Page 27 of Working for the Mountain Man

I hand her my flannel from the hook by the door.

"You already gave me a jacket," she says.

"It's cold."

She puts it on without arguing; it’s enormous on her, but she still looks gorgeous. We eat something from the emergency shelf, drink coffee that is more water than anything else.

"Are you going to call last night a mistake again?" she asks and I hear a tinge of fear in her voice.

"No."

She looks at me, with a look of disbelief on her face.

"I should have handled it better before," I say. "But no. I don't regret you and I certainly don’t regret what happened last night."

She’s quiet for a moment. "Okay," she says.

She picks up the grant file from where she left it on the shelf and checks that the photos are still saved, I watch as she checks the weather note she wrote at the site along with the site code reference. She never stopped doing the job, not at the site in the storm, not here in the cabin, especially after what happened last night, she just carries on with her duties. I don’t say anything, but I see it and I get it, we’re extremely similar when it comes to work.

Darnell has the trunk cut and half-cleared by the time we come down the access track. Corey’s on the far side with a chainsaw, working the second section, the shoulder looks solid, they did it right.

Darnell sees us and nods. "The road will be clear in twenty."

"Good work," I say. "How's the shoulder at the bend?"

He runs his hand along the back of his neck. "Packed down but holding. I put down grit on the worst stretch."

I nod. "Leave a crew member until this afternoon in case the temperature drops."

"I already planned it." He glances at Elsie, then back at me, and I see the smirk form on his face, but thankfully he doesn’t say anything.

Corey, however, has no such professionalism.

"The cabin treat you okay, folder whisperer?"

Elsie grins. "I’ve christened it The Creepy Cabin. Reilly's jacket is still there, tell him I found it."

Corey laughs.

I look at the tree and then at the shoulder, I move to check the chainsaw cut on the trunk because standing here while thecrew looks between the two of us is something I don’t know how to manage. I tell myself I’m giving Elsie space from the teasing.

But the truth is, I don't know what to do other than work, this isn’t something I’ve ever experienced before.

Back at the Road & Ridge office, Elsie uploads the upper ridge photos before she’s even taken her jacket off. I watch her set up at the desk, pull the file, cross-reference the site codes. She writes the final weather condition note from memory, date, conditions, debris source, repair status confirmed, foreman on-site.

It’s all complete by the time Lila comes in an hour later. She looks at the upper ridge folder, looks at the index Elsie built, looks at the photo log, and her shoulders sag with relief. "This is complete," Lila says with awe. "This is actually complete."

"The weather note explains the debris," Elsie tells her. "It's flagged as supplementary but there's a clear trail back to the original repair log."

"The state pre-review flagged that section as a risk," Lila says. "If this had come in without the photo and the note, we'd have been defending a gap. Now there's no gap, which is good, the inspection is in four days. It got moved up due to scheduling conflicts. That’s what I came here to tell you."

"We’re ready,” I say. “Good work, both of you." They’ve worked their asses off to get us to this point.

Elsie keeps working, writing in her notebook, not once looking up at me, I tell myself she’s focused, that she’s working. I ignore the way my chest constricts as I watch her. I go back to my desk and start the final grant submission checklist.

The office is quiet, as everyone is working, getting the grant submission finalized.

The office is empty except for Elsie and I. I hear her shuffle on her chair and turn to her. She sighs as she turns her chair slightly so she’s facing me better.