Page 6 of Grump of Misty Mountain

Sami hugged her sides as she busted out laughing. Frowning, because of course I did, I wasn’t sure if I should laugh with her or shut her up with a kiss.Man, I was obsessed with those lips of hers.Either way, I was going to say the words because she was right.

“Alright, Miss Sassy Pants, you win. I am sorry. I have this habit of falling into my default mode, which has been labeled as grumpy. Although, I never really thought I was ever a grump to begin with. I just didn’t have a lot to be happy about back when I got stuck with the nickname.”

Her laughter faded, and that was a shame. Her smile was captivating, and I’d have to think of something else to say, or do, to get it back on her face.

“Yeah, I can relate. Back in high school, I got a nickname too that I didn’t think was fair. But then that’s the thing about nicknames. You don’t get to pick your own.” A flicker of sadness appeared on her face so fast I almost thought I’d imagined it. I suddenly wanted to track down whomever hurt her feelings and introduce them to my right hook.

“What was yours?” Dammit, I immediately regretted asking. This is not how I wanted our conversation to go.

Looking away from me, she stared into the distance. Sami shook her head, then sighed. “It shouldn’t still bother me, but labels can suck. Promise not to laugh, okay?”

“Scouts honor.” I flashed the sign, or at least what I thought was the Boy Scout sign.

“Yeah, I can see you being a Boy Scout. Alright. Back in middle school, I was quite chubby and even shorter than I am now and well…one of the boys called me ‘thunder thighs’ and it stuck until I was a sophomore in high school. Luckily, I grew another few inches by then, and the boys were more interested in, uh, well, other parts of my, er, anatomy.” Another blush appeared on her lovely face.

I knew nothing I could say would make the younger Sami feel less hurt by the cruelty of teenage boys. But I could make the beautiful woman sitting next to me, still holding one of my alter ego’s books, that all her curves were worship worthy. And I was the one who’d cherish every inch.

“Well, on behalf of the male gender, I can assure you that if those same idiots, because that what’s we are at that age and dealing with raging hormones, but if they saw you today, the only thing they’d be thinking about is how they could gain your attention so they could get closer to all those lovely curves.”

Her breath hitched at my words, and although we were outside, the weather moderately warm, a heat spiraled between us. I waited for her to speak. Maybe say something with what I now believed was her signature sass, but the silence stretched. Then I noticed her lips tremble ever so slightly before they turned up into a small smile.

“Thank you. That’s very kind.”

“Well, kindness has nothing to do with it when it’s true. I was thinking maybe you’d?—”

“Oh my gosh, look at the time!” She jumped up and gathered her things. Flustered, she looked everywhere but at me. “Iappreciate the apology, Finn. But I just remembered, I uh, have a video call with a new client. I’m starting my own graphic design business, and I, well, I gotta go.”

For the second time, I watched Sami walk away from me. But there was no way I’d let it happen a third time. Her reaction was all I needed. She may not want to be attracted to me, and the reason didn’t matter. I was going to find a way into her life, her bed, and heart.

I knew it was too soon to make a declaration when I hadn’t even kissed her yet, but soon. Very soon I’d tell her what I now knew for certain.

She was mine.

FOUR

SAMI

The cafe had been bustlingsince the early morning rush, well as big a rush as you get in a town this size. But coffee ruled most people, as did Ms. Clara’s cinnamon rolls. I’d seen more people this morning than I’d had any other day since I started.

I’d been thinking all afternoon of different ways to ask Clara how much she knew about Finn, but finally settled on the straightforward approach. “So how old would you say Finn is?”

The way he’d been looking at me at the falls yesterday, the compliment he’d given me, the heat that had darkened his hazel eyes every time his gaze dropped to my lips had been all I could think about. And that I’d panicked when he’d sounded like he was going to ask me out. I’d acted like a fool and ran. He probably thought I had a screw loose.

But I needed to figure out if I could open myself up to him, while keeping a lock down on my heart. His kind words had slayed me, then set off fireworks. That man was a dangerous temptation.

But what worried me most was that I felt there was something else other than attraction between us, intense as that was, and the need to find out more about Finn was growing faster than I could tamp it down.

Clara stopped wiping one of the tables by the large front window, a look of triumph on her face.

“Now don’t go ordering any save the date cards. I’m not looking to marry him. He’s nice and thought maybe he got a bum rap in regard to being the town grump. I was just curious. That’s it.”

“Curious, huh? Is that how your generation goes about it instead of just having a face-to-face conversation?” She waved at the last group of customers as they exited, the cafe now empty except for us. That wouldn’t last long, so I needed to get this line of questioning over quick.

“He showed up at the falls yesterday when I was there reading my book. But I thought it was kind of rude to ask how old he was. I know he has to be older than me, and well….”

“You think he might be too old for you?”

“Not really. Besides, you know I’m thirty-four, and if you’d thought he was too old for me, you wouldn’t have mentioned to him I was single.”

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