Page 106 of Five Mountain Daddies

“Hold on,” she says. “Waitup.”

I stop walking and let her catch me. “What?” I ask. “You here to tell me I shouldn’t have donethat?”

She shakes her head. “No, I’m here to apologize for my idiot husband. He’s just angry, like they allare.”

I sigh. “I know that, Sarah. This strike’s not easy.” I hesitate a second. “How’s Boonedoing?”

“You know him,” she says, laughing. “He’ll be okay after some time off.” She eyes me for a second and sighs. “I believe you, okay, Samuel? And I know most of the guys do, too. Anybody that would ask after Boone after what happened in there is a decent man. Keep your head,okay?”

“Yeah,” I say. “Okay.”

She walks off and heads back inside. I go to my truck and slowly drive back home, but some of the anger’s slowly leaking out of me. I want to hate those bastards, but I can’t help but understand where they’re comingfrom.

My secret’s out now, at least. I don’t have to worry about them finding out that I’ve been fucking the enemy, since now they all know. If they want to replace me then fine, they’ll replace me. I’ll survive. I’ll keep fighting for them, however Ican.

But if they don’t, I’m going to step up. I’m going to get everyone out of this mess, myself and Amelia included. As angry as I am at those guys back there, I still want Amelia, and I know I’m not going to back down anytimesoon.

21

Amelia

Iheard about the strike.” Callie smiles at me over her coffee. “Bad luck,huh?”

I nod and sigh. “Really badluck.”

“Everyone in town’s talking about it.” She leans closer. “Is it true that Samuel Carter nearly shot a guy outside youroffice?”

“Definitely not,” I say. “That was amisunderstanding.”

She must see something in my face, so she leans back and nods, her conspiratorial look vacating her face. I feel a little guilty, giving her my official response, but I can’t have her going around gossiping allover.

I like Callie a lot. Honestly, I needed to feel freaking normal for a little while. The last week’s been terrible. We’ve been negotiating every day, but Ingram doesn’t seem interested in getting anything done, and Samuel won’t sign off on that old contract anymore. He’s pushing for more and more concessions as the strike keeps going on and on, and Ingram just seems happier and happier with thesituation.

I’m the only one that’s freaking out. I know my job’s on the line here. The board’s going to pull me, especially now after I told them that we had a contract ready already. I’ve been ignoring Neal’s calls, mostly because I can’t bear telling him that Samuel won’t sign off anymore, and we’re back to squareone.

I don’t know why he’s been acting like this, but I can probably guess. It has a lot to do with that Callie saysnext.

“Everyone in town likes Samuel a lot, you know. I can’t blame you for liking himtoo.”

I almost groan. I’ve been getting looks at the office, and Ingram keeps making little comments. I figured the whole town knows by now, and that basically just confirms it. “Where’d you hear that?” I askher.

She shrugs, looking coy. “Word gets around. Apparently there was talk about it at the last big unionmeeting.”

“You sure know a lot about the miners,” I saysuspiciously.

“I started dating one recently,” she admits. “You know a guy named MikeYoung?”

“The name sounds familiar,” Iadmit.

“Well, he told me about it. Samuel admitted it in the middle of the whole bar, after his friend Vernon stabbed him in the back and called him out for it. Apparently it was a hugething.”

I bite my lip as she goes on, describing the scene. It’s probably an exaggerated story, but even if half of it’s true, that moment probably tore Samuel inhalf.

The idea that the miners wouldn’t trust him… I can’t even imagine. But now I understand why he’s been distant and strange toward me this last week. He’s trying to earn their trust and doesn’t want them thinking that he’s on my side or something like that. It’s absurd, almost silly, but I can understandit.

Even if it hurts. I miss him every day. I want what we had that night when we hid away from the world in his house. I want his smile, his lips, his hands on my back. And I want to tell him thetruth.

But every time I feel like we’re taking one step closer, we have to move two steps back. And I know telling him about this baby will only make it worse. And so I keep holding it back, which is only making it worse, and so on and so on, driving meinsane.

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