She watched him from the woods.

Hidden from his eyes, her eyes were serious as she watched him pace the small clearing in front of his house. She felt the change in the forest, how the air stilled then charged with electricity. She looked up from her family home deep in the forest and almost dropped the shovel she was using. Destiny ran through her mind as it flew from her through the forest to the old cabin.

She smelled him the minute he got out of the Rover and walked up to the cabin in the woods. A mixture of leather and earth and man. She appeared at the edge of the clearing and watched him. He got out of the car and pulled out a laptop and muttered to himself as went to the door of the cabin. He muttered again when the keys given to him were not needed for the front door. It was unlocked. He slammed the door open and put the computer on the table.

“Who doesn’t lock doors?” He muttered as he went back to the car and pulled out two suitcases. He hauled them as the rain began to fall, “Damn, I’m not sure I brought a rain coat.”

He wiped his hair out of his eyes as he went back to the car for two boxes and using his hip, pushed the car door shut. “What was I thinking? Why am I out in the middle of no where?”

Why was he here? She wondered as she watched him walk. She moved to into the clearing out of his eyesight, her curiosity up. He stopped at her movement and looked back to the forest. She fell back into the shadows.

“God, I’m already scared of the boogeyman,” he said and went back toward the cabin. “Too damn quiet.”

He was a tall man, well over six feet by her judgement. He had black curly hair down to the collar of his shirt, deep blue eyes, and an aura of sadness around him. He wore a pair of faded jeans, obvious new hiking boots and a fishing shirt. She watched him march back out with a few oaths and grab a backpack from the Rover then go back inside. She wanted to follow him in the cabin but something held her back, everything around him shouted that he wanted to be alone. Who was she to invade his privacy?

Arianna was a faerie, she lived in the woods that started at the edge of his clearing. Her family was tied to the woods, it was ingrained in her. This was her home, this was where they belonged. She was used to Murphy, his muttering as he roamed her woods for over the thirty years he lived in the cabin. She understood Murphy and enjoyed toying with him. She always smiled when he’d look into the woods and gruffly say, “Now cut that out, you’re gonna give this old man a heart attack,” when she tripped him with a root. Arianna just laughed. She’d know Murphy since she was born. She remembered following him on his walks when she was a little girl. He’d whistle as he walked and she enjoyed that. She remembered fleeing to the steps of his cabin when she first met Orion, despair. He never knew she was there like this new owner of the property didn’t know she was there. But she still felt connected to him, just like she felt connected to the new man.

She was shocked when Murphy stood with the real estate agent.

“All cash offer,” the woman said and handed him a check.

“Man must be either stupid or crazy, you said he was from Memphis?” Murphy asked.

“Yep, said he was looking for a business investment and a little bit of quiet,” she replied.

“Oh, he’ll definitely get the quiet here,” A cup on Murphy’s shelves tipped over, “Well maybe not total quiet.”

Before he left he stood at the edge of the forest, “I will miss you, but at my age and with these creaky bones, Florida is calling my name.” How could he leave the woods and go to Florida she wondered. The cabin sat empty for over six months, Arianna visited it regularly as she missed the company of the man that used to live there. She watched the dust gather, in the space. She had her family deep in the forest but she liked the thought of outside company. Someone other than the O’Donnells. She liked the gruff of Murphy’s voice.

Then came the cleaner, a woman who took all the dust and the old food out of the refrigerator. Arianna watched as she restocked the cabin, added food, coffee and other essentials. She played with the cans of soup, the wood stacked on the edge of the porch, the produce added. The woman left and the cabin was new again, for whom? The green Rover bumped down the dirt road and the man got out surveying the cabin.

“What the hell am I going to do with this?” He said to the still air.

The man she watched intrigued her, why was he here? Why would he buy a cabin with no one around? She peered through the ferns as the rain turned to drizzle and he came back out to the Rover and grabbed the box marked “Kitchen.” He tripped as he walked to the cabin, she closed her eyes and righted him.

Malachi Mulvanney felt hands steady him as he tripped toward the cabin. He stopped and looked around. “I am insane,” he said to the waning light. He was at a cross roads. He threw the suitcases on the bed and went to his kitchen boxes. He pulled the bottle of Jameson out of the “essential” box and poured two fingers. He walked to the front porch of the small cabin in the woods. “Yeah, too damn quiet,” he said and took a sip and watched the rain fall.

Quiet means time to think.

What the hell was he thinking? He’d walked away from his wedding, one he planned with Layla for over a year. He bought property out on the side of a mountain with a cabin sight unseen. Didn’t dither on the price AND paid cash. Then rather than moving forward with his development plans for the property, he was sitting on the porch of the cabin drinking whiskey.

Here was his spot to figure out what the hell he was doing with his life. His mother was worried when he canceled the wedding three weeks prior, father merely laughed and shook his head. Layla threw a tantrum probably heard all the way to Nashville. He told them something didn’t feel right, he needed more time. He was sure it was catching her in bed with another man. Before the newspapers hunted him down, he grabbed a few things out of his apartment and snuck out. He knew his mother and Layla, he had to get away before they came back and browbeat him into following through with the wedding. The land that he’d bought online and the cabin called his name.

He also wanted to be away when the news hit the papers. He didn’t want to answer questions. It was one of those very good matches, both families thrilled. Malachi winced when Layla’s family announced their engagement in the society pages, then things picked up steam from there. As he got nervous about his life decision, he caught his fiancé in bed with someone else.

“Honey, it was just scratching an itch. Technically we aren’t married yet,” she cooed at him.

“Layla, this whole marriage thing is going way too fast,” he started.

“Baby, you know I love you. It was just a mistake on my part. Part of being in love like we are means forgiving mistakes. We’re too far in darling, the train has left the station. Your mother will be very upset,” she said.

He knew she was pulling all the cards out. He felt all kinds of guilt on how his parents will take this, he couldn’t convince her. So he ran.

He told his manager on the hotel refurb that he needed some time and was working remotely for a little bit. He saw the sidelong glances as they whispered about him. Some already seemed to know that Layla was already fooling around on him. It’s a good match, good for both families. He heard his mother’s voice in his head. He felt his chest constrict and before he could think about it he was in his car and driving away from his condo.

He felt weights lifting as he left Memphis city limits and drove toward his cabin. When he crossed the Tennessee state line, he breathed a sigh of relief. When he drove down the town to the real estate office he felt weights lift. With papers signed and keys in his hand he headed to the property he now owned.

It was spring, so the weather still had a tinge of cold to it. Malachi liked that. When he turned off the main road to a side road, he almost missed his turn. The small sign next to the long dirt road simply said Murphy. He followed the dirt road to another dirt road then stopped at a clearing surrounded by a forest.

“Thank God for four wheel drive,” he said to no one.

“What the hell was I thinking?” He said again as he took in the cabin at the back edge of the clearing. It was a small wood cabin, a tin roof, full front porch. Stacked wood on the side of the porch and two white rockers to the side of the front door. It was made of log, white something in between each held them together. The clearing he drove through was more dirt than grass. Everything about it looked old and part of the woods. The cabin was a far cry from his sleek condo back in Memphis. It looked sturdy, he thought, perhaps? Running a hand through his hair he stopped the Rover, “Well guess this is home for a while.”