Page 4 of Relentless Mountain Man

“Do you want to come in?” I asked.

She opened her mouth and glanced back toward her cabin before turning to me. “I’ve probably taken up too much of your time already.”

She’d been here all of a minute. Two, tops. But she hadn’t made it sound like she didn’t want to come in. Only that she didn’t want to be trouble. So I stepped back, nudging the door open with my shoulder.

“Come on in,” I said. “I’d just settled in front of the TV with a beer. Do you want one?”

I fully expected her to say no. I’d never dated a woman who liked drinking beer. Not that we were dating, but I was definitely comparing her to the women I’d dated over the years.

I closed the door behind her and wondered if she’d make herself at home on the couch. But when I began walking back through the living room, I saw her still standing near the door, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot.

“I just got back from dinner,” she said. “I met up with my friend, Joely, and a couple of her friends. I guess they’re dating guys on your crew. We talked about crashing your dinner. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you that.”

I made a face. “Why wouldn’t you tell me that?”

She looked toward my TV. Or maybe it was the couch she was eyeing. Was she thinking about taking a seat? I headed in that direction and hoped she’d follow. It was the way her beer was going, anyway.

“I guess it seems stalkerish,” she said. “Joely’s relationship is kind of new. I don’t know. I probably shouldn’t be telling you any of that either. I suck at this.”

Suck at what? Talking to a guy she just met? Making up for an embarrassing moment last night? Or being around a guy she was attracted to?

I was surprised how much I hoped it was the last of those three choices.

She started walking in my direction, and my heart did that speed-up thing again. Yeah, I was definitely going to have to get that under control.

“Anyway, I mentioned that I met you,” Rachel continued. “They said you were a nice guy. I’m Rachel, by the way.”

I handed her the beer and moved to the other end of the couch, giving her the side with the table next to it. It was the gentlemanly thing to do.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I appreciate them putting in a good word for me. And I’m Quinn.”

“I think Joely is sure that I’m going to find a mountain man and settle down. So she might be doing a little matchmaking, just to warn you.”

I took a long sip of my beer and stared at her. Was she saying her friend was matchmaking her with me or someone else? Probably someone else.

I did not like the thought of that. My mind ran through the remaining single men on my crew. We were getting smaller in number by the week. Yeah, I did not want this beautiful woman matched with anyone but me.

But I didn’t want to be matched either, did I? For the past few years, I’d been determined to stay single. I wasn’t going to be a sucker for a woman like I was seeing my friends become. I liked my life just the way it was.

“You’re only here for a couple of weeks, though, right?” I asked.

That was the way I’d understood it. But I might be wrong. Maybe she was just staying up here for a couple of weeks until she could get a place somewhere else in town.

“I haven’t given up my rental house back in Nashville.” She sighed. “I’m just taking a break. I need a couple of weeks off to get my thoughts together.”

“But your friend wants you to move here?”

She smiled and unscrewed the cap on her beer, then took an impressive swig. I never thought a beer-guzzling woman could be so sexy. But everything about this woman was hot.

“She’s discovered this town and fallen in love with it,” Rachel said once she’d lowered her beer to her lap again. “She’s convinced that everybody she’s ever met should move here. But especially her Nashville roommate. And she’s right.”

Those last three words had my breath hitching in my throat. She was falling in love with this town too. That meant she might stick around.

I never imagined I’d be excited over something like that. It definitely was not like me—even before I’d decided to swear off dating.

“The more distance I can put between me and my parents, the better,” she said. “They’re kind of a pain.”

She was opening up to me now. I took a slow sip from my beer and watched her, giving her the space she needed to talk.

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