No More Crossing Mountains for Her Chapter 2

The next morning, fog covered the mountains. Claire didn't come back until noon. She found me and held out her phone, the screen full of tailored suits.

"I remember you liked these when you were scrolling through my phone. Pick one. When we go down for the license, you can wear it at the wedding."

I ran a rough finger across the screen.

Men up here spend their lives carrying wood, working fields, and climbing steep ground. We wear clothes that can survive stone and mud and rain.

Four years ago Claire showed me a video of her friend's wedding, and that was the first time I'd ever seen a suit like that.

Back then I dreamed of wearing one and walking out of the mountains beside her. Now the dream felt like it belonged to someone else.

"No." I shook my head.

Her fingers tightened around the phone. "You're still angry?"

"No." I met her eyes calmly. "Grandpa already has my wedding clothes ready."

The night before, he'd measured me for the coat, using cloth Silas brought over. I was about to become somebody's husband.

Claire smiled and kept scrolling. "Fine. As long as you're happy with it."

Then she started talking about flowers and food and where we could hold the ceremony once we were out of the mountains. I barely heard her; my ears rang like they were full of water. Then she stood up suddenly and her smile disappeared.

"We start filming again today. Three days of final shooting, then I'll take you down."

She turned away before she could see my eyes redden, and I watched her disappear into the mountains.

Ignoring the pain in my feet, I crouched beside the wooden cabinet in the corner of our house. Inside were photographs from the last four years, and every one had writing on the back.

On the photograph taken near our village, Claire had written, "I'll love Noah forever." On one of us watching the sunrise, "Noah's smile is prettier than dawn."

I hesitated, then dropped them all in the trash.

After I'd sorted through everything, only one thing was left: a silver bracelet, the promise Claire made four years ago that she'd take me beyond the mountains. My chest tightened as I closed my hand around it.

"I should give it back."

I limped over to the next village. Ash was standing among the wildflowers and stone terraces in a bright new shirt, his hair combed back, not a speck of dirt on him, and he looked vivid in front of Claire's camera.

I stood in the shade, dusty and worn out, like something that had wandered into the wrong picture.

"Noah?" Claire looked surprised. A second earlier she'd been crouched beside Ash, carefully treating his leg.

"Did I interrupt you?" My throat felt blocked.

Her brows drew together. "Don't say it like that. I'm just putting medicine on his leg."

Then, without once looking at the wound on my own foot, she lifted his leg again and kept going.

Ash turned toward me and switched into the old mountain speech. Claire couldn't follow a word of it, and his voice went vicious while his face stayed perfectly innocent.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to get out of your way."

He laughed, mocking. "Quit pretending. You'd really give Claire up? You think she's actually going to take you out of these mountains? It's been four years. You're entertainment to her, something to pass the time while she films.

"She likes people who are bright and interesting, people like me. Not some quiet village boy who only knows how to wait for her. And now you've used up all seven trips, so you'll die up here like the rest of them."

I curled my fingers. "I know. That's why I'm getting married."

For the first time, Ash's confidence slipped. Then he raised his voice and switched back to plain speech.

"Nothing has ever happened between Claire and me. How can you make it sound so sordid?"

Claire hadn't understood a word he'd said before that, but she still decided, immediately, that I was the problem.

"Noah, there's a limit to how jealous you get to be. Ash was hurt because of my documentary. There's never been anything between us."

I looked down at the bracelet, then snapped it in two, and the metal fell onto the dirt. I forced the words past my throat.

"I won't be jealous anymore. Claire, we're over."