Page 2 of Christmas Hike With The Mountain Man
The owner of Ozark Outfitters, Griffin, raised his eyebrows while he checked me out, but didn’t say a word.
Chapter 2
Katie
I’d never been so embarrassed in my entire life.
The tour guide, a hunky and slightly hostile man named Jameson, lit into me for being late. He was the grumpy type for sure. I tried to explain that I got lost coming to Red Oak Mountain, and the snow on the road had slowed me down. But he didn’t seem to care.
This place was way more remote than I’d realized it would be.
But this was the adventure I’d signed up for.
All the other people going on the hike looked like serious outdoor people. They all had giant frame packs and real boots on their feet.
I felt absolutely, positively inadequate in my L.L. Bean leggings and Hoka tennis shoes.
I never should have booked this trip.
It didn’t help that one of the other participants was the hottest man I’d ever seen in my life. He had dark hair and wild eyes, and I could smell adventure emanating off of him.
He’d been watching me while the tour guide chewed me out. But as soon as I glanced at him, he looked away.
I had a sinking feeling he’d been wondering what an overweight woman with no outdoor experience was doing coming on this trip.
In fact, I was asking myself the same thing.
I glanced over his way one more time and caught him looking at me. A sizzle of heat crackled in the air between us. Or maybe that was my imagination. I might have spent too much time reading romance novels, and not enough time dating real men. So seeing one that looked like a lumberjack carved out of muscle and steel was apt to take my breath away.
“All right, everybody in!” Jameson said, clapping his hands to make us move faster.
He led us to a large shuttle bus that would take us to the trailhead.
I was the last one to board, and as I looked back, I saw the hot guy get in a big, weather-beaten pickup truck without a backward glance at me. Any connection I’d thought I felt for a second there had obviously been part of my overworked imagination and nothing real.
I guess he’s not part of the tour after all.
I was surprised at the flutter of emotions I felt about that.
Even though I’dneversnag a man like him, I would have liked to spend three days near him, just so I could sneak glances his way.
A woman was allowed to daydream, right?
I watched through the window of the shuttle bus as he drove off, his face set in a stern scowl, visible through his wild, burly beard.
My heart started racing just looking at him.
And there goes a man that I willneverhave.
Tall, muscular, and built like a Greek god.
I dragged my thoughts away from what I’d like to do to him and listened to the tour guide as the bus pulled out onto the road.
“This will be a lightweight hike for some of you. But even if the first half of the trail seems like an easy beginner’s route, you’ll get your payoff when we hit Snowflake Canyon. So rest up, keep an easy pace, and conserve your energy for thebighike over Wolf’s Peak to get to the canyon. Don’t underestimate it. Especially since we’re going to have a lot of powder on the ground.”
“When do we get to see Santa and the reindeer?” I asked.
Everyone on the shuttle bus chuckled.
