The Mountain Between Us

by Charles Martin

“I know you’re worried. Don’t be. In three months, this’ll all be forgotten. You’ll see. I’ll wait up.” She attempted a laugh. “We all will. Coffee on the beach. Hurry…I love you. It’ll all work out. Trust me. And don’t think for a minute that I love you any less. I love you the same. Even more. You know that…. Don’t be angry. We’ll make it. I love you. With all of me, I love you. Hurry home. Meet you on the beach.”

“Once a heart breaks…it doesn’t just grow back. It’s not a lizard’s tail. It’s more like a huge stained glass that shattered into a million pieces, and it’s not going back together. Least not the way it was. You can mush it all into one piece, but that doesn’t make it a window. That makes it a pile of broken colored glass. Shattered hearts don’t mend and they don’t heal. They just don’t work that way.

“Selling yourself short if you settle for a marriage that is less than what you’d hoped for. You deserve more. Better.”