Page 78 of Eco-Activist's Mountain Men
Eric doesn’t speak at all. He doesn’t need to. He just sits nearby, half in the water, watching with a tender smile thatmakes my chest ache. His eyes say everything—affection, awe, the kind of love that doesn’t demand but simply offers.
I lean back, letting the water cradle me, my body aching in the sweetest way. Moonlight ripples across the surface in silver trails, trees swaying gently overhead like witnesses to something sacred.
Five of us.
One night.
No regrets.
Whatever tomorrow brings… tonight, I belong to all of them.
And somehow, impossibly, they all belong to me.
CHAPTER 23
Jack
The last few days might just have been the best of my life so far.
After the storm, we’ve been getting what the old-timers call an “Indian Summer.” I don’t know where the phrase comes from, but these last couple of weeks as fall rolls in have been beautiful—hot, sunny, and calm, like the storm never even happened.
But the weather’s just icing on the cake. The cake itself… that’s the part that matters.
I’ve never started a family. Never quite met the right woman. Truth is, I hardly ever meet women at all.
I went straight from school into the Army, then into the Rangers. After that, I came right into forestry services. Neither job exactly puts you in contact with nubile blondes in office corridors or buxom brunettes in gyms. Mostly because there aren’t corridors. Or gyms. Or brunettes.
Sure, there are women in the military. A few in the logging industry, too. But they’re few and far between, and most of the time, romance isn’t even on the table. Oh, I get along with them just fine. I’ll do the job with any of them, shoulder to shoulder,and they’ll tell you I’m solid—reliable. But that’s it. Just not an option for more.
So Luna was a bolt from the blue—for all of us, not just me. Eric, Luke, Toby, and I—we’ve all felt it. And from the looks of things, Luna feels the same way about us.
I’ve been trying to figure out what it’s like. Closest thing I came up with is epoxy resin—the kind that comes in two tubes. One’s the resin, the other’s the catalyst. Left alone, the resin stays soft, pliable. But mix in the catalyst, and it hardens to rock in minutes.
That’s what she did to us. Before Luna, we were fine—but not really one thing. Just four guys living side by side. Then she came along, mixed her spark into the batch, and suddenly, we’re not four individuals anymore. We’re one unit. A family.
And the strange thing is—it’s not bitter. It’s not jealous. Sure, there are four of us, but only one of her. You’d think it would breed competition, fighting, and resentment. But it hasn’t. I don’t feel the need to prove myself better than the others. None of us does.
It’s not a zero-sum game. No “winner takes all.” We’ve found a way to make it work for all of us. That’s a damn miracle right there.
We’re like the Three Musketeers—with Luna as D’Artagnan. Except there are four of us. So maybe the Four Musketeers… and D’Artagnan. Or hell, better yet: the eco-activist and the four mountain men. Someone ought to write a book about us.
Five nights ago, we sealed it up at the plunge pool. A night burned into my heart. Since then, camp’s been lighter, happier. We’ve laughed more, worked harder, and produced more than usual. Guess being in good moods makes the labor easier.
And the crazy thing? Luna’s only been here nineteen days. Nineteen days to turn all our lives upside down and inside out. The woman’s a tornado.
The only cloud on the horizon is this Tim Collier character. Luna says he plans to fly in with a crew in three days, cameras rolling, looking to make us look like fools.
Won’t work. Luna’s resigned from Kill Climate Change, even if they don’t know it yet, and she’s not climbing any walkways to unfurl banners. But even if she did, so what? A banner doesn’t make headlines anymore. I don’t get it. Luke doesn’t either—something about it’s bugging him. Something that doesn’t add up. We’ll find out in three days—if Tim even shows. And if he does, we’ll be ready.
“Hey, Jack. Did you know the cell’s back on?” Toby pokes his head through the office door, grinning.
“What?”
“We’ve got a signal again. As of ten minutes ago.”
I hadn’t noticed. It’s been so long without service, I’d gotten used to leaving my phone on the bedside table. Relief washes through me at the thought of being back in touch with the outside world. Still… part of me hopes it won’t ruin this little slice of heaven we’ve carved out here.
I head to my room and grab my phone. Might as well get the laptop too—time to check company emails and call in to Head Office. It’s past due that I report in.
