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“I’m not going to try. I’m going to climb it.”
She looked determined, almost fierce. And she hadn’t sounded this sure of herself since she was, well, drunk.
“When are you doing it?” Suzie asked, and bless her, she didn’t saytryagain.
Nora looked at me questioningly.
“Last week of October,” I said. “She could do it now, but the mountain is at its best in October. Summer storms are gone, the leaves are changing, but this far south there probably won’t be snow yet. It’s gorgeous.”
“You ready?” I asked Nora and she nodded, standing.
She grabbed her purse, glanced inside, and then looked around. “Where did I leave my phone?”
“I’ll call it.” I scrolled to her name and hit call. We all held our breath, listening. From somewhere in the house came a faint buzzing.
“The living room, maybe?” Suzie suggested.
We spread out, lifting cushions and checking under furniture. Finally I heard it again. Ah, the bathroom. And there it was, propped on the sink. I picked it up and then froze, staring down at the screen, my thumb hovering overignore.
Just my number.
That’s all it was. No name, no descriptor. Just ten anonymous digits.
She hadn’t saved me in her phone. There was nothing to distinguish me from any other random guy.Temporary. It felt like a punch to the gut.
If I scrolled through her contacts, who would I find there? Had Suzie made the cut? Undoubtedly. Old boyfriends? Probably not, but that didn’t make me feel any better. If anything, it made me feel worse. I didn’t want to be just another guy to her.
“Oh, you found it!” Nora came in behind me. “Thank you.”
I silently held it out to her. She hit ignore to end the call and dropped it into her purse. She looked at me and then did a doubletake. Her eyebrows knit together. “Everything okay?”
I had never been one to run away from feelings. I was a big proponent of the truth, both speaking it and hearing it, because anything else only postponed the inevitable. Phrases likewhat’s wrongandfinegave people a place to hide when what they really needed was to be found.
I should tell her what I saw and how I felt about it, because dammit, I felt alot. That would be the mature response.
Fuck mature. Mature was going to get my heart smashed. I wanted to hide.
“Yeah. Everything’s fine.”
Maybe if I believed it hard enough, it would actually become true.
Chapter 25
Nora
Twoweeksleft.Iwas still counting down to Michael’s last day in Hart’s Ridge, but now the number didn’t fill me with dread. He would be back. A couple days at Christmas, and then for good in February. I wasn’t looking forward to four months without him—not at all—but there would be phone calls and video calls and maybe even the sporadic visit to see us through. The separation wasn’t forever.
For now, I would soak up every second with him that I could. I slipped my hand into his, linking our fingers together.
Michael looked down at our hands, then at my face. He grinned. “Holding hands in public,” he murmured. “Why does that feel so good?”
“Because we could never do it before.”
Because it meant we were real now. The thought filled me with warmth…and a little bit of trepidation. I liked him so, so much—which meant that now I had something to lose.
“Medium dark roast with cream, and a large Americano, please,” Michael said, ordering for both of us as we approached the barista at Hot and Wired, the coffee shop on Main Street.
We were getting coffee before our last practice hike. On Friday we were climbing Hart Mountain. I had gotten the day off work, and the weather looked promising. Michael would leave for New Hampshire a week later. It was all happening so fast, but I was ready for it.
