Page 12 of Claimed By the Mountain Man

“Forced? I’m not forcing you, Gage. I’m inviting you. It’s not like I’m dragging you up the mountain by your hair caveman-style or anything. I am holding your thin mints hostage, though.” He put his hands in the pockets of his cargo pants and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, smirking at me. He knew damned well I was going to go with him. And it had nothing to do with him taking my thin mints.

I sighed loudly as if his invitation were a major imposition. “Fine, I’ll go. But only because you have my thin mints.” I turned to walk toward my bedroom and called back to him over myshoulder. “I’m going to go get dressed. I’ll be right back. Make yourself at home.”

When I came back out to the living room, Cooper was bent over looking at some photos on my side table—photos of Jonah and me. And Claire, too.Crap! I forgot about those.I was not ready to talk about Jonah with him yet, maybe not ever. With the anniversary of his death right around the corner, it was all too raw.I plopped down onto the couch and loudly dropped my hiking boots on the floor in front of me to put them on, making sure Cooper heard me. I started babbling about the hike, trying to get his attention off of the photos, hoping he wouldn’t ask me who the boy in the photo was. I didn’t want to have to lie to him, but I wasn’t up to telling him the truth yet either.

“Just got to get my boots on, and I’ll be ready to go. So, how difficult is this hike anyway? Not all of us were Army Rangers whose bodies were honed to perfection, you know. I haven’t hiked in a long time. And I’m a lot older than you, too.” Cooper’s head whipped around toward me at that comment.Good, that got his attention.

“What makes you think you’re a lot older than me? How oldareyou anyway? You look like you’re maybe in your early thirties.”

“I’m thirty-two,” I told him. “How old are you? I had you clocked for mid-twenties at most.”

“I’m twenty-eight, grandpa. We’re only four years apart, so hardly a generational gap or anything. You can’t use advanced age to get out of this hike. And maybe the military didn’t hone your body to perfection—thanks for that, by the way—but you clearly take care of yourself. You forget, I’ve seen you shirtless. You’re not exactly sporting a dad bod with those chiseled abs of yours.”

He gave me what could only be termed a lascivious grin and stared at me as if he could see right through my t-shirt to those aforementioned chiseled abs. For as much as his stare made me uncomfortable, it also turned me the fuck on. And when I met his eyes, they were blazing with the same desire I was sure were shining in mine. Standing up from the couch with my boots now on, I cleared my throat and stammered out, “All done. You, uh, ready to go?”

Probably seeing my obvious discomfort with the situation, Cooper took pity on me and let me off the hook. “Yep, all set. Let’s hit the trail, old man. If you have any trouble traversing the trail, let me know. We’ll find you a nice branch to use as a walking stick.”

I rolled my eyes at the cocky little shit—the sinfully sexy cocky little shit. “Thank you for the kind offer, but I think I’ll be fine. I’ll be sure to alert you, though, if my advanced age or poor physical condition catches up to me enough to warrant you combing the woods for a walking stick.”

On the trail to the fire lookout tower, Cooper talked practically non-stop, telling me all about Fire Mountain. It was obvious how much he loved the place, and his eyes lit up when he talked about it. He pointed out natural landmarks and the homes of other Ashwood residents that lived on the mountain—many of whom I’d seen in the bar but never actually spoken to. He told me about the local wildlife, and he shared stories about camping on the mountain when he was a child, first with his parents and later with his grandparents. Everyone in his family loved the outdoors, he said, and went camping every chance they got. And they all loved the mountain. When his grandmother had died a couple of years ago, they had even scattered her ashes on the mountain in the spot where his grandfather had proposed to her.They had been high school sweethearts and married right out of high school. He said he’d never seen two people more in love.

“I can only hope to find that kind of love someday,” he said, glancing over at me.

Sensing this was headed in a direction I did not want to go down, I changed the subject to ask him something I’d actually been wondering about since the first time I saw him in the bar. “Hey, Cooper? Why does your grandfather call you Sunny?”

He rolled his eyes and groaned. “Ugh. It’s a little embarrassing. My grandmother started that when I was very young. It’s supposed to be because I have a sunny disposition, or so my grandmother thought. She used to say I was her little ray of sunshine. And once she started calling me Sunny, it stuck. Everyone in the family called me Sunny after that. I tried to get my grandmother to retire the cutesy nickname when I was in middle school, but she steadfastly refused. She called me Sunny right up to the day she died.”

“And now your grandfather calls you Sunny. I think it’s cute,” I said, smiling at him.

“It was cute when I was four, not so much at twenty-eight. Honestly, Pop never even really called me Sunny much when grandma was alive. I don’t know if he does it so much now to honor my grandma or because he wants to mess with me. I’m guessing it’s a little bit of both, honestly,” Cooper said. He had a soft, slightly sad smile on his face, no doubt due to missing his grandmother.

“From what I know of your grandfather, I’m thinking you’re probably right.”

By the time we reached the lookout tower, I actually was a little winded and my calves were screaming. Maybe Idoneed that walking stick, not that I’ll ever admit that to Cooper. The trail definitely got steeper as we neared the tower, and I was happy there were a couple of chairs there for us to fall into. Not that Cooper needed a chair. That super-fit, gorgeous asshole had barely broken a sweat and actually jogged the last few feet up to the tower. I did enjoy watching that bubble butt of his bouncing up and down as he did it, though.The man really was too sexy for his own good.

Once inside, after I’d drunk some water and rested my weary body a few minutes, Cooper took me over to show me the near-panoramic view from the tower, and I think I might have actually gasped. The view from the top of the mountain was absolutely incredible! It was well worth the hike. He then walked me through what he does when he’s on shift at the tower. He showed me how to use the Osborne Fire Finder and the elevation mapping software to accurately pinpoint the fire’s location for emergency responders. I found it all fascinating. And I was inordinately proud of Cooper for volunteering to do this for his community and as a way to honor his fallen brothers.

“Is no one on shift here today? You’re not supposed to be on shift right now, are you?” I asked him.

“Oh, no,” he replied, “I’m not on shift. No one is. We actually don’t have enough volunteers to cover this place all the time, and there is no full-time ranger employed to cover it anymore. We just try to ensure we have all the shifts covered on red flag days, but that’s the best we can do.”

“Maybe I should volunteer. You could show me the ropes, right?” And the more I thought about it, the more I really wanted to volunteer.

Cooper’s face lit up with excitement. “Yeah, for sure. That would be great, actually. There’s not that much to learn, just how to use the equipment and what the proper procedures are if you see something. If you decide to do it, just let me know. I’d be happy to show you everything you need to know.”

“I really think I want to. I just need to check my work schedule to see what projects I have coming up. I’ll let you know soon,” I told him.

“We should probably exchange phone numbers then, don’t you think? I mean, unless you want to just drop by the bar and hope I’m there every time you need to ask me a question. If I’m going to be showing you the ropes for volunteering, you really should be able to reach me if you have any issues while you’re on shift, at least at the beginning.”

I couldn’t miss his cocky grin.He’s slick.“Makes sense.” I pulled my phone from my pocket and handed it to him. “Here you go, just put your number in my contacts. Then I’ll text you, so you have my number too.”

As Cooper was handing the phone back to me, his stomach growled loudly. And as if it started a chain reaction, mine growled too. We both laughed, and Cooper grabbed up his picnic basket.

“Right, I guess it’s time I fed you, huh?” He dug into the basket and pulled out a chilled bottle of white wine with actual wine glasses (no red solo cups for this dude), an honest-to-goodness charcuterie board that looked incredible, some sandwiches, fresh fruit, and a garden salad with what he said was homemade raspberry vinaigrette.

I was flabbergasted that he’d done this. It was fantastic and so thoughtful. “You did this yourself?”

He nodded and bowed his head, actually looking a little sheepish. I’d never seen Cooper look sheepish. It was so out of character for him. “Even the homemade raspberry vinaigrette?” I asked.

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