“You don’t have to explain.” Suzie put her hand on my shoulder. “Not to him. Not to us. If you wanted to leave, then you had that right. You owed him nothing.”
Gretchen nodded. I agreed wholeheartedly with the sentiment. But it wasn’t like that. I felt too much too soon. Life wasn’t a freaking fairy tale. And nobody would ever cast me as the leading lady. Twenty-four hours had gone by since I’d left him and I still hadn’t stopped thinking about the way he kissed me. He shouldn’t be allowed to kiss like that. It messed with my brain. I shook my head and picked up the next axe.
“I met a guy in a bar before. All these years later and I’m still recovering,” I said.
I had intended it as a joke but a shadow passed over Gretchen’s face. We had all dated Jethro Winston at some point, some of us longer than others, that’s what formed the Scorned Women’s Society. It was never a point of contention between us, more a sisterhood in bad choices. But Gretchen knew more about my life with the Iron Wraiths and we never talked about it.
I quickly added, “I just didn’t want to make something more of one summer night. It happened so fast and it’s over now.”
And there was the truth of it. Even if I had met an incredible man, the timing wasn’t right. Neither was the distance. He didn’t see me as I really was.
Or did he see the most real version of myself?
I squashed that voice right back down.
Gretchen looked at me closely. I felt her brain spinning, could see her making plans and I didn’t like it. “Is there any way you could track him down?” she asked.
I knew Gretch better than I knew myself. She would push for whatever she thought was best for people. Her heart was in the right place but sometimes it bulldozed over everything else.
“I don’t want to look him up,” I said.
“You work so hard at the Lodge. You deserve to have a little fun too,” Gretchen said.
I’d been digging my nail into the woodgrain of the table, studying the different names people had carved. When I glanced up again, Gretchen’s eyes were glued to my face like she was trying to peer into my soul.
I knew that look. That was the look. “Gretchen, don’t. It just wasn’t meant to be.”
“I didn’t say anything.” She held her hands up innocently.
“You’re scheming,” I said. Turning to Suzie, I added, “Note this look, Suze. This is when she’s about to meddle.”
“I’ve seen it before.” Suzie laughed, then added, “I think growing up together gave you two mind reading powers. How long have y’all known each other?”
“Inseparable since the third grade,” I said hoping the conversation change would derail Gretchen from her train of thought. “She socked Ben McClure in the arm when he called me a giraffe on the playground. She got held after school for it.”
“She picked me flowers and waited to walk me home so I wasn’t alone,” Gretchen finished.
Gretchen smiled at me and the anxiety I’d felt about leaving Sanders eased a bit.
“Y’all make me jealous. I never had a friendship like that,” Suzie said.
“You do now,” Gretchen said and slung an arm over Suzie’s shoulder.
“No ex left behind.” Suzie held up her beer.
“No ex left behind,” Gretch and I repeated and tapped our plastic cups.
This was what mattered. The thought solidified all the unsteadiness I’d been feeling. Like riding a mechanical bull and trying to walk afterwards, I’d been wobbling since I got home from Denver. Sanders had been a lovely distraction, but being back here with my girls, remembering all the good in my life, focused me on what I wanted now. I had the stability of a good job and good friends. That was enough. Next week I’d demand the promotion that I deserved and prove to this town that I had been worth saving.
“Enough about me,” I said, more than ready to be done talking about myself. “What the heck is going on with Kim?”
Chapter 6
Sanders
I stood outside the arrivals area of the Knoxville airport, the swampy Tennessee humidity a far cry from Denver’s clear, mountain air. I held the phone close to my ear and braced myself for Skip’s backlash.
“Tennessee, I am in you,” I announced into the phone.
“Tell me why you felt the need to fly out there?” he asked in his usual quiet tone.
If I was the bright and shiny packaging of Outside the Box with my award-winning charm, then Skip was the internal machinery that made it run. I typically attracted clientele and Skip made them stay. When we first started our corporate adventure company together, the idea was new and it took our power duo to get to where we were. Now companies all over the world sent their employees into nature in hopes of innovation and team building. And I had come close to ruining it all. I was going to fix it all.
“I’m getting us more business. You said this Donner Lodge was looking into OTB. Green Valley is an up-and-comer. It was named one of the top-growing small-town communities in Small Town USA magazine.”
Skip made a soft sound almost like a sigh. “And this has nothing to do with your sudden interest in Roxy Kincaid?”
“If this meeting goes well, we could get some more clientele,” I sidestepped.
“I was going to go myself,” he said. Even through the phone I could picture his hairy face twisted with concern. That was his role though. He was the thoughtful, tentative one, I was the impulsive, fun one.
“Now you don’t have to. I know you don’t love the face-to-face stuff. I’m going to fix everything, Skippo. Don’t you worry. I know I made a bit of a mess of things but I have a plan. Donner Lodge is looking to draw business. We are looking to get business. I have an idea that’s
