Page 3 of Escaping with the Mountain Man

Eyeing her getup, I was suddenly inspired to change the subject. “You know, Ashlynn has some clothes you could probably wear until you can get yours from the retreat center.”

Maybe I should volunteer to go over there and pack up her stuff. Or I could call up my buddy Zack and see if Ashlynn could contact one of her employees to do it.

“My parents will grab all that, I’m sure.” She sighed. “I don’t even have my phone. I’ll bet my mom’s blowing it up right now, totally forgetting that I ran off without it.”

“So, what’s your plan?”

I immediately regretted asking the question. Her body tensed and her eyes jerked to the beer bottle still in her right hand. She lifted it to her lips and took another long swig. It was almost empty. I’d never seen a woman down a beer that quickly.

As she lowered the bottle from her lips, she turned to the table next to her. She lifted a coaster off the stack and set it down, along with the nearly empty beer bottle.

“I’ll go home and face the music. Or maybe I’ll stay here forever.” She laughed. “Lord knows I won’t have a job to go back to.”

I frowned at her. “You lost your job too?”

“My ex-fiancé works for my dad. My ex-fiancé is also my boss.”

My frown only deepened. I wasn’t sure why she wouldn’t be the boss at her own family’s company. But she did look young—early twenties, was my guess. Maybe twenty-two or twenty-three. If she’d gone to college, she’d probably graduated recently and now needed to learn the ropes.

“I can loan you my cabin.” I shrugged. “I’ll be here until Monday. That’ll at least buy you a couple of days.”

“I can’t take your cabin.” She looked around. “I could just sleep here on the couch.”

I shook my head. “I won’t be using it, anyway. You’ll have the whole place to yourself. I promised my buddy I wouldn’t leave this spoiled mutt alone.”

Toby was hardly a mutt. He was a purebred golden retriever, as far as I could tell. But “spoiled mutt” sounded good. We both paused to look down at him as he lay on his bed, deep in sleep, probably bored with the conversation happening in front of him.

Suddenly, my gaze darted over to her. “I guess you haven’t eaten. Dinner was probably part of that fancy wedding of yours.”

Her hand immediately went to her stomach. “I haven’t eaten all day. I was too nervous. And then we were getting ready. I think I’ve been running on adrenaline since I woke up.”

“I’ll tell you what.” I pushed myself to my feet. “You go change into something in Ashlynn’s closet and I’ll pull some leftovers out of the fridge and warm them up for you. Do you like tacos?”

A growl came from the general direction of her stomach at the same time her eyes lit up. “Love them. Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. You haven’t tasted my cooking.”

At least that brought a laugh out of her. And I decided as I headed to the kitchen that getting this devastated bride to laugh was the biggest accomplishment I’d had in a while.

3

SADIE

The mountain man kept checking out my chest. Derek. He’d finally told me his name, and I’d shared mine. As bumfuzzled as I was, it hadn’t occurred to me to officially introduce myself until he did.

There was no sign of Derek when I exited the bedroom, tugging at the hem of a tight-fitting T-shirt. The woman who owned this place was the same size as me, but she only had two choices in her closet—form-fitting casual clothes and button-down shirts with dress pants. Each shirt bore the Rosewood Ridge Retreat Center logo and had the exact same look but in a different color.

I skipped the dressy clothes and chose one of her T-shirts and a pair of jeans. The shirt looked loose until I put it on. I’d underestimated just how much my boobs would stretch the fabric.

After calling out for Derek and getting no response, I headed over to the table and picked up the paper plate he’d set there for me. He’d even plopped a container of sour cream and a bag of shredded cheese next to the bowl of meat and soft taco shells.

Smiling, I started loading up my plate. There was something so sweet about this burly man taking care of me. That was what was missing from every previous relationship—someone to look out for me, to warm up food when I was hungry, or fix the drain in my condo shower when it clogged. Neither my dad nor the men I’d dated had been good at that sort of thing.

I settled onto the chair, my plate full. I moaned as I took the first bite of the taco. It wasn’t just that I was starving. The food was good. Damn good.

I demolished the first taco in seconds and was reaching for the second when I heard something outside. Thunk thunk thunk. It was a loud banging sound, like a hammer or an ax.

Carrying the plate, I walked over to the windows that lined the front of the cabin. No blinds, which was strange. Wouldn’t the owners want some privacy, considering they were next to the main drive that led to the retreat center?

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