Page 13 of Fierce Mountain Man

“We could play strip War,” I blurted.

It was a daring thing to say. She’d have every right to be offended. But I’d had two beers and was feeling relaxed and happy. It was a little too easy to forget that I didn’t want to do anything that might scare her off.

As she stared at me, I held my breath, worried about what her response would be. She delayed so long, I considered taking it back. But I held out on the off chance she might react well to it.

“How does that work?” she asked.

“Every time one of us loses a hand, we have to take off an article of clothing. By the time we’re naked, the cheesecake should be ready.”

Naked. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned that. We could stop taking off clothes when she got uncomfortable. Maybe I should speak up about that part of it.

“Let’s do it,” she said.

I frowned. “I have on two socks, two shoes, jeans, underwear, and a shirt. That puts me at an advantage.”

“You’re right,” she said. “But I’m going to kick your ass at the game, so I bet you end up naked first, anyway.”

“You sure about that?” I asked, giving her a teasing smile.

She returned that teasing smile. We were essentially flirting. I’d never been a flirt, but with her, it was easy.

“Go get your deck of cards,” she said. “I’ll be waiting.”

I didn’t have to go far. I kept them in the coat closet, in a shoebox full of other memories from my military days. Maybe I’d go through the box with her someday and show her what my life had been like before I met her.

That thought stopped me short. I was already thinking about a future with her. A future where I’d share parts of my past. Wow. When did I start getting so serious about this woman I’d just met? Maybe from the second I’d seen her.

As I returned to the couch, I looked at Emmy. Yeah, I was definitely getting in way too deep. I had to watch out, or I just might end up giving up my solo life.

I smiled at that thought.

“You’re pretty excited about the game, huh?” she asked.

I’d been busy pulling the cards out of the box, but now I stopped to look at her. “Excited about the game?”

“You were smiling. I don’t see you smile very often.”

I never smiled before I met her. Well, rarely. But today, I found myself smiling at odd times. Someone on the logging crew even asked what was up with me. He said I’d been whistling. I never whistled.

“Just thinking about how I’m going to beat you at this,” I said.

“Ha! We’ll see about that.”

I cut the cards and shuffled them, then set them on the cushion between us. I divided the deck evenly, giving her half and setting the other half in front of me.

“It’s been a while,” she said.

I nodded. “Right.”

It had been a while for me too. But I didn’t forget much from my days overseas. I wish I could.

Emmy turned over her card, and I turned over mine. She had an ace, and I had a four.

“Is ace higher or lower than four?” she asked. “We should have established that before we started.”

“When we played overseas, ace was always the highest.”

“That’s how I’ve always played it.”

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