Searching for the Mountain Man - Page 5

Elisia looked off to the side and took a deep breath, then slowly let it out. Finally, she dropped her arms to her sides and looked at me.

“I have my eye on a job in Utah,” she said. “It’s a small market, so I have a shot.”

Utah. That was a long way from Tennessee. May as well stop these thoughts of kissing her and…more. She’d be gone almost as soon as she’d arrived here.

But what did that matter? I could have sex with her and send her on her way. Hell, that could be all she wanted. It was clear she was focused on her career. A relationship was the last thing she needed.

It was the last thing I needed too. So why was my mind going there? Why was the thought of getting this woman into bed and never seeing her again bugging me so much?

“Utah, huh?” I asked. “You know, Knoxville has some great TV stations.”

I didn’t watch the news, so how would I know? And why was I suggesting she work in East Tennessee? It was none of my business where she worked. Fuck, did I actually have feelings for this woman?

That was impossible. I’d just met her. It was lust, period.

“Too big a market for someone with no experience,” she said.

“I thought you did an internship and reported for your campus station.”

What did she say? She was the top reporter there? Best reporter there? I couldn’t remember how she put it, but that had to count for something.

“The way it works in TV is you start at a small market and you work your way up,” she said. “You have to go where the jobs are too. Even if Knoxville were a small market, the odds that any of the stations there are looking for a reporter are pretty small.”

Whatever was going on with me, I needed to get a handle on it. This woman clearly had plans to spend the rest of her life moving from town to town every few years. And I was exactly where I planned to be every day for the rest of my life.

“Thank you.”

The two words cut into my thoughts. I came back to reality to see her features had softened. She was looking at me with a warmth in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. My first instinct was to run from it.

No woman should ever develop feelings for me. Not if she didn’t want to be hurt. But again, something was different here. Something wouldn’t let me erect those walls.

“For what?” I asked in a tone that sounded harsh, especially compared to hers.

“For calling me over to catch the dog situation.” She gestured behind her. “I don’t think you’re as against me as you’re pretending.”

“I’m not pretending.”

I didn’t mean to bark at her. I was a little defensive. Okay, maybe I was a lot defensive.

“I’m protective of my town,” I said. “We just had a horrible thing happen. People are devastated. I can’t stand by while strangers come in and use my friends and neighbors to line their wallets.”

Her mouth opened, and she stared at me for a long moment without saying a word. Had I gone too far? Maybe. That was what I did. I pushed people away—one way or another. Even if it meant hurting them.

“Let me ask you something.” She crossed her arms over her chest and took a step toward me. “What if the tornado hit your town, did all this devastation, and nobody knew about it? What if nobody cared outside of your small town? What if you got no outside help?”

“We take care of our own here in Rosewood Ridge,” I said. “We’d be fine if nobody came from outside.”

“Would you?”

She stared at me and her challenging look had me questioning myself. There were a lot of hard workers out there. About half of them were people I knew. That hadn’t been the case the first day, when it seemed like the whole town had come out, but it seemed normal for local volunteerism to dwindle as the days went on.

Now, most of the people out there today had driven here from elsewhere. The retreat center was housing most of them for free.

And that was where Elisia was right. The media had gotten the word out quickly. Otherwise, we’d have far fewer helpers right now.

“What happened just now, with the dog, that makes an impact on people,” Elisia said, her voice solemn. “That human connection brings people here to help out. If even one person sees this video I’m about to post and is motivated to come here, isn’t that worth it?”

Crap. She was making sense. How was I supposed to stay mad at her when she talked like that? Or looked like that? All I could think about was how much I wanted to kiss her right now.