Page 48 of Saved By the Mountain Man

“You did all this?”

“Well, no.” Tanner scratched the back of his head. “The diner and the bakery are responsible for a lot of this. But the stew I did. Stews I can do.”

I smiled.

“Come, sit,” he said, pulling out a chair for me.

He was being such a gentleman. It was very different from the rough, rugged mountain man he’d become, and my stomach erupted in butterflies.

I took a seat, feeling a rush of warmth from both the fire that crackled in the hearth and his gesture. Tanner sat across from me, his presence grounding and comforting. We raised our glasses, the clink of the crystal a soft promise of the evening to come.

“What are we toasting to?” I asked.

“To us,” he said, his voice low and sincere. “Just being together for now.”

“To us,” I echoed, feeling a lump in my throat.For now?I took a sip of the wine, its rich flavor warming me from the inside out.

We started with the bread and cheese, the conversation heading toward shallow topics, comfortable, safe. Tanner told me stories about his life in the mountains, the peace he found in the solitude. I listened, enthralled by his deep voice. But my gut turned as I ate and listened to the life he’d built out here after he’d left me behind.

Stop it, I scolded myself. He was being nice. He was making an effort. He was here, and so was I. We were together, and that was what mattered. After all, I was going to leave when the winter ended, and then it would just be the flipside of what happened before, right? It was unfair of me to judge him when I was preparing to do the same.

Dinner was amazing. It was simple, straightforward, and we drank wine with it until the room spun happily around me, and I felt like I relaxed for the first time in weeks.

The wine made me brave, too.

“Do you ever wonder what it could have been like?”

“What?”

“Building a life together. You know… this. But long-term.” I sipped my wine, watching him over the rim of my glass.

He didn’t squirm under my scrutiny. His eyes stayed on mine.

“All the time.”

I frowned. “What?”

He sipped his wine without responding.

“Tanner, why did you leave? What made you run?”

He hesitated, his eyes sliding toward the fire.

“Vito,” he finally said.

“Your boss, Vito?”

“The one and only,” Tanner said with a shrug. “I made a mistake. He said if I didn’t leave, he’d kill me.”

I gasped, staring at him.

“That simple, huh?”

He nodded and drank more wine, his eyes staying on me. He was completely unwavering, completely grounded in himself. He didn’t look away, didn’t fidget, nothing that would make someone think he was lying…

“I don’t believe you,” I said, sitting back in my chair. I knew Tanner, and I knew that he knew how to lie. And he was lying to me.

“Believe what you want, Rae,” he said softly.

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