Page 15 of Tension with the Mountain Man
"Someone whole. Someone who doesn't wake up every morning carrying twenty-two years of failure. Someone who can love you without reservation."
"You told me you loved me," I whisper.
"I do." The admission seems to hurt him. "That's why I'm letting you go."
He leaves before I can respond, the door closing with a quiet finality that echoes through the empty room.
I sink onto the examination stool, my legs suddenly unable to hold me. In less than three hours, I've gone from waking up in the arms of the man I love to watching him systematically destroy everything between us.
The rest of my shift passes in a haze. I treat a sprained ankle, two cases of flu, and a minor burn, all while feeling like I'm moving through quicksand.
That evening, I sit at my kitchen table with my laptop open to the Vancouver email. The offer is generous and everything I thought I wanted six months ago. Prestige, advancement, the chance to prove myself in a major trauma center.
But as I look around my cottage, I realize something.
I don't want prestige. I want the man who trusted me with his deepest pain, who held me like I was the most important person in the world, who made me believe in the possibility of forever.
Tucker thinks he's protecting me, but he's really just protecting himself. From hope. From healing. From the chance that he deserves happiness after decades of self-imposed penance.
I close the laptop without responding to Vancouver.
Tomorrow, I'll figure out how to fight for him. How to make him see that his guilt doesn't define him, that loving me doesn'tmean failing his crew, that he's allowed to have both purpose and joy.
Some things are worth fighting for. And Tucker Reeves, the stubborn, self-sacrificing, impossibly good Tucker Reeves, is worth everything.
seven
Tucker
Thetasteofregretis worse than the sawdust coating my throat.
It's been a week since I told Sally we were a mistake, and I've been miserable every damn day. I thought I was doing the right thing—protecting her from my baggage, freeing her to pursue the career she deserves. Instead, I've been walking around feeling like I ripped my own heart out.
Which is exactly what I deserve.
The accident investigation is complete. Equipment failure combined with unpredictable wind patterns. It was nobody's fault, according to the official report. But that doesn't make the guilt any easier to bear. I should have been there. Should have spotted the danger signs, evacuated the area before that tree came down.
The fact that my absence was due to being wrapped up in Sally only makes it worse.
"Boss?" Danny appears in the doorway of my cabin, where I've been hiding out since the accident. He's sporting a spectacular black eye and moving carefully, but he's alive and healing. "There's someone here to see you."
I look up from the safety reports I've been pretending to read. "If it's another insurance investigator tell them to shove it."
"It's Dr. Jacobson."
My heart does something stupid in my chest, hope and terror warring for dominance. "Tell her I'm busy."
"Tell her yourself," Sally says, pushing past Danny into my living room. "We need to talk."
Danny wisely disappears, leaving us alone in the space where we made love just over a week ago. Sally looks professional in her scrubs and white coat, but I can see the fire in her green eyes. She's magnificent when she's angry, and right now she looks ready to commit violence.
"You've been avoiding everyone," she says without preamble.
"I've been working."
"Bullshit." She closes the door behind her and moves closer, and I have to fight every instinct I possess not to reach for her. "You've been wallowing in guilt and self-pity, pushing away anyone who might actually care about you."
"Sally," I sigh.
