Page 132 of Ten Mountain Men

“Luke,” I call out, stepping between them and placing a hand on his shoulder. “Come on. Let’s head back to the cabin and talk this out.”

I rub my hands over my face, smoothing out the scruff of my beard as I glance at Ash, who has joined us.

“Stay here with Goldie, Ash,” I say, my voice low but firm. “I’ll handle Luke.”

“You’llhandleme?” While Goldie is a spitfire, Luke looks like he’s literally about to spit fire. “I don’t need handling, Ranger. You know who needs handling?

He jabs a finger at Goldie. “That one!”

Ash opens his mouth and I know him well enough to know he’s about to ask for a play-by-play as to what’s going on, get both sides, and dissect the hell out of it. But he also knows how Luke can get when he’s all wound up, and with Goldie’s hackles raised too, we need to divide and conquer. There is a fuckton at stake here now.

“Stay here with Goldie,” I tell Ash again, and he nods.

“But—” Goldie begins.

Luke’s gray eyes flash, but I know him well enough to know he’s more bark than bite. He’s mad, sure, but he’s not unreachable. Luke’s always been the toughest nut to crack, but once he cools down, he listens. Always has, always will.

“This ain’t the place for it,” I continue, my voice calm but resolute. “Come on, Luke—you and me’ll figure all this out on the way back at the cabin. Ash and Goldie can catch up in a bit.”

Luke’s jaw tightens, his nostrils flaring. “You two better be ready for one hell of a family meeting,” he grits out, glaring past me at Ash and Goldie.

Goldie’s about to say something—I can see it in the way her mouth opens, that fire ready to burst out again—but I shoot her a look, a silent plea to trust me. She clamps her lips shut, her hands balling into fists at her sides.

“Let’s go,” I say to Luke, nudging his shoulder.

“Fine,” Luke growls, turning on his heel and heading toward the cabin. “But they better be ready for what’s coming.”

I glance over my shoulder at Ash, who I know will get to the bottom of what went down, from Goldie’s point of view. Once I find out Luke’s side of the story, we can piece this all together, sort it all out. We have to. I catch Goldie’s eye, giving her a quick, reassuring nod, before jogging to catch up with Luke.

His long strides eat up the distance, but I keep pace, matching his every step. We walk in silence for a bit, the crunch of early fallen leaves and dirt underfoot the only sound between us.

Finally, after what feels like forever, I break the quiet. “Tell me what happened, Luke. I want to hear your side of it. I thought you and Goldie were getting along okay? Giving companionship a chance?”

He stops dead in his tracks and turns to face me, his expression hard, but there’s something else there too—hurt, maybe. Luke isn’t one to show his emotions easily, but I’ve known him long enough to know when he’s feeling more than just anger.

“You brought her to the Secret Garden,” he spits, the words coming out like a curse. “That place is sacred, Ranger. It’s where Pa built something special for Ma. It ain’t a place for…for whatever y’all were doing.”

I nod, letting him get it out. “I get it. I do. But most everything on this mountain is something Pa built special for Ma, Luke. And I think more’s bothering you than that. Am I right?”

He sighs, running a hand through his wild hair, making it stick out in all directions. He’d feel so much better if he’d let Goldie work her makeover magic on him, but I don’t dare bring that up now.

“She was taking pictures. Of everything. The sculptures, the garden…she was snapping photos like she was some damn tourist, not someone who should know better. We’ve been over this with her, how much our privacy means to us.”

That makes my heart sink a little. He’s not wrong about that. But Goldie must’ve had her reasons. “Did she say why she was takin’ pictures? I’m sure she had a reason. I know we can trust her.”

“Well, I don’t guess she wanted some mementos to remember us by after she goes, since she now seems to think she’s not going anywhere.” Luke’s lips press into a thin line. I wonder just how much she told him. Did she tell him we’re all in love? I sure wish she would’ve let one of us break it to him. I’m not sure he’ll take that news well coming from anybody, but he definitely would take it better coming from me or Ash than her.

“Let’s tackle one topic at a time, okay, bro?” I suggest. “So she didn’t say why she was taking the pictures then?”

He shakes his head. “Nah, she said. She said she was impressed. Thought the sculptures were ‘amazing.’ Then she started talkin’ crazy about selling them on the internet, shipping them all over, making a business out of it. Then she started yammering about how we need a new roof and could afford a better place, how we could make all this money, like we need it. Can you believe that? What a busybody.”

“She didn’t mean harm, Luke. She probably thought she was helping. We do need a new roof.”

Luke barks out a humorless laugh. “What we need is her to stop meddling in our affairs.”

I hold up my hands, trying to keep things from escalating. “If that’s what you want, I’ll tell her to drop it and not bring it up again.”

The problem is, this particular issue isn’t just about her, and she’s not the first one to have the idea. Some of us, myself included, have been itching to expand selling our work beyond Ma’s quaint little gift shop. We’ve got dreams, dammit—dreams that involve more than peddling a statue here and there to scrape by.

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