Page 5 of Cursed Mountain Man

“I mentioned it to a buddy of mine,” Josiah continued. “He said maybe my cabin is cursed.”

I frowned. “Cursed, not haunted? That’s a weird leap to make.”

“Maybe guys like us don’t want to believe in ghosts.”

“So, you think someone put a curse on this place?” I asked. “Like a voodoo doll? A voodoo house?”

He laughed. “Sounds crazy. I’m well aware. I don’t know. Maybe this particular cabin was built on a burial ground.”

“Just this one house? What about your neighbors?”

I immediately second guessed my words. I didn’t want him to think I was skeptical. I fully believed him—or at least I believed thathebelieved his place was cursed. But I was starting to wonder if maybe the energy was surrounding him, and he didn’t realize it.

“It makes no sense to me,” he said. “I just know none of my buddies deal with this. I spend a lot of time in other cabins up in these mountains, and none of them have this…what do you call it?”

“Energy?” I offered.

“Energy.”

He said that as though it were a forbidden word. Why did I have a feeling he didn’t want to know the exact terminology? Like admitting it would mean admitting he’d just brought me in to sage his cabin.

“Maybe it’s not the house,” he said suddenly.

I stared at him. Was he for real? It was along the lines of what I’d been thinking, but I wouldn’t have come close to saying it.

“I’ve been running from some shit I saw overseas,” he said. “I guess a lot of us are. And I very well might have brought all that with me. Got anything in that bag that can help fix a warrior’s scars?”

“My sister’s all into aromatherapy. I could bring you some lavender or ylang-ylang oil. Help you relax.”

He took a generous bite of his pizza. Something about his demeanor reminded me he wasn’t exactly the aromatherapy type. Maybe I should just slather myself in oils and hang out with him until he chilled out. He’d have no choice but to relax at that point, especially if I wore that and nothing else.

Crap, why was my mind in the gutter today? I kept picturing the two of us naked in various positions. Sexual fantasies were not like me. I’d never even had sex, so how could I possibly form a fantasy about it?

“Maybe I’ll just have another beer,” he said.

He lifted his bottle. It was mostly empty now. I hadn’t even noticed him drinking that much of it.

I smiled. “Getting your house cleared up will take some of the stress off.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that.”

He sounded skeptical, and I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t really believe it would work either, but it was worth a try. Plus, it had given me an excuse to spend more time with him. In fact, once we finished up here tonight, I wouldn’t have a reason to see him ever again.

Unless I couldn’t fix his problem. I wanted to fix his problem, but I also didn’t want to say goodbye to this guy. And that was an emotion I could not afford to have. That was the kind of emotion that would lead to me getting my heart broken.

4

JOSIAH

“The negative energy is leaving the cabin, and in its place comes nothing but positive energy. Your home is clean.”

I had to force myself to keep my eyes closed. Of everything Violet had done over the past half hour or so, this was my least favorite, mostly because I had to participate in it. She’d lost me sometime around the point where she started sprinkling salt in the corners of each room, instructing me to sweep it up tomorrow.

“I think that’s it,” she said.

My eyes popped open, and I looked around. The cabin still smelled like a forest from all the incense she’d burned. I swore smoke still lingered in the air too. But besides that and the salt in every corner, my cabin seemed like the exact same place it had been before she did all that.

“You might not notice anything right away,” she said, as though reading my thoughts. “My sister said you’d have to give it time.”

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