“I’ll take it.”
The speed of his response surprised them both.Saber set down his coffee cup.“You sure?You haven’t even heard about the pay.”
“I’m positive.”The weight lifted off Liam’s chest, a first since his arrival home.Breathing room.Distance.The chance to lose himself in physical work and wide-open country.“When can I leave?”
“I’ll call Cam today, but probably within the week.”Saber was still watching him with a careful expression.“Liam, you don’t have to run from whatever happened over there.”
“I’m not running.”The denial came too quickly, and they both knew it.Liam rubbed the back of his neck.“I need time to figure things out.”
“Fair enough.”Saber’s tone was neutral, but his expression was kind.“We’ll be here when you return.”
That afternoon, Scott found him packing his few belongings into the same pack he’d brought from Scotland.
“So it’s true?You’re heading for the high country?”
“Saber told you.”
“Course he did.We’re worried about you, mate.”Scott leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed.“This isn’t like you.The Liam I know doesn’t just disappear.”
“Maybe the Liam you knew changed.”The words tasted bitter, but they were true.The man who’d attended the gathering, eager and adventurous, was a stranger now.
“Bullshit.”Scott’s voice was flat.“Whatever happened over there, whatever’s eating at you—disappearing into the mountains won’t fix it.”
“I’m not hiding.It’s work.Routine.”
“It’s both, and you know it.”Scott stepped into the room, his expression serious.“I don’t know what went wrong, and I won’t push.But don’t kid yourself—three months of sheep and silence won’t make this disappear.”
Liam stopped packing and looked at his friend,reallylooked.Scott’s concern was real, his frustration born of caring.But he didn’t—couldn’t—understand.
“Maybe not,” Liam said.“But it’s what I can handle right now.”
Scott studied him, then nodded.“All right.But promise me this—don’t make any big decisions while you’re up there.Give it the full three months before you decide what’s next.”
“Deal.”
They shook on it, and Liam felt a flicker of the friendship that had sustained him through his early days in Middlemarch.Whatever else had changed, Scott was still in his corner.
Two days later, Saber drove him to the edge of the Mackenzie Basin, where Cam Sinclair waited with a dusty Land Cruiser and a firm handshake.
“You’ll do,” Cam said after a brief assessment.He was a weathered man in his fifties, with a steady presence that spoke of decades of dealing with unpredictable animals and unforgiving country.“Saber says you know your way around livestock.”
“I do.”
“Good.We’ll work you hard, feed you well, and leave you alone when you need it.Sound fair?”
Liam gave a brief nod.“Fair.”
He shouldered his pack and climbed into the passenger seat.As they left the main road and entered the vast golden grassland of the high country, he experienced something he hadn’t in weeks.
Peace—or at least the possibility of it.
Behind them, his life in Middlemarch faded into the hills.Ahead lay three months of weathered mountains, snow-dusted peaks, and paddocks that rolled on for miles.A place ruled by seasons and stock, where the rest of the world was far away.
And for now, that was exactly what he needed.
Chapter 25
DearLiam,
