Chapter Nine
Cameron
It only took me a few days to get everything packed. The living room, office, and kitchen were already bare. The stuff that wasn't coming to the new house with me was all in storage. I'd do something with it at some point, but nothing was certain yet. I owned my house in Provo and had been going back and forth about selling it. I owned three other places besides the one that I lived in, and those were definitely getting listed. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the properties my parents had owned, so I hadn't done anything. I had a shit pile a mile high to tackle; I had to start somewhere, and this was it. Some time out in the mountains, and I'd probably manage to think of something. If I didn't... well, not doing anything wasn’t an option I had. With everything on my plate, I had to start somewhere. If anything was happening, it wasn't going to happen from here.
I was going to get to the house, settle in, and then once I felt like I wasn't going to explode anymore, the other shit could get taken care of. That was the plan, but I actually had to get out there first. I had moved before, but never like this, out somewhere I’d have no neighbors, and the nearest town was miles away. I was excited; was that weird? It was finally a break. A total separation from everything and everyone I knew. The light had totally gone out for me once my parents had died. I couldn’t do anything to fix the world I lived in, and leaving it wasn’t an absolute solution, but it was the closest I’d ever have to one.
I walked into my bedroom and started moving the boxes full of my clothes out to the truck. I had used it for the first time moving out of my parents’ place and driving to college. I figured I'd get better use out of it than I got out of my BMW, so I sold the car to a dealership. The mountains got snow early, and it would be cold already. I liked to think that I would be prepared, but I wasn't sure what would happen out there. Not once I was alone. I just wanted to leave. I wanted peace, and it wasn't going to come while I was still here. Still surrounded by everything I hated in the wake of my parents' deaths. Frankly, I had nothing to lose and nothing keeping me where I was. It was that simple. Once I finished with the house in an hour or so, I was gone.
My new place was in the mountains. It would take me at least two hours to get there, then up to another hour more on the unpaved mountain trail to get to the actual house. I mean, that was what my realtor had told me. I hadn't been there yet. I had seen enough pictures of the place to get a good enough idea though. It had been out of use for a long time but recently renovated. About one thousand five hundred square feet, secluded after miles of all-weather road. The closest city, Park City, would be thirty miles away.
"Need help?" I looked up and saw Brett coming out of his car. I hadn't heard him drive up. I dusted my hands off and jumped down off the back of my truck.
"Skipping work, Brett?" I asked.
"Looks like I caught you just before you went off the grid."
"Naw, it's not all that," I told him. "If I was trying to disappear and never be found again, I'd head out further than just the mountains."
"Natalie told me that was your plan. I had to come ask you myself." He had a coat over his usual work clothes, what I used to wear every day too. Those, I had left in the house. Getting rid of them felt a little premature. I wasn’t chomping at the bit to sell and run anymore, and I wanted to have at least made a definitive decision before letting go of them.
"The two of you seem to spend a lot of time together," I observed.
"That might be changing soon," he said. "She's sick of you."
I nodded and shrugged. "Well, there's no chance of us running into each other again after today."
"Are you sure about this, Cameron?"
"I bought the house already, and I'm moving in."
"I'll tell you," he said, "you couldn't have picked a worse time to do this if you tried."
"I'm sorry, Brett, but I have to do this. I can't be here anymore. Everything was one way, and then it had completely changed in a second. I wasn’t ready for it. I have nothing. Everyone's looking at me to have all the answers, and I just don't Brett. Not yet, maybe not ever."
"This isn't permanent, is it? Cameron, you can’t just disappear—"
"It isn't. I'm tired, not an idiot. This will only solve part of the problem, and not even the biggest part. I realize that. Let me do this first, and hopefully, the rest of the stuff will start making sense.”
"How much did that mountain house set you back?" he asked.
"If you're trying to buy me out, it isn't going to work."
He laughed and shook his head. "Can you blame me for trying?" he asked. I couldn't. I knew why he was doing it. He had to. I had asked him to take care of things at the company, but that move had to be temporary. I felt bad about it, but he had to understand why I did it. The company shit... I'd get to it but I couldn't right now.
"Nope. You're just doing your job."
"My job is helping you do yours." I nodded. "You do what you need to do. Taking some time away is going to help, but it isn't going to decide the fate of Porter Holdings."
"I know that. Thanks for getting it. I'll figure it out. I just can’t right now, not like this."
"If you decide to come down out of your cave, you know where to find me," he said with a smile. He offered to help again, but I told him not to bother. I'd have to get used to the heavy lifting. He asked for the address, and I gave him the directions my realtor had given me, even though I thought he’d probably never use them. After he left, I heaved the last of the boxes onto my truck then went back to the house for one last check to make sure I didn't leave behind anything I needed. Flashlight and batteries, basic tools, first aid kit in case of emergencies. Anything else I'd figure out when I got out there.
I started my trip, taking the two hours it took to get to the mountains fast. The city disappeared, and the looming mountain range got bigger, closer. The trees started outnumbering buildings, and the mountains rose on either side of the road. Traffic slowed, and for stretches, mine was the only car on the road. I had to slow down significantly turning off the asphalt. The road was bumpy. I didn't want to rattle anything off the back. It wound through arid grassland, spotted with trees. Only one car drove past me there.
Snowfall had already begun, and it was significantly colder than it had been in the valley; I felt it even though the car was all sealed up. The elevation was gradual enough to not feel like a climb but dragged on forever at the speed I had to use. I saw a few other cabins on the way there, but according to the realtor, the closest one to me was two miles away. I liked the sound of that.
I went right at a fork, and the tree cover increased with all aspens and firs on either side of the road. It got a little harder to negotiate too, steeper and narrow enough to hardly fit a second car alongside mine. I was barely moving at a crawl, trying to get over it without losing anything. It was annoying, but anyone who wanted to come up here after me would have to deal with that. I was betting that that would mean few to zero visitors.
The road turned into the driveway, and I saw it. First cabin on the left after the fork, the realtor had said. It was surrounded by trees and built on about a four-foot elevation from the ground with a stone and wooden stilt base. Grass poked through the carpet of fluffy white snow, and light cover frosted the trees. There was a wooden table with two chairs on the large porch. It was all wood. I parked my truck and got out. The air was frigid; I felt it through my leather jacket and sweater. There was a fireplace, so that sounded like a good first order of business. I turned, looking out around the house. Trees and snowy peaks were all I saw. No noise, cars, or people; it all washed over me at once. It was just me, finally. Welcome home, I thought, and made my way to the house.