Page 1 of Beneath the Mountain Sky
1
KILLIAN
There’s only one thing more beautiful than McBride Mountain blanketed in the pre-dawn mist.
And I don’t think about that other thing.
I don’t think about her.
Because I can’t.
If I allowed myself to indulge in those memories every time my mind wanted to wander to Willow, I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed each morning. I wouldn’t be able to come out here each day to the mountain we loved, where we built a life together, and do my job for all the people who depend on McBride Timber for their livelihoods.
And truth be told…I wouldn’t be able to keep breathing.
Not without her.
So, no matter how badly I may want to, I can’t dwell on the gaping hole she ripped in my chest when she left me and this place, when she turned me into this person I’ve become—one I hardly recognize.
This man traipsing through the thick woods with an axe—and a chip—on his shoulder is so many things I wasn’t before.
Bitter.
Resentful.
Even quicker to anger, which a lot of people didn’t think was possible.
I’ve become something that can be summed up in a single word: miserable.
Instead of obsessing over what I lost, how much I’d love to have her at my side to watch the sun rise and burn off this fog, what I wouldn’t give to see that early morning light hit her face and brighten it the same way her perfect smile did, I concentrate on the bitter mist engulfing me and the rest of the Blue Ridge Range this morning.
Damp.
Chilly.
Clinging to my bare skin the same way it does the ground and the trees all around me.
An ethereal haze—almost like I’m in another world, even though we’re less than a dozen miles from the homestead and cabin.
Yet it’s another world out here.
Remote.
Wild.
Filled with the kind of feral creatures people often accuse me of being.
Maybe I should just stay out here…
That would be easier on everyone, I suppose, to disappear into the wilderness with my regret, into a world where I can live with my failure without interference from anything or anyone else.
But like my bitter mood this morning, this pre-drawn haze won’t last long.
As soon as the sun hits the horizon, the fog will start to burn off, and the heat of early summer will descend on the mountain.
Bright.
Warm.
