Page 6 of Fierce Mountain Man

“So where are you from?” he asked.

“South Carolina,” I said. “Lived there all my life.”

“Really? I spent some time at Fort Jackson. But I was based out of Texas my last couple of years.”

“Well, Seduction Summit, North Carolina, is my home now. Or Adairsville. One or the other.”

“You’ve already moved here?” he asked.

How did I explain this? He probably wouldn’t understand a woman who had very few possessions—enough to fit in the trunk of a small sedan. I’d rented a furnished bedroom in a retired woman’s basement for the past five years, and before that, I went from foster home to foster home, never quite finding that forever family.

“Already moved out,” was all I said.

“Why Seduction Summit?”

“This was where the competition was being held. I researched it. It’s as good as any other place, and it’s more reasonable to start a business here than a more established touristy area.”

“What about family?” he asked.

He wasn’t looking at me as he spoke. His full attention seemed to be on my foot. But he’d just asked a question I wasn’t prepared to answer.

I opened my mouth, closed it again, then opened it, then closed it again. I probably looked like a fish. Thankfully, he wasn’t watching.

“My parents are both gone,” I said. “Car accident when I was a baby.”

I left out the part where they were both raging alcoholics who barely had their lives together. Neither could keep a job and, from what I’d heard, we were practically living on the street when they died. They’d left me with nothing.

“At the same time?” Tobias asked.

I shook my head. “Separate accidents, two years apart. It all happened when I was too young to really know what was going on.”

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“What about you? Is your family nearby?”

He shook his head. “My mom died when I was in high school. My dad, well, he’s in jail. Now let’s try this boot.”

He looked up at me then, boot in his left hand, and his expression changed. It was subtle, just a slight flicker, but I saw it.

“You said your dad’s in prison?” I asked, rushing to ease the strange tension in the air between us.

“Jail,” he said. “He likes to get high and drive. He always said smoking pot wasn’t the same as drinking, so it was fine to get behind the wheel. Anyway, I have a sister in Miami. We do holidays together. She has two kids and a husband. That’s all the family I need.”

It was more family than I had. The words were on my lips. He’d opened up to me. Maybe I should do the same, but something held me back, and I knew what that something was. It was the same something that held me back from getting close to anyone.

I had to protect myself at all costs.

His voice broke into my thoughts. “You know what? You might want to get this checked out.”

“What?” I asked.

“Your injury. Have you had your tetanus shot?”

I sucked in a breath. I wasn’t sure, and there’d be no way to find out.

My medical care had been spotty throughout my life, to say the least. And there was nobody to keep up with my medical records when I was younger.

“Maybe I should get one just in case,” I said. “Is it dangerous to get one twice?”

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