the fridge. He handed me one and then returned to his spot, leaning against the counter.

I took a sip from the bottle and stared down at it in my hands for a few seconds. "Do you really think that people can change? Like do you believe in the slightest possibility that maybe Victoria does love my brother?"

He was quiet for a moment. "You're a lot more like your brother than you think, ya know that?"

I looked up, and his gaze was piercing, even in the dark. "What do you mean?"

"At the end of the day, even when you've seen everything to prove otherwise, you think that people are inherently good. You just fight to see the best in them."

"So that's a no, then?" I asked.

"It's possible for people to change." He said vaguely and took a sip from his bottle.

"Do you think she has?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Since that day in the hospital and especially since seeing her with someone else… I just steer clear of her altogether. But I mean, she did ask you to be her maid of honor. Maybe it was an olive branch."

"Or poison oak." I muttered.

Jasper chuckled. "That, too. But either way, I think it was a good thing for you to agree to. You'll get a better shot at seeing for yourself if she is up to her old games or not."

"I just can't imagine what her end game with this would be. Surely, she's not marrying my brother just to make me miserable. That's insane, isn't it?"

"It would be." He agreed. "However, with Victoria, nothin' would surprise me at this point." He shook his head in disgust.

"I don't know that I could ever forgive her even if she has changed, Jas."

He sighed. "Our feelings aren't really what count in this, though, babe. If it was… Victoria would've been gone two years ago."

"We should've told him what she said that night." I murmured.

"Hindsight's twenty-twenty. We had bigger things to deal with at the time than her petty drama."

I bit my lip, keeping my eyes cast downward and staring at the bottle in my hands. He wasn't only talking about Garrett's full recovery. "Yeah, I guess we did." I whispered. I didn't realize Jasper had moved until I felt his hand on my knee. I looked up at him and rested a tentative hand on his bare chest, gently keeping him at what I deemed a safe distance away. "I should probably try to get some sleep."

He swallowed. "Yeah, me, too."

Neither one of us moved, locked in each other's gazes.

"What've we gotten ourselves into, cowboy?" I whispered.

"I'm just followin' your lead, darlin'."

"You were always the better dancer, though." I teased weakly.

He smirked. "Well, you don't seem to like to follow, which is quite unladylike of you Miss Swan. I know your momma raised you better than that."

I laughed softly and pushed him further away, hopping down from the counter. "You're right. But she also raised me better than to fraternize with a bachelor after midnight, no matter how handsome or good of a dancer."

"So you do think I'm handsome."

"I think I should go to bed." I slipped away from him and started to walk back to the bedroom.

"Goodnight, Bella." Jasper called from the kitchen.

I stopped just before I got into the hallway and turned to face him. "'Night, Jas." I replied and went back into the bedroom. I climbed into the bed and sunk down under the covers, closing my eyes and drifting off to sleep.

I was woken up by the bedroom door opening while it was still dark outside. I stayed still in bed, feigning sleep, and then heard the bathroom door open and shut. I opened my eyes and saw very soft light peeking through under the crack of the door. Eyes still half closed, I reached for my phone to check the time. It was only four thirty.

The shower turned on, and I briefly wondered why the hell Jasper was up so early on a Sunday. It wasn't long until I heard the sound of the animals in the pasture outside, and it reminded me that this wasn't his little studio anymore. He actually did have shit to do this early in the morning.

Sucks to be you, cowboy. I snuggled deeper into the covers, somewhat smug, and closed my eyes again.

The shower shut off, and about ten minutes later, the bathroom door quietly opened and shut again, followed shortly by the bedroom door. I managed to fall back asleep not long after, but after what felt like only minutes, I woke up to the bright sunlight being suddenly flooded into the bedroom. I groaned and tried to cover my face with the covers.

"Absolutely not, Miss Priss. My brother might be sweet and let you sleep in, but it's ten in the morning. You're burnin' daylight." Tanya snapped and pulled the covers off of me.

"What are you doin' here?" I whined.

"I brought you some clothes and figured I'd pick you up since we kinda ditched you yesterday."

I scoffed. "Yeah, thanks for that, by the way." I muttered, sitting up.

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Believe me, you needed to get laid. Now I know why you've been so fuckin' moody lately." Oh, honey, you have no idea. She continued, "But now, you need coffee. Get up. Come on."

I sighed and slid out of bed.

"You did sleep in quite a bit today. No sleep last night?" She asked, giggling.

I rolled my eyes. "Somethin' like that."

"Your bag is in the bathroom. I'll be in the living room when you're ready."

I went into the bathroom to do my typical morning routine and get dressed. I was thankful to see that Tanya had packed me comfy clothes–a chunky patterned pullover, leggings, and a beanie. When I finished getting ready, I got my things together and went into the kitchen and living room area. Tanya was sitting on an armchair in the living room with Dally, and Jasper was sitting at the kitchen island. He saw me first and smirked.

"Mornin', sunshine."

I scowled at him and walked over to the coffee pot to make myself a cup to drink.

He chuckled and took a sip of his coffee.

"You know you can't talk to her until after cup number two." Tanya laughed from the living room.

"I like to live life on the edge." Jasper replied, his eyes on me as his smirk intensified.

I took a sip from my coffee mug. "I hate mornin' people." I muttered.

"Mornin'? Babe, I've already gotten a day's worth of work done." Jasper teased. "You slept half the day away, my girl."

"Not all of us are Pa-Paw's, Jasper." I retorted.

"Not all of us live like princesses, Isabella." He replied with a smile.

I flipped him off, and he only chuckled in response.

Tanya chimed in from the living room. "You act like you're not half the reason she acts like that, Jasper."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, hopping up to sit on the counter.

Tanya stood up and started to walk towards the kitchen, and Dally hopped down from the armchair and moved to sit on the backrest of the sofa to watch us. "Well for one thing, that. He'd literally knock me off onto the floor if I tried to sit on his precious kitchen counters." She looked at Jasper, who seemed extremely disinterested in what his sister was saying. "You're an asshole to quite literally everyone except for Bella. Honestly, I can't believe it took you this long to start dating."

"I still don't know what you're talking about. He's a constant pain in my ass." I huffed.

Jasper winked and puckered his lips at me for a second.

I rolled my eyes.

"Being a pain in the ass and being an asshole are two different things, though." Tanya said. "For example, if me and Rose ever got hurt doing something crazy, Jasper's 'help' would be telling us that if we're gonna be dumb, we have to be tough. If you did the same exact stunt, though, and got the same exact injuries, it would definitely be a national crisis. Now I'm not saying he wouldn't roast the shit out of you in the process, but he'd still make sure you were well taken care of."

I looked back at Jasper, who still seemed extremely bored with the conversation. "Is that right?" I asked him.

He turned to me, his expression playful. "Pretty damn." He replied over the rim of his coffee mug.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

Tanya sighed. "Told ya. My poor bubba. Been having to play that long game for years now."

"Oh, I'm sure his ego could handle it." I said sassily.

Tanya laughed. "I'm going to the bathroom and then we could head out if that's alright with you, B?"

I nodded. "I'm ready whenever."

When Tanya left the room, Jasper stood up and walked over to where I was. I noticed then that he was still in some of his work clothes–faded jeans that fit his frame flawlessly and a khaki colored cotton button down that was nearly halfway open, revealing the ink on his chest and the gold cross pendant chain that he always wore.

Pretending not to like him would be so much easier if he wasn't so fucking good looking.

He set his mug down in front of the coffee pot and then looked at me. "My sweet ray of fucking sunshine, I suppose you may have forgotten, but we are supposed to be a couple. Maybe try to be a little sweeter to me, yeah?"

"I'm just a bit more coffee than cane."

Jasper smirked and leaned in close to me. "Are you cheerful or are you bitter? I'm getting some mixed signals here, babe."

"Who says I can't be both?"

"Well, you are a teacher, so I guess that checks out."

I pursed my lips, trying not to laugh. "Okay, you got me. That was pretty good. I won't lie."

Jasper chuckled and surprised me by leaning in to kiss my nose lightly.

It wasn't until I heard Tanya's voice that I realized it was probably (hopefully) for show. "Okay, yeah, this is a little weird. This is definitely going to take some getting used to." She commented.

I felt my cheeks heat up and turned to look at her. "Ready?" I asked her.

She nodded.

I turned back to Jasper, who was still only inches away from me. "I'll see you later." I whispered.

He gently took my hand in his and lifted it to his lips to give it a kiss. "See you later, darlin'." The mixed colors in his eyes were intoxicating, and I couldn't tear my eyes from his stare.

Tanya cleared her throat, breaking the moment.

I bit my lip, my blush deepening, and then slipped down from the counter. I handed Jasper my half finished coffee.

He took it and looked down at me with a sweet crooked grin. "Bye, babe."

"Bye." I squeaked out and quickly walked away to grab my bag and follow Tanya out of the house.

When I got in Tanya's car, she started it and then looked over at me. "Okay, I need to know what the fuck is going on."

I looked over at her in surprise. "What?"

"Don't look at me like that. My brother and best friend just secretly dating and not telling anyone? You think I'm not gonna question that? What's goin' on? How long have you been together?"

I didn't have much time to think, but I tried to come up with the most believable scenario. "Um… we talked after we went to the bar that night." I said softly.

"I knew something was off with you after that." She muttered. "Why didn't you tell anyone? You know you could've told us. We really have been expecting it for years."

I cringed a little to myself and stared down at my hands in my lap. "We just wanted to work this out ourselves for a bit. Just in case."

She remained quiet, and when I looked over at her, she was seemingly deep in thought with a faraway look in her eyes.

I seized my opportunity to change the subject. "So where's Ro? Early morning wake up calls are usually her thing."

"She ended up spending the night at Emmett's. She should be home by the time we get there. Which is good because guess what!"

"What?"

"Your bridesmaids dresses got delivered yesterday." Tanya sang.

We then launched into a conversation about her fast approaching wedding and her plans for the bachelorette trip and moving, the latter of which was beginning as soon as we got through the holidays. She wanted to get it done before the wedding so that when they came back from their honeymoon, she could just easily pick up into her new married life.

Rosalie was home when we got there, and Tanya immediately pushed us into our rooms to try on our dresses. She had picked one dress for all of us to wear, a strapless deep green velvet fit and flare dress with a small train. When we came out from changing, Tanya's face immediately changed, like she was about to start crying.

Rosalie and I looked at each other in shock before rushing over to Tanya.

"Do you hate them? Oh my God, we'll go shopping now if you want to. But Tanya, they're gorgeous. Don't freak out. Everyone's going to be looking at you anyway." Rosalie rambled as she pulled Tanya into a hug.

"No." Tanya sniffled. "You both look hot. I did an amazing job of picking them."

Rosalie and I shared a look and then rolled our eyes. "Then what's wrong?" I asked.

"It's just… look at us. Stable jobs and relationships. Being adults. When did this happen? We were all going through Rush at Loyola last week."

Rosalie laughed. "Tanya, get your shit together. You've been waiting for this man to propose for five years now. And don't act like you miss any of those private school srat girls. You dropped from the sorority within the first three semesters and transferred to LSU junior year."

Tanya sighed and wiped her eyes, nodding. "You're right. I hated those basic bitches." She agreed and then looked at me. "No offense, Bella."

I giggled. "None taken. Are you okay?"

She nodded again. "Yes. I'm perfect." She said, smiling cockily.

Rosalie squeezed Tanya tightly one more time. "So you're ready to get married in February?"

Tanya slipped out of Rosalie's arms. "Fuck yeah, bitch. Let's do this."

Rosalie and I changed out of our dresses, and the three of us settled onto our couch to watch a movie.

I let my mind wander back to what Tanya had said as the movie played on the television. Stable relationship? Hardly, and I couldn't help the pang of guilt I felt for lying to them. To literally everyone. It was the first time since all this happened that I could truly sit down and think about what Jasper and I had done.

This was insane. Completely crazy, and I still wholeheartedly believed that this would blow up in our faces at some point. There was no way it wouldn't. But it wouldn't be the first time that Jasper had gotten me roped into one of his shenanigans, and in his defense, it was sort of my fault that we ended up in this position in the first place. And it was a position I was becoming less and less sure of by the moment.

"Hey, y'all?" I asked, trying to get their attention.

"Huh?" Rosalie asked.

"Why don't y'all like Victoria?" I asked. They didn't know what I knew, so surely they could give me some type of outsider's perspective.

They both looked at me in surprise, and Tanya scoffed. "I don't know. How about all the shitty things she's done to you the entire time you were growing up?"

"But name one thing she's done specifically to the two of you in the past three years since she's been with Garrett." I pressed.

I could tell they both were thinking hard about my request, and finally, Rosalie sighed. "I don't know that I can. Outside of being a little snappy sometimes."

I sighed. "Yeah, that's what I was afraid of."

"Whatever. It doesn't matter. She abandoned your brother in hospital when he was in a coma. Good people don't do that." Tanya said, maintaining her stance.

"She never did say where she was, though. I mean, for all we know, she was in a fucking church the whole time. We just assumed she was cheating on him."

"Where is all of this coming from?" Tanya asked, eyeing my warily. "Since when you are Team Victoria?"

"I'm not. I'm just trying to figure out this hold she has on my brother. Maybe we're too hung up on who she was to see who she is. And let's be honest, aside from the whole coma thing, she hasn't been awful." That they know of, anyway. "And anytime Garrett asks me why we don't get along, the only answer I can give him is the crap she did as a teenager and that she gives me bad vibes. I mean… What if we're the mean girls in this situation?"

"Oh, me and Rosalie are definitely always the mean girls. But you? I promise you're not." Tanya said adamantly.

Rosalie nodded in agreement with her. "Bella, honey, she's a narcissist. That's what she wants you to think. But don't let her suck you in again. We just have to hope your brother wakes up before it's too late."

I nodded and turned back to the television, letting my thoughts consume me again.

Rosalie pulled me from my reverie a few minutes later. "Hey, do you know when Jasper's next trip is? I'm trying to plan a meeting that we all need to be at." She said, typing away the laptop in her lap.

Fuck. Do I need to keep track of this man's schedule now?

"Oh, um… sometime in the New Year. I'm not sure he has definite dates yet." I replied, hoping that was a good enough answer for her.

She pursed her lips. "I guess I can rush it for before the holidays." She mumbled, seeming to not give my answer much thought. Thankfully.

I sighed in relief.

This plan was becoming a lot more than I had bargained for.

A/N So, I get vibes that y'alls feelings towards this Jasper is a bit 50/50 love hate, but in my head, canon Jasper is the personification and embodiment of Whitehouse Road by Tyler Childers and I will always and forever write him as such (because my toxic trait is that I find rowdy and overly confident men in cowboy boots oddly endearing). Until the next one, bebs.