Page 108 of Wrecked on the Mountain

"It's not a sacrifice if it keeps us together."

I cup her face in my hands, brushing away a tear with my thumb.

"Brooke, listen to me. Seven years ago, Rebecca left me because she said Stone River wasn't enough. ThatIwasn't enough. But you know what the real problem was? I never offered to leave with her. I was so convinced that loving someone meant they had to fit into my world, my life, my town. I never once considered fitting into theirs."

Her eyes widen, and I can see her processing this.

"I don't regret letting her go. But I won't make that mistake again. Because I know I would regret lettingyougo." I pull her closer, needing to feel her heat, her touch, her hands. "If Chicago is where you need to be, sweetheart, then Chicago is where we'll be. Together."

"Your parents, your sisters—"

"Will visit. Chicago has airports, right? And holidays exist. We'll come back for Christmas, summers maybe. Chloe's always wanted to expand the bakery business anyway. I could make those chocolate swirly things, right?"

Brooke looks like she's about to laugh, but the seriousness of it all stops it before it begins.

I'm talking faster now, the plan crystallizing as I speak. It's not perfect, but it's possible. And possible is all we need.

"I'll sell the cabin, help you find a place. Maybe something with a view of the lake? You always said you missed water..."

"Jamie, stop."

But I can't stop.

Because if I stop talking, I'll have to think about what I'm really offering to give up.

The mountain that's been in my family for three generations. The rescue operation my grandfather built from nothing. Sunday dinners and Chloe's teasing and the sunrise from Cascade Ridge that I've watched a thousand times just to bring myself back from the ledge that drew me so fucking close after Rebecca left.

"I know it's crazy, but crazy works sometimes.Wework. And if this job is what you need—"

"It's not what I need!"

The words explode out of her, sharp enough to cut through my rambling.

"Jamie, it's not what I need." Her hands grip mine so tight it's painful. "It's what I thought I wanted, but that was before..."

She gestures between us, her hands shaking.

"Before this. Before you. Before I realized that everything I've been chasing my whole life was just trying to fill a hole that you've already filled."

I stare at her, afraid to hope.

"I'm confused, sweetheart. You're saying you want to stay?"

"I want to stay. God, I want to stay so much it terrifies me. But Jamie, this is the job I've been working toward since I was nine years old. It's everything I promised my father I'd become."

And there it is, laid out with words that reveal themselves before our very eyes.

The real conflict.

Not Chicago versus Stone River.

Not career versus love.

It's the promise she made to a dying man when she was just a little girl.

"Then we go," I say simply. "It's simple, Brooke. We honor that promise together."

Brooke stares at me in complete disbelief, and I realize I've just created a problem neither of us intended.