I try to push Gunnar from my mind as I get dressed and head into the living room. There’s barely room for a couch in this tiny cabin, and Amelia is curled up on it, holding her Kindle so close that her nose is almost touching the screen. My sister has always preferred fiction to the real world, losing herself in stories the same way I lose myself in nature. I sit down next to her, and she shoots me a distracted smile.
“How was your run?”
“Good, thanks.”
She’s clearly eager to get back to her book, so I don’t elaborate. Instead, I boot up my laptop and check my emails, as well as all the usual sites for jobs in my field. I refresh the Crave County Wildlife website a few times, but there are no new listings. I should do something useful, like rework my resume or call around any of the local agencies I’ve missed. But my thoughts keep drifting.
I open a new tab without thinking about it and search:
gunnar cherry mountain colorado
I’m disappointed but not surprised when nothing pops up. Gunnar doesn’t strike me as the type of man to have a digital footprint. Heck, he’s probably never even heard of TikTok or Instagram, let alone set up social media accounts.
With a sigh, I give up any possibility of being productive today and shut down my laptop, looking out the window at the gently swaying trees outside. I wonder where Gunnar and his group have made it to on the trail. Part of me wants to go back out into the forest and find him. I could sneak along behindthe group and hope he doesn’t spot me. As long as I stay close enough to see him…
Great. Now I’m thinking like a stalker.
Still, I can’t help wondering when I’ll see him again. It’s tourist season, so he must be running a lot of guided hikes right now. But Cherry Mountain is vast, and there are trails snaking all over it. I could roam the woods every day and I still might never cross paths with Gunnar again.
“What’s up?” Amelia asks, jerking me back to reality. I blink at her in surprise.
“I thought you were reading.”
“I finished the book.” She cocks her head at me and repeats herself. “What’s up, Ev? Why are you staring dramatically into the distance like someone just died?”
“Nothing’s up,” I tell her. “And I wasn’t staringdramatically.”
Amelia doesn’t respond—she just raises her eyebrows and looks at me expectantly, waiting for the truth. My sister always knows when I’m fibbing. I can never hide anything from her for long.
“Okay, fine,” I mumble after a few moments of silence. “I met someone on my run. A mountain man…ahotmountain man.”
The change in Amelia is instant. Her eyes light up, mouth widening into a grin. “And now you want to marry him and have his babies?”
“Amelia—”
“I’m kidding!” she says in a way that makes it clear she’s definitely not kidding. “Now tell me everything from the start. Don’t leave anything out!”
Her excitement is infectious, and soon I’m spilling everything about my meeting with Gunnar, from the moment I first heard his voice to the moment I ran back home. I leave outthe part where I masturbated in the shower over him. I don’t think I’m ready for that conversation.
Amelia listens with rapt attention, and I swear she’s almost vibrating with giddiness as I talk.
“He asked for my name, and I told him, and then he said his name was Gunnar?—”
“Gunnar?” Amelia interrupts. “Are you talking about Gunnar Solberg?”
“Uh, I don’t know his surname.”
“Big, grumpy guy in his forties? Beard, dark hair, tattoos?”
My heart thuds. “Yeah…wait, youknowhim?”
“Not really, but I see him at the hospital sometimes. He comes in for physiotherapy.”
I turn this new detail over in my mind. My sister works the reception desk at Cherry Hollow Medical Center, so she knows a lot of faces in this town. But I’m still struggling to process that she knows who Gunnar is.
“What does he need physiotherapy for?” I ask.
“His shoulder, I think. It was in a sling for a long time.”
