Page 23 of Single Mom for the Mountain Men
The more shots she fires, the more frustrated she gets. She whips off her sweater, gooseflesh on her arms as her tank top reveals her flushed skin. Tanner teaches her more patiently than Brody did, calmly explaining things to her. Maybe because she doesn’t manage to land a single shot, her frustration messes with her focus even more.
“Calm breaths, Lena, deep ones. Come on. I know you can do this. It’s just like hunting, isn’t it?”
“I’m ass at hunting,” she deadpans, her mouth curled into a pout.
“You’re learning,” he corrects her. “Now, focus. Keep your arm steady.”
The last shots she fires are off the mark, but not as bad as they were.
“You did good, Lena. Now, let’s get to arrows. I have a feeling that once you get good at that, guns will be a piece of cake for you.”
“Aiden!”
Brody’s yell distracts me and pulls my attention away from her lesson.
“The fuck is it?” I yell back.
“Sophie ain’t listening, man!”
I roll my eyes and get up, leaving the two alone in the garden. Sophie is sitting at the dining table, her arms folded across her chest. Brody stands beside her, two seconds away from giving up.
“Why the fuck didn’t Tanner tell me that she doesn’t like celery?” he exclaims.
“Stop swearing around the kid,” I hiss. “She’s a kid, why the hell would she like vegetables?”
“I liked vegetables!” he argues, and Sophie eyes him with thinly veiled disgust.
I stop my lips from twitching into a smile and tell him, “Just give her what Tanner made last night. She’d like those sandwiches.”
“Sandwiches?” She sits up straight, nose twitching in interest.
“I told you if you ate some celery, I’d give you something fun,” Brody insists, his voice holding the note of a whine that she’s not listening to him.
It’s something I’ve never seen before; a grown-ass, burly man eyeing a little girl with childish exasperation.
“You didn’t say it would be sandwiches,” Sophie says simply as I take out the sandwiches from the fridge and toss them into the microwave.
“Touché,” he says, knowing when to admit defeat. Sophie smiles victoriously, scarfing down the sandwich as soon as I set it down in front of her. I hand another to Brody, then set the last one down in front of an empty chair.
“How’s the training going?” Brody asks once I sit down to eat myself.
“It’s going. She’s doing worse with him than she did with you, but not by that big of a margin.”
Brody hums, lost in thought.
“She’s got a quick temper,” I add. “Never saw that in her until now.”
“Tanner’s been teaching her how to hunt here and there. She shouldn’t be that bad at shooting. Plus, he’s a better teacher than I am.”
“I think the frustration she felt about not being able to land a hit with you is adding up on top of her training with Tanner,” I theorize.
“She’ll pull through.” He waves me off, picking up his and Sophie’s plates once they’re both done. “Look at the map with me before you head back out. There are areas I think you should see.”
I nod, pushing aside my plate as Brody places the large sheet of paper in front of me. He’s marked down points where the mystery man could set up camp or the escape routes he could use to leave quickly.
As we are working through it, with Brody leading me through the plan he has in his head, Lena storms in. She refills her bottle of water, and there are sweat stains visible on the back of her tank.
“You ready for me, Lena?” I call out.
