Page 12 of Hiding with the Mountain Man

“Is that true?” The guy’s gaze shifted from Mina to me. “Are you a cowboy?”

“Cowboys, firefighters…same thing.” I shrugged. “All I know is Mina is the woman I’ve been looking for my entire life. I’ll protect her with that life too.”

From that, the message was clear. Mess with her, deal with me. Everyone who met her for the rest of my life may as well know that.

“Thank you for being a fan,” Mina said, stepping over to stand closer to me. She looped her arm through my arm, settling her hand on my biceps. “But somewhere out there is your cowgirl. Go find her.”

“You’re right.” The guy wiped his eyes and looked around. “I feel like a moron. Do you know of a good place I can stay while I’m in town?”

That question was addressed to me. My response was immediate.

“No. I want you to get in your vehicle and get out of town. If you’re within city limits in twenty minutes, you’ll have me and my firefighter buddies to deal with.”

The guy took me seriously. He turned and headed toward the parking lot after mumbling an “I’m sorry” to Mina. He didn’t make eye contact with either of us before he exited.

“Holy hell,” Mina said once he was out of view. “That was terrifying.”

In one swift motion, I turned and pulled her into my arms. I still didn’t take my eyes off that open garage door, though. Even as I heard a vehicle start up and listened for the hum to gradually fade.

He was gone. It was safe. But my training wouldn’t take me off high alert.

“Did you mean what you said?” she asked.

Her words were exactly what it took to lure my attention away from that garage door. When I pulled back to look down at her, I saw an expression that I never wanted to see on her face again. Fear. But this fear wasn’t over some random guy who thought she was his soul mate. This fear was over the guy whowasher soul mate.

“Every word of it,” I said. “I’m not sure specifically which thing you’re talking about, but if it’s the part about me being the man you’re going to marry, I couldn’t mean it more. As long as that’s what you want, of course.”

A smile slowly spread over her face. Relief replaced the fear. And that had me wondering what else I could say to ease her worries.

“I’m falling in love with you, Mina,” I said. “I know it’s early, but my feelings are only going to get stronger.”

“I’m falling in love with you too,” she said, her smile widening. “You’re my happily ever after.”

That was the truth. I knew, as I swooped down to give her a sweet kiss, that this was better than any story anyone could come up with. This was the true happily ever after.

EPILOGUE

WYATT

Tonight, I put our toddler to bed. Mina needed a break. She’d been working hard on her book, squeezing time in during the early morning hours before little Chloe woke up.

But Chloe was tired from our trip to see my in-laws in Knoxville. We’d spent a good four hours at the zoo, and that plus the drive had worn her out. That meant she went to sleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

It was a typical Saturday night in that my two older kids were spending the night with separate friends. Between their social lives and extracurriculars—Aiden was heavily involved in sports and Harper regularly camped with her scouting troop—we were mostly chauffeurs these days.

I had my mouth open as I turned the doorknob on our bedroom door, planning to announce all was great with our little one. But instead of sitting in bed under the covers, staring intently at her laptop as she’d been when I left her, Mina was on top of the covers, naked.

Her laptop was on the bedside table next to the tumbler I’d given her for our fourth wedding anniversary.World’s best author, it read.

“I need help with a scene,” she said. “It’s been a while since I’ve written one that takes place in bed.”

A smile broke out over my face as I whipped off my T-shirt. My sweatpants immediately followed.

“Leave on the underwear,” she said when I slid a thumb under each side of the waistband.

“Will do.”

I headed straight for the bed. But she stopped me before I could climb on top of her.

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