Chapter 8 Nash
eight
Nash
I’ve never been much of a drinker, which is probably why I’m just staring at a full bottle of Temptation Whiskey instead of drinking my sorrows away. The whiskey was given to me by one of the tourists when my rescue crew found his daughter, who got lost in the mountains last year.
What would it be like to have a wife and a daughter of my own? My heart clenches in my chest. I thought I found that future with Cora. Unfortunately, it was all a game to her and her sister—trading places to fool the simple mountain man, just like Whitney.
The funny thing is, if Cora had told me the truth when she first woke up in my arms, I would have understood. I would have done my best to win Cora’s love, doing everything in my power to make her mine.
A knock on the door pulls me away from my thoughts about Cora and what our future might have been.
I set the unopened bottle of whiskey on the coffee table and head to the front door. My foolish heart believing Cora came back to fight for my sorry ass. It’s already been three days. If she were coming back, she would have done it by now.
I open the front door and come face-to-face with my mother. Her weathered face scrunched with concern, “What are you doing hiding in the mountains when there’s a young woman in town crying her eyes out over your sorry ass?” Mom says, pushing her way into my cabin.
How the hell does she know about Cora? I shut the door and turn to ask her, but the words get stuck in my throat, as I’m transported back to that night so many years ago. Only I never felt this way about Whitney.
Whitney was a mean girl who liked to toy with a naive schoolboy's heart and his obsession with her honey-blonde hair and blue eyes, causing him to feel ashamed of his family.
It might not have taken me long to get past my initial embarrassment about my family’s perceived poverty in Whitney’s eyes. Still, I never got over feeling rejected by Whitney.
How long have I allowed my insecurities to control my life, hiding in the mountains instead of finding a good woman who would love me for who I am, until I realized that with Cora?
Cora. How could I be so stupid? When she left my cabin, the look in her eyes when she told me her heart was mine. No one can fake that look of love.
I have to get to Cora before she leaves. I need to convince her she is mine.
“Well, don’t you have anything to say for yourself? Blake told me all about that poor girl when I ran into him at the flower shop yesterday.”
“I’ve got to go, mom.” I grab my jacket hanging on the hook behind the door. It’s the same one Cora wore when we fed the animals. I lift it to my nose and breathe in, her scent still clinging to the fabric.
“You’ve got it bad, don’t you?” Mom laughs. “Here, you’re going to need this.” She pulls a small black velvet box out of her coat pocket. “I think it’s time for the next generation to wear this ring.”
I take the ring from her hand and kiss her cheek, “Thanks, Mom.” I step back and stride toward the door.
“I can’t wait to be a grandmother," she calls after me.
A small smile touches my lips. I plan to work on making her a grandmother as soon as Cora forgives me.