Eddie cut his eyes at him. “How about you shut the hell up?”

“What’s your problem?” the guy muttered, grabbing another fistful of bar snacks.

Laura sighed. “Take it easy, boys.”

He was done being easy. He’d been easy his whole life, and look what it was getting him. No, he finally had everything he’d ever wanted, and he wasn’t letting it go without a fight. “Don’t you think you might have mentioned this? Remind me…what have we been doing these past weeks? Because I know what I’ve been doing. I’ve been with you. Thinking about you.”

In love, with you.

While clearly she’d been back to her old ways—coming home, doing the emotional slash and burn, which meant soon she’d be hightailing it back to the city, leaving scorched earth in her wake. Right on schedule.

“I know,” she said in a pleading voice. “I didn’t think his calls would come to anything.”

“Or, hey,” he barreled on, “here’s a thought. You could’ve mentioned it to me, maybe before you told this guy.” He angrily hitched his thumb Dan’s way.

“Chill out,” Dan told him, sounding indignant. “Take it easy on her.” He added under his breath, “Dude, I would lose my shit living here.”

“Fine, dude,” Eddie mocked. “Then maybe it’s time for you to leave.”

“You could come with me,” Laura argued. “We can still be together.”

Dan’s eyes widened, and he swung around on his stool with a shout. “Get out!” He shook his head, repeating, “Get the hell out. You two are a thing?”

“I could take care of things for a while,” she said, ignoring Dan. “Till you got on your feet. You could find a construction job in the city. I can pay for stuff.”

“You think that’s what I care about? Whether I have enough stuff? Have you not been listening to a word I’ve said? Haven’t you gotten who I am?”

“He’s right. What would a mountain dude do in the city?” Dan laughed to himself, shaking his head, muttering, “Lola sowing her oats with the locals. Classic.”

Eddie spun on him. “How about you shut your mouth before I shut it for you?”

“Forget him.” Laura reached for his hand. “Listen to me. You have to admit you’ve been struggling, but there’s work in the city. Jack could run Jessup Brothers on his own.”

He pulled away. “The only thing I’m struggling with right now is you, Laura.”

Dan chuckled to himself. “She’s a spitfire, all right.”

“I’m warning you,” Eddie told him through gritted teeth. He would not be held responsible for mopping the floor with this guy.

Dan smirked. “Nice.”

“I need to think of my finances,” Laura continued. “Our finances.”

“What’s so wrong with our finances? We’ve got food, family, a roof over our heads. Hell, several roofs.”

“But what if I need more? People will pay me a lot to use my business sense. It’s how I’ve survived.”

“We survive because this is our home. We’ve got family here. I’ve got family, and I’m not leaving them.” He did a quick scan of the bar. Bear was in the corner, playing cards with his buddies. Sorrow was in the back. Helen worked the floor, while Edith was at the lodge caring for her kid. “We’re a community, Laura. But we’re not good enough for you, are we? We never were.”

“That’s not fair.”

“You know what’s not fair? Jerking me around like this. What, you just wanted to see what it was like with a townie? Is that all I am? But how big of you, you’re not done with me yet, so you’ll find the country bumpkin a job in the big city.”

“That’s not it at all. I didn’t think I’d consider leaving until just now.”

“And you didn’t for a moment think your leaving was something I might like to have a say in?”

She shot back, “Since when do you have a say in my professional life?”

He got quiet. “It’s like you need to control every aspect of your life. You can’t let it go for one minute, can you?”

“That’s not true.”

“I should’ve known. Whenever the going gets too scary, Laura Bailey cuts and runs.” He felt so stupid. Stupid, and embarrassed. “And I can’t believe you told this guy about it before me. You could’ve at least told me your old boss was calling. We have had some time together lately. I trusted you. I thought I was finally making headway with you. I told you stuff, Laura. And then you turn around and tell your news to this prick.”

Dan pulled his shoulders back, trying to look tough. “Don’t be getting up in my grill. Lola, I can’t believe you’re letting mountain man here talk to you like that. He’s out of your system, now you should get him out of your bar.”

Eddie took a step closer. He had half a mind to show this guy the meaning of mountain man. “You’re on thin ice, pretty boy.”

“Just come with me to the city,” Laura pleaded. “I can take care of things for a while, until we figure it out.”

“Don’t sweat Teddie here,” Dan told her. “If he doesn’t want you, you can be my sugar mama, any day of the week.”

That was it. Eddie grabbed a fistful of that gelled, spiked hair, pulled the guy from his stool, and punched him in the face.

Dan grabbed his head with a sharp yelp and skittered backward. “What the hell?”

“Stop it,” Laura shrieked. The bar had fallen silent. “What are you doing?”

He flexed his fist, shaking it out. “Just being a country boy.”

Dan grabbed his asinine black glasses from where they’d flown to the floor and settled them back on his face. “Don’t mess with me.” He blew out a breath, rolling his shoulders like he might actually try something, but Eddie had about five inches and forty pounds on the guy that said he wouldn’t.

“Screw this,” Dan said. “I’m loading up. We’re out of here. I thought we’d get some footage of your stupid hotel, but I’m over it. Done.”

As the producer stormed out, Laura turned on him. “Thanks, Eddie. Thanks a whole hell of a lot. Your business sense is staggering.”

That was all she was thinking about? Business? She’d just broken his heart.

“I thought you had a tender side,” he told her. “But everyone was right. You’re out for yourself.”

“And I was right, too. You’re a Neanderthal.”

“Yeah, at least I’m not a robot. I’d rather know how to feel, and get angry, than be good at…what are you good at…spreadsheets? All you care about is the bottom line. Well, you can take your cold numbers to bed with you.”

She stood rigidly, arms wrapped tight around her chest. “You say you don’t want anyone to think you’re a bumpkin, but look at you. You can’t just go around punching people when things don’t go your way. Talk about looking the part. What do you expect people to think?”

“They’ll think maybe I’m in love with you.”

The bar was utterly silent. Laura was silent.

He felt it in his chest, gutting him, like silence might be a physical thing.

“You think you’re better than us,” he told her quietly. “You always did. I tell you I love you, and not even that’s good enough.” He let his eyes lock with hers, one last time. He had to get her out of his sight. The pain was too great. “You know what, Laura? Just go. And this time, stay gone.”

Thirty-four

Rob dallied under the tavern’s awning, putting off the inevitable.

It’d been a sort of horror…watching from a distance as a man did such unfathomable things, only to realize you were that man. When clarity had descended, and he grasped what he’d done, it’d been like rousing from a dream into a waking nightmare.

Last night, he’d left his daughter. It was incomprehensible. His sick, tiny daughter. He’d left her alone to fend for herself. Helen would never forgive him.

He’d never forgive himself.

He reached for the doorknob, but it flew open, and out burst Laura Bailey. She froze, stopping short before they ran into each other, and then she gave him a look of such disgust it shamed him. “Men,” she snarled, her lip curled, then stormed away to the lodge.

Not the greatest indication of how he’d be received. He took a deep breath and warily entered the tavern. Inside, the silence was so deafening, it made his skin crawl. Was the silence because he’d shown up?

“Great,” he heard his wife say. “Now it’s a party.”

Guilt, humiliation…it choked him. But it was a horror of his own making, and so he made himself face it.

He found her—his Helen—his eyes went straight for her. “Can we talk?”

She put her hands on her hips. “You’ve got a tongue. What’s stopping you?” So pretty she was, with that thick, red hair. That saucy body. There used to be such fire in her eyes, and he knew he was the one who’d dampened it.

“Someplace private?” he pleaded. By the time he’d made it home last night, she’d secured the chain on the door. She wouldn’t let him in. Wouldn’t take his calls. His only choice was to plead his case in public, but he hoped it wouldn’t have to be this public.

She scanned the floor, until Bear caught her eyes and gave her a nod. She led him to a corner booth and sat. “Tell me one thing,” she demanded at once. “Is there another woman? Because I can’t figure how else you could leave our girl like that.”

“Of course not. Just you. Only you.” He leaned forward, desperate to take her hands.

She stared at his outstretched arms like he was diseased. “That’s all you’ve got?” She bolted to standing. “I can’t do this.”