Page 22 of Where You Left Me

Hell no.

Cammie

Come hiking with us, big bro. Rosie and Nico are coming too.

You shouldn’t be alone.

Me

Maybe I won’t be alone.

Cammie

Eww gross. Not something your sister wants to hear.

Me

Then maybe you shouldn’t assume things.

It doessomething short of killing me to learn it’s still too painful for Mia to look at me. It’s no wonder she left. How would I have expected her to stay with me, or even here in Maple Ridge?

Our lives were so intertwined. Even now, she’s only been back a few days and she’s already hanging out with Rosie and my sister. She can’t even get a drink in a bar without bumping into me because I own the only bar in town.

Unless you count the sorry excuse for a bar inside the hotel. They don’t open until noon, and they close by ten p.m. If it wasn’t for The Pines, God forbid someone finds themselves in need of a drink after ten p.m. because you’d be shit out of luck.

This is why I shouldn’t be surprised when I find her sitting at the peek of her favorite hiking trail with a bar in her hand. Her dark hair is swept back, the wind doing some of the work, and her skin glistens with sweat on her bare legs. She’s still as breathtaking as I remember. Especially seeing her here in her element, in her favorite place.

If I had a quarter for every time we fucked here?—

A branch cracks underneath my footing and she whips her head around, two eyes as round as dinner plates. Big, green, and captivating.

“Shit, Jones, you scared me.”

She groans and turns back around to face the valley below and the mountains spanning the horizon. I often forget how beautiful this view is. I don’t make this hike much anymore. Only on the days when the agony over missing her becomes too much to bear.

“I see great minds think alike,” I grumble.

When she glances over her shoulder, I hold up the beer and her eyes flick to the one sitting next to her.

“Oh. Yeah. I guess so.”

“What are you doing up here?” I don’t mean for it to come out sounding accusatory, but it does.

“I should ask you the same question. This ismyhike.”

“Sorry, beauty, but you don’t get to come back after eight years and start staking your claim again. You gave up those rights when you ran out on us.”

I’m being a prick. But I don’t much care. Right now, it feels justified. Even if I’ll regret it later. I’m never a dick when it comes to her. But shit, I don’t know how to be anything but right now. Not after she left me. Not after she told me she couldn’t stand to look at me. If you ask me, she’s the one being a dick.

“Fine, Jones,” She stands abruptly.

I hate the way she says my name, almost with a hiss at the end but also cutting it short, like she can’t be bothered with the energy it takes to even say my name.

“You want something else of mine? My favorite spot in Maple Ridge? Fine. Take it.” She stomps away.

“Did it ever occur to you that this ismyfavorite spot?” I holler after her.

She stops walking, shooting a glare over her shoulder at me.

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