Page 1 of Kept By The Mountain Man

ONE

Evie

Couldthis day get any worse?

As if in answer to my question, the door of the bookstore swings open, and in walks Claire and her little minions. I swallow back a groan, not wanting to attract their attention.

Great. First, they don’t have the new book I wanted to read, and now I’m going to have to deal with the mean girls. I knew that I should have just gone straight home after work.

As if dealing with Hendrix’s grumpy butt all day wasn’t bad enough, now I’ll have to deal with Claire.

I growl as I think about Hendrix and all of his requests today. It had started as soon as I walked in the door this morning. He needed me to make him a coffee, sort his papers, and redo half of the research that I did the day before because he hated the font that I used. I know that a lot of those tasks are part of my actual job duties, but that isn’t the part that bothered me. It was how he spoke to me. He’s always barking orders at me, always finding a reason to seek me out. I’ve worked for Hendrix for ninemonths now, and I’ve never once heard him say the words please or thank you.

I guess I shouldn’t be too upset. I mean, I knew that Hendrix’s people skills were bad from the moment that I met him. My interview was… rough.

I had shown up at the coffee shop in town for the interview right on time. I was feeling pretty good about my chances as I sat at a table nearby and waited for the other interview before mine to wrap up. That was when I heard Hendrix snap at the man he was interviewing. He was so harsh that I was kind of scared to interview next.

That was my first clue that Hendrix was rough around the edges.

“Next,” he had called, and I tried to look confident as I took a seat across from him. I doubt that I pulled it off.

He hadn’t even spared me a glance as he looked over my resume and sighed.

“What experience do you have as a personal assistant?”

“None, but I’m a fast learner.”

“I’m not looking to teach anyone anything. I don’t have the patience for that, and I have no desire to hold your hand while you do the job I’m paying you to do,” he had snapped.

“With that attitude, no wonder you can’t keep an assistant,” I had snapped back.

I had pushed to my feet, and that’s when his stormy blue eyes finally looked at me. He had seemed shocked as he took me in, and I remember wondering what he was expecting.

“Good luck,” I had spit at him before he could get the last word in.

I was stomping off when he had called after me.

“I’ll see you in the morning.”

I was shocked, but I was too desperate to turn down the job.

I should have turned down the job.

The last nine months have been a weird rollercoaster of emotions. Some days, Hendrix is nice, and other days, he’s a grumpy, brooding jerk. It doesn’t help that I kind of maybe have a teeny little crush on the guy.

It started at the interview, as soon as I saw him, and it’s only grown from there. He’s attractive with dark brown hair and those blue eyes that seem to see right through me. I’d never admit that to my boss, though. I know that it would never go anywhere anyway. A guy like Hendrix is never going to be into a plus-size woman like me.

I sigh, shaking thoughts of my boss out of my head as I focus on my current problem and try to see where Claire and her friends went.

“Look at her, reading romance books because she knows that no man is ever going to love her,” I hear Claire say from behind me, and I groan as I turn around to face them.

“She might… if she lost some weight!” Jules says with a wicked laugh.

“No wonder she’s always single,” Martha adds, and I swallow down the hurt.

They’re right. I’ve never so much as been on a first date. I’ve never kissed a guy, held hands with anyone, none of it. I’m the perpetually single friend, and I hate it.

I hate listening to Claire and her friends. I hate being the butt of the joke, and as I stare at them, something in me snaps, and I find myself doing something crazy.

---