Page 2 of Single-Dad: The Mountain Man

“Not a random guy. There’s this group of guys—”

“Eh, that’s an understatement, Cassie,” Becca interjects.

Courtney chimes in. “They’re totally hot, like scorching hot adonises.”

“We’ve all dated them,” Becca says. “And they’re seriously packing.”

A round of giggles infects the table.

Cassie continues. “Well, there’s this one guy. The daddy of the group so to speak.”

“He definitely gives off daddy vibes,” Becca drools. “We call him Mr. Hunkalicious.”

“He’s the one they all follow. The guy is on a whole other level of hot. He hardly speaks and never smiles.”

Even as she describes their leader, my mind wanders to Shane and my body instantly heats up. Every man, adonis, and fantasy pales in comparison to him and the raw need that courses through my system whenever he’s close to me.

“But don’t worry about Mr. Hunkalicious. He’s waaay out of your league.” Becca swipes her gaze down and up my body, before turning to address the girls. “But I plan on bagging him tonight.”

The offhand comment knocks the wind out of me and I blink rapidly, and glance around at Cassie who doesn’t even seem to notice.

But I notice, it’s patently obvious that I don’t fit in with them. They’re pretty made-up dolls who’ve clearly starved themselves toperfection. Whereas I’ve always been the Plain Jane at best, the ugly duckling orchubby oneat worst.

“They’re here,” Courtney says.

Right on cue, four hot guys saunter into the bar, capturing everyone’s attention at our table.

I always heard that the changes ushered in by puberty bring on a fresh set of problems and challenges, namely guys.

But it was as if I wore an invisible cloak throughout high school, while guys became a permanent fixture in the lives of every girl around me.

Then my parents died and guys rarely looked at me.

By the time I went off to college, I was too uncomfortable with my size to let any guy get close to me. And the few times that I allowed someone to get close, my body rebelled and I felt physically repulsed by them.

A tray of shots gets delivered to our table and I’m thankful for the liquid courage burning down my throat and through my chest. And at some point during the night, Becca disappears only to reappear with a crash back down into her seat.

“Your round,” she says with an affably evil smile.

“Right.”

A few minutes later, my back is pressed against a wall andTonyis puckering his lips for a kiss before all hell breaks loose.

2

WILLOW

“C’mon, one kiss.” He cages me in with his large frame and he moves in for the kiss. It’s hard to tell with so little space between us, but he appears to be the same size as Shane.

I recoil, but there’s no escape—How did I get here?

I haven’t got a clue.

One minute I was at the bar ordering our drinks and the next, a large arm landed on my shoulder and a deep voice spoke the words,lemme talk to you for a sec,in my ear.

“I’ve got to get back to my friends,” I say, in a tiny voice that probably doesn’t register over the music.

“What gives? I thought you were looking for a little action?” He furrows his brows.

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