Page 11 of Single Mom's Mountain Men
“What the fuck?” I swear as he tightens his hand around my bicep
“Where are you going?”
“What the fuck is it to you?” I rip my hand out of his hold. “Don’t grab me like that again you know I hate being snuck up on." Courtesy of the Marine Corps, I have an all-fight instinct and grabbing me from behind is a sure way to end up with an elbow in the throat.
But the bastard doesn’t even look sorry that he might have triggered me. Charlie simply shakes his head and says, “Don’t go into the guesthouse.”
“Why? What’s in the guesthouse?” And then an eye-widening realization strikes me. “Don’t tell me you actuallydohave a long-lost girlfriend visiting with her kids?’
“No, you idiot. But someone is staying at the guesthouse and she’s exhausted. She doesn’t need you bothering her."
Now I’m curious. We’ve had guests in the lodge before, but they’re usually old military buddies stopping by to say hello, or backpackers on a trip who need a cheap place to stay for the night. Occasionally a travelling mechanic or sales rep for an agricultural supplier might stop by. In those situations, my brother usually ignores them for the most part and stays in his room or heads up into the forest to work. He’s never once bothered with what Mitch and I do with the guests as long as we leave him out of it.
So for him to be this worked up about me potentially bothering a guest, and afemaleguest for that matter...
Oh, now I’ve definitely got to meet her.
“Well, brother I can’t just have a random stranger staying in my house and not meet them at least once.” I tell him in a singsong tongue shrugging. “It would be rude."
Charlie shakes his head, as firm as I’ve ever seen him. “No.”
“No?”
“No.”
This only raises my curiosity still further. I’m itching to meet her now, and Charlie can probably tell because he sighs in resignation. "Fine. You say hi and then you leave her alone. Got it?"
"Scout's honor," I say, and he rolls his eyes.
As we walk to the door, he turns over his shoulder to look at me.
“You going to slack off all day?” Charlie asks finally and I glance down at him.
“What do you mean slack off? I’ve done my quota for the day.” We own a family logging business, and our older brother Mitch sets us ridiculous quotas for the work we need to complete each day. Stubbornly, I wake up early enough so that I can finish early and spend the rest of the day doing whatever I want. I often see Mitch glaring at me as I walk away from the shed. He probably thinks I should be working overtime like him, but that’s just not how I roll. Unlike him, this is just a job to me and it's never been my dream to run our family's logging business. That's his and Charlie's thing. I'm just helping him out since we can’t afford to hire too many people on our staff right now. Hence we have a couple of guesthouses, since they were what used to be workers’ accommodation, back in my papa’s day when he had big plans for the place.
But producing planks out of trees is not my life and soul and I refuse to make it so.
We climb the steps to the verandah and knock on the door.
I think I hear a splashing sound. She's taking a bath?
“Coming," someone calls out.
“What’s her name?” I whisper to Charlie as we hear harried footsteps.
“I didn’t ask.”
I give him an incredulous look. “You invited someone to stay with us and you didn’t even ask their name?”
Charlie shrugs. “I didn’t think it was important.
“Didn’t think it was… I swear to God Charlie, sometimes I don’t even think you’re a human being, much less my brother.”
“Not everyone is as nosy as you.”
And then the door pulls open and we’re both struck silent.
Or at the very least know I’m struck silent. She’s a goddess!
