Page 71 of Snowed In With the Mountain Man
Hadn’t anyone ever gotten mad on her behalf before? And also, why wasn’tsheangry? Didn’t she realize she deserved to be treated better?
She turned away from him, heading toward the cabin, and when he saw her shiver, guilt spurred him on beside her.
“Let’s get you warm in front of a fire.” He reached for her hand.
He loved that she gave it to him so trustingly. He suspected this was not a woman who’d let just anyone help her, even if it was just to step over some fallen branches.
It wasn’t until they were back in the cabin and he was bent over the fireplace getting the kindling ready that the topic came up again.
“Did you really just get angry because of my bosses?”
The confusion in her voice had him glancing over his shoulder to face her.
“I don’t like the way they talk to you.”
She gave him a funny little smirk. “Yeah, well, they’re my bosses. They’re allowed to talk to me however they want.”
He turned back to the kindling with a scowl, snapping his jaw shut to keep from saying something he’d regret. The anger he’d felt earlier came back in a rush. “I guess I just don’t see it that way. No one deserves to be treated like that, least of all you.”
“Why least of all me?” Her voice snapped with irritation, but he knew better than to take it personally.
He kept his gaze on the task at hand as he thought over how to respond.
Or, really, he sifted out what he couldn’t say.
What heshouldn’tsay.
Because what he wanted to say was inappropriate.You deserve better. Don’t go back to a place where you’re not wanted. Don’t leave the people who love you.
He shook his head with a grunt of annoyance at his own wayward thoughts.
Who was he to tell her that? No one. He had no place in her life, so he surely had no say in how she lived it.
But she was waiting quietly behind him, her feet shuffling against the hardwood floor every once in a while as she tried to stay warm.
He held a match to the kindling as he responded. “I don’t need to see you at your job to know you’re a good worker, Dahlia.”
She shifted again but stayed quiet.
“I’ve gotten to know you well enough to see you have a strong work ethic, not to mention a sense of duty to others…” He trailed off with a shake of his head. “I might not know much about your career or how things work in a New York City office, but I’d bet everything I have that you deserve more respect than what you’re gettin’.”
The kindling caught and spread quickly as he shifted the logs to help it along. All the while he cursed inwardly in frustration as Dahlia’s silence stretched behind him.
He’d sounded like a freakin’ guidance counselor. His words were too stilted, because he wasn’t sure he trusted himself not to say the words that threatened.
You don’t belong there with them. You belong here.
With me.
He froze in the act of tending the fire.
Stay here with me.
The words died on his tongue, but they burned his throat and made his lungs feel like they’d caught fire along with the logs. He couldn’t say that. He didn’t mean it…
Did he?
He fell back, resting on his haunches. The fire was done, but it took him a minute to turn and face Dahlia.
