And it was a bad way to be.

“Wow,” said Jimmy, looking like he was going to cry again when he surprised himself—and Sandrine—and smiled and said, “Well, that’s great! Congratulations.”

“Thanks.” Sandrine smiled with all her teeth. And Jimmy smiled back. And then his smile faded. And he just stared at Sandrine. And realized something. And said, “I thought you said you weren’t gonna do that. Get married. Thought it wasn’t for you, you told me.”

Sandrine stopped smiling and looked at the floor. And then looked at Jimmy and smiled again apologetically. And then shrugged her shoulders. And stopped smiling again. And looked at the floor again.

Jimmy got the message. “Guess it just wasn’t for you … with me.”

And then Jimmy didn’t say anything for a while.

And Sandrine didn’t say anything for a while.

And then Jimmy almost spiraled into a deep despair.

And he almost really let Sandrine have it for having disappeared on him.

And he thought about going up to the front and ruining her bachelorette party.

And then he thought about just leaving.

But he didn’t do any of those things. Instead he made like he was happy for Sandrine and all her good news and asked, “So who’s the lucky guy?”

Sandrine was aware that Jimmy was taking the high road and appreciated his kindness. “Um … Martin LaFerriere.” She smiled gleefully, because Martin made her so happy. “Do you know him? The, uh—”

“The game warden?”

“Yeah.”

“From Ashland?”

“Yeah!” Sandrine’s smile got bigger.

“Wow!”

“Yeah!”

“Well, that’s … awesome!” cheered Jimmy, through slightly gritted teeth. “He’s … awesome!”

And Martin was awesome. Jimmy had some looks. But Martin had all of them. He was tall. And his torso was shaped like a triangle. And his jaw was square. He actually looked like a superhero. Heck, he was a superhero. Because game wardens are superheroes. They do things like fight forest fires and save lives and stop drug trafficking into and out of Canada and make sure people treat the wilderness well. And come to the rescue when the wilderness doesn’t treat people well.

Sandrine agreed with Jimmy. “Yeah. He is. He’s pretty awesome,” she said, beaming.

“I mean, he’s a legend!” enthused Jimmy.

Martin LaFerriere was a legend. Last summer he made all the local papers—and even the national news—when he rescued a hiker who had gotten lost on Shepalojo Mountain. At night. During the forest fire.

“If you’re lost on a mountain in Maine, he’s the guy you want lookin’ for ya.” Jimmy was working way too hard to disguise his jealousy as he praised the guy that was going to be Sandrine’s husband.

“Yeah…” Sandrine wondered if Jimmy was okay, because he was looking maniacal again—because he was smiling so hard—because he didn’t want Sandrine to be able to tell how badly he was hurting.

Because he wanted to be the one who was about to be Sandrine’s husband.

He got even more animated as he extolled Martin’s virtues. “I mean, if you’re lost out there in this big bad northern world, Martin LaFerriere’s the guy you want to have go out there and find you.”