Page 2 of Forgotten Mountain Man

I raised my eyebrows. “You two married the wrong people. Thanks for the heads up. And the coffee.” I hugged Eve as she trotted down the steps holding an oversized coffee thermos.

“I wasn’t about to send you off unarmed.” She hugged me back and produced a container of assorted home cooked slices out of nowhere. “Plus, in case it really does close in and you get stuck. You need to turn around, there’s always a bed for you here. And Kyle is about on the other side of the mountain if you need help in that direction. Not that there’s any reception once you hit the boundary.” She frowned and winced all in the space of a second. Her hand dropped to her hip and she squeezed inward.

It was my turn to worry about her. “Are you okay?”

“Fine.” She brushed off my concern with a tired smile. “Perimenopause hitting in five years too early. Hot sweats have started too.”

I stared. “You are way too young for that. Have you been to the doctor?”

“Too many times to count. Do you have enough fuel? Got jerry cans?”

I blinked. “I hadn’t thought?—”

“Walker has a stash, assuming it hasn’t all gone stale. Been a long damn time since he was in town,” Jude muttered. “I can get you something.” He eyed my trunk. “Make your car stink, though.”

“No, thank you. Pretty Betty shalt not stink. The car commandments.” I hefted my lunch container and my coffee thermos over my head to increase my height before thepredators crowding around me and air kissed Eve. “Look after yourself,” I whispered. “I’ll be back soon, with Walker.”

Her eyes sparkled with my impending mischief. “I can’t wait.”

Then I was gone in a flurry of dust bunnies bigger than the ones that Travis kicked up, headed for Red Hart’s eastern boundary where I would find Walker Roan and finally get his oversized, overstuffed and long overdue file off my otherwise clean desk.

CHAPTER TWO

WALKER

I planted my feet shoulder width apart and tried to ignore the sound of the tinny engine noise that reverberated along my spine crept up the mountain. Not that I expected anyone—Jude knew better than to head up my way when rain was due, and I hadn’t capped the drive like I promised myself I would months ago when the rain last stopped.

Now, it looked like I’d be doing a whole lot more when the remainder of last year’s effort washed away in a few hours’ time and left me with a slippery granite slope that wouldn’t be drivable any time soon.

Not that I cared if I was stuck up on the mountain for a while longer. I had no plans on leaving. Whoever decided to visit, however, might object to my personal habits when they were stuck here with me. I hadn’t shared my living space with another human for some time.

The clunky sound choked just outside my line of sight. I frowned, my axe lifted over my head as I stared down at the round of timber set out before me. That pathetic, rusty little vehicle didn’t sound anything like any of the Red Hart trucks,and it sure as hell didn’t belong to anything that trader Kyle might drive.

I placed my axe against the giant larch stump I habitually used for chopping rounds. With clouds setting in well after midday, I had a need for dry wood. Once the rain started on my side of the mountain, it tended not to stop for a while.

Exhaling a long breath I swung about to face the newcomer invading my rocky granite outcrop where I’d made my home just over a decade ago when I left White Cap. Travis’ father offered me a home back then when my own refused to do the same. I took the offer, and his son and his best friend worked shoulder to shoulder beside me for a season to help build a simple log cabin just big enough to keep the snow off my back in winter.

I’d stayed here ever since, only coming down to the big house to top up supplies and fuel when the jenny ran dry.

Which was why an unannounced visitor at this time of year with rain pending was not my idea of a good time.

I cast an eye heavenward just as a ratty little white car that probably should have stayed in White Cap about the same time as I left the small Montana town butted its scarred hood over the edge of my drive and onto the plateau where I spent my hours. The vehicle announced its presence with a death rattle that could have woken half the mountain range, and died.

The driver didn’t seem deterred at all by the steam that billowed in plumes from where I assumed the little car kept what remained of its engine. She bounded out of her car, red hair swinging from her shoulders to her—holy shit, did those sunset colored locks actually hang all the way to herknees? Dressed in white jeans that stopped mid-calf and a red knitted top that bared her shoulders, neither my mountain nor myself had seen anything as vibrant as this tiny woman in years, if ever.

Not that the woman was tall; she’d be lucky to reach my nipples if we stood forehead to chest level. But her hairwas fairytale length at least. Considering her dramatic arrival, I wondered if I shouldn’t be on the lookout for a wicked stepmother, or perhaps a wayward dragon on the fly.

“Walker Roan.” Her voice stopped me dead as she stalked toward me, tapping a manilla folder as thick as my forearm in her hands. A sultry smile curved cherrywood red lips to match her hair. “You are not an easy man to catch, sir.” She smiled and tossed the folder on the hood of her car—for dramatic effect, I suspected.

Damn slip of a thing would be lucky if those papers didn’t blow away and end up at the bottom of the mountain in the next few minutes, the way the clouds were starting to roll in behind her, not that I expected she had noticed.

Something about the way my name rolled off her tongue left me hotter under the collar than a downslope wind rushing along the mountain face. I raked one hand through my beard, covering my mouth as I stared down at her. The woman didn’t stop until the toes of her glossy patent heels—who the fuck wore goddam high heels on their way up a mountain?—touched my scuffed leather boots.

Yep, nipple level. Maybe an inch or so below.Called it.

That was where the top of her head reached on me as I stared down into her hazel color change eyes that matched the forest around us with their stunning array of greens and browns and yellows that shifted with the sunlight.

Those eyes that still watched me like she expected an answer.

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