Page 4 of Mountain Man's Mail Order Mix-Up
“Trying to figure it out,” I said. “I helped out around here, but I left to join the military. My sister tried to show me the ropes, but I didn’t really need the money. So when she left, I had to take it over. And here we are.”
She got a little excess moisture on her lip, and her tongue snaked out to grab it. The move did things to me I hadn’t expected.
What would it be like to kiss her? Not just her lips, but everywhere on that beautiful body? I’d pull off that pretty little dress and lay her down on her bed, moving my lips and tongue over every inch of her, then settling between her thighs and giving her the best orgasm of her life.
“Do you run this place by yourself?” she asked.
Her words jerked me out of my very vivid fantasy. “Nope. That’s why the kitchen’s closed. We’ve been dead recently. Business isn’t exactly booming. We rely on travelers, and the sign near the ramp needs to be replaced. Nobody’s going to stop based on a billboard that looks like it was put up twenty years ago.”
“Yeah, I saw the billboard,” she said. “It did make me wonder.”
“The inn’s struggling too. They’re trying to figure out ways to revitalize a town that died when the factory shut down eighteen years ago.”
My parents worked for that factory. Both lost their jobs at once, but they were able to fall back on this diner as a way to make money since my grandmother couldn’t really run things anymore after my grandfather died.
But when my nana died, my parents got a pretty hefty inheritance. They turned it over to my sister to run and took off for a beachfront condo in Florida, living off that inheritance and their factory pensions. They were living the good life while I was here contemplating alcohol-infused tea.
“I’m keeping costs down by having the cook and wait staff take off after lunch and not come back until four,” I said. “They stick around if we have business, but those days are becoming fewer and further between. It sucks. But luckily for me, there’snowhere else for people in this town to work, so they stick around.”
“Really?”
“The closest town is a good twenty minutes away.”
“There’s a grocery store, though, right?” she asked.
Oh, yeah. She was moving here. Marrying some lucky son of a bitch who’d never even met her. That’s what she’d said, anyway.
I lived up in the mountains. I knew some of the locals. Timber was the only real industry left in this town, and it attracted guys looking for work, which was how we ended up with so many single dudes in the same town.
“So what about you?” she asked. “What’s your situation? Are you married? Engaged? Living with a hot girlfriend?”
I took another swig of my beer and stared at her. I was leaning against the counter, my ass against it, directly in front of where she sat. I had this weird urge to go around and sit on one of the stools, if only to be closer to her.
“None of the above,” I said. “Just got discharged a couple of years ago.”
Her eyes widened. “Military?”
I nodded. “Navy.”
I was dying to add that I’d been in the special forces, but I didn’t talk about that. This was the first time I’d felt the urge to brag about it in front of someone, which was a total toolbag move. I just wanted to impress her.
“You aren’t one of the men around here ordering up a bride online?”
That deserved another long sip of my beer. She said it in a way that made it sound… distasteful. But hadn’t she done it? She’d uprooted her life to come here and marry some guy.
“Can’t say I even knew that was happening,” I finally replied. “But I’ve got a lot on my plate right now. I don’t have time to get married.”
What did that even mean? It had nothing to do with my schedule. I just got bored with the game of it all. But then, staring at this drop-dead gorgeous beauty, I had to admit, a woman like her was worth it. If I’d even once felt something that came close to this attraction I had for her, I would’ve stayed in the game.
But she was taken. Engaged to a man she’d never met. Just my luck.
“You know, I could go for some food.”
Her eyes widened, no doubt in surprise at the sudden subject change. Her bottle of seltzer water was still in front of her, barely touched.
She didn’t respond right away. Just stared at me. But finally, she spoke.
“I thought the kitchen was closed.”
