Page 70 of Mountain Refuge
Belle preened like a damn peacock at those words. She smiled over her shoulder at her adoring audience of her grammy, uncle, father, and brother—though the latter wasn’t actually paying attention to her. Lucas was babbling to himself as he doodled at the coffee table. I had a placemat down so the crayon wax didn’t ruin Corbin’s custom built table, but Corbin always waved it off whenever the subject of ‘child damage’ came up.
Belle turned back to the microphone. “TT, are you okay? Daddy says you got hurt and that I have to be careful hugging you when I finally see you again. Over.”
“I’m fine, sweet girl. Or I will be. I’ll look a bit scaryfor a little while, but I promise I’m still me.”There was a pause before Trenton added,“Over.”
“I’m glad you’re okay. You’re going to love it up here. I climb trees and hang out with Uncle Corbin in his shop. I even help him paint! I am learning about different plants and Grammy is teaching me to cook. My birthday’s coming up! Last year, she made me a spaghetti cake. This year, I think I want a mashed potato cake with gravy icing. Over.”
I looked at Gertie, who just shrugged. By Belle’s birthday, we would be living at Brooke’s, but that didn’t mean we would not be celebrating with Gertie and Corbin too. I had no doubt that Belle would get her cake.
“That sounds… Um, delicious,” Trenton stumbled. I could hear Brooke’s muffled laughter in the background.“I am looking forward to meeting your uncle and grammy. Will you tell me about them? Over.”
Trenton had briefly met Corbin the day he’d arrived in Whitefish and was likely trying to make conversation with his eight-year-old sister.
“Uncle Corbin ishuge!He’s the biggest giant there ever was! And Grammy is his mom but she’s little. She helps me with my studies when Daddy’s busy kissing Brooke.”—I had just taken a sip of my coffee when Belle spoke and ended up choking on hot liquid and spurting some out my nose. It burned as I tried to catch my breath but Belle continued talking without even noticing.—“Uncle Corbin is teaching me to hunt too. I’m really good with a bow and arrow. He says I’m a natural. Over.”
“That’s great to hear, sweetheart. What about Lucas? How’s he doing? Over.”I could hear the humor in Trenton’s voice too.
“He’s getting big! He’s able to run now and I’m helping to teach him his ABCs and his numbers. He doesn’t really get it, but Daddy says he will. Do you want to say ‘hi’ to him? Over.”
“I would love to. Over.”
Belle hopped off the chair. She walked to Lucas and picked him up around his waist. He giggled and squirmed, but she held on. After helping Lucas onto the chair, she keyed the microphone again. “TT, say ‘hi’ to Lucas. Over.”
“Hi, Lucas. Over.”
Belle encouraged my son to talk into the microphone. Lucas put his mouth right up to the pop shield and said, “Hi!”
Belle was still holding the microphone key down as she said, “Lucas, you’re talking to TT. He’s our brother. Say ‘hi, TT’.”
Lucas spoke again, “Hi, TT!”
“Over,” Belle added.
“It’s so great to hear your voice, Lucas. I can’t wait to meet you. Over.”
Lucas nodded and said in the adorable way he does, “Yeah!” Then he scooted down and waggled his way back over to the coffee table.
Belle retook her seat. “He left. He’s coloring. Over.”
“Thank you for helping him, Belle. You’re a great big sister. Over.”
Belle puffed out her chest and said confidently, “I know,” before continuing her conversation.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Brooke
It was finally moving day. The snow had finally relented enough for Corbin to hook a trailer up to the ATV and get it down to my cabin safely. A lot had happened in the five weeks since Josie and Trenton had come to the mountain.
Both were healing exceptionally well, considering. Trenton needed a lot of help with both hands injured. It had been awkward the first few days before the two of us had figured out a routine and how I could help Trenton while still offering him a sense of modesty and pride. Having to be fed like a baby was not exactly dignifying. Eventually, things got easier as Trenton got stronger and his hands healed up more. His right hand would remain casted for another couple of weeks, but he had been experimenting with removing the brace from his left for short periods of time.
Right after Josie and Trenton came up to the mountain, Jack had fallen sick with pneumonia. In all my time here and knowing Jack, I couldn’t recall a time when he’d ever been sick. Thankfully, the town pitched in to help Jack as well as keep his store open. Even with the Mutineers he had planted all over, noone could do what Jack did with a computer. He tried to keep up, but his health had faltered and eventually Jack had to concede that he lost track of Gunther. The last anyone had seen of him, he was headed overseas to visit with Trenton’s mother and his in-laws—though I couldn’t imagine what sort of terms he was on with them.
That was about three weeks ago.
While Elijah did not blame Jack and expressed only for him to take his time to get himself healthy, I knew that he was worried. The times the weather had cleared enough for Elijah, Corbin, and/or Dalton to make it down so we could start working on the construction, I could tell from the bags under Elijah’s eyes that he was not sleeping well. I wished that I could be there for him, to help soothe his fears, but he was not willing to be separated from his kids while Gunther’s whereabouts were still unknown.
I wished Elijah would trust my mountain as I did. Even if by some fluke of a miracle Gunther did learn that Adam Greene and all three of his children were on this mountain, there was no way he could get to us. The roads were still not passable. Additionally, Owen and several other Mutineers were remaining in town to keep an eye on things while Jack was in the hospital.
