Second Chance Summer(49)
She’d done both many times, a long, long time ago.
But it was the cliff that drew her. She walked to the edge and looked down.
A staggering three-hundred-sixty-degree vista of sharp, jagged mountain peaks and the blanket of green forestland that covered them, lined with rivers and tributaries, as far as the eye could see. This wasn’t the exact spot where Ashley had died. That was up about a mile farther. But the view was the same, and in fact from here she could see the face where Ashley had climbed and then fallen to her death.
Lily stared across the chasm at it. She didn’t know what she’d expected to find. A neatly wrapped box of forgiveness? Her sister’s ghost?
She got nothing as she looked at the heart-stopping drop-off from the cliff to the winding river far below, nothing at all but the silent dare.
Climb me. …
“Next time,” she told it.
Chapter 17
After two straight days on a fire out on Eagle Flats, Aidan staggered out of the station when his shift was over, blinking at the bright morning sun.
He turned on his phone and found the usual myriad of messages, including one from a pissed-off Lenny who’d gone to court to fight his DUI to no avail. Aidan texted him back that his job would be waiting for him, no worries there. But Lenny texted back with a “whatever” and had Aidan shaking his head.
He couldn’t give any energy to that right now.
Someone honked, and he turned to see Gray waiting at the curb in one of the utility vehicles that belonged to the resort.
Aidan ambled over to him, and Gray rolled down the window. “Kenna had to borrow your truck for a f*cking interview, so I’m your ride.”
“You need to figure out what she can do for the resort, man,” Aidan said. “And quick.”
“Yeah. But when I ask what she wants to do, she just shrugs. I don’t have a lot of year-round positions open for a pissed-off-at-the-world twenty-four-year-old.”
Yeah. Aidan knew this. He tossed his duffel bag in the back and slid into the shotgun position before laying his head back.
“Coffee’s for you,” Gray said, nodding to the steaming to-go cup in the console.
Aidan reached for it, sipped, and looked at Gray, eyes narrowed. “Sugar and milk?”
“Isn’t that how you like it?”
“Yeah, but since when do you care how I like it?”
Gray didn’t answer, just pulled away from the curb. Shit. Aidan set the cup down. “What’s up?”
“Who says something’s up?” Gray asked casually as he whipped a U-turn.
“When you’re nice to me, something’s always up.”
Gray blew out a breath, and Aidan’s bad feeling deepened. “Mom?”
“No, she’s fine.”
Aidan gave him an impatient go-ahead gesture.
“It’s Dad,” Gray said. “He finally caught up with some of Hudson’s messages and called me back instead of him.”
Aidan stared at his brother’s profile, totally and instantly pissed off for Hudson’s sake. “What the hell did he call you for?”
“Because he’s an * who doesn’t want to acknowledge Hud and Jacob exist.”
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
“Hey, I agree, but it doesn’t change the fact that he called me. He wanted to tell me why he wasn’t coming back. Ever.”
Aidan didn’t show his relief, but he was glad he was sitting down.
“Don’t you want to know why?” Gray asked.
“Don’t give a shit, as long as he stays away.”
Gray slid him a look that had Aidan’s feeling going from bad to worse.
“So you’re telling me you don’t care that you are the reason why he doesn’t want to come back or be a part of our lives?”
Fuck. “Pull over.”
“I’m—”
“Pull the f*ck over,” Aidan snapped.
Gray yanked the truck to the side of the road. For as far as the eye could see there was the narrow two-lane road and trees. Miles and miles of trees. Aidan shoved out of the vehicle and started walking.
“Where the hell are you going?” Gray yelled after him.
Aidan kept moving.
“Goddammit.” This was followed by the sounds of Gray’s running footsteps as he tried to keep up with Aidan.
“You should’ve told me,” Gray said breathlessly. “Back when it happened.”
Aidan shook his head and kept moving. No, he couldn’t have told Gray when it happened. And they weren’t going to talk about it now either.
But Gray finally caught up with him and grabbed his arm, whipping him around. “He told me you caught him,” Gray said, his hair blowing away from his face in the breeze. His eyes went hard. “And he also told me what happened after that.”
Aidan doubted that. “No. No way he’d tell you.”
“You’d walked in on him and his admin going at it at the resort. You tried to run out, but he wouldn’t let you.” Gray’s voice was low and dangerously quiet now, the way it got when he was really seriously ticked off and trying to keep his shit together. “He said that he got so furious and pissed off that he beat the shit out of you and then drank himself into a stupor and passed out. When he woke up you were gone.”