Page 108 of The One With the Mountain Man

"I'm offering. Go find trouble."

Colin hopped in his truck and drove off as fast as the bumpy road would allow.

Leaving me alone with a man hacking at a thirty-foot tree like Gus hacked at his bananas every morning. Was there a good way to stop a man mid-tirade with a chainsaw?

I spied the garden hose and had an idea. Water, for whatever reason, usually snapped people out of extreme moods, whether it was fear, anxiety, crying, or pain. So I turned it on full blast and shot an arc of water over him like a rainbow.

He stopped long enough to glance at the sky and scowl. Then he went right back to destroying the tree.

So I turned the hose on him and soaked his shirt.

"Asshole! What the hell?"

As soon as he set the chainsaw down, I opened it up, dousing him face to feet.

I was on the ground four seconds later. "You're a dick!"

I twisted around and got him in a chokehold. "You're going to lose a leg."

He flipped me on my back. "I'm fucking soaked."

"That's what she said." I rolled us.

He broke away laughing and panting for air. "You're still a jackass."

"And you're welcome for saving your leg." I dusted myself off.

"I wasn't that bad."

"You scared Colin off." I waved at the missing person and the truck that was long gone. "And you see how much of that tree is gone? That's all you. We haven't lifted a finger."

He looked back and forth, then hung his head. "Shit. Okay."

"You're not doing good." I really thought he was going to let this thing with Joanne go for a little while. It wasn't like she was dating Noah. Just talking.

"No. I'm not." He pulled up his shirt and wiped his face, surveying his clothes. "I might be a little bit triggered."

"Triggered by what, exactly?" Even when I was gone for months we still talked almost every day. We told each other everything. But on this, I was lost.

"Everything. Nothing." He cracked his neck. "I actually dated someone for a hot minute. Like a real, actual girlfriend. Not even a blowup doll."

"And why am I just hearing about this?"

He cocked an eyebrow. "If I hadn't walked in on your Marley love-at-first-sight glow, would you have told me about her?"

"Good point." If things had gone differently I would have hidden us away.

"It only lasted a fucking month. I would have told you if it went on much longer. I liked her. I liked...having someone I looked forward to seeing." He shrugged.

He was trying to brush it off when in reality it was a big damn deal. Travis was the ladies’ man. He gave the tourists a good time and sent them on their way. That was his identity in this town. Changing meant putting himself up for scrutiny. It also meant the M&Ms would descend on him.

"What happened?"

His whole face fell. "So I was a rebound, apparently. She went back to her cheating ex when he came and apologized."

And now Joanne was talking to Noah again. He lost the woman he was dating to the cheating ex and now he was afraid of losing his sister, too. "Got it."

"No, you don't" He ran a hand through his damp hair, then flung the other at me. "Yes, it's this chick and Joanne messing with my head, but it's also you and Marley. You're so fucking happy. And I never wanted that life. Never. I like my freedom. I like deciding if I'm having sex and how much of it, and it never, ever comes with attachments. But Scottie is happier than I've ever seen him and so are you, and for two whole seconds I had something like it, and it felt awesome, and now I'm like this, okay. This is who I am now."

---