“To stop some asshole developer ruining the lake. Jed said they were going to build a bunch of vacation condos here before he and Maxsteppedin.”
“Seriously?”
Pete nodded, and his disgust mirrored mine. The lake and the land that surrounded it was beautiful. Aside from the two cabins, it was untouched by mankind, and the idea of blighting it with shitty condos and tourists made meshudder.
“How long will it take them torenovateit?”
Someone cleared their throat behind us. “Forever and a day, if notlonger.”
I spun around to find that Max, Jed, and all three dogs had converged upon us without us noticing. Zola ran straight to Pete, and Flo padded to me to sniff my hand. Desta stayed close to Jed, though he wasn’t wearing his working harness, but when I met Jed’s gaze, relief flooded me. He looked tired but the stress had eased from his face, and his glittery green eyes wereclear.
“Someone called the cabin for you,” he said. “Nicola maybe? I couldn’t really hear her. I think she wants you to call her back. Something about a crisis with thelighting?”
It meant nothing to me. Nicola followed the plans I sketched out for her to the letter, and if it didn’t work out, she fixed it. I paid her a lot of money tonotcall me when shit wentwrong.
I nodded at Jed and left it at that, but the shrewd fucker caught Pete’s pointed stare and raised aneyebrow.
“He’s not going to the exhibition,” Pete helpfullysupplied.
Traitor.I glowered at him, but he rolled his eyes and scooped up Zola, leaving me to face Jed’s silent curiosityalone.
“I never go to my art shows,”Isaid.
“I knew that already,” Jed said. “Me and Glenn went to your chalk exhibit in Boston and he toldmethen.”
I don’t know why that stunned me, but it did. I’d drawn those chalk cartoons on a Boston sidewalk more than a year ago, when all I knew about Glenn’s army buddy Jed was that he ran a lot—something I couldn’t quite picture after the pastfewdays.
“I’m going to go,” Max said. “If you don’t mind? My sister is crazy excited about it, and I don’t get off-basemuch.”
I shrugged because it was whatever at this point. Besides, I’d noticed how stuck Max was when Jed was sick. And if my crappy exhibit helped him out, who was I to get pissyaboutit?
“Great.” Max grabbed Pete’s arm and propelled him forward. “Come on, mate. I want to check the cladding we didyesterday.”
“Do you think it’s held?” Pete dropped Zola into my arms. “I couldn’t see any insulationstickingout.”
I literally had no idea what they were talking about, so I tucked Zola into my coat and gazed out over the water. The lake was calm and still, and the mountain in the distance was so perfect it was almost like a painting. “Have you everclimbedit?”
Jed appeared at my side, his shoulder barely brushing mine. “Themountain?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Once. Sometimes you gotta make the journey a hundred times before it sticks, but that particular hike was enoughforme.”
“That some kind ofmetaphor?”
Jed grinned. “Maybe. I get kind of loopy when I’ve been on my ass afewdays.”
“Youokaynow?”
“Yep.”
Fair enough. I’d been worried about Jed, but out here by the lake with the fresh breeze ruffling his hair, the memory of him hunched up in pain faded away. Because what else could it do? Clinging to Jed’s misery was no better than clinging to my own. “Thanks for having us here. I feel like this trip has reallychangedus.”
“A change is as good as arest,huh?”
I chuckled. “If you say so. You’re theshrink.”
“Some days, Ash. Most days I’m a dude trying to survive, just like you and Pete. When you break it down, that’s allthereis.”
