Page 11 of Mountain Reclaiming

“At least one of us is,” Jesse chimes in.

“Christ, you all are a bunch of sad sacks.” Dakota shakes his head as he walks by on his way to the breakroom.

“Just cause you gotta wife doesn’t mean you gotta rub it in,” Jesse calls after him.

“Yeah, actually, it kinda does,” Dakota says over his shoulder.

“Seriously though, what’s going on with you and Ashlynn? Isn’t she only here temporarily? You have the look of a man thinking about putting a ring on it,” Race oh so helpfully observes.

His words wipe the smile right off my face and instantly sober me up. I’ve purposely not been thinking about the future because I don’t like what it will entail.

“Nice going, asshole. Now he looks like a pitiful sad sack too. I prefer the happy Cash,” Braden chides his best friend.

“Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later.” Race shrugs before arching a brow at me. “Or did something change?”

I heave a sigh. “We both knew and agreed this was temporary, but damn I don’t want to think about her leaving.”

“Then don’t. You could go with her, you know,” Braden says, like it’s as easy as that.

“Nah man, not with my mom getting worse. I couldn’t leave her now.”

“Then ask her to stay.”

“And what would she do here? She works in publishing. Jobs like that are far away in big cities.”

“Well then, that sucks. I don’t know if I can put up with you being such a sad sack after she leaves. There’s gotta be a solution. You two are getting a second chance, something not everyone gets. It’d be a shame if you let a little thing like a job stand in your way. If she’s it for you and she feels the same way, then you owe it to yourselves to figure it out.”

We all stare at Braden like he’s grown a second head.

“Dude, where’d that deep shit come from? That was like well deep, and you’re usually as shallow as a mud puddle,” Race asks with furrowed brows.

“Yeah, I’m kinda freaked out now,” Jesse agrees.

I would be too if his words hadn’t already taken root. My mind is lost on figuring out how I can keep Ashlynn in my life, because he’s right. I won’t survive losing her a second time, especially now that what we have is so much more than crushes between teenagers.

Chapter Nine

Ashlynn

“Thank you so much. I’ll be in touch.” With my stomach in knots, I swipe my phone to disconnect the call.

My heart, on the other hand, doesn’t know what it wants to do. It’s a weird feeling as it tries to soar with elation at the same time it’s crumbling into a million pieces.

“I can’t tell if it’s good news or not. You look constipated,” Paisley observes.

My brows pinch as I frown. “How would you know what I look like constipated? That rarely ever happens to me.”

She shrugs a shoulder. “I’m guessing. You look similar to Barry when he is.”

I worry my earring between my thumb and forefinger. “I got the job.”

Paisley’s eyebrows raise. “That’s a good thing, isn’t it? You were super excited about working with this literary agent when you told me about the job with her.” She pauses, lips pursing before continuing, “But that was before Cash, wasn’t it? Couldn’t you guys do the long-distance thing?”

My shoulders rise and fall half-heartedly. “Chicago’s a long way from Idaho. Besides, we both knew this was going to be temporary.”

“Sis, I hate to break it to you, but I don’t think there’s anything temporary about you and Cash. You meet again after almost two decades and the embers that had been smoldering the whole time immediately sparked into flames so huge it’s a wildfire that even the hotshot crew would never have a chance of putting out. It’s so big and hot the rest of us are getting singed just being around you both.”

“I don’t know about that. Even if it were true, he hasn’t asked me to stay. I’d be stupid to turn down this opportunity. What would I even do here? Nothing that could come close to what I want, and then I might grow to resent him if this continued between the two of us. Which again, he never promised anything. This thing between us always had an expiration date.”