Page 302 of Mountain Grump

---

It can’t…

I lift my gaze.

To the sign that arches over the path.

Uncle Jack’s Wilderness Camp.

I read it twice.

It can’t be.

I push the sunglasses up into my hair. And I read it again.

But it is.

And that string, the one that I thought was gone, it reforms.

It’s brighter than before.

Stronger than before.

And as I look up at the sign, as I think about the flowers, it doesn’t just wrap itself around the broken pieces of my heart. It sews them together.

Someone moves before me.

And I hold my breath as my eyes meet his.

One green iris. One brown.

Looking back at me.

Standing beneath the sign for Uncle Jack’s Wilderness Camp.

“How?” I whisper.

Ethan steps closer. “Because it was never about the money.”

I blink, and a tear slips down my cheek.

Because I believe him.

I believe him about everything.

Ethan holds his hand out between us. “Let me show you.”

I don’t hesitate. I put my palm in his.

Ethan wraps his fingers around mine.

He squeezes them.

I squeeze his back.

Then, I walk at Ethan’s side.

Down the path. Staying straight when it branches off in both directions.

We keep walking, side by side, through more flowers. Under an archway of trees. Past benches and structures with plaques on the walls.

---