Page 4 of Wanted By the Mountain Man
A smile slowly spread across her face. “Really?”
I shrugged. “Does that surprise you?”
“Well, you invited me here, so I guess it makes sense.”
The conversation seemed neutral on the surface, but a lot was happening underneath. We were locked in a stare. The warmth in her eyes told me that my comment had touched her. She liked that I’d rather spend time with her than hurl an axe toward logs. Despite the fact that spending time with her was what I should be doing. It would be a total dick move to invite her here and spend the whole time hanging out with the guys.
“Do you do this stuff often?” she asked.
I crouched in the water to get it all the way up to my shoulders and ran my hands through it in some sort of weird muscle-flexing move. I was showing off for the woman, and yeah, I was a little embarrassed about how obvious I was being. That didn’t stop me from doing it.
“We come out here sometimes,” I said. “But usually, we meet at each other’s houses.”
“And you’re always the only single guy?”
“Now I am.” I looked back over my shoulder. “That part of it’s new. At first, it was just a couple of the guys, and then the next thing I knew, everyone but me had a girlfriend. It happened fast.”
“I’ve noticed that around here lately,” she said. “All these single guys suddenly have girlfriends. Where are they all coming from?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I guess you grew up here?”
She nodded. “Born and raised. I was working in that diner when I was still in elementary school.”
I hid my surprise at that, what with child labor laws and all, but I had a feeling “work” was a term she was using lightly. I doubted her mom had her waiting tables when she was ten.
“So you’ve seen this place grow?”
“HaveI?” She laughed. “You should’ve seen this strip when there were only our diner and a couple of shops and a couple of businesses. The lodge has been there a while, of course. Sometimes I don’t even recognize it.”
“Does it upset you?”
She thought about that a little bit, then finally returned her gaze to me. “I kind of like it. Especially when you started showing up at the diner.”
Oh fuck. She was going straight to it. I hadn’t expected her to be so direct. I was surprised to find I liked it.
“Yeah, I guess you noticed I come into the diner a lot,” I said.
“I have. You must really like our food.”
“It’s not the food.”
Oh, wait. The diner was owned by her mom. That comment could’ve come off as offensive.
“I mean, the food’s great,” I rushed to add. “But that’s not why I show up every morning before work.”
It was an extra effort to get there so early. I was one of their first customers most days. I’d suck down some coffee and have an order of eggs and toast. Sometimes I’d add bacon. I wasn’t even all that hungry most mornings. Not that early, anyway. But even five seconds of interacting with her woke me up better than ten cups of coffee would.
“You know what?” she asked, glancing at the people behind me again. “We could use some privacy.”
I almost groaned as my dick stirred. Yeah, I definitely wanted some alone time with her. First, because I wanted it more than I’d wanted a piece of that delicious chicken earlier—and that was saying a lot. But also because I couldn’t return to my friends now. Not with this obvious boner.
“Go underwater,” she said.
I frowned. “What?”
But she didn’t wait. Before I could ask any questions, she dove underwater. I had no choice but to duck down and see what happened next.
3
