Page 14 of Christmas Hike With The Mountain Man
I was tired of the silent treatment. I only had a short period of time left with the man. I wanted to get to know him, not walk in silence. And if I were being honest, my feelings were hurt.
Back when he’d given me the reindeer cookie I had almost felt like he was flirting with me a little. I’d obviously been wrong. I didn’t know how to read this man.
But I believed in getting things out in the open.
So I said, “Look, whatever I did to piss you off, you should just tell me. Because right now, you’re being a bit of a grump. And I didn’t drive all the way from Georgia to spend my Christmas with a grumpy Santa.”
He blew out a breath. “I’m not pissed at you, Katie. You haven’t done anything wrong. I—”
“Oh,shit!” My ankle rolled out from under me, and Boone sprang into action.
He yelled, “Look out!” then wrapped his arms around my waist as I teetered to the side of the trail.
He caught me and yanked me back from the edge. But it wasn’t fast enough to keep my pack from flying off my shoulders.
I tumbled down to the ground, pulling him on top of me.
As the surprise of finding myself on the ground wore off, I realized Boone was on top of me, pressed against my body.
Every nerve ending in me lit up like fireworks on the Fourth of July.
“You just saved my life.” I stared up at him, hero worship in my eyes. That could have been the end of me. Just like that.
“Rule number one of hiking safety, Katie, is keeping your eyes on the trail.” He growled out the words so low and quiet I almost couldn’t make them out.
“Don’t do that ever again. You scared me,” he added unexpectedly.
Then his expression changed, and I clearly saw something hungry and wild in his eyes.
Boone’s mouth dipped closer, and I suddenly had the undeniable realization that he was going to kiss me.
His lips got closer and closer before veering off at the last moment.
Instead, he looked away and got off of me with a grunt.
“You all right?” he asked as he helped me stand up.
“Yeah. I think I’m fine. My backpack, on the other hand…”
I looked around for it but didn’t see it on the trail.
Boone adjusted the front of his pants, then looked over the edge of the trail to the drop-off below. “Your pack is gone, hon. Looks like we’ll be sharing a tent tonight.”
Sharing a tent?
Flashes of sensation surged through me.
I couldn’t share a tent with him. I’d be liable to mount the man! And surely that wasn’t what he wanted—an overweight tourist misreading all his signals and coming on to him.
But I couldn’t deny that it had really felt like he was going to kiss me for a moment.
I wiped the snow off my butt. My pants were already feeling cooler where I’d collided with the ground.
Then I stood next to him, peering down to the valley below. You could just see my pack, caught on a tree branch halfway down.
“I almost fell.”
“I never would have let that happen. I would have sailed off the edge with you, just to drag you back up here again.”
