Page 36 of Mountains Divide Us

“You know what I mean. You’re like a big, immovable mountain. You don’t really talk that much, but when you do, you grumble.”

He glanced at Grumbly, as if he was only then connecting the name I’d suggested to his own demeanor. “You think I’m puttin’ on some kinda act?”

“No, that’s not what I—I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I don’t see a need to fill silence with bullshit, Samantha. When I got somethin’ to say, I say it.”

“Of course.” Foot in mouth much, Samantha? “By the way, you can call me Sam. Everybody does, besides my gramps.”

“I like Samantha. Sam’s cute.” His eyes flicked to mine and then to my lips. “Samantha’s sexy.”

Well then. There was that.

“Oh.” I did have a master’s degree, didn’t I? Now, I wasn’t sure graduation hadn’t been a dream. What a ridiculous response, but it was the only word I was able to form in my head.

It certainly made me feel sexy when he said it. The sound of his voice seemed to have a way of reaching deep inside me in places that shouldn’t have been affected by any sound at all, but they were when he was around.

I really did have a lot of questions, like about his ex-wife, the same ex-wife everyone seemed to know about but Frank hadn’t yet mentioned. I wanted to know about his life before he became a Wisper deputy, his time with the Army, and his experience being adopted, but I was enjoying the silence he liked so much, so I relaxed and let myself feel it for a while.

I pulled my phone from my pocket, hoping to capture how cozy the drive felt in a photo. Grum liked having his picture taken even if his dad didn’t. It looked like he was posing and smiling in the back seat. Frank, on the other hand, seemed to have a hard time not rolling his eyes every time I whipped my cell out.

I’d tried to turn on music, but Post Malone was playing on the radio when I found a good station, and Frank shot me a glare, then turned it off. Okaaay then. No rap. After a minute, he turned it back on low, tapping the truck’s screen until he found a compromise. A nineties station was playing “Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star. It was kind of sexy, but the only reason I knew the song was because they’d played it in an episode of Gilmore Girls—which I’d just binged on Netflix—where Rory dances with Dean. Swoon. Like I said, living without Gramps chattering my ear off at night was kind of lonely.

When we were a few blocks away from the library, Frank turned onto River Street, and to our surprise, we came upon a crime in progress at Wisper Elementary. But this crime looked like it might be fun to participate in.

Frank pulled us to a stop on the side of the road and jumped quickly out of the truck. When he opened my door, pulling me out too, he whispered, “Alright, little soldier. Our objective is to whack that man in his tall ass with a snowball.” He pointed to the tallest of the “criminals” standing in the middle of the parking lot, who seemed to be yelling something at his friend. We were too far away to hear what they were saying, and besides, Frank was standing over me, breathing on me and shielding me from the falling snow with his big hat. The warmth emanating from his body was intoxicating. “I’ve wanted to smack him for years, and a snowball fight’s just the excuse I’ve been lookin’ for.” Reaching behind me, he patted my ass lightly. “Go, girl. Get it.”

Smiling as the desire to please him reared its head again, I assessed the situation, decided to go with the flow, and ran toward the parking lot as fast as I could, clomping through the snow in the boots he’d given me, trying to keep them on my feet. My destination was a tall pile of dirty snow made by an earlier plow. I figured we’d need something to hide behind, but it had been years since I’d been in a snowball fight. The only one I could remember was with Brady when we were, like, six, when I came to my grandparent’s for Christmas break, while my parents were off, filming in the south of France or Portugal or somewhere.

After I got there and hid behind my snow heap, I bent, scooping up snow to form into balls. Frank was fast on my heels, and he slid in beside me, covering himself in the fluff as I looked out at the battle ensuing in front of me. His hat had fallen off, and I picked it up, pulled my beanie off, and donned the Stetson as I kneeled next to him. Frank took the beanie from my hand and pulled it over his own head, mumbling, “Mmhm,” as he checked me out in his hat. He looked pretty good in my hat, too, like he was a boy again.

The smile I gave him wasn’t one I was used to offering to anyone. My lips pursed, I could feel my one and only dimple deepening, and the look in my eyes was a heavy-lidded seduction. When he looked at me like that, like I was his temptress, I felt sexier than I ever had, and I wanted things from him, things that had never before crossed my mind. Well, maybe they’d crossed my mind—I wasn’t a virgin, obviously—but never with a nearly fifty-year-old cop.

I blinked, lowered my chin, and arched an eyebrow, and he growled at me, but not in an alarming, grizzly bear, “I’m going to eat you” way—or well, maybe exactly like that.

A snowball whizzing past my head shattered the heated moment between us, and we focused back on the two grown men whipping snowballs at each other, laughing and yelling.

Billie Cade, from book club, stepped out from behind another snowbank next to a parked row of school buses and let her own snowballs fly, one after the other, in fast succession. Her arm was like an automatic snowball gun. She must’ve been hiding and preparing her snow bullets while the men were clumsily forming them on the fly.

I wasn’t sure who the guys were, but their voices sounded familiar. I assumed the shorter of the two men was probably her husband. “Oh, woman, you’re gonna get it!”

“Really, Jay? What have I told you about calling me ‘woman’?” Billie said, smiling at him in fun. And to the other man, she said, “C’mon, Finn, give me your best shot!” She stepped from behind her snow bunker, spreading her arms out wide. Her long, dark hair fell down her back, collected in a thick braid half hidden beneath her black winter hat, and her cheeks were red from the cold and exertion.

She’d told me she only joined the book club at Aislinn’s insistence. I didn’t know either of them well, but I knew the men were right to flee from Billie. She was fierce, and if she was threatening death by snowballs, she meant it.

Jay ran for cover, hiding behind a huge red truck with a massive snow shovel stuck to the front. Its headlights washed the snowy battlefield in their yellowy glow, while Finn, my target, tried to peg Billie with more snowballs, but she ducked and dodged, then aimed her return fire right at his face. He went down, fell back on his butt, and Billie threw back her head and cackled.

“That’s our chance. Go,” Frank urged, and we charged, launching snowballs as we ran, pummeling Finn with them. I felt kind of bad since I didn’t really know him and he was already down, but still, it was fun.

“What?” He rolled in the snow, turning in our direction when we surprised him, shielding his red, snow-crusted face and blond beard with his gloved hands. “What the fuck, Frank? No fair. This is assault. I’m callin’ the sheriff.”

Frank chuckled, and he ran for Finn and slid down next to him, scooping snow into his arms and smothering Finn with it.

Coming to stand next to Billie, I smiled in greeting, and we watched the men, who looked like little boys playing in the snow. Once she’d said their names, I knew who Jay and Finn were. You couldn’t live in Wisper without hearing about the Cades. They did a lot of good on and off their ranch for the community.

We cheered Frank on while Finn groaned, face-first in the snow.

Jay made his way back to Billie’s side, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “Never thought I’d see Finn playin’ snow fort with a cop,” he said.

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