Page 33 of Into the Mountains
Charlotte gives me a sad smile I’ve seen way too many times over the years. She places a hand on my bicep and squeezes offering a comfort I don’t deserve, as she passes by and heads toward the stairs. With a sheepish smile, I shy past her into Ethan’s room. Small snores are already echoing through the space. We’ve had two weeks to unpack and while his bed and bookshelf are already up and together, the rest of his stuff is mostly still in boxes, making the sound a bit louder.
I give him a quick kiss on the brow, careful not to make him stir and give Sable a few pets before leaving the room. Once I go downstairs, I expect to be greeted with an empty couch where I can continue my binge watch. Instead I am met with a red head sitting cross legged on my couch, covered up with one of the blankets from the blanket ladder Avery bought me last Christmas. Time must mean nothing to her, because I don’t think I was gone for more than a minute or two, but she has a bowl of popcorn sitting on the coffee table with two cups of tea ready to go, steam curling in the air above them.
“You’re still here?”
“I am,” is all she says.
“Why?”
“Because I haven’t seen this episode yet. I started it over.” She gestures to the spot next to her and when I take it, the bowl of popcorn is offered to me a few inches away. The cup of tea follows shortly after and I’m not sure what to say. The crushing loneliness eases a bit as she snuggles deeper into the couch indicating she has no plans to leave soon. So I don’t say anything and neither does she. For once, for the first time since she re-entered my life, we don’t spar back and forth, we don’t try to one up each other, we just sit in companionable silence and berate Anthony and Kate for being so oblivious to one another.
That wastwo nights ago and we still haven’t spoken since and I think that’s part of the reason Sky and Jacob have called this impromptu “staff” meeting. They want the kind of updates we don’t really have.
Sable’s chewing noises distract me from overthinking too much and I hear Ethan trying to encourage her that her harness is not for chewing. He insisted on bringing her so she could see all her friends at the shelter, thinking she probably missed them. Surprisingly, she didn’t fight the piece of fabric when we put it on her. It wasn’t until we got here that she decided she didn’t like it all that much.
“She’ll get used to it the more you use it with her,” Jacob says as he comes through the back door. “Feel free to take her back there whenever. One of the kittens from her litter recently got adopted, but there’s still a few back there I’m sure she’d be more than happy to see.”
“Can I go back, Dad?”
“Sure, E. Just make sure to not come out with another one, okay?”
“No promises,” he calls over his shoulder as he walks into the back room. I’m quickly becoming a cat guy and I’m not sure howI feel about it. Although, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I have fallen completely in love with the little black feline over the last few weeks.
“Alright, let’s make this quick. I have to meet with Cordie about the rooms in the inn and then with Fran about possibly freshening up the look of the book shop side ofBooks & Beans.”
Charlotte walks into the clinic in nothing other than what I can describe as a whirlwind. Phone in hand, she balances a large iced coffee in the other as her laptop bag swings on her shoulder. She’s wearing a brown pencil skirt today with an olive green knit sweater, her hair pulled into a side ponytail. And suddenly I am thrust back to our first date. The way the tendrils of hair from her low pony, fell to the front of her olive green shirt. Her heels clack on the tile floor as she makes her way to the check in desk, coming to a stop a few inches away from me. The closest we’ve been to each other since the other night.
I turn myself toward the counter to focus on my own coffee and pastry I picked up on the way. Definitely not to hide the bulge in my pants.
Charlotte notices, because of course she does. “Problem, Hayes?”
It’s been a long time since anyone has addressed me by my former last name. Ash and Alan usually stuck with Hayes or Eli, but I haven’t seen them in person since mine and Sarah’s wedding. And ever since then, it’s Elias or Waters, because I made the decision when I got married to take Sarah’s last name. The Waters treated me more like family than my parents ever had, or anyone else for that matter. And it was time to leave that part of me behind, especially when I decided to go no-contact with my parents after I graduated high school.
“It’s Waters, actually.”
“Right, sorry.” Part of me feels bad for correcting her, but Hayes is someone I haven’t been in a really long time. And it’sa part of myself I never regretted leaving in my past. She turns away and pulls out all the equipment she needs to turn on the fossil she calls a computer. I swear, if she spends the money she gets from the work on this project on anything else, I might actually buy her one myself.
“No, no, no, no, I’m determined this time. I’m going to find it and I’m going to win.”
“It’s fun when you’re delusional, sweetie.”
I turn around and see Hudson and Avery walk in, hand in hand, bright, genuine smiles on their faces. When they first got together, part of me was jealous, seeing them paired up when I was still alone. But I was and still am grieving in my own way and I don’t think I’ve been ready to really move on. And then Skylar and Jacob finally got together after years of everyone seeing clearly the feelings they had for each other. They were just too stubborn to see it for themselves. That pang of jealousy recentered in me and I felt lonelier than ever. I have my son, but that constant companionship and love is something that my heart and body long for. Sarah made sure to tell me more than once to move on after she died. Move on, be happy, all the things I never wanted to hear at the time and certainly never wanted to do. I promised her I would anyway.
“What are you two doing here?” Charlotte and I ask at the same time. The noise from her cooling fan fills the space, making it so they have to speak up.
“Sky said she needed help with something. Some camping thing.”
I glance sideways at her only to find her already glancing over at me, both of us suspicious. Because suddenly, it seems like we might be getting teamed up on.
Sky makes her entrance right on time with a clipboard in hand, checking off what I’m assuming is some sort of list of our failures. She looks up from it and surveys the room. “Oh good,everyone is here.” She gravitates to Jacob’s side and his arms reach around her waist like if he didn’t do it, his body would implode.
“Why do you need Hudson’s help with a camping thing?” I ask. “You’ve been camping before and you literally own a store that sells camping gear.”
She nods. “True, but his truck is bigger than mine—”
“And cleaner,” Hudson boasts.
“Cleaner only because you’re a neat freak. Mine is clean to my standards, not yours,” she argues. “Anyway, I have everything packed in the back room, I just need to load it up.”
