Page 70 of Beneath the Mountain Sky

Shit.

He knows me so well.

The past two weeks have proven that.

Killian hasn’t forgotten a single thing.

All my favorite foods keep appearing on the kitchen table each night because he remembers each and every one of them exactly how I like them. And in the morning, my tea, with exactly the right amount of honey in it because he knows I like it super sweet.

He’s given me everything I need before I can even ask for it.

Except this…

Because he thinks I can’t handle it.

I shift nervously on my feet. “I need to ask you something.”

His eyes immediately darken, and I know what he’s thinking—what he believes I’m going to ask for.

The truth about what happened between us.

“Not that.”

I watch the tension ease out of him with the reassurance that I’m not going to question him about our breakup.

Neither of us is ready to discuss it at this point, and that’s probably for the best. It’s easier to live in this semi-dream world, where he and I are still something.

That tension still radiates between us.

The kind that’s always been there.

I can’t seem to shake these feelings, this draw to the man standing in front of me, which makes it so hard to believe I would have walked away from him.

“What do you need, Willow?” His brow furrows. “You know I’ll do anything for you. Anything to help you.”

I believe his words because he’s proven it over and over again over the past five years.

And the last two weeks.

Spending almost all of his time scouring the mountain, the endless wilderness, for one scrap of information that might help explain what happened to me, because the sheriff is coming up empty.

Tony Briggs is a good man.

Smart.

He was always looking out for everyone else when we were in high school, and now it’s literally his job, ensuring the citizens of McBride Mountain are secure and safe, but one thing he hasn’t been able to provide is answers.

He hasn’t been able to locate anything that confirms I actually lived in any of the locations I sent Raven gifts from. Even my friends in Asheville, whom I intended to stay with when I left, said I never even contacted them about coming and haven’t heard from me in over a year, either.

Which means I lied to Raven in those notes.

Why would I do that?

Why would I leave Killian?

Why would I lie to my best friend?

I take a tentative step toward the man who has become my savior, but who also poses one of the biggest mysteries in all this. “I need you to take me to where you found me in the river.”