Page 5 of The Mountain Man's Valentine Baby

“I’ve been trying to get in touch with you,” Skye says in a soft voice. She speaks so quietly that sometimes I have to strain to catch what she says. “You have the meeting with the lawyer about your mom’s estate this afternoon.”

The pie in my mouth suddenly tastes like ash and I force myself to swallow the bite. “I forgot that was today.”

“You requested the meeting on New Year’s Day,” she prompts.

I wanted the whole thing done. I still want this over. I’ve been away from her seven years and last month, I got the call I hadn’t expected.

She died and as her last living relative, I have to figure out how to navigate her estate. Her “estate” being nothing more than a double-wide filled with cigarette butts on a piece of swampy land in the middle of Georgia.

“I was delayed by Zac’s wedding,” I explain, not willing to tell her I got delayed by the best man who pinned me down and ate out my pussy like it was his new favorite dessert. Four times. “I’ll be on the road within an hour. I’ll call you then.”

When I hang up the phone, I look around Jasper’s cabin. For some inexplicable reason, grief bubbles to the surface. Not for my mom. I already accepted that we were never going to be close a long time ago. But for leaving Jasper.

Eventually, he’d tire of me too. He’d decide I’m too much, and well, he’s the kind of guy who could break a girl’s heart. It’s better if I leave now so I grab his note and scribble one back to him.

Jasper

I wipe the sweat from my brow and gather up the last of the firewood. After taking Thea so many times last night, you’d think I’d be exhausted. But I’ve never felt more energized. Just thinking about her sends a fresh wave of desire through me.

Last night, everything fell into place. She’s my meant-to-be, the reason I’ve spent so much time feeling restless. I’ll spend the rest of my life getting to know her and learning all of her secrets. It will become my mission to delight her every day. I’ll find a million little ways to tell her I love her.

First, though, I’ll make her come again on my tongue. Then I’ll convince her that she’s my soulmate before I make her come on my cock. After I’ve ravished her a few times, I’ll fill her belly with more of my cherry pie.

When she’s sated in every way, I’ll drive us into the city. We’ll go into a jeweler’s and find the biggest, brightest diamond to put on her finger. Something to show the whole world that she belongs to a rugged mountain man who loves her fiercely. She’ll ride home in my truck with me, my arm around her shoulders as we daydream about what our perfect life together is going to look like.

Content with my plan, I load the firewood onto the back porch and step into the kitchen. The moment I enter the cabin, I know something’s wrong. She’s not here anymore. I feel it in my gut.

Still, I search through every room, calling her name softly as I do. I save the bedroom for last because I want to be wrong. I want her to be asleep in my bed, her hair fanned out on my pillow as she continues to snore softly.

But the sheets are cold, and she’s nowhere to be found. She left, and she took every bit of color from my life when she did. There’s only stark gray. It was gray before her, too. But I didn’t know what it was like to have her sunshine in my heart. Now that I do, I’m not sure I’ll ever recover.

I move through my cabin like a robot, looking for anything she left behind. But the only evidence she was here is the missing piece of pie and a note she scrawled underneath the recipe page for my cherry pie.

Jasper,

It was an amazing night. You’re one of a kind. Please don’t call.

Thea

“So amazing that she never wants to see me again,” I mutter and rip the bottom of the recipe page that contains her words. I crumple the paper to toss it in the garbage can.

But then I can’t. I smooth it out and read it again, looking for anything I missed. Nope, it’s still a “thanks for the D but no thanks to your personality” note.

In one moment, I thought I found my soulmate. I thought I found forever. I rub the spot where my heart used to be because she took it with her when she left. I’m never going to be whole again.

Chapter4

Thea

Istep off the treadmill on wobbly legs and fight another wave of nausea. I still, giving myself a second to let it pass.

You’re not sick.I’ve told myself that every winter for the last four years and a cold still hasn’t dared to show up, so clearly, it’s working.

With my early-morning workout done, I grab a fruit smoothie from the juice bar and head back to my apartment. I’ve been craving cherry pie every day for weeks, but after sampling every pie in Nashville, I’ve realized that only one person knows how to do it right.

“Should have snapped a picture of his recipe,” I grumble as I let myself in. A quick shower and a fresh round of makeup, then I’ll be ready to get to the office.

My phone rings, and I grimace when I see Dotty’s name. She and Zac have been blissfully married for close to six weeks. She calls me frequently, and even though her husband is my client, I think of Dotty as a friend the same as Zac.

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