Page 3 of Loyal to the Mountain Man

And the crazy thing was she was young—early twenties, I was guessing, and I was in my mid-thirties. I’d never once been attracted to or dated a younger woman. I’d slept with one or two in my late twenties, but never with this much of an age difference.

I was three-quarters of the way up the mountain when I decided it was useless. There was no way my boss was this far up. So, I turned and headed back down, this time yelling in all the areas I missed. I even took a quick detour toward the waterfall. No sign of my boss, although there were plenty of steps on the dirt trail. But those could’ve been left by anyone.

There was no sign of him once I reached the campground, either. Just a bunch of women gathered around a woman holding a dog. The dog—the one the beauty was holding earlier. There was not a strawberry blonde in sight, though, and that was a punch in the gut. What if I couldn’t find her again? Was this one of those fairy-tale things? I’d search all the land—in this case, the retreat center—for signs of the woman who’d stolen my heart?

I didn’t have time for that bullshit. I needed to find her, and I needed to find her soon. Before she left town.

“Excuse me,” I said to a woman coming from the swimming pool area as I passed by.

She wore a bathing suit under a cover-up that came to her thighs. Normally, I’d be trying to take a peek, but I didn’t have that urge now. All I could think about was my beauty.

“Did you see a woman walk by here?” I asked. “Strawberry blonde, long hair, probably about this tall.” I held a hand at chest level to demonstrate. “She was wearing a blue blouse that matched her eyes.”

Did that last little detail make it seem like I was a weirdo? I didn’t really care, as long as it didn’t scare her off from helping me track down my future wife.

“She went that way,” the woman said. “I’m guessing she’s heading inside for lunch. There’s a big session coming up right after.”

She pointed toward the door, then walked in the direction of the campground. I, meanwhile, stared at the door, thinking through my next move.

I needed to get back to work. If this Kelsey person was heading into a lunch meeting, it wasn’t like I’d be able to see her anyway. I could come back later to track her down.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and glanced at the screen. No missed messages, nothing going on. Plus, it was lunchtime. I might as well hang around here a little longer, maybe grab a burger from the retreat’s restaurant before going back to the job site. My boss would no doubt be getting lunch himself, maybe even in the same restaurant, at which point I’d get credit for helping out as a volunteer ranger.

As soon as I entered the restaurant, something at the bar caught my eye, stopping my scan of the room completely. There, at the bar, was the strawberry blonde, sipping dark liquid from a glass through a straw while staring down at her phone. Best of all, she was alone, aside from the bartender, who was busy wiping down glasses at the other end of the bar.

My heart immediately sped up, just as it had done when I first saw her and every second after that until I walked past her toward the trail. There was no way this was a coincidence. No way.

It wasn’t that fate got the credit here. No, my thinking was she felt the same thing I did—that pull toward each other.

I nearly laughed out loud at myself. How cocky could I be? Yes, it was all about me. She’d stayed here just for me.

I entered the restaurant and walked straight toward her, my eyes on the empty stool next to her. That stool had my name written all over it. As I pulled back the seat, though, it occurred to me that I’d been sweating my ass off, walking up and down that trail. I probably needed a good shower.

Just in case, I pulled the stool slightly away from her as I tugged it backward. She turned to look at me, her eyes quickly widening.

“The dog guy!” she said.

The dog guy? I didn’t even own a dog. Never had. I wanted one as a kid, but my mom thought they were smelly and gross. But holding that little guy in my arms today gave me a little taste of what I’d been missing all those years.

“Name’s Zachary,” I said. “I’m a local. I assume you’re here for the makeup thing?”

“Glamour Diva,” she said.

She watched as I took a seat and gestured for the bartender. “You eating lunch or just day drinking?” I asked.

Day drinking? Was that judgmental? It was none of my business if she wanted to have a drink at lunchtime.

“It’s a diet soda,” she said. “No alcohol. I let myself have one of these a week.”

My eyebrows shot up at that. Diet soda was an indulgence? Did I even want to know what that was all about?

“I’m supposed to be in this lunch thing,” she said. “They’re serving grilled chicken salad with a presentation on keeping an active pipeline.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but the bartender was coming this way, so I blurted out what I always ordered here—the double deluxe burger. Normally, I would have ordered onion rings, but something held me back this time, and I asked for fries instead.

“Could you leave the onions off the burger?” I added at the last minute, watching the woman next to me out of the corner of my eye.

Did she catch on to my choice to leave the onions off? Yes, I was one hundred percent thinking about kissing her. The chances of it happening today, the first day we’d actually met, were slim to none, but a man could never be too prepared.

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