The Mountain Between Us by Cindy Myers Read Free Book Online Page B

grandfather in their mural,” Lucas said. “I don’t think they like her much.”
    â€œThey don’t?”
    Lucas tossed the banana peel in the trash and looked around the room, she suspected for something else to eat. “Nobody much does,” he said. “She’s kind of a grouchy old lady, though she does know a lot about history. She helped me find books about Native Americans and stuff.”
    â€œSo she likes you.”
    He shrugged. “I guess.”
    Olivia was intrigued by the idea of a friendship between the grouchy librarian and her son, whom she’d always thought of as socially awkward. Not that Lucas wasn’t a sweet boy, but he was so damned smart he put people off, spouting knowledge about everything under the sun. And he wasn’t afraid to challenge adults if he thought they were wrong. No one liked their errors pointed out to them this way, especially by a kid.
    â€œDo you like her?” Olivia asked.
    â€œShe’s not so bad, really. Just kind of bossy. And I think she’s lonely.”
    Olivia’s chest tightened—in sympathy? Or maybe empathy? She’d had her share of lonely nights, but who hadn’t? She knew a lot more people who were alone than together—her mother, Bob, and most of the other regulars at the Dirty Sally, to name a few.
    Even D. J., she guessed. Though if he was alone, it was by his own choice. She’d never asked him to run off to Iraq. He could have stayed with her if he’d really wanted.
    Better to be alone than with someone she couldn’t depend on.
    â€œYou could put Jake Murphy on your mural,” Lucas said.
    She forced her thoughts away from D. J. “Who’s Jake Murphy?”
    â€œHe’s Maggie Stevens’s father. He owned the French Mistress Mine and lived in that cabin up on Mount Garnet. I guess he was kind of a hermit.”
    â€œWhy would I want to put a hermit on the mural?” she asked.
    â€œHe won the Hard Rock Mining competition three times, and I guess he did a lot of other stuff.”
    â€œAnd he was a hermit.”
    â€œWell, yeah. I mean, he lived way up on the mountain by himself. I guess a lot of the pioneers did that kind of thing—came here to get away from the city and people and stuff.”
    So much for Bob’s boasting about the sense of community in Eureka. The real driving force behind the town was independence—all those miners who staked their claims on mountaintops and dug for gold. They weren’t banding together for a common dream. They were each out to get their own.
    They were all loners. And probably lonely, though maybe that was beside the point. She had a theme for her mural. She’d do a tribute to independence—all those singletons who didn’t need anybody else to succeed.
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    Eureka’s only steak restaurant closed after Labor Day and the owners returned to Arizona for the winter. So Gerald drove Lucille to Montrose, to a new French bistro off the square. They were one of only two couples in the place on Friday night, which, Lucille reflected, probably had more to do with the economy than the quality of the food. She was sure of this when she saw the prices on the menu. She might have suspected a man from Eureka of trying to impress her, but Gerald probably ate at fancy restaurants every week back home in Texas. He was clearly a man who enjoyed the finer things in life.
    â€œYou look beautiful tonight,” he said, once they were seated and had placed their orders. He lifted a glass of the French wine he’d chosen. “Not that you aren’t always lovely, but it’s such a pleasure to see you dressed up.”
    She resisted the urge to put a hand to the collar of the silk blouse she’d pulled from the back of her closet. “Thank you. I don’t have much occasion in Eureka to wear fancier clothes.” And she never thought of herself as a fancy clothes type of person. Jeans and