Chapter 4

Trust is Possible

A hand quickly went over her mouth, and the sound of "shh it's ok" flooded her ear. It was a comforting, protective kind of "shh" not a threatening one.

"Elizabeth it's ok,it's just me." The man took his hand off her mouth quickly. She turned around and looked straight into those screaming blue eyes of Jack.

"Oh my goodness! Jack you really scared me, why did you do that?" She of course was referring to putting his hand over her mouth.

"Im sorry, I didn't want any of the guests to hear you scream. Many of them are already sitting outside by their fire pits. We haven't had any trouble yet, but mountain lions and bears are not unheard of around this area of Nebraska." Jack took his time explaining and she nodded. She could understand why her scream might be heard as a cry for help instead of a scared cry.

"So what brought you all the way down here?" Without being to over protective, or it being over noticeable, Jack liked to know where each and every one of his staff was. Most of the time anyway,he knew that everyone needed their privacy of course. It being his family's park, he felt he had a responsibility to watch over them as best he could.

"Watching the sunset, like I try to do every night. It's so beautiful when it decides to depart for the evening." Jack smiled at her, watching her face light up and show excitement. "And just what are you doing all the way down here?" She couldn't help but give a little giggle

"I also like to enjoy the sunset, but tonight this little guy needed some fresh air." He picked up an adorable bassett hound puppy that couldn't be more than 10 weeks old.

"Oh my goodness! Jack he's adorable. Now I know why I heard all those sticks cracking right before you took 10 years off my life ha ha:)"

"So sorry about that ha ha." He noticed that it was getting darker faster than he wanted but for some reason he wasn't ready to let this night come to an end yet. "Hey. it looks like our light is disappering fast, would you let RIP and I walk you back to your cabin?" Jack knew that he was taking a risk in asking Elizabeth this, but there was just something about her.

"I would really like that."She wasn't sure why she accepted his offer so fast, there was just something about him that she couldn't put her finger on. He was just so different from Charles in every way.

Making their way back up the road to the cabins, Elizabeth realized just how tired she was. All of a sudden, she stumbled on a rock. Before she knew it, she felt a familiar hand grab her and kept her from falling all the way on her face in the middle of the road.

"Are you ok?" He still held on to her around her waist where he had grabbed her. Their faces were just inches apart as he looked deep into her eyes.

"Thank you for keeping me from falling." She found herself returning his gaze. He nodded, wanting to respond to what his head was yelling at him to do. He wasn't sure if she felt the same, so he held back. He let go and they continued up the road to her cabin. Jack was silent the rest of the way back to the top of the hill, so she didn't say anything. Before she knew it, her cabin came into view, she wanted to invite Jack in but didn't know how he would react.

"Here we are! I'll see you tomorrow?" Jack did his best to sound normal but she could tell that he was out of sorts.

"Absoulutely..Florence is training me in the gift shop and then Molly is letting me run the snack shop in the afternoon." She really enjoyed it.

"Well it sounds like you have a really busy day planned. I need to get this little guy home, but I'll see you tomorrow." She smiled her thanks again so they bid each other goodnight.

Elizabeth wasn't sure what had just happened. She watched as Jack walked away and replayed the events of the evening. It was like he was fine all of a sudden and then he wasn't. He had just shut down... She thought something might be starting between the two of them. The way that he had held onto her when she fell, and the way that he stared into her eyes. His gaze was saying something to her, but it was unclear if he was willing to let this feeling have control. It was almost 9:00 and she thought that a bath sounded so relaxing. Her muscles were screaming at her so any relief would be appreciated. She fixed the water just the way that she liked it.

"Did I do something wrong?" She was talking to God as if He was sitting right there next to her." One minute, he is so sweet and then her literally just seizes up the next minute. I'm not looking for anything more than friends right now but the way he kept me from falling on the road, I'm just not sure if he would want something more. The way he looked at me after he caught me, I just don't want to get hurt again." She continued to relax and tried to make sense of her feelings. After she felt her fingers get wrinkly and knew the water was cooling off, she decided to get ready for bed. Snuggling in, sleep came easily to her.

"Love Me Like You Do", one of her most favorite songs by Ellie Goulding playing on her alarm clock woke her up. She didn't work until 9 this morning so she decided to fix herself some breakfast. As soon as she was about to take her first bite of her homeade cinnamon coffee cake, there was a knock at the door. There stood Jack, on the porch looking very anxious to get something off his mind.

"Good Morning Elizabeth, could I possibly come in and talk to you for a couple of minutes?"

"Of course, please come in. Can I interest you in some breakfast and coffee? She wasn't exactly sure what Jack could have the need to talk to her about this early in the morning, but was glad that he had the trust in her to talk to her if he had a problem.

"That would be nice, thank you." He watched as she got him a slice of cake and a cup of coffe. Then she joined him at the table.

"Elizabeth, I need to apologize to you. Yesterday... I'm not exactly sure what happened"..he stopped and looked down at his hands.

"It's ok, you can talk to me and tell me anything." He didn't answer, so she took his hand and squeezed it gently." Hey, she whispered softly, please look at me." Jack looked up and grasped her hand in return.

"When we walked back to your cabin, I was thinking about how much I was enjoying myself. Then you slipped..."

"Jack, it's ok, you don't have to explain." she interrupted him.

" No it's not Elizabeth, please let me explain." A couple of years ago, a family came to the park for the summer. Their daughter was well... beautiful. There was just something about her. We spent every moment together that we had free and we grew extremely close. Elizabeth, I thought that she was the one that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, I thought that she wanted to be part of the Hope Valley family. One day, I was waiting for her at a restaurant that we were supposed to have a date at. She never showed up, and I waited for over an hour. I fould out from my mom that they had suddenly left in a hurry that evening. They had left all of their money that they were supposed to pay us and the keys to their cabin, both on the office desk. She was gone and I had no idea where she went."

"Didn't your mom have an address or a phone number to contact them?" Elizabeth asked.

" She did, but we have a policy here. After a guest leaves after their stay,as long as they are all paid in full, we don't contact them again unless they tell us otherwise. I don't know why but a few weeks later, I felt the need for closure, so I found a listing for a contact on the internet that matched her description. I called and got a recording that said the number had been disconnected. I took that as a sign that my happiness in love and that relationship was just not meant to be."

"So when you fell yesterday, and our eyes met, alot of emotions and feelings came rushing back at me. Please don't think that any of this is your fault, because it's not. I just don't want to have to go through all of that again, if the relationship isn't meant to be. I don't want to lose someone all over again, especially someone that I loved so deeply." she could see the pain in his eyes and she understood every bit of what he was saying.

"Jack, I understand, more than you know. I'm not originally from Nebraska. I grew up in Oklahoma and went to Stanford University in California for 4 years. I grew up with this guy, we became great friends and we went to the same university. As with you, we had gotten extremely close and I'm embarrased to say this but... I was expecting a proposal any day from him. On the day of my graduation, I saw him with another girl. They weren't just together, he kissed her. When he finally caught up with me after my graduation, he swears there was nothing between them. I kind of thought my best friend was going to kill him ha ha." She smiled and giggled, remembering that night.

"A few weeks after, I knew that I needed a change. I knew what I wanted in life right now, and Nebraska was a great giant step in the right direction. I found an apartment that was the right price and suitable just for me and soon started looking for a job. Hope Valley just seemed to jump off the page and into my lap, it was right there when I needed it. I was not ready to work in a restaurant with my culinary degree, I needed to get away from my former life. Start a new life and that's how I want it. So, I know how you feel. It was not our time to find true love but I do know one thing..." She smiled

"What's that Elizabeth?"He returned the smile.

"I know that we're friends, your family saved me when I needed somewhere to go. I hope you know how much I value all of the friendships that I have made here. especially yours. I feel like you and your family will always be there for me and each other."

" You don't have to worry about that Elizabeth. You're right, we will, especially me. You can always count on me, just like I know that I can always count on you." They smiled at each other, both knowing that they had found a forever friend, someone that they could always put their trust in... without a doubt."