Page 67 of The One With the Mountain Man

But we seemed to be figuring it out just fine so far. My parents had been married almost forty years and they hated each other. They were never honest, they didn't care about the happiness of the other, they never took care of each other. Maybe I knew how to do this because I knew whatnotto do.

Marley's bedwas too comfortable. I was never the kind of man who stayed in bed long. I didn't spend lazy mornings watching television or reading a book in my pajamas. I got up and out into the world.

But Marley was teaching me there was a very different way to live that I'd entirely missed out on. Leaving this bed was a travesty, world be damned.

It had been a week since she took me home and I'd barely set foot in the barn apartment since. What was the point? I didn't need space from Marley. I went to the daycare, to Karis's, to a family dinner where they grilled me mercilessly, and took one five-hour hike for Travis.

Otherwise I was here, tracing her perfect lines with my fingers, tongue, and lips.Worshippingher. It wasn't hard considering she put as much care and attention into me as I put into her. Marley smiled all the time now, and I had never felt more fulfilled.

I rolled to my stomach and hugged the pillow wondering where the hell she was. Marley wasn't quiet getting out of bed and we hadn't woken up without an orgasm since we started sleeping together. The bed was comfortable, but it was cold and lonely without Marley.

I strained my ears, listening for any sign of where she'd gone. The shower wasn't running, there was no smell of bacon cooking on the stove. I cracked an eyelid and saw the silhouette of her truck parked outside the bedroom window.

Then I heard her footsteps on the wooden floors of the living room and her voice, but it was muffled by the walls and distance. I sat halfway up, listening harder. Thankfully she must have walked closer because suddenly I could hear every word.

"No," she muttered. "I don't want to upset anyone else. I understand."

I sat up fully, going on alert because Marley didnotsound good.

"Nothing yet, but I'm making progress...no I don't think it will set me back. It's only twenty-four hours."

I held my breath as I listened to her voice get more and more strained. Who was she talking to?

"It's not your fault. It will be fine." She sounded defeated. "Send me the itinerary. Thanks."

I heard some clinks and the door to the deck open. Whatever the call was about, it was over, so I swung my legs over the side and ruffled up my hair before visiting the bathroom as fast as I could so I could check on her.

I froze when I saw Marley standing at the railing in her robe. A bottle of whiskey sitting on the ledge and a glass tumbler in her hands, tilting a sip back. And the look on her face? The woman I'd spent the last week with was gone without a trace.

Who the hell was on that phone call?I knew Marley well enough by now that if I went out there guns blazing she'd lock me out and tell me nothing, so instead I quietly joined her, looking out over the gorgeous view of green mountains and bright blue skies. "Bad news?"

A dismissive shrug and a sip. "I have to leave."

My stomach hit the deck. "Leave?" My Marley was shuttered away, hidden back behind the chain-link fence, concrete walls, and artillery she'd been masked by the day I met her.

"Just for a couple of days."

"When?" I wasn't ready to lose her. Not now. Not ever.

"In about three weeks. How fast do you think this stuff works?" She held up the glass before taking another sip.

She needed a partner in crime, not a lecture about drinking hard liquor at dawn. So I held out my hand and she passed it over. I took a large sip hoping my camaraderie would help. "Where?"

She put the bottle to her lips and drank even more. "Atlanta. For a fucking book signing."

I had no idea why that would cause such a negative response. There was no way in hell I was letting her do this alone. "I'll go with you."

Her head snapped around. "What?"

"I'll go with you. Unless you have someone else you'd prefer. Your friend Charley maybe?"

Marley stared at me like she couldn't fathom having support. "She can't. Jackson, this is the very definition of complicated. You'll be jumping right into the circus ring."

I took one last sip and set the glass beside the bottle before taking her face in my hands. "And I told you I want your complications. Let's get out of town for a couple of nights."

She snorted. "You make it sound like a vacation. Trust me, this won't be fun."

"Then at least we'll be together." I would throw myself between Marley and whatever made her like this. I didn't understand it, which meant I needed to see it for myself, because so far all I could picture was Sharon and her book clubs being cranky about a book. Marley's distress was on another level.

---