Page 23 of Found By the Mountain Man
Don't want to remember.
"Sawyer called," I say, watching her sip her coffee. "Family dinner at the ranch tonight. Elias is announcing something."
"Engagement, maybe?" She raises an eyebrow. "He and Riley have been getting serious."
I shrug, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her against me. "Could be. McKennas move fast when we know what we want."
Lila laughs, the sound still the brightest thing on this mountain. "Three months from meeting to marriage? Yeah, I'd say that qualifies as fast."
"Would've married you the day after I found you if you'd let me." The words come out gruff, honest.
"Liar." She sets her mug down to wrap both arms around my neck. "You would've run for the hills if I'd suggested marriage back then."
"Probably." I concede, my hands finding their home on her hips. "But I would've come back."
"I know." She says it with complete certainty, this trust between us built one day at a time since she limped into my life. "You always come back to what's yours."
Mine.The word sends heat rushing through my veins. I drop my head, capturing her mouth in a kiss that starts gentle but quickly burns hotter. Her body melts against mine, familiar now but never taken for granted.
When we break apart, she's breathless, eyes dark. "We have hours before we need to leave for dinner."
"That right?" I'm already backing her toward the cabin door.
"Hours and hours." Her hands slide under my shirt, those city-soft fingers finding skin. "Think we could find something to do with that time?"
Instead of answering, I lift her, her legs wrapping around my waist as I carry her inside. Ruby stays in the garden, used to being abandoned when we get like this.
Later, as Lila sleeps beside me, her bare skin warm against mine, I think about the year behind us. How she went back to New York only long enough to pack what mattered and settle her affairs. How she built a life here, working remotely for some fancy city company three days a week and helping Cade with his guide business the other two. How she charmed my family and this town and somehow didn't run screaming from the isolation that drove everyone else away.
I run my fingers down the curve of her spine, memorizing her for the thousandth time. She stirs but doesn't wake, just presses closer.
Sometimes, in the darkest part of night, I still expect to wake and find her gone. Find all this was just some dream my lonely mind created. But then morning comes, and she's still here, making this cabin a home.
Making me whole in a way I never knew I needed.
I press my lips to her shoulder, tasting salt and sleep-warm skin. In her sleep, she murmurs my name, and something fierce and protective surges in my chest.
I came to this mountain to escape. To forget. To hide from a world that took too much.
Instead, I found everything.
My eyes drift to the small white stick hidden in my drawer, the one I found this morning while Lila was in the garden. The one with two pink lines that explain why she's been tired lately, why her body feels different under my hands. She doesn't know I know yet. Probably planning some special way to tell me.
I'll act surprised when she does.
McKenna men have always been good at keeping secrets when it matters.
And nothing has ever mattered more than the woman in my arms and the life growing inside her.
My last thought before sleep claims me is that sometimes, getting lost is the only way to be found.
And I'll spend the rest of my life making sure Lila knows she'll always have a home to return to.
Always have me.
