Page 46 of Into the Mountains (Blue Grove Mountain #3)

Hudson wastes no time as he lifts his bottle in my direction like he’s doing cheers and looks at his dad. “C’mon Dad, uhhhh…I think Ethan had a cool trick he wanted to show you that he taught Hobbles.”

George just chuckles, looking between Elias and me as he stands to go inside. I hear him mumble “Hobbles,” and continue laughing until the door shuts behind them and we are left with silence on the patio.

“Good name.” I probably should have started with something better than that, but it’s all I could think of. My courage faltered a little bit when three men were staring at me and two were awkwardly leaving.

“Ethan is nothing if not clever.”

“He is.”

Our body language is stiff and awkward. My arms mirror his, crossed at my chest. Partly because of the chill in the air, the other because I feel the need to cover myself. Protect myself in a way from the rejection I fear is coming.

“So, I came out here—”

“What did you come out here f—”

Our voices merge together on a one way path and I imagine myself veering off the way to avoid what I really want to say. Or ask.

He pauses and gestures for me to continue.

“I wanted to…” Why was this so hard? I used to do this often and I’m never this nervous. But I’ve also never given any of my exes second chances either.

I take a deep breath in. “Wantedtoseeifyou’dgoonadatewithme?

” It comes out in a massive jumble and I’d be surprised if he had the ability to put the words together.

Or take them apart in this case. A big operation game, only the thing we’re operating on is my brain and we have to carefully take out each word, letter by letter.

“Talk much, Charlie?” he jests, running a hand through his hair.

I tug my sweater sleeves until they’re over my hands, reverse it and run my hands through my hair, repeating his motion without meaning to. I see why he does it though. It’s strangely comforting.

His joke cycles through my head again. He’s actually making a joke right now?

But that’s who we are. We joke, we banter, we give each other shit, and I can feel the air get a little lighter. The gleam in his eye tells me he’s trying to bring that part of us back. At least for a moment. To help me.

“I do. It’s not my fault your small pea brain is too slow to understand.”

“Pea brain? Really?” He pushes himself off the wall and takes a few steps closer to me. Inches apart. I could reach out my foot if I wanted and make contact with his shin. As satisfying as that may be, that’s a little too childish even for us.

“Pea brain is a little beneath you, isn’t it?”

I lift my head in a challenge, my chin pointed upwards as I meet his eyes.

Strands of blond hair fall in front of them and I fight the urge to brush them back.

The feeling of them tangled in my fingers rushes back to the nerves at my fingertips.

They’re buzzing with desire to move. To follow the path his hands made moments before.

“I don’t think it is. It hit right where I wanted it to.” I press my pointer finger to the middle of his forehead. “Right in that massive ego. The opposite of your tiny pea brain.”

“Oh now it’s not just small, but it’s tiny, is it?”

“Don’t forget your massive ego.”

“Just as massive as—”

“You’d be a medical marvel if your dick was as massive as your ego.”

He throws his head back and his laugh reverberates deep in his chest. When his head lowers, his smile reaches all the way to his eyes as it goes from hilarious to charming. One that makes my insides swoop like we’re careening down the world’s fastest roller coaster.

An arm encircles my waist and he pulls me closer, stopping with only an inch left between us and before he has a chance to do what he was planning, I see his eyes flick over my head.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I follow his gaze and land on four faces practically pressed against the glass of the sliding door. As soon as my head turns, the four guilty parties try to act like they were just about to fall through the glass.

I scamper away and put a few inches between us as Ethan grabs for the door handle to slide it open. He’s too busy wrangling the kittens to notice how close we were to one another.

“Hey Dad, I found this game in the closet that has something to do with trains. Have you ever played it?”

He looks at me before he glances at the large box Ethan is juggling in his hands while Erebor and Hobbles perch on his shoulder. Ticket to Ride is on the top of it in red bold letters with tracks wrapping around the sides of the box.

“As a matter of fact, I have.” He throws a wink my way. “And I’m really good at it.”

“Can we play?”

“I’m down as long as you know how much of a sore loser your old man can be,” I joke with a punch to Elias’s shoulder.

“If anyone’s a sore loser around here it’s Georgie,” Hudson’s voice joins the mix and George immediately protests.

“The last time we had a game night, I seem to remember, you’re the one who tripped,” he puts air quotes around the last word. “And ruined the board because you were dead last.”

Hudson waves him off. “It wasn’t my fault there were shoes that belonged to a certain kid over here.”

“Oh no, Uncle Hud, you aren’t blaming me for that one. You clearly saw my shoes when you sat down and you moved them to that side. Which means, you tripped on purpose.”

“Traitor.”

Ethan puts one hand up in defense. “Hey, I’m just gathering the evidence.”

“Yeah, a regular Sherlock Holmes,” Hudson drawls.

“You really do sound like a sore loser right now,” I mock.

“Alright, fine. Let’s play whatever this game is. Better than the Wingspan game we played last time. Stupid birds.”

I nod my head in agreement with his last statement. Birds are horrible and any game with them in it, I’d rather stay miles away from.

“You know wingspan means something completely different in the book world,” Sky chimes in with a sly smile.

“One of you just had to say that word,” Jacob says with a groan filled with something that says this isn’t the first time he’s been desperate to not talk about what Sky is bringing up.

“Oh he’s going to act like he doesn’t want to talk about it, but then wants to hide the fact we discussed what we thought his wingspan would be in the faerie world.”

“What does wingspan mean?” asks George, sounding genuinely curious.

With the look on Sky’s face, I can tell it’s something that probably isn’t appropriate for ears younger than…

well, young kids. So, before she has a chance to jump into whatever conversation she was about to and make George regret asking his question, I raise my voice slightly louder than I intended.

“Alright. Let’s go inside and play the game.” I start to usher people inside and mutter to Sky that she can explain what she meant to me later.

Everyone makes their way into the house with Elias and me being the last on the porch. I start to turn back to him to ask if he had an answer, but a small hand yanks me inside before I have the chance. “C’mon, Charlotte! Pick a color.”

I have no choice but to follow him in and sit at the long wooden table. Hudson and Avery are already seated with Jacob and Sky across from them and George is already pulling out the board and the pieces.

“So how should we do this? There’s only five players max,” I say.

“Couples?” Avery suggests.

“Nah, let’s make it guys against girls.”

“Mmm, you would make it that way, Elias,” I accuse.

“What?” he asks in a voice with faux innocence. “It’s how stuff is usually split up when couples aren’t an option.”

“Can I be on Charlotte’s team?” Ethan asks. I can’t help but laugh and maybe gloat a tiny bit at Elias.

“You absolutely can.”

After plenty of debating and Isabelle deciding she would rather watch than compete for bragging rights, the teams are as follows: Ethan and me, Elias and Hudson, Sky and Avery, and Jacob and George.

“You two are so going down,” Hudson says, making a sad attempt at taunting.

“Really? Trying to taunt your nephew? Isn’t that beneath you, Hudson?”

He lets out a barking laugh. “If that’s what you think, Charlotte, then you haven’t gotten to know me very well over the last year.”

My eyes narrow as I glare at him. He glares back and neither of us breaks.

“You’re the one who’s going to be pretending to trip again just to get out of the game,” Ethan says pointing at his uncle. Everyone takes their seats as George divvies up the game pieces.

And we play.

“And,” George draws out as he calculates the rest of the scores with his pencil on his notepad. “It looks like the winners are Ethan and Charlotte.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Hudson shouts in disbelief. “How? We got the longest road! That’s extra points.”

“Doesn’t matter in this case. They had more than you. Face it, son. You lost,” he pauses. “Again.” Hudson glares at his dad’s smirk and I wouldn’t be able to suppress my smile if I wanted to.

I reach out my hand and put on my biggest smile just for him. Really, just to taunt him even more.

“Good game, Hudson.”

He squints his eyes at me knowingly, but I see the quick glance he gives to his nephew who is already busy showering Hobbles, who just woke up, with his attention.

He takes my hand and I expect him to try to crush my bones together like kids in high school used to do so I automatically retaliate.

Except I do it in advance and Hudson yanks his hand back.

“Ow, what was that for?”

“Sorry, I thought you were going to….never mind. Sorry,” I fumble over my words, suddenly embarrassed.

Ethan lets out a long yawn that ends with a sleepy groan. “We better get going,” Elias says in response. “This guy needs some sleep. Got a big birthday coming up.”

“Dad, that’s not for another two weeks.”

“Yeah, but you’ve gotta rest up to be a nine year old. Nine year olds have tons more responsibility, but also tons more fun. So you need all the rest you can get.”

He doesn’t even argue as he grabs Hobbles and starts towards the door, leaving Elias to wrangle the other two. Erebor settles himself on one of Elias’s shoulders and Sable decides she is content to stay cuddled in his arms, head resting in the crook of his elbow.

“I better head out too. I’m exhausted.” I follow Ethan and Elias out the door and Hudson and Avery are close behind. Before I leave the porch, I turn back to Isabelle and George and hug them both thanking them for dinner.

“You’re welcome here anytime dear,” Isabelle squeezes my shoulder as her husband gives me a nod from behind her in agreement.

I turn and see Elias at the bottom step of the porch and I almost decide not to say anything. Instead, I won’t let myself chicken out this time.

“You never did answer my question, Eli.”

“What question?” Ethan asks eagerly.

“Yeah, what question, Eli ?” Hudson jokes.

We both ignore them and just stare at each other. Him at the bottom of the porch stairs, me at the top, leaning on the nearby post. For support and for something to hold onto.

“You know I’d never say no to you, Charlie.” And he turns with his son, three kittens divided between them, and walks to his truck.

I can’t help but watch them walk away with a dimple deep smile on my face, ready to see what’s next. To see what a real second chance might bring for the two of us.

“Holy shit,” I hear Avery say behind me.

With one look at Avery, Hudson throws his own disbelief into the mix. “No way?” he yells like he’s almost questioning his own existence. He must be more in tune with his wife than I knew. George and Isabelle crowd the porch behind them, wondering what all the commotion is.

I imagine all they had to see was Eli throwing a wink over his shoulder at me to know exactly what my question was.