of the aspen trees that flanked both sides.
“This is my favorite time of year. Not that I don’t miss fall in New York, because I do. But here there’s no riot of color. No war between the trees as to whose leaves will be the brightest. Here, the mountains turn gold, as if they all agreed. It’s peaceful.” I walked us along the path that had been worn into the meadow long before I was born.
“I can see why you’d want to come back,” Noah admitted. “I’m a sucker for autumn in New York, though.”
“And yet, here you are, living just down the road.” We reached the creek that ran through Gran’s property—my property now. It wasn’t much by East Coast standards. Maybe ten feet wide and two feet deep at the most, but water was different in the Rockies. It didn’t flow steadily, and it wasn’t smooth or predictable. Here, it could slow to a trickle, and when you least expected it, send a wall of water in a flash flood that would destroy everything in its path. It was like everything else in the mountains—dangerously beautiful.
“I did what I had to.” He shrugged, and we turned to walk along the creek. “Do you miss New York?”
“No.”
“Quick answer.”
“Easy question.” I tucked my thumbs into my back pockets. “I guess this is when we start the book fight?”
“I’m not the one saying it has to be a fight. Let’s start out easy. Ask me a personal question. Anything you want.” He pushed up his sleeves as we walked, revealing a line of ink down one forearm that looked like the tip of a sword. “I’ll answer one if you do.”
That seemed easy enough.
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
“What’s the story behind that tattoo?” I motioned toward his forearm.
He followed my line of sight. “Ah, that one was actually my first.” He pushed up his sleeve as far as the material would let him go, revealing the blade of a sword that served as the needle for a compass. I’d seen enough pictures to know it covered his shoulder, though I could only see the base of it right now. “I got it the week before Avalon Waning published. I wove a King Arthur parable into this guy’s search for—”
“His lost love. I’ve read it.” I nearly tripped as he gave me a slow smile, and I jerked my gaze back to the path. “Do you have tattoos for all your books?”
“One, that’s two questions, and yes, but the other ones are smaller. When Avalon published, I thought it might be my only book. My turn.”
“It’s only fair.” Here comes the question about the last affair…
“Why did you quit sculpting?”
What? My pace slowed, but he matched it. “Damian asked me to put it on pause and help him get Ellsworth Productions off the ground, which made sense. We were newlyweds and I thought I was helping to build our future. It was still art, just his form of art, right?” I shrugged at the naive thoughts of a twenty-two-year-old girl. “And then pause became more of a stop, and that part of me just…” The right words had always failed me in this topic. “…dimmed. It went out like a fire I’d forgotten to tend. The flames dwindled so slowly that I didn’t notice until they were nothing but embers, and by that time it was the rest of my life that had gone up in flames. There’s not a lot of room for creativity when you’re focused on breathing.” I could feel his stare, but I couldn’t meet it. Instead, I sucked in a breath and forced a smile. “I think it’s coming back, though. Little by little.” I thought about Mr. Navarro’s shop, then the cost of actually doing something about it. “Anyway, that’s one question, and I owe you another, so ask away.”
“Why don’t you trust me with the story?”
My spine straightened. “I don’t trust anyone with it, and neither did Gran. It’s not easy, knowing someone is about to fictionalize what actually happened to your family. It’s not just some story to me.”
“Then why sell it at all? Just to make your mother happy?” His dark brows lowered. “Is that really the only reason you agreed?”
Was it? I watched the creek rush past, giving his question some thought. He earned another point by not prodding for an answer. “It was fifty-fifty,” I finally said. “I wanted to make my mother happy. I wanted to be able to give her something she wanted,