Page 110 of Wrecked on the Mountain

"You're glowing," she continues, her voice gentle but insistent. "In Chicago, you were brilliant, dedicated, exhausted. Here? You'realive. You laugh at everything. You talk about your neighbors like family. You get excited about snowmobile maintenance and weird eating contests that I don't completely understand yet."

"That's just—"

"Just what? Just temporary? Brooke, you've built a life here. A real life. Not just a career, not just survival mode. A life. With people who care about you, work that fulfills you, and a man who looks at you like long lost treasure."

I think about last night after we got home from the waterfall. Making love to Jamie before I fell asleep in his arms felt different somehow. Desperate. Like we were both trying to memorize each other before everything changed.

Like goodbye.

But what if it doesn't have to be goodbye to anything?

"The Head of Trauma position is everything I've worked for," I whisper.

"Is it? Or is it everything you thought you were supposed to work for?"

It's like my heart shatters in my chest. Like that promise I made is about to be broken forever.

"I promised my father—"

"Your father wanted you to be happy, Brooke. He would besoproud that you save lives every day, yes, but he also wanted you to have a life worth living. You told me that yourself, remember? The night before you left Chicago?"

I did say that. Dad always said real strength comes from helping others, not sacrificing yourself for them.

"You're saving lives here too," Piper continues. "Maybe not as many as you would in a Level One trauma center, but you're saving them in a way that doesn't destroy you in the process. And maybe that's what your dad really wanted… for you to find a way to honor his memory without losing yourself."

I look at Piper, sitting there in her perfectly tailored coat and designer luggage, everything about her screaming sophisticated city life. Everything I thought I wanted to be.

But I don't want to be her anymore.

I want to be me. The me I've become here, in this place that healed my heart and gave me a future I never knew I wanted.

"I need to go," I say suddenly, my decision crystallizing like ice forming on the windshield.

"To Chicago?"

"No." I lean over and kiss her cheek quickly. "Get out."

Piper fumbles with the hot chocolate I shove in her hands. I reach across and pop the door handle so the door swings open onto the sidewalk.

"Brooke, what are—"

"I said get out! I'll text you… just GO!"

I slam the car into drive before her door's even fully closed, my travel mug abandoned on the passenger seat as Piper stumbles backward. Her designer suitcase topples sideways onto the curb, and her jaw drops in that perfect O-shape that would normally make me laugh if my heart wasn't thundering against my ribs right now.

Every cell in my body vibrates with certainty.

The tires screech like banshees as I peel out of the parking bay, leaving rubber marks that would make Jamie driver proud.

In my rearview mirror, Piper stands there with her arms thrown up in the air, her mouth still hanging open in shock. Her hair whips around her face as my exhaust fumes probably just ruined her designer coat.

I can't stop laughing.

Because I'm doing it. I'm actually doing it.

Eventually the laughter dies in my throat as I pull into the Mountain Rescue station parking lot.

I know what I want. I know where I belong.