And then I blink, realization hitting. “Mirai…”
Shit. I throw back the covers and climb out of bed, heading for the chest of drawers where my phone is charging. I grab it, turn it on, and see a list of missed notifications—mostly calls from my mother’s assistant.
Ignoring the voicemails, I dial Mirai, noticing it’s before six on the west coast as I hold the phone to my ear.
She answers almost immediately.
“Mirai,” I say before she says anything.
“Tiernan, thank goodness.”
She breathes hard, like she either ran to the phone or just woke up.
“Sorry, my ringer was off,” I explain.
“You’re okay?”
“I’m fine.”
Chills spread up my arms, so I flip open the top of my suitcase and pull out my black sweatshirt, juggling the phone as I try to slip it over my head.
“So…are you going to stay?” she asks after a pause. “You know you don’t have to. If the house isn’t comfortable or you feel weird—”
“I’m okay,” I tell her. “The house is nice, and he’s…” I trail off, searching for my next word. What is he? “Hospitable.”
“Hospitable,” she repeats, clearly suspicious.
I clear my throat. “So how is the world?” I ask, changing the subject. “Anything that needs me?”
“Just take care of yourself,” she says, and I don’t miss the way she cuts me off. “I won’t bug you again. Call me if you want—I want you to—but I’ll stick to texts to check in from time to time. I just want you to forget about everything here for a while, okay? I got it handled.”
I look around the bedroom I slept in, thankful I have it to myself, because at least I have one place here that’s mine where I can go to be alone.
But the thought of walking out of this room and confronting new people makes my stomach roll, and I…
Just book me a flight back home, Mirai. I want to tell her that.
But I don’t.
Jake seems to be amenable to letting me be and not pushing too hard, but Noah is friendly. Too friendly.
And I’ve yet to meet Kaleb, so that’s another new person coming.
I walk for the double doors, needing some air.
The least of my worries should be what people are thinking or saying about my absence back home—and what they’re thinking and saying about my parents—but I can’t help it. I feel like far away and out of the loop is suddenly the last place I should be right now. Especially when I’ve foolishly hung my hat in the middle of nowhere, with some guy my father hated, and on land that smells like horse shit and dead, rotting deer carcasses.
I pin the phone between my ear and shoulder as I throw open the doors. “I should be there for…”
But I trail off, the doors spreading wide and the view looming in front of me.
My mouth drops open. Suddenly, I’m an inch tall.
“You should do what you need to do,” Mirai replies.
But I barely register what she says. I stare ahead, absently stepping onto my large wooden deck as I take in the expanse before me that I didn’t notice in the dark the night before.
My heart thumps against my chest.
So that’s “the peak.” It didn’t cross my mind that the town was named so for a reason.
In the distance, in perfect view between the trees beyond my balcony, stands a mountain, its granite peak gray and foreboding, skirted with green pines and topped with white clouds that make the scene so beautiful I stop breathing for a moment.
Holy shit.
It’s just there. A cathedral, sitting in front of a blue sky, and before I can stop myself, I raise my hand, reaching out for it like I want to take it in my fist, but all I can feel is the morning air breeze through my fingers.
I inhale, the smell of the earth and stone drifting through my nose even from here, the memory of the dead animal smell from last night forgotten. The scent of water hangs in the air, fresh but musty where it soaks into the soil and rock, and I inhale again, closing my eyes.
The hairs on my arms rise.
I need to leave now. I don’t want to get used to that smell, because it’ll stop being special before long.
“If you want to be here for the funeral, then be here,” Mirai goes on as if I still care about anything we were discussing. “If you don’t, I don’t think anyone will question the only daughter of Hannes and Amelia de Haas if she’s too distraught by the sudden death of both parents to attend the funeral.”