Lost with the Mountain Man

Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

MALCOLM

I t’s cold.

Too cold to be sitting out here on my porch, but the thought of being inside feels unbearable. The cabin is full of their presence. Her soft laugh seems to echo in the corners. His steady voice lingers in the air. Their scent is still here, curling around me like an embrace I don’t deserve.

Beau and Jessamy.

I’ve met countless couples like them. Jessamy with her sharp mind, fierce loyalty, and the unspoken ache behind her bright eyes. She wanted nothing more than to love and be loved in return. Who could blame her for that?

And Beau, carrying the weight of their world on his broad shoulders, his stiff smile a thin shield for everything he’s never allowed himself to be. She was his compass, his anchor. He simply forgot. Everyone needs a reminder now and then. Gentle or otherwise.

Every couple is different. Every person is, too. Some, like Jessamy, are open for anything, desperate to stumble on the one magical thing that will fix everything else. Others need a little coaxing first, a promise of a safety net before taking a dive into the deep end. Then, there are those like Beau. Those with their feet planted in the earth up to the ankles. Those who need to be cornered, to be pushed against the wall and told in no uncertain terms just how bad things can get if they don’t pry themselves out of the dirt.

You’d be surprised how many couples don’t talk to each other. So many spend their one precious life together barely scratching the surface, caught in a loop of unspoken wants and unrealized dreams. Love and marriage on auto-pilot. I didn’t want that for them.

I didn’t mean to get so involved, either.

Turns out, even a hermit like me isn’t immune to Kiss County’s promise of love and belonging. The more I looked into Jessamy’s eyes, the more I took in the quiet pull of Beau’s presence—the harder it became to stay detached. The easier it was to feel… found.

I thought I’d lost myself a long time ago.

For a little while, I let myself love them. Just long enough to remember I still had a heart that could beat for something other than grief. Just enough to remember that I’m not just surviving.

I was alive. For a little while.

I unclench my fist and glance down at the necklace resting in my palm. The delicate golden chain glints in the pale winter light, coiled like a snake beside the heart-shaped pendant engraved with a single letter.

Every time I blink, I expect it to vanish like she did. But it stays. Real. Tangible.

Impossible.

Kayla. Damn you.

Damn you and your wicked heart for pulling me apart at the seams. Damn you and your twisted sense of humor for sending them here, of all places, when all I wanted was to disappear into the quiet.

That was you, wasn’t it? You always had a way of guiding people exactly where they needed to be. Even now, even in death, you’re still here, reaching out from whatever place you’ve gone to, dragging me back toward the light.

It was your lavender scent that made me look out the window the night of the storm, just in time to see their headlights, just in time to throw on my coat and boots and grab my keys.

Was it you? Fuck, I hope so. I’ll never know for sure. But I’ll take comfort in the thought.

For a little while.

The crunch of tires over snow pulls my head up, the sound too sharp and real to be imagined. For a moment, I don’t breathe. Then I see their car turn off the distant road, inching toward the cabin.

I don’t move. Hope and dread war inside me, both so raw I can’t tell which will win.

The car rolls to a stop, and they climb out. Beau first, his face strong and calm, followed by Jessamy, her eyes meeting mine across the frozen space between us.

Heavy expressions reveal their thoughts. They look at me the way everyone looked at me after Kayla was gone. With pity. With feigned sympathy for the man with the dead wife.

They know.

I look down, the necklace burning a hole in my palm. “She lost this,” I say. “We were on a hike one day, about a month before she got sick. It must have slipped right off her neck.” I rub my thumb over the pendant, the grooves pressing into my skin. “We looked everywhere. Walked that same mile-long length of trail a dozen times, but we never found it. It was… lost.”

Jessamy steps forward, sinking onto the porch stair beside me. Her arm slips around mine, grounding me in her quiet warmth, her chin perching on my bicep. Beau sits on my other side, his solid presence a silent anchor I didn’t know I needed.

“I wanted to keep looking,” I say, my voice cracking under the weight of the memory. “But Kayla said it was all right. She said…” I take a breath that feels like shards of glass. “She said what’s lost has a way of coming back to us. Somehow.” I shake my head. “And it did. I don’t know how. I don’t know why or why now. But here it is. This is…”

There’s no logical reason Jessamy found it. But she did.

Somehow.

Jessamy presses closer, holding onto my arm like she’s trying to take some of the weight for herself. Beau rests his hand over mine, steady and sure.

They say nothing. It’s strange, being the one to talk. I’m usually the one who listens. It feels good to be on the other side for once. To share parts of my heart with those I’ve grown to trust with it.

I close my fingers around the necklace; the edges digging in as I swipe at my eyes with the back of my hand. “What are you doing back here?” I ask.

Beau’s lips tilt into a small smile. “Let’s just say The Harmony Center wasn’t really our vibe.”

“They still have the robes?”

“Oh, yeah,” Jessamy says with a cringe.

I laugh. “I was always against them.”

Jessamy lifts her head, her smile soft and genuine. “We decided we’d already gotten what we needed this weekend.”

“You two fall in love again?”

She glances at Beau, her eyes brimming with something deeper. “Yes.”

“Good.” A strange heat blooms in my chest, unexpected and overwhelming. For the first time in what feels like forever, I feel… proud. Fulfilled. Happy to have helped them. “You heading home, then?”

“Not just yet,” Beau says, his gaze drifting toward the lake, toward Tall Mountain and Kiss County and everything in between. “We wanted one last look.”

I follow his eyes to the lake, where sunlight dances across the ice, making the world shimmer.

It’s beautiful. Just like them.

I stand and face them. My guests. “Are you hungry?”

Jessamy smiles. “I could eat.”

“Me, too,” Beau says.

“There’s plenty of stew in the slow cooker.” I offer my hands, and they take them without hesitation. Together, they rise and we stand together. “Come on in.”

I squeeze their hands once before letting go, stepping toward the door. As I hold it open for them and they pass inside, a sharp breeze cuts through the cold, carrying with it a soft hint of lavender.

I stop, my breath catching. I pull another deep inhale, allowing its soothing comfort to seep into every piece of me.

“Quite the adventure,” I whisper, thinking of her. Thinking of them. Of us. “Thanks, K.”

I was lost without you. But they found me.

I step inside and close the door, leaving the cold behind.