Page 6 of Untamed Mountain Man

“Near the city limits,” he said. “That’s where all the neighborhoods are. We had one elementary, middle, and high school and a tiny post office, but for everything else, we had to come over to Adairsville.”

“So you lived in Seduction Summit, but you didn’t get to wake up to a beautiful view every morning.”

“We definitely went up to the mountains a lot. But it was an effort. Mom would pack up the car with food and a blanket, and we’d have a big picnic by the water.”

Weird, since we were sitting by the water right now. It was clear we had water right here.

But I got it. Driving up to the mountains to enjoy the view definitely beat this.

“And your dad?” I asked.

I hated to seem nosy, but I wanted to know as much as possible about him. There was something in his past. I sensed it in the way he went all introspective whenever this conversation came up.

I wondered if the key was the lack of a father. His mom had raised him all alone. Or maybe he had a divorce situation and a stepdad who wasn’t the best.

There was something dark about this guy, and I was determined to find out what it was.

“He’d come with us,” Beau said. “He worked a lot, but he always made time for us on Sundays. It was our family day.”

Okay, nothing dark there.

“You and your sister were close?” I asked.

He shrugged and set his burger back on the wrapper, grabbing the napkin to blot his mouth before speaking. “We kind of grew apart as teens. I was four years older, so when I was in high school, she was still riding bikes and having sleepovers with friends.”

I was still doing that in high school—the sleepover part, anyway—but I didn’t say anything about it. “Sounds like the perfect childhood.”

The silence that followed told me his childhood wasn’t quite perfect. I looked over at him. If he didn’t say anything soon, I’d probably have to break that silence, maybe change the subject. He’d talk about it in his own time. But would I have a chance to ever learn more about him?

What if tonight was the only night I ever saw him? I was already playing hooky from my dinner, and people would probably notice I was missing. But it wasn’t mandatory. As long as I was back at the tent at ten tomorrow morning, I had a one in three chance of winning this baking championship.

“I stole something when I was a kid,” he said.

I nearly choked on the bite of french fry I’d just taken. I definitely hadn’t expected him to blurt out the truth. I reached for my drink and sipped as I stared out the windshield and waited for him to continue.

“It was nothing big. A friend dared me to do it. But I was caught and taken to the police station here in town. The whole goal was just to scare the shit out of me. It worked, but what I didn’t figure was word would spread all over Seduction Summit. I never lived it down.”

“You never lived down stealing something as a kid?”

“Yeah, not much happens in a small town, I guess.” He laughed. “I was the only criminal in the neighborhood.”

“How old were you?”

“Thirteen. None of the moms wanted their kids to hang out with me. But it was a small school and people didn’t really have a choice.”

“I’m sure girls liked it.” I smiled. “Everyone loves a bad boy. Not that you were bad. You know what I mean.”

Crap. Was I screwing this up? I wanted to make him feel better, not worse.

He laughed. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. But anyway, when I graduated, I went into the military. I thought that might redeem me in everyone’s eyes. But it didn’t work. I returned home and got the same cold stares when I walked into Rosie’s Diner. The only place I fit in is up in the mountains with the guys on the logging crew. Not that we’re big buddies or anything, but they don’t judge me, and the tourists definitely don’t know anything about me.”

The darkness was back in full force. It was in his voice, in his posture, and in the way he polished off his burger and crumpled the wrapper before grabbing three fries and chomping bites out of all three in big chunks.

“Junior year, everyone in one of my classes hated me.”

I blurted that without thinking. He didn’t want to hear my problems. It just felt like I should share that all of us had something in our past.

“Why’s that?” he asked, looking over at me.

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