Page 239 of Mountain Boss

But the tears rolling down her cheeks are filling my lungs. And I can’t find the words.

I’ll tell her later.

Explain later.

Tonight, we’ll just be a family.

Chapter 186

Courtney

I look downat my ringing phone.

It rings a second time.

A third.

And on the fourth, I blow out a breath before answering it. “Hi, Mom.”

“Merry Christmas, Courtney.” Her voice is cheery. Happy and bright and not a trace of discomfort, despite the fact that we haven’t spoken on the phone in months. “How’s the holiday weather in Colorado?”

So she remembers the text I sent her months ago about moving. I wasn’t sure since the only response she gave was just a thumbs-up.

“It’s actually really nice,” I tell her truthfully as Ben runs up onto the back deck and drops his stick at my feet.

I pick it up, lean back, then toss it as far as I can.

It’s above freezing today, but there’s still a fair amount of snow on the ground.

Sterling and the guys shoveled all the pathways between buildings. And then Sterling shoveled paths through the backyard for Ben to run through. So even though I’m still getting used to this winter weather, it hasn’t been hard to get around.

And it doesn’t bother Ben in the least. Which he proves by leaping off the edge of the low deck, straight into a pile of snow.

“Courtney?”

I catch myself grinning at the goofy dog. “Sorry, I was distracted by, um, my boss’s dog.”

If I told her it wasmydog, she’d ask too many questions.

So, I’ll pretend Ben belongs to Sterling.

Even though he feels like he belongs to both of us.

I’ll also pretend I’m still living in the Laundry Cabin.

Telling Mom I moved in with my boss would most definitely spark a lecture.

And fair points or not, I don’t want to hear it.

I don’t want to hear how it’s a bad idea to move in with a man, who is your boss, who lives on your jobsite, without having a real discussion about it.

I don’t want to hear how it’s a bad idea to spend two months living comfortably together, sleeping together, cooking dinner together, without discussing what happens in one week, when January starts.

And I don’t want to explain that I’m wildly in love with him.

That I fall more in love with him every time he walks through the front door.

Every time he inhales me like he needs the scent of me filling his lungs.

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