Page 16 of Stuck with my Mountain Daddies

Long. Awkward. Ice-cold silence.

The kind where the universe sits back with popcorn and watches you flail.

Fuck.

I thought I recognized him. I’ve never met him before, but I’m sure I’ve seen him in photos. In Lucy’s old college room, online…

I stared at him, horror blooming in my chest. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope.”

“Lucy never said anything about a brother being here.”

“Well,” he said, glancing at the water pooling around my feet, “she probably didn’t think I’d be walking into a flood zone to find her guest halfway to hypothermia.”

I flushed. “I didn’t plan for this, okay? I think the pipe must have burst. There’s no heat, no signal, and I can’t reach her.”

“She called us,” he said, waltzing inside with a playful smirk dancing on his lips. “Said things went to hell at work, and asked me and my brothers to check on you.”

Brothers?

Of course she did.

Of course there’s more of them.

Ofcoursethe universe decided that the one person within fifty miles who knew what I looked like naked, very recently, very thoroughly, was also the one responsible for my rescue.

“I’m fine,” I said stiffly. “You can go.”

“You’renotfine,” he shot back, gesturing around the cabin. “This place is soaked, there’s a storm blowing in, and I’m guessing that fireplace hasn’t been serviced since before Instagram existed.”

I glared at him, but my teeth were starting to chatter. Which really undercut the whole “I’m fine” thing.

“I’m not leaving you here,” he added, and there was an edge in his voice, firm, low, unwavering, that made me want to argue just to feel in control again.

But I couldn’t. Because he was right.

I was wet. I was cold. And I was very muchnotokay.

“What do you suggest?” I asked, biting the inside of my cheek.

“We’ve got a place a few miles back. Me and my brothers,” he said. “Spare room, heat, Wi-Fi, maybe even a dry pair of socks if you’re nice.”

“I don’t need?—”

“You need to not freeze to death,” he interrupted. “It’s one night, Riley. Don’t get too excited.”

I scoffed. “Please. Like this is my idea of a good time.”

He smirked, and somehow, that annoyed me more than anything else.

“Fine,” I muttered, grabbing my suitcase and trying not to wince at the cold seeping through my soaked clothes. “But one night. That’s it.”

“Scout’s honor.”

“You were never a scout.”

He grinned. “Nah. Too much attitude.”

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