Searching for the Mountain Man - Page 7

I finally gave up and pulled my phone out, catching up on notifications until we got to his truck, where he stood holding the passenger door for me like this was a date or something.

No. It wasn’t a date. I couldn’t think that way.

“I owe you an apology,” he said once we were tucked inside the truck.

I was fumbling with my seatbelt, and his words had it slipping from my grasp. I reached for it again and started over.

“Apology?” I asked.

“I was an asshole back there in the trailer. It’s just…I’m a loner.”

Loner. I rolled the word around in my head. Did he mean he was on loan? Or he liked to be alone? I was guessing the latter, and that wasn’t good news.

“You’re one of those guys who lives up in the mountains so you don’t have to be around people.” I nodded. “I get it.”

I knew such people existed. I’d just never met one.

“That’s not it,” he said. “I have friends. I have neighbors living just steps from my door. But I don’t do romantic relationships. Never have.”

Now I was confused. “You’ve never had a romantic relationship?” He couldn’t have been saying that.

He started the car and backed out of the parking space, waiting until he put it in drive and pressed the gas to answer. “I’ve dated and I’ve been with women. I’m talking about serious, long-term relationships. Definitely not marriage and kids. That’s not in the cards for me.

Disappointment stabbed at me, and I knew it made no sense. What he was saying was best for me. The last thing I needed was to be tied down to some man. Even a man as hot and interesting as this one.

I had an entire career ahead of me, and I needed to stay flexible. I had to be able to move across the country at a moment’s notice. Being married was not part of the plan. Not until I was well established in a mid-market TV station, hopefully landing at least a weekend anchor spot.

“Who says I want a relationship?” I blurted before I could talk myself out of it. “You think men are the only ones who can have hot sex with no strings attached?”

His foot slipped off the pedal with a thud, and he glanced over at me before regaining his composure and returning his eyes to the road. “Are you saying…?”

“I’m saying I want a man to rock my world. Someone who knows what he’s doing in the bedroom. I want you to give me the best you’ve got.”

He said nothing in response. A minute or so later, he flipped on his turn signal and took a left onto a two-lane road lined with businesses.

“Where are we going? I asked.

“I’m going to rock your world.”

6

ROB

There was one place that wouldn’t be occupied on a Sunday in early August in the days following a tornado.

I’d only been a resident of Rosewood Ridge for a couple of years, but as a former high school football player, I attended every game. Supporting this small-town high school football team made me feel a little closer to home.

I’d also heard talk of their practice schedule. I knew they took Sundays off. That meant even if there hadn’t been a tornado, the field house tucked way behind the school past the football field would be empty right now.

“Is this a high school?” Elisia asked, looking around as we pulled into the main entrance.

I nodded. “Were you ever a cheerleader?”

She shook her head. “I tried out a couple of years, but even in my small town, I didn’t make the cut. I didn’t start taking gymnastics classes as soon as I came out of the womb like most of the girls who made the squad.”

“Well, I was a football player all four years,” I said. “And I had a fantasy.”

Yes, a sexual fantasy. I didn’t have the kind of game to hook that kind of thing up back then. I hung out with the most popular group in school, but when it came to girls, I was shy and awkward. I’d hear a girl liked me and inevitably blow it.