Can't Forget You Read online

  After graduation, they’d drifted in different directions, but last year when Ethan had called with his idea for Off-the-Grid Adventures, Mark had jumped at the chance. It had come at just the right time, after his career with the Special Forces had ended. Instead of reenlisting and hoping the Army could find a new post for him, he’d gotten out and come home to Haven. This place, and these guys, had been exactly what he needed.

  “Actually, since you’re ditching us to run the haunted zip-line without you while you’re on your honeymoon, I’d say you owe us one,” Ryan said.

  Ethan grumbled good-naturedly. “Fine, fine. Let me finish this side, then you can take over.”

  “That’s more like it,” Ryan said with a grin, watching as Ethan lifted another load of dirt out of the hole. “Speaking of your wedding, I’ve got everything set for your bachelor party tomorrow.”

  “Still not going to tell me where we’re going?” Ethan asked.

  “Nope,” Ryan answered.

  Wednesday might be an unconventional day for a bachelor party, but they were the sole owners of Off-the-Grid and it made much more sense financially to shut the place down on a Wednesday than a Saturday so that they could whoop it up with Ethan before he tied the knot.

  Ryan had booked them for a skydive outside Boone tomorrow afternoon—that’s how adrenaline junkies did bachelor parties—and then a night of bar-hopping. None of them had appointments scheduled back here until Thursday afternoon so they’d have plenty of time to sleep off any resulting hangovers.

  “As long as it involves beer, I’m down,” Ethan said, but Mark knew it was killing him not to know where they were going.

  Ignoring him, Ryan turned to Mark. “Any word on the land?”

  Mark shook his head. “Haven’t heard anything yet.”

  “Piss-poor luck that Jessica wants it too,” Ryan said.

  “Tell me about it.”

  Ethan flipped the scoop backward, spilling dirt everywhere. “Oops. Listen, I like Jessica as much as the next guy, but this land would be a really sweet addition to our property. I’ve been thinking about that mountain bike track since we opened this place so I won’t be sorry if her offer falls short.”

  Ryan shot a cautious look in Mark’s direction. “I guess we’ll wait to hear from the realtor and then see what our next step will be.”

  Mark nodded. He knew that they couldn’t pussyfoot around because of his history with Jess.

  “I know my next step,” Ethan said with a grin. “I vote we fill this baby with water and give it a go.”

  “We agreed not to fill the pit with water until a few days before the event,” Ryan said.

  “But what if, for argument’s sake, we add water and find out it’s not deep enough? Or too deep? And how much loose dirt do we need to leave in here to create enough mud? All questions that could be answered this afternoon if we just pumped in some water and gave it a test run.” Ethan looked positively gleeful at the thought.

  There was a reason the three of them ran an outdoor adventure facility. They lived for this kind of shit. And Ethan had a point.

  “I’m game,” Mark said.

  “Two outta three, bro,” Ethan said, stepping out of the machine to let Ryan take over.

  “Fair enough,” Ryan agreed.

  They’d chosen this spot for the mud pit because of its proximity to the course but also to the stream, from which they’d be able to pump water to fill it. Two hours later, the hole had been transformed into a mud pit and Ethan was staring at it with a wicked gleam in his eye.

  “I’m going in,” he announced.

  “Figured you would,” Mark said. “Let us know how it is.”

  “Oh, like you pussies aren’t coming in too?” Ethan stripped to his boxer shorts and splashed into the mud pit. “Holy balls, this is cold.”

  “News flash: It’s October, and you just filled that shit up with water from the stream that feeds down from the mountains.” But Ryan was already stripping down too.

  Mark followed suit. Why the hell not? He jumped, landing with a splash in a waist-deep combination of ice cold water and mud. It oozed between his toes and sucked at his body as he walked away from the edge.

  Beside him, Ryan was laughing like a crazed hyena, sloshing his way through the muck. “Yo, this may be my favorite obstacle on the course this year.”

  “No shit.” Ethan was laughing too. “Whose idea was this? It’s genius.”

  “I think it was yours, genius,” Mark said. The muddy water reached his chest at the center of the pit. Racers were going to love this.

  “Oh yeah.” Ethan grinned like the cocky bastard he was. “Hey, why are you two losers just standing there? Get your asses over here so I can race you to the other side.”

  “You’re on, man,” Ryan said, hustling toward Ethan.

  “Loser treats at Rowdy’s tonight,” Mark said, sloshing past Ryan.

  “Can’t,” Ethan said. “Promised Gabby I’d help her finalize the seating plan for the wedding.”

  “Me neither,” Ryan said. “Em and I are going to a movie.”

  Mark hauled himself out on the muddy bank beside Ethan. Things were changing now that Ryan was married and Ethan was only a few days from joining him. They were both properly domesticated now. Which left Mark pretty much where he’d always been in life, on his own. “Well, I’m going to beat your asses anyway. Whichever one of y’all loses can treat at Rowdy’s another night.”

  “Those are fighting words,” Ethan said with his trademark grin in place. “You’re on.”

  “You do remember what he does for a living, right?” Ryan asked Mark, one eyebrow cocked. He was referring to the fact that Ethan coached the Pearcy County High swim team and had a couple of Olympic gold medals tucked away in his closet.

  “Special Forces trumps Olympics when it comes to mud,” Mark said simply.

  “Shit, man. He’s got some kind of Special Ops stuff up his sleeve,” Ryan said to Ethan in mock alarm.

  “I’m not worried.” Ethan crouched down beside the mud hole, ready to jump.

  Ryan took his place beside him. “All right then. Three. Two. One. Go!”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Mark saw Ryan jump in feet first. Yep. He’d be buying at Rowdy’s. Mark went in slow, keeping near the edge of the pit where it was shallower. He treaded lightly against the bottom, pulling himself forward with big scoops of his hands through the muddy water. To his right, Ethan was attempting to swim through the muck and going nowhere fast.

  He and Ethan were neck and neck until about halfway out when the firmer ground around the edge of the pit came into play as Ethan floundered in the mud. From somewhere behind them, Ryan called out, “Godammit, I’m stuck!”

  Mark plowed ahead, not slowing until he’d pulled himself out on the other side. “Hooah!” he hollered, raising his fists in victory.

  Ethan climbed out after him. “Sonofabitch.”

  Ryan hadn’t even made it halfway across. “Oh yeah. Go ahead and laugh,” he called, grimacing as he sloshed deeper into the mud.

  Obligingly, Ethan did just that.

  “You’re right,” Mark told him. “This is a kick-ass new obstacle.”

  They stood there and watched—and laughed—as Ryan finally made his way to shore. He hauled himself up beside Ethan and Mark with a groan. “That shit is cold. My balls have gone so far up inside my body I may never find them again.”

  Ethan doubled over in laughter.

  “Good thing you’ve already knocked up your wife,” Mark commented.

  “Funny. Real funny,” Ryan said, but he was laughing too.

  Mark walked over to the pump and rinsed the worst of the mud from his body and then reached for his clothes where he’d dropped them. His cell phone showed a voice mail from Gordon McDermott. Mark pressed the phone to his ear and listened and then turned to his friends. “Our offer topped Jess’s.”

  Ryan whooped while Ethan did some weird, hip-thrusting victory dance. Mark didn’t feel
much like celebrating though because his gut told him Jess wanted—needed—that land more than they did. But he couldn’t be sorry about winning either.

  “The realtor’s waiting to hear whether she’ll up her offer,” he told Ethan and Ryan. “He’s given her until five p.m. tomorrow.”

  * * *

  Jessica opened her eyes, blinking to bring the room into focus. Her mouth was dry, and her brain was foggy, but she felt…better. Slowly, she sat up in bed and stretched, relieved to find that, for the first time in three days, her headache had subsided and her fever seemed to have broken. “Hallelujah,” she muttered as she climbed out of bed.

  Her limbs protested the movement, stiff and creaky as if she hadn’t moved in months. Grimacing, she checked her phone to make sure she hadn’t somehow been unconscious for days, but no, it was just past ten on Wednesday morning, and she couldn’t believe how much better she felt. Honestly, she hadn’t expected to bounce back from the flu this quickly.

  After a nice, long shower, she was feeling even better. She heated a big bowl of her mom’s homemade soup—yes, for breakfast because, why not?—and chased it with one of Mark’s Popsicles for good measure.

  Mark.

  She closed her eyes, remembering his handsome face in her doorway on Monday, the intensity of his gaze, the heat of his smile. No, the spark between them had never completely faded, not for her anyway. It seemed her body was just chemically programmed to respond to his. And now that he’d come back into her life, a tiny part of her wanted to know more about his time in the Army. The things he’d seen and done. How had it changed him? Were there other scars?

  But that was ridiculous. She was overly curious, that’s all. This week was the first time she and Mark had really spoken since they broke up all those years ago. She supposed it was natural to be curious about what his life had been like since.

  But it didn’t matter. What mattered was that he and his business partners wanted her land, and speaking of the land…

  She checked her phone and found a voice mail message from the realtor. According to Gordon’s message, the guys had come in ahead of her with their initial bid, but just barely. She stared at the phone in her hands. She’d offered the full asking price, and that had already maxed out her budget.

  But…maybe they had maxed out their budget as well. Surely she could squeeze out a few more dollars to counteroffer. This had been her dream for so long, and it would needle her every damn day if she had to look outside and see people mountain biking behind the spa instead of her resort cabins.

  She dialed the realtor.

  “Gordon McDermott,” he answered on the first ring.

  “Hi, Gordon. It’s Jessica Flynn.”

  “Jessica! I was hoping to hear from you today. Would you like to counteroffer?”

  “I can go up ten thousand,” she said. That would put her five grand ahead of the guys, and hopefully that would be enough because she couldn’t keep playing this game. It wasn’t worth it to put herself hopelessly into debt chasing a dream when she already had a profitable business she loved.

  She and Gordon talked over the particulars, and he promised to send the documents for her to e-sign shortly. In the meantime, she walked to the living room to boot up her laptop. Her left knee was really painful when she walked on it. Had she twisted it while she was sick? She must have, maybe while she was running away from bears with Mark, and she had been feeling too lousy to notice at the time.

  Her phone dinged with a new text message. Tomorrow at 6 at the Oak Branch Trail.

  It was her friend Mandy. Jessica, Mandy, Gabby, and Carly would be competing in the upcoming Adrenaline Rush obstacle course race as Team Flower Power, and they’d been getting together a couple of times a week to jog and train together.

  I’m going to miss this one, Jessica replied. Getting over the flu. Catch you ladies next time!

  Yuck. Feel better soon! Mandy answered.

  Someone knocked on Jessica’s front door.

  She walked to answer it, wincing at the pain in her knee. Seriously, only she could manage to sprain her knee while she had the flu. Her mom stood on the other side of the door, smiling brightly as Jessica pulled it open.

  “Hey there, sweetie. Just came to check in and see how you were feeling.” Paula Flynn wore her brown hair in a loose ponytail. Her pink scrubs meant she had stopped by on her way to work.

  “Much better today, thanks.” Jessica walked back toward the couch with her mom beside her. “My fever’s gone. I’m still pretty tired and achy, but I think I’m officially on the mend.”

  “Have you been keeping up on your fluids?” her mom asked, going into full nurse mode.

  She nodded. “I just finished a bowl of your soup and one of the Popsicles Mark brought.”

  “Mark?” Paula’s eyes narrowed. “Why was he here?”

  Jessica shook her head, wishing she could take the words back. It was insignificant that Mark had been here, and she wouldn’t have blurted it out if her mind wasn’t still a little sluggish. “I saw him on Sunday so he knew I was sick. He was just being friendly.”

  “Well, be careful around that man. I’d hate to see you get hurt again.”

  “We barely know each other anymore, Mom. Our relationship is ancient history.” Her parents had never approved of her dating Mark. Everyone in town knew he’d gotten arrested at fifteen for stealing cigarettes from the mini-mart. The owner hadn’t pressed charges, but in such a small town, his reputation as a delinquent had been set. By high school, he’d cut so many classes he almost flunked out. He smoked a lot of weed. But he’d always been a perfect gentleman with Jessica while they were dating. “The bigger problem is that he and his business partners just outbid me on that land between our properties.”

  “Oh no.” Her mom’s face fell. “So you didn’t get it? Oh, sweetie, I know how long you’ve been saving and planning for this.”

  “Well, it’s not a done deal yet. I’m making a second offer, but this is as high as I can go so cross your fingers for me.” While she talked, she clicked through the documents the realtor had sent, adding her electronic signature where it was needed.

  “Maybe your father and I could come up with something to help if you—”

  “No. Thank you, Mom, but I know you guys are tapped out after Nicole’s wedding. It’s not worth any of us going outside our means to buy this land.”

  “But you’re so close. Just let me know if there’s anything we could do…”

  “Thanks, Mom.” But there was no way she was taking money from her parents. They’d finally managed to pay off their credit card debt last year, and she wasn’t going to let them jeopardize their hard-won financial stability for her. “So if my fever stays gone, how soon can I consider myself germ-free to go back to work?”

  “Twenty-four hours without fever is the rule of thumb,” her mom said, “but I’d wait until at least Friday to be safe.”

  “Okay.” Friday was doable. She’d been worried she wouldn’t be back in time to oversee the spa treatments for her friend Gabby and her bridal party before her wedding on Saturday so this was good news.

  Her mom left shortly after to get to work. Jessica called the spa to check in with Dana, her assistant manager. Everything seemed to be running smoothly without her, but Jessica was relieved to put herself back on the appointment calendar for Friday. She was more than ready to get back to work.

  Her energy depleted, she leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes. Next thing she knew, her phone was ringing, dragging her from a deep, dreamless sleep. She opened her eyes to see that it was four o’clock, and she’d just slept away most of the day.

  And Gordon McDermott was calling.

  She cleared her throat and connected the call. “Hello.”

  “Hi, Jessica. Gordon McDermott here. Calling to let you know Off-the-Grid Adventures has increased their offer by twenty thousand.”

  Twenty thousand. Shit. “Oh.”

  “If you need some time to think
about a counteroffer, I don’t need your answer until end of day tomorrow.”

  “I…um, I don’t need any time. I can’t compete with that.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said.

  Not nearly as sorry as she was. She slumped on the couch, defeat sitting like a boulder on her chest.

  “I’ll keep things open until tomorrow anyway, in case you have a change of heart.”

  “I appreciate that, but unfortunately I’m out. Thanks again.” She ended the call before her voice cracked and gave her away. Because she’d been dreaming about this resort almost since she’d opened the spa, and once these guys bought it and put their mountain bike course on it, that land probably wouldn’t go back on the market again in her lifetime. Worse, she’d have to watch them out there on their bikes, living it up on the land that should have been hers. Tears pressed against the back of her eyes.

  No way around it. Her dream was over.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Mark plummeted toward the earth, buffeted by the wind rushing past him so that he felt like he was flying, like he was weightless. It was a fucking rush. Unlike Ethan and Ryan, who’d jumped ahead of him—flying tandem with an instructor—Mark got to jump unaccompanied, thanks to his Special Forces training.

  Flying solo, the way he did best.

  He focused on the landscape below, the green carpet of trees, interwoven with twisting mountain roads and splashed here and there with patches of fall color. For these sixty seconds, he was free as a bird, his mind blissfully empty…just free.

  All too soon, it was time to pull the pin and release the chute. The resulting yank of the harness was like reality slamming back into him. It brought with it all the usual chaos in his brain, but today the knowledge that they’d likely crushed Jess’s dreams with their last offer weighed heavily on his mind.

  High off the adrenaline rush of his first skydive of the morning, Ethan had insisted they go all out with their counteroffer. With Ryan in full agreement, there was no way for Mark to head them off without sounding like a lovesick idiot because they were right. This was just a business transaction.