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She smirks. “Since I don’t know your name, I think I will.”

A confused smile tugs at my lips. “What?”

“Call you curious.”

My eyes flash wide then I nod. “Hmm. OK. And what should I call you then?”

She leans closer, the scent of vanilla and rose with a touch of citrus filling the air between us. “What have you been callin’ me in your head?”

My cheeks burn hot, and I decide it’s the perfect time to grab my coffee cup and take a long healthy swig from it. Deflection will work. At least that’ll buy me time to work out why I’m having such a reaction to this beautiful stranger. “You’ve still got one more guess for me, remember?”

Her smile widens and I realize I’ve shown my hand, so to speak.

Her voice drops to a whisper, her addicting eyes locked to mine.

“C’mon, curious. Tell me. It can be our little secret.

” She straightens on her stool and loads her fork up with a mouthful of pie, cream, and ice cream.

“Besides, it’s not like we’re goin’ to see each other again after tonight.

I’m not goin’ to be around here after tomorrow and lookin’ at those designer clothes of yours, I’m guessin’ you won’t be either. ”

“Beautiful stranger…” I say quietly, unable to look away from her gorgeous expressive face. The surprised joy that takes over her features makes it worth my while because it takes my breath away.

“Hmm, I like that. Makes me think I need to up my name game and come up with an even better one for you.” Her words don’t register straight away because I’m too focused on the way her lips purse around her fork.

“No,” I say a little too quickly. “I’ve never been called curious before.

Quiet, sure. Invisible, I’ve definitely felt like it.

Far too busy to see the wood from the trees?

True, unfortunately. Curious? Not once.” My eyes jump wide when I realize how much I just revealed about myself.

“I’m sorry. You don’t need me dumpin’ my problems on you over pie and coffee. ”

She bites her lip, her big brown eyes soft and gentle as they roam over my face. I spot a dose of her own curiosity shining back at me. Is she just as intrigued by me as I am by her?

“Do you trust me, curious?” she asks.

I stare at her for a moment as the truth sinks in. “Yeah. I think I do.”

“Then maybe we don’t have to talk about our problems over coffee and pie.

What about a drink? There’s a low-key dive bar about a block west of here.

I passed it earlier. We could find a quiet corner, grab a drink, and just talk.

Only one though because I’ve got a long drive tomorrow.

No pressure. No expectations. Hell, we don’t even know each other’s names . ”

I take her in and look for any sign that I’m misreading this–which has been known to happen–or whether I should trust my gut this time.

Because there’s nothing I want more than to take her up on her offer.

To find that dark, quiet corner table and just talk about anything and everything.

I don’t even care if I just end up listening all night.

If it’s my beautiful stranger’s voice I’m hearing, I don’t think there’s anything she could say that I wouldn’t want to hear.

That’s strange, right? We’ve only just met. I don’t even know her name…

“I have one condition,” I say, catching her by surprise.

“What’s that?”

“You make your third guess.”

And wouldn’t you know it after I finish my coffee and she finishes her pie, she somehow guesses that I’m ‘a tech guy from the Lower 48,’ following it with a quick assurance that ‘she won’t hold it against me.’

So that’s exactly what we do. I lead her out of the diner with my hand resting on the small of her back and follow her directions to the bar.

That was the start of the best night of my life.

We sequestered ourselves at the dark corner booth at the back of the bar and nursed one drink each while we talked. The more we shared, the closer I felt to her.

When she put her hand palm up on the leather seat between us and nodded down to it, I slid my fingers between hers.

It was one of the most profound moments of my life.

Maybe the most, if I’m being honest. Because the moment my skin touched hers, it was the first time in my life I felt whole… right… complete.

Then we continued like she hadn’t just changed me forever, holding hands the whole time.

We kept it up past last call and kept the connection as we left the bar and made the slow walk back to my hotel.

Once in my room, we didn’t do anything other than lie on the bed and face each other.

Talking about everything and nothing. All of it things that are important to us.

Stuff you wouldn’t normally confess to a stranger.

Like my depression and my job. How I’ve let work take over my life and leave me with not much else to speak about, and how her life as she knew it–the one she’d built herself over many years–was about to change dramatically.

How—just like me—she’d gone for a walk to escape her thoughts. Because that day her mom had finally been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, and she was now committed to moving back to her hometown to help take care of her.

All night we kept sharing, confessing, and thinking out loud. We did it until our voices turned hoarse and our eyes grew heavy just as the sun was coming up. And the whole time, we held hands like we were each other’s lifeline…. the anchor we needed.

I drifted off to sleep with a smile on my face, feeling lighter and freer than I’d ever felt before.

Except when I opened my eyes again, my beautiful stranger was gone. All that was left was a note on the nightstand, one that to this day is still folded up and hidden away in my wallet.

Curious,

Thank you for giving me exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it.

Until we meet again,

Your beautiful stranger.

After meeting with Gramps’s lawyer and being told news that we didn’t expect, my brothers and I walk right out of the law office and straight through the doors of the bar next door.

All four of us make a beeline to the bar, all of us still in a state of shock.

Ironically, it’s the same bar I visited last night.

When the bartender appears, my oldest brother Will hands over his credit card to open a tab, ordering four shots of whisky.

Will turns to our youngest brother Jude, who mirrors his stance next to Sutton, who’s next to me.

After each claiming a glass, we all lock eyes before throwing back our shots in unison.

I knock a knuckle on the wood as the barman eyes us all with curiosity and mild concern as he dutifully refills the shot glasses again.

"Anyone goin' to speak?" Will rasps.

As the oldest, he has always been the natural leader of us siblings.

Something that has come in useful in his adult life as head of his own construction company in Chicago.

He’s the type to carry a heavy load and never complain about it.

To be honest, I’m surprised he hasn’t burned himself out by now.

"Not sure I'm ready to say anythin' just yet," I mutter, swiping over my mouth with the back of my hand. "Think we better switch to beer if we're goin' to have a coherent conversation."

"Good plan," Sutton says with a disbelieving laugh.

Through his last will and testament, Gramps proved he wasn't just astute, worldly, and wise like his lawyer John described, he was sneaky too.

We’re all a little lost for words because we’re not only the soon-to-be owners of the mountain Gramps lived on for most of his life but the ranch and everything from there down to the town of Timber Falls too.

Yes, we now own a mountain and a ranch. It's a place we know well, where we spent every Summer until our late teens.

If it was just owning it, it would be fine. We never expected Gramps to include a condition that all four of us brothers must live together on the mountain for two years before it officially becomes ours.

Hence the shots.

I bump Will’s shoulder with mine when I catch him scrubbing his face. "Hey, it's not that bad, is it?"

He stares at me for a moment with a dumbfounded look on his face. "No. But it is a total mind f–"

"Here are your beers," the barman says. "Let me know if you need somethin' else. Food? A bible? Anythin'." He laughs at his own joke. "Cause, no offense, y'all look like you've just lost everythin' or won everythin’. At least somethin’, anyway.”

"Not everythin'," Sutton says with a wry laugh.

"Definitely somethin'," Jude adds.

Jude is a bundle of energy. Luckily, Mom and Dad caught on to his ADHD and dyslexia very early and were able to get him all the help and resources he needed.

He works as a landscape architect in Atlanta, his passion for plants and anything green cultivated during his visits with Gramps now helping him have a successful career. Him living so far away is just one of the many reasons why we don’t all see each other that often.

For him to be quieter than usual tells me he’s just as shocked by today’s news as the rest of us.

"Yeah. A whole mountain of somethin's," I mutter.

Here I am trying to get my mind off my beautiful stranger and our surreal, unexpected night together, and now I’m contemplating uprooting my entire life to live on an Alaskan mountain for a couple of years.

To his credit, the barman looks between the four of us and shakes his head before walking away, mumbling something about crazy city folk under his breath.

"Are we really goin’ to do this?” Jude says. “Seriously? We haven't lived together in years ."

"I can't just walk away from my life back home. I have responsibilities," I argue, although I don’t really mean it.

I don’t have much of a life to speak of. I work, sleep, rinse and repeat. That’s pretty much it. So, the idea of switching it up and taking a bit of a break from Silicon Valley isn’t as daunting as I thought it would be. Maybe it’s exactly what I need...

Sutton shoots me a skeptical look. "Do you though? Because you've been sayin’ for months that you’re stuck and need a change."

I open my mouth to argue but slam it shut again. Needing to deflect the attention off me, I turn to Jude.

"What about you? You've just started that new job, haven't you?"

"You mean the job I started six months ago?” He stares at me in disbelief before looking at the others. “Jeez, have we all drifted that far apart?"

He's right. We have. Our lives are so busy and we're so spread out that we only get together three times a year. What kind of life is that when you don’t have any time to see your family? Your brothers?

"What are we supposed to do? Just pack up our lives and move to Timber Falls?" Will says thinking out loud. His words hang between us for a good long while as we slowly drink our beer in somewhat of a comfortable silence.

"Will?" Sutton says, leaning back to peer over Jude. "Are you happy?"

It’s Will’s turn to look like a gaping fish this time. Sutton speaks again before Will can answer. "Because I don't think I am. Not truly. Not in a 'look back at my life and feel fulfilled' kind of way."

I tilt my head. “Is that therapist talk, Sutt?”

"No. Just bein' honest, I guess. That's not to say that I'm not nervous as all get out about what could happen if we do this.”

Sutton’s always been in touch with his emotions. He intuitively picks up on things without having to be told. Out of all four of us, he's the one who always keeps in touch and never lets life get in the way of doing that.

He was diagnosed with anxiety when he was fifteen and has learned how to manage it so effectively that it's easy to forget he even has it. He's smart—life and book smart—and makes sure not to let his mental illness rule his life. Something I’ve learned a lot from him about.

In many ways, Sutton's the glue that keeps us all together just because of the man he is.

“OK. Do you think we might be able to find whatever fulfillment we're all lookin’ for at Cooper Ranch, even if it's in the middle of nowhere?" I ask.

"Don't know," Sutton replies. "But we won't know unless we try. And what's two years? I've lived thirty-three so far and it still feels like somethin's missin' and has been for my entire life."

"If Gramps found his on the mountain, then maybe he thinks— thought— we might too," Jude says. Damn, I never thought of it like that. "What do you think, Will?"

Will looks each of us in the eye. "You all feel that too?"

I turn to Sutton, who looks at Jude, who shifts his gaze to me before we all turn back to Will. And just like that, the decision is made.

"We're really doin' this?" Will presses, as if needing to hear it out loud. "We're goin' to pack up and move to Alaska?"

Jude holds up his beer, Sutton and I following his lead as we all turn to our big brother. "Come on, Will. We're not doin' it unless we drink to it," Jude says.

Will snorts. "Not sure that's a healthy tradition to start.”

"OK. Then we can at least clink to it. How ‘bout that? Then it doesn't have to be alcohol. It could be coffee, sweet tea, root beer–"

" Or good ol' fashioned liquor," I reply, lifting my bottle in the air and nodding to Will.

"C'mon, big brother. We can't do it without you.

Like literally . Gramps said it's all of us or bust and we all know you're not just the oldest, you're our leader.

So, what say you? Are we doin' this crazy thing? "

Will taps his bottle against mine, before doing the same to Sutton and Jude before a slow growing smile replaces his frown.

"Timber Falls, hold your hats. Cause the Coopers are comin’ back."