Page 95 of The One With the Mountain Man

"Never can keep you indoors for long." He handed me a fresh beer.

"That's why I like the cabin better than this place. Marley keeps it open all the time."

"She really is perfect for you." There was something in his voice that caught my attention. But before I could ask what it was, he pulled out his phone and laughed at what he saw. "Marley's either having a great time or a terrible time. It's hard to tell."

He turned the phone so I could see the picture Joanne sent him from the dinner. Marley was smack dab in the middle of what looked like a firing squad. But I knew that smile on her lips all too well.

"She's doing just fine. She's been looking forward to this."

Travis grunted and slid his phone back into his pocket. "Wish it was enough to keep you around. I could really use your help at ODX."

"Something going on?"

He shrugged. "Red's thinking a lot harder about retirement than he says he is. I've been taking on more and more of the operations. Not that I mind."

"But you're spending less time outdoors, which is where you'd prefer to be."

"You know it."

Maybe we could spend our summers here, when ODX was busiest. I could help Travis and Marley could write. At my core, I loved ODX and owed Red more than I could ever pay back.

"Things with my family aren't terrible." Outside of my parents and Nora, all my interactions with my siblings had been good. "Things are different now that everyone is growing up."

"That's good to hear."

"But things seem to have gone south with you and Joanne. What's up with that?"

He grunted again and played with the label on his beer bottle.

"You and Lucy good?" I had barely seen the third Montgomery sibling since I got back.

"Yeah, we're fine. She's been traveling a lot for work." He shrugged his big shoulders.

The man was a giant and he acted like a brick wall, but he was actually a teddy bear who loved his sisters to death. I took a wild guess. "Joanne seeing someone you don't like?"

Travis glared at me like I had just insulted his mother. "Take your psychic charms elsewhere. They aren't needed here."

"I think they are. You're an ornery ox and we're all sick of it."

His gaze darted through the door to where Scottie and Digger were laughing in the kitchen. "Well shit."

"So, who is it?" My money was on some slick finance guy who wore suits to bed and drove a sports car he knew nothing about except its resale value.

But instead, Travis shocked the hell out of me. "It's fucking Noah Harding."

I blinked a few times because I had to be seeing an illusion. No way in this universe was Noah Harding dating Joanne and Travis let him live to tell the tale.

But it certainly explained why they were at each other's throats.

"She's dating Noah? Noah from high school. The kid who cheated on her, broke her heart, and we drove out of town before you could kill him with your bare hands. That Noah?"

"The one and only. Except...they aren't dating. Not yet. They'retalking." He made air quotes with his fingers. "She ran into him at some Bigfoot festival. They've beentalkingever since."

"I'm confused. Are they actually talking or are you using that as code for fucking?" I was surprised the kid had the balls to move within a hundred miles of Lost Creek.

"Talking. She swears they're just hashing out old shit and healing or whatever, but I don't like it, Huk. I don't like it one bit. Once a cheater, always a cheater."

"He was eighteen." I didn't want to defend the kid, but we all made idiotic choices at that age.

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