“Put them in the back,” I said.
He didn’t move. Instead, he leaned on the counter and grinned like he had a secret he couldn’t wait to share. “Have you seen the latest?”
“No.” I didn’t need to ask what he meant. He’d been keeping tabs on the Ex-List drama like it was his damn job.
Dane lifted his phone and flicked his thumb across the screen. “The poll about the Ex-List is split between me and Trace, but there’s a dark horse favorite.”
“I don’t give a fuck.”
“You should, man. Because the dark horse is you.” He turned the screen so I couldn’t miss it. A thread of comments scrolled by, all those anonymous handles and fake names and people I’d known since grade school hiding behind cartoon avatars. Comments like My money’s on The Warden. Heard he’s been real friendly with a certain Thorne. And below it: Which one? A string of laughing emojis with a single eggplant followed.
My hands tightened around the braided cord until it bit my palms. “Why don’t you go put the box in the back, Dane.”
He glanced up at me and the smile slid from his lips. “I’m not trying to wind you up, man. As ridiculous as it sounds, it’s out there. Thought you should know.”
“And now I do.”
He set the box in the back then headed for the door, whistling under his breath. “I can’t believe people are actually posting about you and Jessa. Funniest damn thing I’ve seen all year.”
After he left, I set the paracord down and looked at my dull reflection in the knife case. I still saw the man who could handle a storm, fix a bridge, haul someone out of the woods in the dark. But now I also saw the man who might tear his own life apart over the one woman he couldn’t let go.
Bubbles let out a soft huff from his bed behind the counter. I scratched between his ears, and he thumped his tail like everything was fine and I should take him outside to sniff mailboxes.
Instead, I grabbed my keys.
I found Jessa in the community center. She was going over notes for Adventure Weekend with a handful of people, including Rowan from town hall, smiling and laughing as she made notes on a big piece of paper taped to the wall. When she spotted me in the doorway, her smile faded. It was like she could tell why I was there before I even said a word.
“Can I have a few minutes?” My voice came out rougher than I intended.
“Of course.” She thanked everyone for coming and said something about following up via email.
Rowan held her clipboard to her chest as she passed me on the way out. “It’s all coming together, Harlan. You were smart to hire Jessa.”
“Yeah, I know.” My chest pulled tight with a knot of pride, need, and panic that I couldn’t seem to untangle.
Standing in front of a group of people and sharing her plans for an event she’d created out of nothing but an idea, Jessa was in her element. I’d been a fucking fool to doubt her. Whoever ended up hiring her would be lucky to have her on their team. For a split second I wished that someone could be me.
When the door shut, the quiet settled, raw and unsteady, like it was daring one of us to break it. She capped the marker she’d been using and set it down on the table. “What do you need, Harlan?”
I forced myself to hold her gaze even though looking at her gutted me. “Whatever we started up on that ridge… it has to end.”
The words tasted like metal, but she didn’t flinch.
Her mouth curved into something that wasn’t even close to a smile. “Because a handful of bored people on the internet are playing guessing games online?”
“So you saw the poll.” I took a step closer and lowered my voice. “I don’t care what people think. But your brothers are going to get ideas, and they’ll come asking. Holt will barge through my door ready to break my jaw, and Thatcher won’t say a word, he’ll just look at me like I’m dead to him. Even Dane’s going to turn his back on me. He’ll pretend to laugh, then make good on all the threats he’s ever joked about. Because whether or not you want to admit it, they’re my family and this?—”
“This is mine.” She closed the distance the rest of the way and pressed her palm, warm and flat, against my chest. “My choice. My heart. Not theirs.”
Her touch only made it harder. I took a breath that didn’t go anywhere. “You think I don’t know that? I know exactly what I’m choosing. That’s the problem.”
“Then choose me.”
Simple. Clear. It should have been easy to say yes. But the word got stuck behind everything I’d built to keep my life from coming apart.
“You want to burn it down?” I asked. “You want to go out there, make an announcement at the cafe, let half this town clap like they got what they wanted, and the other half dig for how long we’ve been sneaking around? You want to watch your brothers find out from someone else?”
“I want you to stop treating me like I’m a mistake.” Her voice didn’t rise. It went softer, which made it worse. “The other night was amazing. But the second we came off the mountain and the town started to joke around, you want to run.”
