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I did it.
“I have a couch,” I said. “You’re welcome to it.”
She swayed slightly. “Okay, thanks.”
No hesitation at all. Did she miss the day in kindergarten where we learned stranger danger? Not that she was in any danger with me. I wouldn’t lay a finger on her, but I was slightly horrified that everyone seemed to take that for granted.
“This way,” I said, but she wasn’t listening. She was looking over her shoulder instead.
“That’s Hart Mountain,” she said.
“That’s right,” I said, because I was born and raised here. Hart Mountain was practically the town mascot.
“I’m going to climb it.”
I chuckled as I searched my pack for my keys. Nora was going to climb the Widow-Maker? Sure, okay. “I believe you,” I said, which was directly opposite to the truth.
She grabbed my arm just as my hand made contact with the keys. “Hold me to it. Promise me.”
The earnestness in her voice gave me pause. I looked from her to the mountain and back again. My neck tingled, my fingertips itched in response to the challenge. It was kismet, and she didn’t even know it. I could make this happen. My whole life was centered on getting peopleoffmountains; how hard could it be to get one inexperienced, tiny womanupthe damn thing? I couldn’t fix my dad or my broken marriage, but I could fix this. And I wanted to. God knew why, but I did.
“I promise.”
Her fate was sealed, even though she was probably too drunk to realize it. That was okay. I would remember.
My apartment was the studio above Nana’s Yarns. The storefront, like everything else, was disgustingly cute, a sharp contrast to what it had been three years ago. I unlocked the door, gestured for her to go through, and followed her up the stairs. My hand hovered an inch away from her lower back, just in case, but she didn’t fall.
There was another door at the top of the stairs and then we were inside the place I never thought I’d bring a woman. I fumbled for the light switch, the inside of my bicep grazing her…cheek, maybe? Some part of her face. It was soft.
We both blinked in the sudden brightness.
“I don’t really live here,” I said. “It’s just where I crash between jobs. But I haven’t been between anything for the past three years, so that’s why everything is…the way that it is.”
She looked around. There wasn’t much to see. A couch, a bed, a dresser. There was a small kitchen area and a table with one chair. The dust that covered almost everything was noticeable.
“It’s fine.” She yawned.
Right. At this point, we were both exhausted enough to sleep anywhere.
I strode to the dresser, yanked open the drawer, and pulled out my only two sets of sheets. I tossed one set on the bed and used the other to make the couch comfortable for her, because no way was I giving her the bed. At six-one, I had at least eight or nine inches of height on her. She would fit fine on the couch, but I wouldn’t.
I stuffed the pillow in its case and shook out the blanket.
And that was when I realized she hadn’t made a peep this entire time. I turned slowly, my stomach sinking.
Yup. She was asleep. On my unmade bed.
Fucking fantastic.
I stood there, weighing my options.Pretendingto weigh my options. I wasn’t going to kick her off the bed, and I knew it. But dammit, I really wanted to. With a sigh, I tugged off her Converse sneakers and covered her with a blanket. Then I flopped down on the couch. My legs hung off at the knee.
Goddammit.
Chapter 3
Nora
IwokeupknowingI wasn’t where I was supposed to be. The bed felt all wrong and the smell was unfamiliar. My head throbbed slightly, my mouth was rancid, and now that my eyes were open, I remembered exactly how I got here. I had drunk enough to act like an idiot, but unfortunately not enough to forget all the ways in which I had done that.
