Page 44 of My Three Mountain Men

“Knox and I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“I believe that,” she agreed, and this time, I did believe her.

“But I want you to make me a promise, Simone.”

She arched an eyebrow expectantly.

“I don’t want you to do anything impulsive because you think Ryder doesn’t want you here.”

“I don’tthinkthat Ryder doesn’t want me here. Iknowthat Ryder doesn’t want me here,” she reminded me.

“Regardless of what Ryder wants, I want you to promise me that you won’t do anything rash.”

She scrunched up her nose, arms falling back to her side as she cocked her head. “What do you think I’m going to do, exactly?”

“I don’t know, but I know you can get your feelings hurt, and the wilderness is no place for you to be lost and wandering.”

“I’m not going to run off,” she promised, and relief sank into my bones. “I may not fully remember what it was like out there, but I remember enough to know I don’t want to be out there alone again.”

“Good. Because I never want to find you like I did again, either.”

She pecked my cheek and returned to the dishes. “I’ve already been here a month. Ryder is just going to have to hold his horses. I’ll be out of his hair soon enough.”

The words sent a spasm of panic through me, and I stared at her.

She’s right. In a couple more months, she’s going to pack up and be on her way. And then what?

I chewed on the insides of my cheeks to keep myself from asking the question aloud, much as I wanted to hear her opinion on the answer. What was going to happen when she was finally able to leave and return to the city? Would we ever see her again?

CHAPTER20

Ryder

The snow started again in the middle of the night, and when I woke before dawn, a drift had formed at the door.

Simone found me shoveling the front furiously, the door wide open, wind blowing through the entranceway. “What are you doing?” she asked, shivering on the steps. “Close the door and come inside. I’ll make coffee.”

I glanced at her through my peripheral vision but kept at it. “Go get dressed. It’s going to get colder.”

“I don’t understand why you have the door wide open while you’re shoveling like that,” she insisted nervously. “It’s not like you’re going anywhere.”

Brooks spared me from having to answer her questions as he descended behind her, wrapping his arms protectively around her shoulders and drawing her closer to his body.

“He’s ensuring we don’t get trapped. The heat from inside will keep the snow from freezing around the house as he digs out, but the drifts against the house can get so bad that we will actually get blocked in here.”

She gaped at him dubiously. “Has that happened?”

“Oh, yes,” I muttered.

“Go get dressed,” Brooks told her. “I’m going to get Knox and help Ryder.”

“I can help, too,” Simone offered, spinning to race back up, the swell of her shapely calves capturing my attention as the bottom of the oversized t-shirt she’d worn to bed rushed past her curves. I forced myself to fixate back on shoveling as Brooks joined me in the gargantuan task that would not stop until the snow slowed down. We would take shifts once we got the initial drift under control, ensuring it didn’t lock us in.

A short time later, Simone rushed out, looking for a shovel of her own.

“Where should I start?”

“Get back inside,” I barked, not slowing my pace.

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