Page 4 of Into the Mountains (Blue Grove Mountain #3)

Jacob cocks his head slightly and looks at the spot Charlotte’s light pink manicured nail is pointing to. “Yeah, you might be right. Luckily, I have the architect right behind you to figure out some changes.”

Charlotte straightens, suddenly aware of my presence.

Neither of us planned on being two feet away from each other so soon after our agreement to do the exact opposite.

Even in a town as small as this, I figured we were both stubborn enough to be successful in avoiding each other. I just forgot one tiny detail.

She’s working on the same project I am. Well, technically.

Jacob asked her to be the interior designer for the clinic expansion he raised money for during last year’s Winter Festival with an auction he and Sky worked on together. She painted portraits of the animals he had available for adoption and they ended up auctioning off every single one.

He asked me to be the architect for the expansion, so realistically, there’s not much interaction between mine and Charlotte’s jobs.

But the sly smile and the darting eyes between him and Sky tell a different story.

It tells me she’s hatching something other than the operation “get Elias to adopt a kitten.”

As if she read my thoughts, Sky gets up from her spot on the couch, leaving Ethan and the black kitten to play by themselves as she makes her way to me. “It’s about time you got here.”

“I’m basically on time.”

“Basically is still late,” she snips with her usual sarcasm.

Sky may have changed a lot when she and Jacob fell in love, but one thing that has never changed and I don’t think will ever change is her sarcastic flair.

I remember the first time I met her when I came home with Sarah one summer between college years.

She wanted me to meet the family she talked about nonstop and the sister she insisted was the best person to ever exist, even when she was a sarcastic asshole one hundred percent of the time.

Sarah talked about her the most. She loved her parents dearly and absolutely adored Hudson, but Skylar was the one she was attached to.

Her only sister and sometimes, she admitted, her only friend it felt like.

Sarah was nervous for me to meet Sky. More so because she was afraid of what her sister would think of me instead of what I would think of her.

She knew my background at that point and she was aware that I had dealt with things much worse than sarcastic family members.

But Sky could judge a person depending on her mood sometimes, or at least that’s the facade she likes to present to the world.

I’m pretty sure the first words she said to me were “Pretty boy.” And she didn’t mean it as a compliment.

Right after, she pulled Sarah inside and left me out on their porch, the door closing in my face.

Eventually I got on her good side. But sometimes, I don’t think that’s a side that you get to remain on permanently.

With Sky, it’s forever changing depending on your actions or how she might feel about you on any given day.

But really when it comes down to it, she’d do anything for you, no matter which side you’re on that day.

And today, I don’t think it’s a good side day.

“What are you doing here?” Charlotte gives me a look that could rival my kid’s when he looked at the broccoli I tried to serve him the other night with his dinner.

“Really? After I was so helpful to you the other night?” Both Sky and Jacob snap their heads toward us.

“The other night?” Sky questions loudly, but then side glances toward Ethan who is oblivious to anyone else other than the kitten in front of him.

He acquired a toy with a feather at the end of a string and is currently leading the cat on until she pounces on it, his giggles coming out in small bursts.

The cat lands on his bare leg, no doubt digging her sharp claws into him, but he doesn’t complain, he just pets her before gently placing her back on the couch.

I can feel my heart begin to soften just a little bit toward the little creature.

Charlotte rolls her eyes. “It was nothing.” She doesn’t offer any other explanation, which is far worse than actually explaining what happened. It’s always worse to let people fill in the blanks with their imagination.

“It really was nothing,” I agree. “I went to her apartment to help her with a bird that had gotten in through her window. She couldn’t get it to leave and no one else was answering so I went over to help.”

“Uh-huh,” Sky says, drawing out the words like she doesn’t really believe what I’m saying.

“You could have called Frank,” Jacob suggests.

“He’s pretty good with birds.” At Charlotte’s glare, Jacob looks back down at the blueprints and pretends like he’s re-calculating some numbers that he most likely can’t really make sense of.

Considering the numbers he’s looking at are ones I calculated myself, I know they’re right.

“It was late at night, okay? No one else was answering and I was clearly desperate. I knew he didn’t have Ethan, so I called him.”

“You knew enough to know he didn’t have Ethan?” Now I’m glaring at Sky, because I don’t want to get into this and we don’t have to explain ourselves to anyone. If they don’t want to believe what we told them, then that’s their problem. Not ours.

“Anyway, I’m here because you called me about the blueprints for the expansion.” I know they aren’t done with the subject, but I really don’t care. I came here for a reason, and running into Charlotte so we could get interrogated wasn’t it.

“So, we had an idea,” Jacob starts.

“It was really Jacob’s.” Sky finally turns her head away from Charlotte to look at Jacob like they’re the only ones in existence and there aren’t three other people in the room with them.

“Okay, gross. Please tell us the idea before I vomit.”

“For once, I agree with Charlotte.”

Sky’s eyes dart between us, her hands knotting together in front of her. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think she’s nervous, but she doesn’t get nervous. She hides behind her shield of sarcasm and makes quick quips before she lets any kind of nerves show.

Jacob takes her hand in his to settle them before continuing.

Her body eases slightly at his touch. “This project is really important to me. The clinic has really taken off thanks to Charlotte. We have a ton of online traffic because our presence online is better than ever, which isn’t much of a stretch considering before it was practically non-existent.

But I want this place to have just as much of an impact if not more and I think the expansion will do that. ”

He sounds so confident in his plans, I almost feel the small seed of jealousy try to take root in me. I’m happy for him, but I’m not too ashamed to admit I wish I had his confidence.

“I need this to be amazing and I want this space to feel as cohesive as possible.” He looks between Charlotte and me. He doesn’t say anything else like he’s waiting for something. Realization dawns on Charlotte’s face and I think she’s understanding something before me. I hate it.

“Oh absolutely not. I’m not doing that.”

“What?” I ask. “What aren’t you doing?”

Jacob looks at me directly, waiting for me to catch up. And when I finally do, I parrot Charlotte’s words. “Absolutely not.”

“C’mon, you two can’t put whatever differences you have aside to do this for me?”

Charlotte chortles. “The differences we have are deeper than you realize and I do not want to put them aside for anything. Especially to work together on a project that’s as important as this one is.

I’ll do as we agreed, Jacob. I’ll do the interior design, but I’m not working with him. I’m just not.”

Jacob and Sky make eye contact and have some sort of silent agreement before nodding. “What if I told you I could get you out of the apartment?” That gets Charlotte’s attention.

“I’m listening.”

“I’m fully moved out of my house. Our house is practically finished and our stuff is moved in. Mine is empty and I really don’t want to sell it. It needs a lot of work, but I figured since that’s something you love, maybe you could make it a home?”

“I can’t afford a house, J.”

“I’m not asking you to buy it from me.”

“I’m also not letting you give it to me. That’s too much.”

“Wait, if she doesn’t want the house, can I buy it from you?

” Ethan and I live in a small, two bedroom house we started renting when we moved back to Blue Grove when Sarah was sick.

Once she passed, we never moved, but having a bigger space that is more permanent would actually be nice.

It would show Ethan that I don’t have any plans of leaving here or going back to Seattle.

There are times I think he has doubts that I want to plant any kind of roots here because this was his mother’s home. Not mine.

“What?” Sky and Jacob ask together.

I look between all of their confused faces, feeling exposed all of the sudden. Part of me doesn’t want to admit what I’m thinking, but a bigger, homier space would mean the world to Ethan. To both of us.

“We could—” I hesitate and then look over at Ethan, the black kitten now perched on his shoulder reminding me of Frank and the parrot he adopted last year.

“I could buy it from you. I think.” It’s been a while since I’ve tried to get a loan from the bank, which is why we’re renting now.

With all of Sarah’s medical bills, it made it difficult to get something.

But it’s been long enough and her bills have been taken care of.

“The house we’re renting is nice, but I think we’d like to have a space that would be more permanent. And Ethan can have a bigger room. The one he has now is basically a closet and it would be nice to have a place that is in town.”

Jacob and Sky exchange a glance with each other. “It’s up to you. It’s your house.”

“It’s not anymore.” Jacob shrugs and moves around the desk. He stops a foot or so in front of me and reaches out his hand. I don’t take it right away, because I’m not sure what he’s reaching it out for.

“The house is yours if you want it.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Really?” I hesitate though.

They were originally offering the house to Charlotte and part of me feels like I’m stealing the house from her.

As much as we might dislike each other for the past, I don’t want to make her feel like I’m not going to respect her now. “Are you sure?” I ask her.

“Really sure,” she says without even looking up. She’s distancing herself from the conversation. Purposefully distracting herself with the fake-examination of the pink nail polish on her middle finger that I’m sure she wants to use for a very different purpose.

“Then it’s a deal?” My words come out as more of a question, because this is the last thing I would have expected from today. I grasp Jacob’s hand and we shake on it.

I risk a side glance at Charlotte who has turned her back to go to the couch—there’s been a lot of unexpected things lately. And I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot more.