Page 64 of Shared By the Mountain Men

But I couldn’t stop thinking about the way he looked, and how intense our kiss was. It had been so brief, a fire extinguished before it could really begin to burn.

That burning was inside of me now, a jumble of confused emotions.

Until, eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Ash and I kissed today,” I blurted out.

Ash sat upright and stared daggers at me. Noah blinked in surprise. I could see the information taking hold, his mind processing it and deciding what to do. I began to panic, imagining him kicking me out and refusing to see me again.

“Actually, I kissed him,” I quickly clarified. “It happened at the top of the via ferrata route. I’m the one who initiated it. Ash didn’t do anything wrong—he actually stopped the kiss and immediately brought me home.”

Noah’s expression was completely blank. Infuriatingly unreadable. The fire crackled as each second went by, an eternity while I waited for his reaction.

He responded with the last thing I expected. He started laughing softly.

“What… what’s so funny?” I stammered.

“I know you two kissed,” he replied. “Ash texted me the moment he got home this afternoon.”

It was my turn to stare blankly, processing what he had said. Then I whipped my gaze toward Ash. “You told him?”

“‘Course I did,” he said simply.

I turned back to Noah. “You’re not… upset?”

He and Ash shared a look, then started laughing again.

“Maybe it’s the beer,” I said, “but I’m extremely confused right now.”

“I’m not upset. That’s actually why I wanted to sit by the fire—so we could get it all out in the open. No awkwardness, no guilt.”

None of this felt real. Their reactions were completely illogical. I’d run through a dozen scenarios in my head involving Noah finding out about the kiss, and none of them were likethis.

“I really expected this conversation to go differently.”

“We both know this is just a fling,” Noah said softly. “As soon as your ankle is healed, you’re leaving. You’re amazing, Melissa, and I’m having an incredible time with you… but we’re not in a relationship.”

Did he sound sad? Maybe it was my imagination, or I was projecting my own emotions onto him, because hearing him say it out loud mademesad.

“Besides,” Noah added, “Ash and I are already eskimo brothers.”

I frowned. “Eskimo brothers? What does that mean?”

“Two Eskimos who go fishing together,” Noah said with a coy little smile. “Ice fishing.”

“I feel really stupid, because none of what you’re saying makes sense right now. You two go fishing together?”

“It’s a metaphor.”

“Think about it,” Ash said.

I opened my mouth, then closed it. I pictured two Eskimos fishing together, each of them dropping their lines into a hole in the ice…

The same hole. Sharing.

I felt my cheeks blush.

Ash let out a deep chuckle. “She gets it.”

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