Page 5 of One Night with the Mountain Man

Great, now I’d pissed off the grumpy guy in charge of getting me back to civilization. “Can we hike back?”

“On that ankle? Not likely.” The sound of running water came from the kitchen. I didn’t like him cleaning up after me. Didn’t like being a burden to anyone, especially a complete stranger.

“Do you have a horse? A donkey? A llama?” Desperation laced through my voice. How was I supposed to spend the next several days in this man’s home?

The faucet turned off. Heavy footsteps sounded on the wooden floorboards, and he re-entered the living room. “A llama?”

“I don’t know. How do you get around when the bridge washes out? A guy like you looks like he’d have a back-up plan.” The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them.

“A guy like me?” He stopped in front of me. The intensity in his dark brown eyes sent my pulse skyrocketing. “What makes you think you know anything about me?”

I tried to swallow but my throat was bone dry. “You just look… capable.”

That was an understatement. He looked more than capable. He looked like he could split the mountain in two with his bare hands.

“I am. As soon as it’s safe, I’ll get my four-wheeler out and we’ll get you down the mountain. In the meantime, let’s not pretend we want to get to know each other.”

My jaw dropped open at his icy tone. If there’d been any doubt in my mind about how he felt about rescuing me, he’d just obliterated it.

He turned to go. “Come on, Lucky.”

The dog put his head on his paws and looked from me to tall, dark and grumpy’s back.

“I said ‘come.’ You’re not supposed to be begging for food, anyway.”

Lucky tucked his tail between his legs and moved toward the door.

“Where are you going?” I didn’t want him to stick around, but I also didn’t want him to leave me all by myself.

“I’ve got work to do. I’ll be back around supper time to fix you something to eat. You need anything before that, just stand on the back porch and yell.”

“And here I thought we could sit around and roast marshmallows together this afternoon.”

He shook his head as he disappeared through the doorway. So much for extending a hand of friendship. Samuel looked like he’d rather bite it off than try to make any kind of human connection. At least he’d admitted he had a four-wheeler. Now all I had to do was cross my fingers and hope like hell the sun would come out and dry up some of the mud so I could get back to the resort. Or as he put it, “back where I belonged.”

6

SAMUEL

The hurt tone in her voice played through my head on repeat all afternoon. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t shake it loose. That wasn’t the worst part, though. An image of her face lodged in there even deeper. The way her eyes lit up, the way her lips curved, the way her nose twitched. The sooner I got her out of my house, and out of my fucking head, the better off I’d be.

I sanded the arms of the rocking chair until the wood felt smooth under my palm. Usually, spending time in my workshop was a reprieve. But this afternoon, the walls felt like they were closing in on me. Thoughts of Adelaide bounced around in my mind like a steel ball in a pinball machine. If I could get her to my truck on the four-wheeler, I could take her the rest of the way down the mountain. But I couldn’t show my face at the resort.

Just thinking about having to see Tyson, Mama Mae, and my other foster brothers who were probably coming to Virginia for the wedding made dark spots appear at the edges of my vision. I wasn’t ready to face them. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

I couldn’t just hand Adelaide the keys to my truck and trust her to find her own way down the muddy mountain. And if I took her to the sheriff’s office, she’d find out my last name. I didn’t want to risk her putting two and two together then dropping my name to her sister or the groom. Tyson had sent the letter to my last address out in California. If he knew I was this close to where he was holding his wedding, he’d never forgive me for not showing up to be his best man.

Fuck. I wished I’d never found her in the woods. Life sure would be a lot less complicated. My heart squeezed. I didn’t mean it. If I hadn’t come across her, she could still be lying out there on the ground. No matter what dark demons threatened to tear me apart, it didn’t have anything to do with Adelaide.

Satisfied with the progress I’d made on the rocking chairs, I turned off the lights in my workshop and braced myself to spend an evening with the curvy redhead. I’d fix her something to eat then maybe pitch a tent on the back porch. Anything to keep some distance between us.

Lucky ran ahead on the way back to the cabin. Traitorous mutt had made his loyalties known. I didn’t blame him. Snuggling up on the couch, pressed against Adelaide’s thick thigh, or resting my head on her lap would have been my preference too. Thinking about that wouldn’t do me any good, so I adjusted myself before I walked in the back door. The scent of garlic and butter hit my nose.

“What are you doing?” My question came out like an accusation.

Adelaide sat on a barstool at my kitchen counter. She looked up, the knife in her hand poised over a cutting board. “I figured the least I could do is make you dinner. It’s not much, just spaghetti with homemade sauce and some garlic bread.”

“You made me dinner?” I couldn’t keep the surprise out of my voice. The last time someone had made me a home cooked meal had to have been when I still lived in Texas with Mama Mae.

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