Page 106 of Shared By the Mountain Men

I shrugged. “Yeah. Maybe I’ll think about it.”

Ash cranked up the radio, and we drove the rest of the way without talking. It felt like everything we needed to sayhadbeen said.

The trip went by quicker than I expected, and in the blink of an eye we were pulling into the trailhead parking lot just outside of Ouray. The same place where Jack and Ash had taken me away over a week ago. It was familiar and foreign all at once.

Had it really only been a week?

All four of us got out of the Jeep. Noah carried my pack for me as we walked from the parking lot over to the campsite office.

“Were you really going to leave without saying goodbye?” Noah asked. Despite what he had said earlier, despite his effort to conceal it, now he sounded hurt.

My heart lurched in my chest as I turned to face him. “It wasn’t the plan. I just… freaked out. I was going to text!” I winced. “Okay, yeah. That sounds shitty. I’m really sorry.”

He shrugged, and gave me that easy smile I had come to cherish. “The past week has been special. And if this is the last time we ever see each other, I’ll remember it fondly.” He held up a finger. “But, if you want to come back to celebrate after you kick this trail’s ass, then we’d love to have you.”

“We all would,” Jack said.

Ash grunted in agreement.

The four of us stood around, extending that awkward moment. I never knew what to do in these situations. I opened my mouth to say that dreadful, soul-wrenching word:goodbye.

“Oh!” Noah said before I could. “I almost forgot. I have something for you.” He darted back to the Jeep, opened the back, and came out with a small plastic bag. “These are my favorite freeze-dried meals. Just add boiling water.”

I took the bag and smirked. “You came speeding after my taxi like the world was ending, but you had time to grab agift?”

“I made Jackie go back to pick it up. He was not happy about it.”

“He was not,” Jack muttered.

“They’re much tastier than the MREs I had to eat in Afghanistan. And this way, you won’t have to buy as much food along the way. Hooray self-sufficiency.”

I dropped the bag and threw myself into his arms. “Thank you. I’ll think of you at every meal.”

I felt Noah smirk. “That was the idea.”

While hugging him, I noticed Ash tinkering with my backpack on the ground. He had removed my sleeping pad and was clipping a new one to the outside of the pack.

“It’s the sleeping pad from my tent,” he explained. “Better than the bullshit you were using. No wonder you twisted your ankle. You probably weren’t sleeping at all.”

I gawked at the tightly-rolled fabric pad. “But you said it was expensive!”

He rose and shrugged. “Maybe you’ll think of me when you fall asleep every night.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Give me a break.”

“Sneaky,” I told Ash. “But what are you going to sleep on tonight?”

Noah chuckled. “He finally agreed to sleep in my guest room.”

“Just until I get another tent pad,” Ash said a little too quickly. “No more than a few days. A week at most.”

“Of course,” Noah said, giving me a secret little wink.

I hugged him, then turned to Jack. “You don’t need to give me anything. I already owe you so much.”

“Good,” he grumbled, “because I don’t have a thousand dollar sleeping pad to give you.” He revealed a small hatchet he’d been holding by his side. “This is all I have.”

“The hatchet! When did you go back and get it from the mountain?”

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