Page 23 of Consumed By The Forbidden Mountain Man

Tony's whole body changes. Shoulders squaring, chin dropping. Big brother mode. His eyes cut to me, then back to Reid.

"What about Ivy."

"Can we walk?" Reid glances at me. Brief. Loaded. "Give us ten minutes."

They walk into the trees. Toward the trail that leads down to town. I stand on Tony's porch watching them disappear into the pines, two broad-shouldered men with history between them that goes back thirty years.

Ten minutes is the longest ten minutes of my life. I sit on the porch step. Stand up. Sit down. Pick at a thread on my sweater. Check my phone. Put it down. Pick it up.

Me:

Holly if you're praying for anything today pray for me

Holly:

Already on it honey. Cinnamon roll waiting for you either way

Fifteen minutes. A blue jay screams from somewhere on the ridge. My hands won't stop shaking.

Then voices. Coming back up the trail. Two sets of boots on packed dirt.

They come through the trees together. Tony's face is tight. Not furious. Not smiling. Somewhere between processing and deciding.

Reid's face is unreadable.

Tony walks up to the porch, stops in front of me.

"You're sleeping with my best friend."

"Tony."

"You're sleeping with my best friend who is twelve years older than you, who I asked to look out for you, who I've known since I was nine years old."

"Yes."

He stares at me. Hard. Then he turns to Reid, who's standing at the edge of the clearing with his hands in his pockets, looking like a man waiting for a verdict.

"You got anything to add?"

Reid's jaw works. When he speaks, his voice is low. Steady. "I'm in love with her, Tony."

Everything stops.

The blue jay. The wind. My lungs. All of it stops.

Reid is looking at Tony, not at me. Shoulders square, feet planted. This isn't an apology. This isn't a guilty confession dressed up in careful language.

He's standing in front of his best friend of thirty years and telling the truth.

"She's the best thing that's walked into my life since everything fell apart. I know you trusted me. I know this isn't what you asked for. But I'm not gonna stand here and pretend it doesn't matter, because it matters more than anything has in a long time."

Tony is quiet. His jaw is doing the same thing Reid's does. Flex, release, flex.

"How long?"

"Since the first week of the festival."

"You couldn't have called me?"