Page 3 of Chiseled Mountain Man

SEAN

Isucked at interacting with women. Okay, so I sucked at interacting with all humans, but beautiful women like the one on my sofa did a number on me. I got tongue-tied and retreated into myself.

That wasn’t an option today. Beautiful Bronte was the only one here. I couldn’t blow her off by pretending I wasn’t interested like I usually did.

But what was really alarming was I didn’t want to blow her off. For the first time in my life, I wanted to be the type of guy who could flirt with a woman until she eagerly hopped into bed with me. Instead, I was pouring bottled water into a glass and wishing I had a straw.

Women liked straws, didn’t they? Hell, if I knew. It had been a while since I’d even been on a date, let alone had a relationship.

“So you said it’s a baking competition?” I asked as I approached her on the couch.

Ask questions to get her talking. That was the key. I’d read that somewhere. I’d never put it into practice, though.

“National baking championship,” she said. “Thank you.”

After handing her the glass of water, I walked around the coffee table and took a seat on the recliner. That was where I pretty much lived when I wasn’t in my woodworking shop out back or working on the logging crew.

“The prize is fifty thousand dollars,” Bronte said.

That got my attention. The determination in her voice told me she didn’t just want to win. She wasgoingto win.

“You’re a baker,” I said.

That wasn’t really a question, but it had to count. When she started talking, I decided it definitely counted.

“I’ve been baking since I was five years old,” she said. “I’m still not doing it professionally, though. I enter bake-offs all the time at home.”

“Where’s that?” I asked.

Too soon. I should have waited until she finished her story to ask a question. Fuck, I sucked at this. But practice made perfect.

“Jefferson,” she said. “It’s a small town about a half hour from Boone. Heard of it?”

I shook my head. “I’ve heard of Boone, but not Jefferson.”

“Have you lived here long?”

She took a sip of her water as she waited for me to answer, those gorgeous blue eyes settling on my face. She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen—the most beautifulsightI’d ever seen, and I’d seen the sunrise over the mountaintops pretty much every day for the past four years.

“I grew up here,” I said. “But I served in the military. Moved back when I heard a lot of my brothers were coming here. A bunch of us are joining up with the new logging crews that are forming here. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a lot of stuff going up all around town.”

A lot of stuff going up? Real smooth.

“It made the news,” she said. “The new shopping center going in near downtown? Brighton something or other?”

I nodded. “Named for Brandon Brighton. He grew up here too.”

“You’re friends with him?”

She looked impressed, like the guy was some sort of celebrity. As small as our town was, I supposed he could be considered one.

“We graduated together,” I said.

I didn’t explain further than that. I wasn’t exactly the guy everyone considered a buddy. I kept to myself, and that was the same in school as it was now, when I lived up here in the middle of the woods by myself.

“Can you see the ski slopes from here?” she asked.

She turned and looked out the window, and I took the opportunity to admire her curves. She’d wisely dressed in layers, and she had a band of some sort around her head, covering her ears. Her blonde hair was in a ponytail.

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