Page 88 of Shared By the Mountain Men

“I don’t know. Something you’ve never told anyone else.”

“Hmm.” I could feel him thinking. “I do feed the cats. I like having them around.”

I started laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“I already knew that. I think everyone does. It’s obvious.”

“It is?”

I pushed up on an elbow and looked at him. “You think you’re being sneaky feeding them on the back porch of your office, but it makes a loud noise when the food hits their metal bowls. Every single morning, and every night.”

“I didn’t realize I was so obvious.”

“Yep! Now tell me something I don’t know.”

“I’ve named them,” he said. “The all-black one is Eric. The orange tabby is Kenny. The two black-and-white cats are Kyle and Stan.”

I furrowed my brow. “I know those names. How do I know those names…”

“The characters from South Park,” he explained.

“Ah hah!” I giggled. “That’s cute. And I didn’t know that. But I want you to tell me something deeper. Somethingreal. Help me get to know you. If you do that, I’ll forgive you for shouting at me.”

“You already forgave me,” he pointed out.

“Yeah, but I only half-meant it. You’ll get my complete forgiveness in exchange for something good.”

Jack smirked, then grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me into a rough kiss.

“You want to know about Sam?”

I tensed. “I shouldn’t have thrown that in your face during our fight. If you don’t want to talk about him, you don’t have to.”

Jack chuckled. “It’s fine. I want to tell you. And Sam is ashe. Samantha.”

Ohhh. That made so much more sense. Didn’t I feel like an idiot?

I sat up in bed, pulling a corner of the sheets up to cover myself. Jack pushed up into a sitting position with his back against the headboard, the rest of the bed sheet barely covering his manly bits. He rested an arm behind his head and let out a resigned sigh.

“Samantha was my ex. We dated two years ago. I thought she was the one. I thought so soon after meeting her. Before we even started dating.”

“Oh.”

“It was her idea to start a business together. This place. She had a whole vision for it: a few dozen primitive camp spots, with seven luxury cabins. No RV spots or generators allowed. Our own little peaceful world. She was going to be in charge of all the customer-facing aspects, while I took care of everything behind the scenes, like maintenance. We were a perfect team. We each threw our savings together, bought a few acres here on the river, and dove right in.”

He smiled in memory. “Those days were thrilling. We spent sixteen hours a day here, clearing the land, building the cabins, buying the four-wheelers and kayaks and everything else this place needed. It took months of backbreaking work, but I’ve never felt more fulfilled in my life.

“Finally, it was nearly time to open to the public. We didn’t have a budget for marketing, so she designed fliers and we taped them to every bulletin board and lamp post around town. We posted to activity groups on Facebook. And do you know what happened when we activated the online booking system?”

I gave him a rueful smile. “You had no customers.”

Jack barked a laugh. “The opposite. It filled up within hours. Every luxury cabin, and most of the primitive campsites. The kayak tours and four-wheeler excursions were booked solid, with people on the wait list. We had mentally prepared ourselves to wait months before we had that kind of business, but it happened in the blink of an eye. It was better than we ever could have hoped.”

“So how did it go wrong?”

Jack shrugged. “I’m still not entirely sure. The day we opened, I woke up and Sam was gone. She left a note next to the coffee machine. The note said three things: one, she couldn’t do this. Two, she had slept with someone else. And three, she was sorry.”

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