Page 9 of Anchored

“Yeah. He got me up to speed and we’re going to get Grandma seen by a specialist.” Maple starts biting her lip, and I make my eyes stay on the road as we turn onto the street that meanders back to the cabin. “He, uh, suggested I go along with whatever she says right now. Considering some of this confusion might just be the concussion and it will clear on its own as she heals.”

I’m nodding, pulling up the driveway. Maple gasps, her hands on the glass as she presses her nose to see out the window. “Every time I see this cabin it’s like a time portal. I’m taken back to those summers as a kid.”

I put the Jeep in park in the carport and shut the engine off. My brain immediately goes to our awkward kiss, but considering she’s about to stay in my cabin for the weekend, I don’t bring it up. Some things might be better left in the past. I get out and grab her suitcase from the back. Maple is already out of the Jeep and meandering around the front yard, fingertips brushing flower petals, crouching down to see the little gnome hidden in the bushes to the left of the door, and gasping at the metal contraption that’s staked into the ground and spins when the wind hits it.

She finally comes to the front door where I’m standing there watching her. There’s something peaceful about the way she moves. Like she sways more than walks, if that makes any sense. Her bright eyes peer up at me from the step below, pretty lips split in a grin now that she’s here.

“Just like I remembered.”

I stare into her eyes, feeling that familiar frantic flutter below my breastbone. I’d felt the same way approaching her at that bonfire. Working up the nerve to ask her if she’d kiss me. I nod slowly, agreeing for different reasons.

When her head tilts to the side and her smile turns into confusion, I scramble for the doorknob and let us inside, releasing her suitcase and intercepting the seven-pound ball of fury that races across the open floor plan. Mookie’s nails click feverishly against the wood floor, only stopping when I pluck her up in my arms.

“Whoa there, Mookie,” I coo. Mookie snarls and snaps at me like she’s gone feral in the hours I’ve been away.

Maple giggles and holds out her hands as if she has a death wish. “Oh, aren’t you adorably fierce!”

Mookie takes one look at Maple and transforms into an angel of a Yorkie, all flapping tongue and wide eyes and whimpers. Maple takes her from my arms and Mookie instantly wiggles around to her back, begging for rubs.

I place my hands on my hips and frown. “She nipped me for months before she let me rub her belly.”

Maple looks up from the bundled fur baby in her arms. “Don’t feel bad. I have a way with animals. Always have. Though it’s kind of funny you have a tiny dog. I would have pinned you for a pit bull or something.”

I’m not sure if I like that assessment or not. Maple seems unconcerned that she’s just insulted me and goes back to rubbing Mookie’s belly. I stare at them, Maple’s lips moving, voice so low and smooth I can’t understand what she’s saying. Mookie’s lapping it up, staring up into her eyes like Maple hung the moon and stars. I shake my head and spin away, going into the primary bedroom for a stack of blankets, dumping them on the couch that could possibly be described as a loveseat and not a full-sized couch.

“I’d offer to sleep here, but I don’t exactly fit.” I scratch the top of my head, feeling like a heel for not offering her my bed, even though it’s not my fault she has nowhere to stay. I pay rent, for crap’s sake. Then again, my mother would kill me if she found out I didn’t offer the bed to a woman. “You know, maybe I can make up a pile of blankets on the floor and you can take the bedroom.”

“No, no. It’s okay.” Maple walks over, Mookie still tucked in her arms like she has no intention of ever using her four legs again. “I don’t sleep in beds.”

I blink, certain I heard her wrong. “Ah. You sleep in the crook of a tree limb like Tarzan.”

Maple huffs.

I snap my fingers. “You’re a vampire who likes a cozy coffin.”

Maple’s growing smile is making me feel taller than my six-foot-two height. “Try again.”

My bottom lip rolls outward in an exaggerated expression of sympathy. “You poor thing. You snore like a rhinoceros, so you have to sleep upright in a chair.”

Maple finally laughs, the sound happy and throaty and something I want to sink into like a hot tub on a snowy night. “No! I just…prefer blankets and the floor.”

I lean in and study her. She doesn’t drop my gaze. “You prefer the floor?” In every way, Maple is unlike any other woman I’ve ever met.

She lifts her hand away from Mookie’s belly and holds four fingers in the air, thumb tucked against her palm. “Scout’s honor.”

I can’t help the grin as I reach up and fold down her pinkie. “If you’re trying to be convincing, you should get the sign right.”

Maple drops her hand and shrugs, turning away from me. “I was never a Scout. You’re onto me, Holt…wait.” She spins back around. “I can’t believe I’ve forgotten. What’s your last name?”

“Holt McGrath, at your service.” I hold my hand up to my forehead, saluting.

“Were you in the military?” she asks.

I drop my hand and shoot her a flirty smile I should leave tucked away. Her staying here, alone with me, will be awkward enough without me flirting with her. “Nope.”

She rolls her pretty eyes and goes back to talking to Mookie, probably telling her what a little shit I am. Mookie already knows.

“Well, how about I get started making some dinner?”

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