Page 68 of Protected By the Mountain Man

Her shivering slowed, and I felt her body temperature creep upward, degree by slow degree. Relief washed over me like the heat from the flames. My adrenaline crashed, leaving exhaustion in its wake.

I didn’t even notice as I fell asleep…it just happened.

Right there on the floor beside her, listening to her breathing.

I woke up suddenly, the room now cast only in the light from the fire. I hadn’t turned any lights on when I’d come in; I’d been too frantic to care. Kat was still curled up with her back to my chest, her fingers scratching behind Bandit’s ears.

“You're the bravest, aren't you?” she cooed to the dog. They looked cozy, a makeshift camp of comfort with me protecting them both.

This was where I belonged.

Right here…with her.

“Kat?” I started, my voice raspy from sleep.

She looked over her shoulder at me, her hair now dry, framing a face that had regained its color—rosy cheeks replacing the pallor that had scared me hours before. The sight of her like this, alive and warming up, sparked something inside me, fierce and protective.

“Hi,” she whispered.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah…thanks to you.”

I reached out, my hand cupping her cheek, my thumb brushing away an errant strand of hair. “I'd do anything to keep you safe, Kat.” No fluff, just fact.

She rolled over to face me and her eyes met mine, a brief spark in their depths before it dimmed. Her eyes got bigger, her brow furrowed…and she started to cry.

The sight twisted my gut.

“Kat, what's wrong?”

“It's just been a lot,” she whispered between sobs. “Feels like it never stops.”

I pulled her in close, my arms instinctively wrapping around her. “I'm here now,” I said, feeling her shake against me. “I've got you.”

Her body trembled in my embrace, but slowly, as though drawing strength from my presence, the shaking subsided. The warmth from the fire seeped into us both, sheltering us.

“Thank you, Gabe,” she murmured, head resting on my shoulder.

“Always, Kat. Always.” A pause hung in the air, heavy and charged. Then, the words just fell out of me, like a confession long overdue. “I'd spend the rest of my life protecting you, if you let me.”

Her eyes lifted to mine, searching, vulnerable. They darted between mine, looking for something…

“I was wrong about you,” she said quietly. “But I’m still…I still don’t understand how you turned into this guy. This caring, kind person…I don’t…”

I smoothed back her hair, shaking my head. “I never stopped regretting what happened between me and Ben after high school,” I said. I didn’t think I’d ever told her the story, even after all these weeks sleeping just a couple rooms down from her…and sometimes in her bed. “It was…fuck, it was so stupid.”

“Tell me about it,” she said. “I’ve never heard the whole story.”

So I did.

I told her how me, Ben, and Owen had snuck into the Spur the summer after senior year…how Owen had picked a fight with me, how I’d lost my temper. Ben had already been on a short fuse with the way I’d bullied Kat, and?—

“Wait,” Kat interrupted as I recounted that night. “I didn’t even know Owen was there. Ben never mentioned it.”

I huffed out a laugh. “Yeah…I always figured it was why he made himself scarce whenever I was around this past fall. He was a real shit-stirrer in high school; always getting into trouble. In fact, if I’m remembering right, he was the one who got us fake ID’s and stole beers from the Spur’s cooler that night.”

Kat shook her head, bit her lip. “Why wouldn’t he mention that?”

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