Page 10 of Into the Mountains
“You see me smile, Sky.”
“We do,” she admits. “But not like that.”
CHAPTER FIVE
CHARLOTTE
“They’re diabolical!”
“Mhm.” Avery’s voice is muffled by her pillow as she tries to get comfortable enough to go back to sleep.
“Ave, this is not the time to sleep.” She startles awake at my voice that was a bit louder than I intended it to be, but I have no other choice. This is a friend emergency.
“Charlotte. This might surprise you, but this is literally the timetosleep. It’s 2:00 a.m. and any normal person is dead to the world like I was twenty minutes ago when you called.”
She’s right, but I also can’t help the fact that I have insomnia. I’ve had it for years and if I went back to therapy, I’m sure there would be some psychological reason that’s connected to my mother’s illness and her death shortly thereafter, quickly followed by my father’s a few weeks later. All of which was preceded by the heartbreak of a lifetime that I don’t even want to think about.
The therapist would connect that sleep is associated with the comfort of knowing that my parents are healthy, alive, and only a phone call away. Now, I lie awake, unable to get sleep of any kind. I’d take fitful sleep over nothing some days.
“Look, I’m sorry, I just wasn’t prepared to ever see him again. Ever. But then I moved here and not only is he justhere,he’s basically part of your family. But I figure, hey, it may be a small town, and I’m really, really good at avoiding things when I desperately want to, so surely it won’t be that hard to avoid him. But this town is actually so small and he’s so connected to you that I practically see him all the time.”
I’m rambling and we both know it. I mostly tend to go on and on until I wear myself out enough to possibly sleep for whatever precious time I have left until sunrise. Usually Avery chimes in when she feels like I need some advice, but the majority of the time she’s just there to listen, even if she might fall asleep sometimes.
“And then I finally land a job with interior design thinking it’s my one chance to break out and really do something and he shows up. So I think, okay, no worries I can keep avoiding him, but I CAN’T BECAUSE YOUR IN-LAWS ARE SO FUCKING MEDDLESOME,” I yell, startling her. But I keep going. “And they are to blame for me calling you in the middle of the night this time. So you have to yell at them, not me.”
I can feel myself losing steam, climbing down the mountain step by step to a more sane place, even though I’d rather camp up on the mountain top.
“Can I ask a question now that I know you probably won’t answer considering I never knew and you still haven’t told me?”
“Go ahead.” I could just answer the question before she asks it. I know exactly what she’s going to say, but I may as well let her ask and give myself time to decide whether or not I finally want to tell that story.
“How exactly do you and Elias even know each other? And why is there so much hate?”
I take a deep inhale and look up at the ceiling, blinking a few times, and think about how I want to answer. Blowing out a longbreath, I decide to finally tell the first person I’ve ever told in fifteen years how I know Elias Hayes.
“We dated and it didn’t end all that well.”
CHAPTER SIX
CHARLOTTE
“I’m sorry, YOU WHAT?” Fully awake now, her shriek echoes on her side and I hear Hudson’s voice.
“Sunshine, if you wanted to shriek like that, there are other ways to do it. More fun ways. Otherwise, please, let us sleep.” I’m assuming he’s referring to the dog I can partially see curled up next to him glaring at Avery for disturbing their peace.
“Sorry, honey.” She turns to plant a kiss on his cheek and tries to pull away, but he catches her waist before she can, pulling her back in and deepens the kiss. She lets out a soft moan that I really didn’t need to hear her make.
“Seriously? Get a room.”
“We are currently in our room,” Hudson says, not moving his lips from Avery’s and grabbing her ass for good measure. “And you’re currently in it. I’d hang up on you, but I actually want to hear the story behind you and Elias dating.”
Avery breaks away from him. “And you call me a snoop! I thought you were sleeping.”
“I was until about five minutes ago and then I heard that last bit of conversation and I definitely wasn’t going back to sleep after that.”
I put my head in my hands, mortified that now two people know the secret I’ve kept for so long because I felt like the story was way too embarrassing to share. And now I get to share it with not one person, but two.
Time to rip off the Band-Aid I guess. Or tear off the wax strip is more like it in this case.
