Page 43 of Snowed In With the Mountain Man
“Now, Dahlia, don’t you trust me to take care of you?”
I don’t trust anyone to take care of me.She swallowed the words, but the truth of it was hard to ignore.
No one looked after her. She’d always been the one taking care of everybody else. She’d even felt like a nagging mother with her ex, Brady.
His gaze softened, along with his voice. “I promise I won’t let you freeze or go hungry today.”
Her heart gave a sharp kick to her ribs.
“What’s more…” He winked. “I promise you’ll have fun if you give it half a chance.”
She laughed at that. “You sound awfully certain of that.”
He shrugged. “I think I know you well enough to keep that promise.”
She blinked in surprise, and a quick glance over at Rose had her swallowing another laugh.
Her sister was gaping at them like she’d never met either of them before.
Dahlia turned back to JJ—anything to avoid the questioning gaze. “All right, fine. You’re on.”
14
“You’re on.”
JJ was still grinning over Dahlia’s challenging tone as they piled into his truck a little while later.
“Where are we heading?” she asked as he put the truck in Drive.
“You’ll see.” He shot her a grin in lieu of an answer. He typically went to a lake near his cabin, but after thinking over what Rose had said about Dahlia not having a good introduction to this town or her family’s ranch, he’d changed his plan.
She glanced over in confusion when he drove them onto a narrow dirt road that led farther into the O’Sullivans’ property rather than off it.
She gripped the door handle as the truck rocked and jostled over the rough route that led away from the flat, sprawling meadows surrounding the house and into the rocky foothills and valleys that led to the heart of the property.
This land spread far beyond the reach of the main roads, where the world was still untouched. It was back in these parts that the real magic of Montana resided, as far as he was concerned. The small towns were quaint and the national parks were majestic, but every time he rode back into this pristine stretch of nature, he knew he’d been blessed to work here.
“Is this lake…” Dahlia turned in her seat, trying and no doubt failing to take it all in as he rounded another turn and another sweeping valley came into view. “Is the lake on my sisters’ property?”
He smiled. “It’s on O’Sullivan property.”
Yourproperty.
“This is…” She shook her head. She didn’t have the words, and he couldn’t blame her. There were no words for the sight before them.
Hawks swept overhead, and a white-tipped mountain range ran along the horizon. White clouds dotted a bright blue sky, and the snow-covered meadows around them spread out as far as the eye could see.
“Wow,” she whispered.
JJ considered himself a spiritual man, but he’d stopped attending church once he’d arrived here in Montana. This land was holier than any building he could ever walk into.
He knew Nash had taken Emma on a tour of the property when she’d first arrived. But with the onset of winter and the wicked snowstorms they’d had, he suspected Dahlia hadn’t seen much beyond what was in view from the house.
Turned out he was right.
“I didn’t know this was all back here,” she whispered.
He didn’t say much, just let her take it in.
