Page 51 of His Curvy Distraction

I got out of my SUV and looked around, trying to find someone.

The space was fairly flat, but I still didn’t see anyone. I decided to explore, hoping being out there alone wasn’t as bad of an idea as I thought it was.

I went to the pool first, standing next to the tarp covered hole in the ground. Water pooled on top of the old cover, doing nothing to actually keep people safe near the pool. Just like Natalie said.

There was a small building next to the pool, but the walls had more holes than solid boards and it was easy to see it was empty.

I continued on, looking at the horizon for signs of movement. Electrical boxes stuck up from the ground at even spaces around the property, leftover from the old camper hookups. Some had been removed and pulled close to the camper at the front. Natalie’s work that left her with the injury.

Was she the one out there alone? Again?

With the thought in my mind, I quickened my pace and searched for her. I counted six camper hookups, but I thought Amelia said there were thirty. That meant there were a lot I couldn’t see from where I stood, even though the property was relatively flat.

I followed what appeared to be an old road and made my way past the first grouping of campsites. More of the old wiring had been dug up. A second grouping came into view. These were farther from the pool but had a better view of the mountain.

Damn. No wonder it was called Mountain View Campground. It was stunning.

But that wasn’t why I was there.

I kept going, finally spotting someone on the far side of the site. Five acres was a huge space, and Natalie had to be close to the edge of it.

“What are you doing?” I called out, catching her attention.

She screamed, then turned to me. “I’m working. Why are you here?”

I waited until I got closer to answer her. Dirt streaked across her forehead. Her boots were brown, but it was definitely not their original color. She was dressed in a flannel shirt that was open and revealed a blue tank underneath. Her jeans were tucked into her boots, hugging her curvy legs the entire way down.

Need slammed into me hard. The need to take care of her, to be there for her. But also need for her. She was stunning.

“Why are you here, Mr. Mayor?”

“I thought we established you should call me Omar.”

She didn’t reply, just pursed her lips and raised her dark eyebrows, waiting for me to answer.

“I needed to clear my head. I was close and decided to check the place out.”

She nodded, then went back to digging the trench she was standing over.

“What are you doing?”

“Saving the town money,” she said without looking up. Her shovel dug into the mud, then she pushed it down to lift the mud from its resting place. When she cleared enough away to move the cables forward, she put the mud back into the hole she’d just dug.

“You’re doing all this work by yourself? I thought that was how you got hurt.”

“I’m fine. Amelia knows where I am, and so does Daisy. If I don’t check in with them in an hour, they’re going to send someone to find me.”

“How long have you been out here?”

She took a breath and stabbed her shovel into the ground. She looked up at me and brushed the hair out of her face with the back of her hand, leaving another streak of mud. “I’m trying to get as much work done as I can by myself. Getting this place up and running is important to me. If I don’t do this when the weather cooperates, there’s no way it’ll be done on time.”

“I thought you were going to hire people for this.”

She shook her head. “It’s not in the budget, Mr. Mayor. We need to save the money the town gave us for bringing in professionals to do things we can’t do ourselves.”

“How do you know you’re doing this safely?”

“There’s no power to the property. The utility company came out and told us what needs to be done before they can run new lines and make it safe for the campers. Step one is digging up all of this, but it has to be done by hand so we don’t tear more stuff up. That’s expensive. But I’m cheap.”

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