Page 29 of Mystery in the Mountains

“You came back to save the house?”

“I came back to save the house and be with you. Like I said, it was always my intention to come back . . . I never should’ve left like that, and I never should’ve stayed gone that long. The longer I stayed away, the more shame I felt for being a coward. It made it harder to come back.”

He closed his eyes as his shoulders fell.

She needed to have this conversation when she wasn’t distracted by her desire to walk right over there and kiss him.

“Here,” she said as she turned to make her way into the living room. She found a quilt to wrap around himself.

As she turned, her hand slipped a bit down the wall, and she almost fell. Her sprained ankle had been a distant memory in this situation. That was until she tried to put weight on it and the screaming pain brought it back to the forefront again.

Before she knew what was happening, Asher was at her side, holding her steady.

“Whoa, just as clumsy as the day you left,” he said as he helped brought her into the living room to set her on the couch.

She handed him the quilt, biting her lip. “Here, put this around you . . . It’s a little distracting.”

He wrapped it around his waist and sat next to her.

“I’m really mad at you,” he said, cutting her with a dark gaze.

“I know.” She nodded. “You have every right to be.”

They sat there in silence, looking at each other.

Finally, she broke the silence. “Can you forgive me?”

He bit his bottom lip and nodded before dropping his head in his hands. She ached to reach out and rub his back offering him the comfort he seemed to need, but she wasn’t sure if that was her job yet.

As he blew out a breath, the smell of whiskey filled their space.

“Are you drunk?”

He turned to her and nodded. “Yeah, I was down at the Corner Tap. I know it’s not a way to solve a problem, but it usually helps me forget for a little bit, but even that didn’t help. I figured I can be miserable without you or miserable with you . . . and fuck . . .” He looked up at her, and the heat and pain in his gaze almost took her breath away. “I really fucking missed you, Sunny.”

“I missed you, too,” she said as he brushed away a rogue tear running down her face.

“Please don’t cry . . .” Asher said.

The weight of his gaze made her feel. That’s it. It made her feel all the emotions swirling around inside of her—and not all of them were good.

“I’m so sorry. You deserve more.”

Asher let out a sigh before leaning back on the couch and running his hand through his hair. “What are we going to do?”

“We could just start with getting to know each other again. Four years is a long time to be gone, and I know we’ve each changed a lot. And maybe doing that I can prove to you that I’m here and that I’m not going anywhere.”

The moment hung between them as Asher took her in. Sunny tried to tamp down the desperation she felt to make him understand something she barely understood herself. All she knew was she wanted to crawl up in his lap and feel his arms around her. She wanted to get lost in the woods with him like they used to, wanted the closeness they had their whole life, until everything went to shit.

“I think that’s good. I missed you so fucking much. It was like I had this void inside of me.”

He sat up straighter and looked at her, his dark-brown eyes pinning her in place. There was no air in the room, and she was pretty sure her heart had stopped.

“You can never leave me like that again . . . I can’t do that again.”

As if of its own volition, her hand reached out and took his. She was not prepared for the wave of sensation that would flood her when she did. It was a rush of air like a warm summer breeze and refreshing as the cool stream they’d splashed in as children, as simple as their life had been before she’d gone and made it much more complicated.

“I promise. I’m here for good. I’m not going to leave again.”

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