Page 63 of Billionaire Lumberjack's Bargain

Me worried I’m not pushing hardenoughto get everything done as he ages and isn’t able to help with as much as he used to around the property.

I may be broken, but I’m still only twenty-three, and he’s seventy-five.

It can’t rest on his shoulders to keep this place running, even if it hurts to have it on mine.

“Then why did you stay? Knowing the toll it would take? You’re only twenty-three, Dalton. What’s going to happen when you’re forty or sixty or Pops’ age?”

I squeeze my eyes closed as an agony that has nothing to do with my back threatens to swallow me whole.

I’m not ready to think about that yet…

“This is the only life I ever knew, the only life my mom ever knew, and my dad grew up in James Creek, so it wasn’t much different for him, either.”

“I always meant to ask, why is your last name James? Were your mother and father married?”

A grin pulls at my lips, and I let my eyes drift open. “When my dad wanted to marry my mom, he asked Pops. And Pops told him theonlyway that was happening was if she kept her maiden name. He said, ‘A James has always lived on this mountain, and it will continue that way.’ So, she stayed a James and ensured I was one to keep Pops happy.”

Camille’s light laughter splits some of the tension in the air brought on by such a heavy conversation. “That sounds like Pops…”

I shrug, the water shifting around me. “He’s always lived here. There was never any question in my mind that I’d come back after my surgeries. He won’t ever live off the mountain.”

“Why does he hate that world so much?”

“He didn’t always.” I watch Camille casually rubbing her belly, wondering if the baby is kicking and reacting to my voice the same way she did that night. “Butthatworld is what took his daughter from him. What didthisto me. The only reason we weren’t on the mountain that day was because I begged my parents to take me to the circus.”

The familiar guilt ices my veins even though the water remains warm.

“So, what? He blames you for asking to go see something every child wants to?”

I release another sardonic laugh. “According to Pops, a circus is a travesty that just tortures animals who should live in the wild like this mountain provides. He lectured them on agreeing to take me, but we went anyway…”

She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth, chewing at it idly.

“Once I came home from the hospital, there was no way he was letting me off this mountain again except to go to James Creek, and eventhatbothers him. He knew we would figure out a way to make it work, regardless of what my physical limitations might be as I grew older. And it has…mostly.”

Camille releases her lip, now pink and plump and so fucking tempting, and she resumes rubbing her stomach, looking down at it rather than at me. “How often does this happen?”

She asked me the question before, and I tried to be vague and brush it off because I know what will come of it if I tell her the truth. This beautiful, resilient woman will blame herself for something that has absolutely nothing to do with her or what I’m doing for her and Davey.

But I’ve given up trying to conceal things from Camille.

It’s too damn hard when all I want is to be a fucking open book for her, to allow her to see how genuine I am in what I told her that night.

“A lot. More than it used to. But I was already having trouble before I started helping you, so please don’t get it in your head that this is your fault somehow.”

She presses her lips together. “I wasn’t going to.”

I chuckle. “Bullshit. We may not have known each other for very long, Camille, but do you really think I don’t know what goes on in that beautiful head of yours?” I raise a brow at her. “I do. And you said it yourself that the reason you were eavesdropping on Pops and me that day was because you wanted to make sure it wasn’t about you, that you weren’t causing any trouble for us.”

“I am…” She sucks in a little sob, tears forming in her eyes. “Iamcausing trouble for you.”

Against my better judgment, I reach out and rest my wet hand on top of hers on the edge of the tub. “No, you’re not. Having you and Davey around has been wonderful for me and for Pops. I haven’t seen him this energetic, excited, dare I sayhappy,in years.”

“That’s probably just the B12.”

She forces a smile that isn’t very convincing, and I squeeze her hand as she drops her gaze to her stomach.

“It’s not, and that wouldn’t explain why I’ve felt that way, too.”

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