What if she needed me?
That thought settled in my heart like an uncomfortable burr. I’d promised to be there for anything she needed. And here I was, completely unreachable.
I tried to remember the last time I’d plugged it in and came up blank. It was one of my worst habits. I talked to people so rarely that keeping the thing charged never seemed important.
But Cassidymighthave called. She might have needed me, and I’d been sitting up here on my mountain with a dead phone like a dumbass.
I was halfway to my feet, ready to dig out the charger, when a knock sounded at the front door.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Cassidy.
I was out of the bedroom and through the living room in seconds. I yanked the front door open, already rehearsing what I was going to say, how I’d explain, and beg her to give me another chance.
But when the door opened, it was just Amos.
He stood on my porch with a six-pack dangling from one hand.
“Hey, buddy.” He grinned, shouldering past me into the cabin. “Figured you could use some company. You’ve been weird as hell at work lately.”
The disappointment hit me so hard I couldn’t speak for a moment. I just stood there, holding the door open, staring at the empty darkness where I’d hoped she’d be.
“Are you going to close that or are you waiting for a bear to wander in?”
I turned around and saw that Amos had already made himself comfortable on my couch, cracking open a beer. “Come on, man. Talk to me. What’s going on with you?”
I shut the door and slumped into the chair across from him. “Nothing.”
“Bullshit.” He took a long pull from his beer. “You’ve been moping around the camp like someone shot your dog. And don’t think I didn’t notice you almost took my head off when I stopped by last week when you had your cute little houseguest here.”
“She wasn’t my houseguest.”
“Right,” Amos snorted. “She was just somerandomwoman wandering around your cabin in her nightgown. Happens all the time up here on Hall’s Lonely Mountain.”
He knew me too well.
I didn’t respond. Just stared at the floor and tried not to think about how empty the cabin felt without her.
Amos was quiet for a minute. Then he said, casual as anything, “I called her, you know. Asked her to dinner.”
My head snapped up. “You did what?”
“Cassidy. I got her number from the insurance paperwork you left on the—”
I was on him before he finished the sentence.
The couch tipped back, and we hit the floor hard, my shoulder driving into his chest, beer spraying across the rug. I got one good punch in before he managed to shove me off, scrambling backward with his hands raised.
“What the hell, Hall?” He wiped blood from his lip, eyes wide. “What the fuck didIdo?”
I was breathing hard, my fists still clenched, rage pounding through my veins. “You asked her out. Youasked her out!”
“So? She’s single, isn’t she? You told me yourself you weren’t fu—”
He stopped and stared at me. Something shifted in his expression. “Oh, shit. You have a thing going with her.”
Frowning, I growled out, “Maybe. Maybe not.”
