Yesterday, she’d been busy outside, taking care of the chickens and checking on the horses and cattle with Tenor and Myles’s brothers. Mostly, I thought she’d been giving me space. I didn’t deserve Mama. “I’m sorry I left so suddenly.” I’d already said it, but it needed repeating. She wouldn’t bring up the wedding until I did. Did she worry I’d go hide in another mountain cabin?
“Don’t ever be sorry for taking care of yourself.”
If taking care of myself meant barely dressing, that was what I was doing. I wore an old pair of red flannel pajama pants and a fluffy Montana State sweater. My hair was limp and I was makeup-free. Boyd would be disgusted if he could see me. I was comfortable.
“I am surprised who you sought refuge with.” Mama could be nosy when she wanted, but she was the queen of leading sentences.
“You and me both.” I shuffled to the kitchen table. Two steaming mugs were on the table, and she had a bottle of french vanilla creamer sitting by one. Tatemust’ve texted her before we left Bozeman to let her know when we’d arrive.
I sank into the chair. She took a seat while I was topping off my coffee with International Delight.
“Jonah was there when I needed him,” I said, needing to explain why I hadn’t turned to her. She wouldn’t take it personally, but I had to let her know my choice wasn’t personal. Leaving with Jonah of all people was most definitely a personal choice, but I was already mixed up enough. I let the thought go.
“I heard what Jonah did.” When I looked at her, I caught the smile playing over her lips. She’d known the whole story when I’d called her from the cabin and she’d kept most of the knowledge to herself. “Corinne Harrington wasn’t as quiet as she hoped when she cornered Boyd in his dressing room and chewed him out. She yelled at him for not being able to overpower, I quote, ‘that horribly scarred man with the cane.’”
“I’m surprised that’s the worst of what she said.” I dug my teeth into my lower lip. “I should’ve seen it coming.”
“Aw, Summer. You take on too much responsibility. It’s his duty to be a good person, and hitting his fiancée ain’t it.”
“Jonah said the same thing.” Despite the curiosity in her eyes, I didn’t care to talk about my time with Jonah. It had been cathartic, restful, and short, but long enough to bridge the gap that had formed between us since I’d last seen him in the hospital. “Is it all right if I stay a few days before I return to work?”
She frowned. “I thought you were staying the whole time.”
Jonah had encouraged me to take all my time off, butI’d invited myself over to Mama’s without asking if she had room for me. I knew she did. She’d make room even if she didn’t, but I didn’t want to assume. I also didn’t care to dwell on how I wished I was in a quiet mountain cabin with unusually strong Wi-Fi and almost no fresh produce. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to stay here, but I also want to work.”
“Are you sure you’re ready?”
She meant, could I face everyone? My story was out there. Boyd Harrington’s wedding getting canceled at the last minute might make a splash in Bozeman. Summer Kerrigan running out on her fiancé to stay in a cabin with Jonah Dunn would burn through Bourbon Canyon like abrushfire. My next trip to the grocery store or the coffee shop would likely stop conversation when I walked by. Inevitable. I’d experienced it before, I could do it again.
“Everyone knows what happened. I might as well face the chatter, and really, I’d rather be busy.”
“I’m sure Teller and Tenor would arrange a way for you to work from Bourbon Canyon’s location if you want out of the house.”
So tempting. But also exposing. My family worked at Copper Summit, but everyone at Copper Summit was considered my inner circle. Out of everyone, they’d know the real details.
She patted my hand. “Think about it for a while. Do what you need to here. If you have to take over the kitchen table, do it.”
I stared at the wood grain of the table. A standard wood table. Jonah’s work was functional art.
I had to quit thinking about him. I could work at home until it was time for me to return to the officewith no Balinese tan. I could help the guys and Mama with chores and soak up my daily dose of fresh air and sunshine.
But if I used Bourbon Canyon’s headquarters to get some work done, I’d be out and about. I could run to town and get some coffee. After my first trip, my stops would get less awkward and I would be less self-conscious. I would be out and about more. And maybe I would see Jonah again.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Summer
Autumn was in the bar area of Copper Summit when I was done working. When I’d asked Tenor if I could use some space to work remotely, he and Teller had made it happen. If they hadn’t, Wynter would’ve made me share her desk, but there was an empty office on the top floor where I could look over the mountains that were once mined for copper. Our view was pristine. On the other side, off of Bailey land, half the mountain had been carved away.
“Hey.” I slid onto a barstool. “Are we drinking here?”
Autumn frowned as she tapped through her tablet. She was doing inventory and her auburn hair was piled on top of her head. She was dressed in loose slacks, a white turtleneck, and a cranberry cardigan. Since it was a Thursday, she’d probably come straight from her classroom. Wynter hadn’t been tending bar as much now that she was so pregnant, and Autumn had takenover. Teller insisted she was working too much, but Autumn ignored him like usual. “We can. There’d be somewhere to sleep when we got shitfaced.”
“It’s no fun to get plastered where family can see us.”
She smirked and closed the cover on the tablet. “You sound very Junie right now.”
“I’m not on stage, getting panties thrown at me.”
