Page 2 of Protected By The Mountain Man

My ex had become an ex about six months earlier. It should have been a big blow but instead I’d hardly noticed him slip out of my life. I’d been too caught up in grieving my dad who’d passed away a few months before that to see that Jamey had fallen out of love with me. And to be fair, I’d fallen out of love with him, too.

We’d dated for a few years, spinning our wheels together. But I’d always suspected he was a short-term love affair instead of a partner for life.

Kind of like my job. I worked in marketing but I’d just found out the division of the company I worked at was going through a merger. We’d all be out of work in the next six months.

It would be nice to live somewhere like here instead.

The clouds moved lazily overhead, the blue of the sky interrupted by white. I played a game I used to do when I was a child, looking for images in the clouds. My dad and I used to play that together.

I miss him.

He’d passed away a year ago. He’d been the main reason I’d stayed in Chicago.

But staying there wouldn’t bring him back.

I wonder if I could get a job doing remote marketing for a smaller company?

Everyone else in the country seemed to have switched to remote work. Maybe I could, too. I was looking at this job change as a blessing in disguise. If the merger hadn’t happened, I would have stayed there for two more decades.

The pay was good, and they gave out decent perks.

But it didn’t make my heart sing.

Right now I wasn’t sure what would… but I knew Hidden Lake on the top of Red Oak Mountain was making me feel pretty damn fine.

I wouldn’t mind living somewhere likethis. I was done with the busy life in a city. Red Oak Mountain seemed to live at its own speed, which appeared to be the speed of a turtle. This place was a forgotten niche in a world that took itself too seriously.

What if I could have rocking chairs on a front porch, and lazy Saturday mornings visiting the farmer’s market? Days spent on the lake. Nights spent… well, I wasn’t sure what people did around here for nightlife. That might be the thing I’d give up if I moved somewhere like here. The whole town seemed to shut down after nine p.m.

I swam until I tired myself out. Then I had my picnic lunch and sunbathed so long I must have fallen asleep.

When I woke up I was naked, sunburned, and more relaxed than I’d been in years.

This was almost better than sex.

Maybe not. It had just been so long that I’d forgotten what it felt like.

I sat up in the sand groggily, surprised that I’d fallen asleep out here.

Looking down at myself, I started chuckling. I hadn’t put my clothes on before napping, and now I was pink all over, the warm heat of the sun soaked into my skin.

How long was I asleep?

Long enough for the sunshiny day to fade. It was overcast now, and it felt like hours had passed.

I went to check the time on my phone. I’d left it, and everything else, on the kayak.

But when I looked around, I almost instantly saw that something was wrong.

Where’s the kayak?

Shoot.

I thought I’d secured it on the sand pretty well, but it was missing now.

Did it float away?

Surely I hadn’t been that careless.

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