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CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Joey
Tears blur my vision as I race down the mountain. Gavin’s words still haunt me.
You know you let people walk all over you, don’t you?
This is dumb. We aren’t kids anymore.
Every toxic comment he wrote me. Five fucking pages explaining to me all the reasons he didn’t want to write to me anymore. He didn’t put our friendship above everything else like I had. Gavin’s letter made me realize I’ve been living in a fantasy. One that felt too good to be true because it was. I was never meant to move here or meet him. I should have stayed home, received that letter, and moved on from my stupid crush. Instead, he showed me all the things I wanted to see, knowing damn well he didn’t plan on me staying.
The drive down the mountain is steep and narrow, and I honestly don’t know if I’m going the right way. Hiccups hit me hard, and I shake with a broken heart. Billy the Kid is on the floor bleating for me to stop, but my head is so clouded I don’t hear it as the warning to slow down, and I cut the corner too quick, then suddenly I’m plowing into the bumper of a pickup truck. The tires of my old car skid across the gravel, and my heart lurches as my car doesn’t stop; instead, it leans too far over the side. Gravity pulls me closer to the rocky cliff. I scream in fear as my trunk tips over the edge. There we sit. Billy is now in my lap, me holding him tight, begging him not to move us off balance.
I’m a blubbering mess, too afraid to move but screaming for help as I white knuckle my steering wheel and squeeze my goat so tight I hope the poor thing can still breathe. Just when I feel the car shift, I send up one last prayer to God to save us, then suddenly, my door swings open, and two large arms rip me out.
Me and my goat land hard on our hero, and when I glance back just in time to watch all my belongings tumble down the cliff. A huge boom sounds around us as trees break, and the crunch of metal sounds through the trees. Then finally, the old beater meets her death at the gruesome bottom of the mountain.
Righting ourselves, the man clears his throat, and I notice another man with a nice smile and an outstretched hand which I take and get to my feet.
“Oh my god, thank you.” It is all I can manage. My tears have stopped, but that’s because of the shock and panic currently taking over. I almost fell down the mountain. I just lost everything.
“Hey, now, it’s alright. You’re alright. I’m Ajax Grayson, and this is my brother. Everything’s going to be alright.”
“It’s really not,” I whisper but then snap out of it. These guys just saved my life. “I mean, thank you. You saved us. Thank you so much.”
“Well, sure. What are you doing out here? Can we take you home?”
Emotion blocks my throat. I don’t belong here, and yet this stupid mountain is trying to keep me…or kill me.
“Could I get a ride into town? I’m friends with Robin at Pour Decisions. I can use her phone to call…”
I don’t want to admit it, but I want to call my daddy. Fuck, this hurts so much, and his big bear hug is exactly where I want to be right now.
“Do you have someone to call, ma’am?”
“Yeah. A ride would be great, thanks.”
The two handsome men in government-looking uniforms, rangers maybe, nod and lead a shaking Billy the Kid and me to their truck. Or maybe it’s me that’s shaking.
“I’m so sorry about your truck. I have full insurance and will be happy to take care of the repairs myself if you’d like…or well, I guess I could stay to repair it, or just pay for it,” I say once buckled up in between the two burly mountain men.
“You a mechanic?” Ajax asks to my right.
“I am, yeah.”
“You doin’ some work for Gavin?”
I just nod, not wanting to get into details, and he must sense my hesitation because the conversation drops, and we continue down the steep drive down the mountain. Ajax stops and honks at each sharp turn, listening for a honk back before making the turn. If I had known to do that, I might be on the highway back to Starlight Bay. As it is, I’m stuck here until I can pay my debt and get a new car.
Twenty minutes later,we’re pulling into the local dive bar. The guys won’t leave my side, and they swear it’s because they want to make sure I’m alright and it has nothing to do with the damage to their truck. If I were in the city, I wouldn’t believe them, but these men seem very protective, and after the chaos of my day, it’s nice to not feel alone.
“No goats, Joey,” Robin says, wiping down the counter, but when she double-takes, her face is a mask of panic. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
I break down crying, and she wraps me in her arms. We both squish Billy the Kid, but he doesn’t make a peep.
“Why do you have a goat?”
“I’m stealing him,” I sniffle.
