Page 55 of Billionaire Lumberjack's Bargain

That sometimes, I’m too damn stubborn.

That more often than not, when I should be accepting help, I push it away, trying to do things on my own.

Like this morning when Dalton offered to take me to my appointment.

A huge part of me wanted him there.

Going through this pregnancy and all it entails alone after having Dave beside my side every step of the way with Davey has been one of the hardest parts of losing him.

But I couldn’t bring myself to allow Dalton to do it.

Not when I know how much he needs to get done around both homesteads and that I’m the cause of all this extra burden on his time and energy.

He’s become my friend, my only true one in years.

Maybe it was through default because we’re the only people up here, or maybe it was through fate that he came to my rescue, but I never, in a million years, thought it would go beyond that.

Yet, the way he’s looking at me now is anything but “friendly.”

The intensity and heat in his gaze send a shudder of awareness through me.

“What do you need to say, Dalton?”

He brushes his calloused fingertips across my cheek, and I have to fight the urge to lean into the reverent, intimate touch. “That I’m not going anywhere. That no matter what happens on this mountain, I will take care of you and your children.”

“That isn’t your responsibility. It’s mine.”

“There’s that stubborn streak.” He grins, and the way the gold in his eyes seems to twinkle makes my stomach do a stupid flip-flop thing I haven’t felt since I was a damn teenager. “I know it’s none of my business, but I need you to tell me”—he glances down between us—“what is your plan once this baby comes?”

God, I wish I had one.

Since the moment Dave died, I’ve been trying to figure that out, just like I was trying to determine how I could stay on the mountain when things were crumbling before my eyes.

Dalton and Pops have madethatpossible, but it doesn’t solve the long-term problem. I will still be alone on the homestead with an almost-five-year-old and a newborn, with winter coming, one that will be long, harsh, and that will take every ounce of my effort just to keep my head above water even with Dalton and Pops helping.

But one thing has never wavered.

My determination to find a way.

Squaring my shoulders, pressing them back against the wall so I’m at my full height, I stare Dalton down. “I’m going to do whatever it takes.”

“Me, too…”

His gaze dips to my lips, and my entire body freezes as he stares at them.

Even I don’t know what I want him to do.

Walk away…

Kiss me…

Both seem incredibly wrong for completely different reasons.

It is the goddamn pregnancy hormones.

The second and third trimesters were like this for me with Davey, too. Only then, I had an outlet for the tension and pulsating need that seem to have my body in a stranglehold right now.

I close my eyes and suck in a long, slow, steady breath, trying to douse the inferno threatening to ignite in me under his intense gaze.

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