Page 36 of Mountain Man's Valentine
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Valoria
Cole told me everything. He told me about how the app wasn’t completed while he was in grad school, that he wanted to finish it, but he went to work for an investment firm instead. How Cassie teased him, calling him a sellout for going into finance instead of science.
And how he quit finance after a year, and started working on the app again. And how he got some of the investors he’d worked with for a few years interested in the idea.
And how he raised funding. And how he was the new rising star of tech. He got his company off the ground.
And then there was the accident.
Cassie was driving home from his house after a party to celebrate his first round of funding. He was going to be a star. He was going to share everything with her. He was going to buy her a house next door to his.
And how she skidded on some black ice, and lost control of her car. And how it was snowing.
How he told her to sleep over that night. He told her he’d take the couch and she could take his bed.
And how she insisted that she go home, that it wasn’t far, that she would be fine.
Shewasn’tfine. And she lost blood.
He told me how she lost a lot of blood.
And how, if he had just pushed himself harder and tried harder and grinded just a little bit harder, if the launch of his app had been just six month earlier, maybe he could have saved her.
Maybe he could have personally dispatched the supplies and blood she needed with the EMTs who showed up on that winding, rocky, steep road that she skidded on.
Maybe, maybe...maybe.
And then I told him about my mom, and he understood.
I told him why I was alone today, and push people away too.
It was like healreadyunderstood.
I told him how maybe things could have been different.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
“Our parents told us to look out for each other always,” he says, pushing my hair away from my face with his wet fingertips. “And I didn’t do that.”
“Cole,” I say, aching inside, “you have to forgive yourself. What you’ve been able to build, what you’ve been able to create is one in a million. You’ve done so much. Horrible, awful tragedies happen, and sometimes you just can’t stop them from happening. You can’t go back in time, you can’t predict the future.”
“I know,” he says, closing his eyes, rubbing his forehead with tented fingers. “I know. But the feelings of guilt, I just let them overcome me for so long. I didn’t want to get too close to anyone again.”
And he looks up at me. The warmth around us swirls, and he leans forward and kisses me, taking my face in his hands. And I feel the warmth behind my eyes begin again, and the tears begin to fall.
“Val,” he says, “don’t cry. Don’t youevercry.”
“I’m justreallysorry for what you’ve been through.”
“But Val, don’t you see?”
He pulls me close to him, sliding me between his legs, and wraps me up in his strong arms.
“Val, you’ve saved me. You’ve made mefeelagain. Idon’twant to hide away anymore. Not since you.”
“Cole,” I whimper, shutting my eyes tight. “Cole, I don’t know what to say.”
“Just say you’ll be mine forever, Val. Be mine.”
And he embraces me again, and kisses me, and finally, again, I can breathe.
