Page 177 of Mountain Men Heroes

She slowly turned her head to look at me, her eyes strangely emotionless. “My mother hasn’t lived here in years.”

Finally, some good news. “So you live here alone?”

Even as I asked, I knew that couldn’t be right. And at that moment Birdie’s words came back to me about Trinity taking over her mother’s job at the bar. I’d been single-minded then and it blew over my head.

“Did she...die?” With all my time away a lot had changed. It was possible.

I turned my attention back to the house. Trinity worked hard and took pride in that fact. There’s no way she’d live here and let the weeds grow so high or the paint to fade and chip.

“You don’t live here.”

She shook her head. “Not since right after I turned eighteen.”

About the time I left to work for the private security team and stopped coming back to Wild Ridge.

I hugged her tightly. “Did you move to get away from your mother?”

A crinkle formed between her brows. “No, Sawyer, my mother moved away from me.”

The carefully blank expression she wore couldn’t cover the slight quiver in her voice. What had I missed while I was away?

I brushed my lips over her cheek. “Where does she live now?” I asked softly.

She shrugged. “I haven’t seen or heard from her since she took off over two years ago. She said she was heading to Florida, but I’m really not sure.”

Anger and a fierce protectiveness surged through me. “You were still in high school two years ago.”

She nodded and turned her gaze back to the house. “Just about to graduate. That’s one of the reasons I left here. I couldn’t afford the rent and finish school.”

“What about after you graduated? You always wanted to go to college. Why didn’t you leave here, too? Go after your dream?”

Her lips parted and her head whipped back toward me. “Dreams take money. Besides, how do you remember all that about me?”

I shrugged. “Sweetheart, I told you, I waited a long time for you. And a big part of the reason I waited so long was so you could have your dream. I remember every little thing you would tell the patrons of my bar.”

“That was years ago and then you disappeared.”

I nodded. “I needed to give you space. And I needed to be forced to keep my hands off a girl I had no right in wanting.”

Her eyes grew wide. “I don’t know what to say to that. I had no idea you even saw me.”

I blew out a breath and drew Trinity deeper into my arms.

I needed to claim her. Soon. She needed to know she was mine and so did everyone else.

Eight

Trinity

It took me a while to process what Sawyer was saying to me. It sounded like he’d been attracted to me for a long time. And not in the way the local men were attracted to my mother. More like the way my boss at the Sugarbush Stand felt about his wife.

That didn’t seem possible. Questions swirled in my mind, but I didn’t know what to ask first. Or if I should ask them at all. But there was one that seemed fairly straightforward and the safest of the bunch floating through my brain.

“Sawyer, why are we here at my old house?” I wasn’t going to tell him that I avoided this house like the plague since the day I moved out. Even before my mother left, taking all the money I’d saved for college with her, I didn’t have many good memories of living here.

He grinned down at me and, I swear, my heart flipped over in my chest. “I thought you still lived here, sweetheart.”

“Ah, I see.” I wrinkled my nose at him. “And why did we come here in the first place?” I knew the answer, but I wanted to hear the words come from his lips.

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