Page 39 of Mountain Freedom
“I don’t know,” Emerson said, laughing. “It just was. Maybe it’s more fun to tease you than it is to tease Jackson.”
Cole rolled his eyes. “Come on,” he said, turning back to me. “What’s the deal?”
“There’s no deal,” I said. “Allison and I have known each other since we were kids, but we’re just friends. We made a pact and everything.” I attempted to laugh it off.
“A pact?” Emerson asked, now suddenly curious. “To just be friends?”
“Best friends,” I said, nodding.
Emerson and Cole exchanged looks and started cracking up.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
Cole shook his head. “It’ll never work.”
“Ten bucks says they’ll kiss before the Fourth of July,” Emerson said.
Cole scoffed. “I don’t take bets I know I’ll lose.”
Chapter Fifteen
Allison
Despite my initial unease,I quickly felt more comfortable than I had in a group setting in a very long time. The party was held on Greg and Janet’s back deck, which had an incredible view of the mountains. Between the view, the smell of burgers on the grill, and the ice-cold sweet tea, it was the perfect summer party, made even more lovely by the fun and laughter of everyone attending.
This group of family—because that’s what they were, even though only half of them seemed to actually be related in any way—clearly loved each other and had a “the more the merrier” mentality when it came to me. It was also clear by the exchanged looks and smiles that they assumed Jackson and I were dating, something that made him more uncomfortable than it did me.
In fact, I liked the idea more than I should have, considering I was the one who had initially insisted our friendship stay platonic.
Being in this group of happy couples, I felt an ache in my soul I’d never expected to feel. It wasn’t that I missed Mike. I didn’t. And it wasn’t exactly loneliness. I felt completely welcomed and part of the group, not at all like the outsider I’d expected to be. In many ways, Jackson took care of me the same way the other men took care of their partners.
But there was something different there, something I rarely got to witness up close. There was a tenderness, a trust, a communication that went beyond words. I saw it with Greg and Janet, in the tender touches they shared almost without noticing as they went about their hosting duties. I saw it in Daphne and Emerson, in the little smiles and exchanged glances that hinted of conversations and chuckles to come. And I saw it in Cole and Willa, with the way he was so clearly her protector, even though she didn’t need one anymore.
They all had something I had only seen in the elderly couples who came to their doctor’s appointments together, unwilling to even spend that time apart after a lifetime of loving each other. I had never seen it in my parents during their marriage, nor in the several marriages my mother had after.
I certainly hadn’t experienced anything like it in my own life.
The scientist in me wanted to study it, to dissect it and find out exactly what made them different from those of us who always seemed to get it wrong. What secret had they unlocked? And was it something someone like me, someone who had never had a healthy marriage modeled, could ever dream of replicating?
I didn’t know. But when Jackson lightly touched my shoulder and offered to take my empty plate, I started wondering if it might actually be possible for two people like us to learn from this group that had embraced us.
Maybe it was rebellion against my mother or annoyance that we had jumped into our pact so quickly, but I felt a trace ofsadness that we couldn’t even find out what we were capable of together. I tried to dismiss it as a ridiculous thought. Nothing had changed. Dating Jackson was still a terrible idea that would threaten my place here when we broke up.
But looking around at the couples we were with, I had to wonder if breakups were inevitable after all. What if… What if, when you found someone like this, someone who was your best friend and who was truly committed, you just made it work? Not out of forced obligation, not because you were trapped without options, but because…
Because you just couldn’t imagine life without that person.
“What are you thinking about?” Jackson whispered, taking his place back beside me on the deck.
The sun was just starting to slip behind the mountains, creating a beautiful pink glow in the sky. Janet had flipped a switch, turning on twinkle lights that were strung across the pergola on the deck. It was a beautiful night, and for the first time in a while, I felt totally content.
“Nothing really,” I said, smiling at him. I couldn’t exactly tell him I had been sitting there contemplating whether we had a chance of creating this ourselves, either together or with someone else.
Especially when it was the together part I kept thinking about.
“I hope you’re having fun,” he said. “I know our group can be a lot.”
I laughed and glanced around. Daphne and Willa were both giggling over some story Fiona was telling, while Janet shook her head in disapproval. Cole, Emerson, and Greg had retrieved cigars and were lighting them up on one side of the deck. Little Eileen was bouncing in her bouncer, guarded closely by an older-looking German Shepherd who never seemed to leave her side.
