Page 2 of The Minx and the Mountain Man

My fingers curl back into my palm. “Charming.”

He exhales sharply, letting me know he’s already exhausted by my presence. “It’s cold. Let’s go.”

I blink. “Wow. So romantic. You sure know how to make a girl feel welcome.”

His jaw tightens. “Didn’t sign up to be romantic.”

“No kidding,” I mutter under my breath.

Reid doesn’t even acknowledge the comment. Instead, he steps forward, grabs my suitcase, and hoists it into the back of his truck like it weighs nothing. He moves with an efficiency that suggests he’d like to get this over with as soon as possible.

I lift my chin. Fine.If he wants to be all gruff and growly, I can be even perkier. Sunshine and rainbows, baby.

I hop into the truck, sinking into the worn leather seat. The truck’s cabin is warm—woodsy and masculine, filled with the scent of pine, leather, and man. It makes me all tingly.

Reid slides into the driver’s seat, turns the key, and the truck rumbles to life.

I clasp my hands in my lap and beam at him. “So! What’s next? Do we go straight to the courthouse, or do you want to give me a tour first? Maybe a celebratory cup of cocoa? Ooh, do they have those giant marshmallows here?”

Reid grips the steering wheel a little tighter. “We’ll go to the house first.”

“Excellent. I can settle in before becoming Mrs. Calloway.” I flutter my lashes at him.

His fingers twitch. “It’s just a name.”

“Sure, but it’s a great name. It sounds very rugged. Like a cowboy or a lumberjack. Sadie Calloway. Maybe I should start chopping wood.”

He side-eyes me. “You ever chopped wood in your life?”

“No, but I’d look adorable doing it.”

Reid sighs like he’s regretting every choice that led him to this moment.

I bite back a grin.

We drive in silence for a few minutes, winding out of town and into the mountains. The road narrows, flanked by towering pines dusted in snow, their branches drooping under the weight of winter. The whole world feels hushed, blanketed in white.

And then, just when I think we’ll make it all the way up the mountain without him speaking again, Reid breaks the silence.

“This isn’t a love story.”

I turn to him. “Excuse me?”

“This arrangement,” he says, voice low and firm. “It’s not about romance. You needed a place to go. I needed a wife. That’s all this is.”

His words should sting, but I just tilt my head, studying him. The furrow between his brows. The tension in his jaw. The way he stares straight ahead, like looking at me for too long might set him on fire.

“Got it,” I say softly.

But what I don’t say is that Reid Calloway might think this isn’t a love story, but the way he isolates himself, the way he clenches his jaw like he’s bracing for something, the way his hands tighten on the wheel at the slightest hint of joy tells me that it could be. He’s a challenge, and I’ve never been one to give up easily.

Chapter Two

Reid

This is a mistake. I know it the second she steps off that bus, smiling like she just landed in a winter wonderland instead of a frozen patch of nowhere in the middle of February with a stranger she’s supposed to marry.

Sadie Winslow is trouble.

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