Page 11 of Kissing My Mountain Man

“What?” I ask, leaning closer to see if he is quietly reading ahead without me.

“It’s hard to read this knowing what happens.” He sighs and closes the journal in his hands. “It’s clear that they were falling in love, but why didn’t they end up together?”

The realization that Clara died alone and unmarried hits me like a ton of bricks. I think my head and my heart were trying to protect me from remembering this critical fact. I was so wrapped up in the love story that I wanted to forget.

“I don’t know,” I whisper and rest my head on his shoulder. The movement feels so natural, and Denny doesn’t try and pull away from me this time. “Maybe John left her? She said he was running from the law.”

“But why didn’t she go with him then?”

“She had a home here. Her land. To a woman like Clara, in this time, fighting for every scrap of independence in her life, she wasn’t going to throw it all away.”

“Love isn’t something you throw away.” Denny pushes to his feet and begins to pace in front of me. “Sometimes it’s taken from you.”

I’m starting to think that we aren’t talking about Clara and John anymore. There’s no mistaking that I’m starting to feel things for Denny. And I’m pretty sure he might feel the same way. In the same way that Clara and John danced around their feelings for one another, Denny and I hear the same music. But something is holding him back.

“When was it taken from you?” I ask.

Denny stops and turns to me. His eyes wide in surprise that I’ve worked out the truth with only a few hints.

“It was back when I was on the force. I was working on a case in organized crime that involved a shooting at a restaurant. We had a witness, the owner, that came forward to testify when she had no reason other than it was the right thing to do. We convinced her that we could keep her safe.”

Oh no.

“The night before the trial, I was at the safe house with her and a few other detectives. I’d drawn the short straw to go out and pick up dinner. But when I got back, a car peeled off from the house, and I knew something was wrong.” He shakes his head like he doesn’t want to believe the memory replaying in his mind. “If only I’d gotten back sooner.”

“Then it could have been you too. You can’t play the what-if game in your mind. It won’t change the outcome.”

He twists the toe of his boot into the ground. “She was gone before it began, but I’ve—”

“Never forgotten,” I finish for him

“Yes,” he says but keeps his eyes trained down. “And I can’t believe that John would leave Clara without a reason.”

I stand up and walk over to him. Looping my arms around his waist, I pull him close. He tenses for a moment before his muscles loosen, and he relaxes against me.

* * *

Denny

I’ve never told anyone about what happened and why I quit being a cop. But there was something about hearing John and Clara’s story and the way everything seems so much easier with Landry that had me opening up.

A part of me hoped that hearing the story would drive her away. For so long, I’ve punished myself for that night and still feel like I don’t deserve to be happy. But when I see Landry smile or hear her laugh, I see someone I want but can’t have. It took every ounce of willpower in my body not to kiss her earlier. She deserves someone better than a broken mountain man like me.

We spent the rest of the afternoon reading more entries in the journal, ignoring the sun as it moved slowly across the sky. It wasn’t until it began to dip that I realized we had to leave if we wanted to get back before dark.

“Landry, we have to leave right now.”

“But she’s talking about how the sheriff and his men have been seen coming up the mountain.” She points at the open journal in her lap.

“If we don’t leave now, we won’t make it to the station before it’s dark. We don’t want to get stuck hiking down at night. It’s far too dangerous.”

She’s quiet, and I can see the wheels turning in her mind, weighing out the pros and cons of what to do.

“I’m not leaving you here,” I warn. “And if I have to pick you up and carry you over my shoulder down this mountain, I will do it.”

“As uncomfortable as that sounds for the both of us, maybe there’s another option.”

“You want to camp out here tonight.”

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