Page 34 of My Three Mountain Men

Ryder pretended I wasn’t there at all most of the time, addressing his cousins when we were all in the same room but deliberately looking over or around me. I found myself watching him more closely, his presence intriguing me.

He had been so much older than his cousins when they had come to live there. Surely he had left a whole life behind for that.

What’s his story? Will I ever know it?

I asked Brooks about that once, too, but he didn’t seem to know.

“I was a teenager,” he reminded me. “I wasn’t really privy to what my twenty-something cousin was doing with his adult life.”

“He wasn’t married or anything? No kids?”

Brooks was aghast by the idea. “Of course not. He wouldn’t have left his family behind.”

The snow finally stopped, but the internet was officially down, according to Knox. I wondered if that was actually true or if he was just saying that to keep me off it.

“How many months until the roads clear?” I asked after the first week. Knox happened to be in the kitchen while Brooks and I ate lunch in the dining room.

He peered at me over the breakfast window. “I hope you’re not getting cabin fever already,” he told me, not unkindly. He gave Brooks a worried look. “We’re looking at another two or three months at least, minimum.”

Ryder entered the kitchen through the back stairs, catching the end of Knox’s words. “Is she getting cabin fever already?”

“I’m right here,” I informed him dryly. “And I’m not getting cabin fever. I’m just wondering how long it’s going to be before I can get back to civilization.”

Knox turned away, but not before I caught a gleam of panic in his eyes.

What was that? Is he worried I’m going to go crazy up here? Or let people know that they’re hiding out here?

“My suggestion to you is that you stop counting the days,” Ryder told me, surprising me. He rarely talked directly to me. “You will literally drive yourself crazy.”

“How do you know?” I asked, trying to keep the sass out of my voice, but failing miserably. “You all seem content, and you don’t see anybody else. It’s not like you’ve seen people go crazy from isolation.”

Ryder eyed Knox uncomfortably, and my eyebrows shot up. “Have you?” I asked with interest.

“Just do yourself a favor and keep busy,” Ryder ordered me. “Find a hobby.”

He pulled open the fridge and grabbed something I couldn’t see before disappearing back up the stairs, leaving me, Knox, and Brooks on the main floor.

“Did one of you lose it at some point?” I pressed again.

“Cabin fever is a real thing,” Brooks growled sternly. “It’s not a joke. Ryder is right. You should find something to do.”

I gave him a suggestive look. “I thought we had found something to do.”

My gaze flipped toward Knox, who pretended not to watch us. “All of us found a fun hobby, didn’t we?”

Knox gave me a tentative smile, and my heart sang for a second. I hadn’t lost him, after all. Brooks had been right.

“I don’t think sex counts as a hobby,” Knox told me dryly.

“I don’t think you’re doing it right if you think that,” I joked, but the cousins shook their heads, their smiles fading.

I sighed heavily. “I don’t know what you want from me,” I complained. “I can’t get online. I can’t run my channels. What else am I supposed to do?”

“Pretend it’s 1999 and find a new way to entertain yourself.”

I bit on my lower lip and nodded. “Okay,” I agreed, but as I wracked my brain, I couldn’t think of a single thing I could do in the cabin that would keep me occupied for the next two or three months.

Raising my head, I winked at the cousins. “Maybe I could use a little inspiration,” I suggested. “Want to help me think in the bath?”

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