Page 3 of Possessive Mountain Man

I didn’t know much, but I did know my friends wanted to have dinner in the lodge restaurant. They were into the idea of drinking and stumbling back to their rooms—no designated driver required.

“Great,” Hayden said. “You’re unhooked. You survived.”

Normally, I’d be riding on the high of my accomplishment. But all I could think about was this hot-as-hell guy.

Yeah, I had to see him again. Whatever it took.

2

HAYDEN

What the hell was my plan?

I had no idea as I entered the Glacier Bar and Grill, located inside the ski lodge. I’d made it sound like I hung out here all the time, but the truth was, I was not the type to go sit at a bar by myself.

But here I was, walking into a bar to do just that. I was hoping it would lead me to the beautiful woman I’d met earlier today. A woman who was on vacation with three other women.

I frowned when I walked in and saw no sign of her. Not at the bar, not at the tables. The place wasn’t all that busy, and I could see the entire restaurant and bar from the hostess stand. I’d been told business was better than it had been a decade or so ago, when this place was mostly a ski lodge.

Not only were most of the tables and booths empty, but the barstools were almost all unoccupied too. Only two people were seated at the bar—a couple squeezed together on barstools at one end.

Now what?

I glanced at my phone screen. It was almost seven o’clock. She said they would be here at six. Maybe I’d misjudged. Iassumed they were eating dinner and having drinks, so I wanted to wait until they at least got some of that out of the way before interrupting. But in doing so, I might have missed her altogether.

“Fuck,” I said under my breath.

She was somewhere in this hotel. But short of camping out in the lobby, I wasn’t sure how I would manage to track her down.

With a sigh, I headed to the bar and took a stool at the farthest end—as far away as possible from the lovey-dovey couple. The last thing I needed was a reminder of my pathetic love life.

I once had game. I’d been a bona fide player. What the heck happened?

“You a rappelling guide?” the bartender called over to me from his spot in front of the couple.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Some chick was looking for you,” the male part of the couple said, pointing to a spot between us. A drink and basket sat in front of a stool toward the center of the bar. “She said she was supposed to meet you here, and if you showed up, to tell you she’d be right back.”

“I think she had to see a man about a horse,” the bartender said with a laugh.

Sheesh, the bartender was obnoxious. But he was also my favorite person right now because he and his customer had just delivered the best news I’d gotten in a long time.

The beauty was here. And she was specifically looking for me.

By the time I saw her out of the corner of my eye, I’d already taken several generous swigs from the mug of beer the bartender had set in front of me. She picked up the basket and drink and came over, standing at the stool next to mine.

“Mind if I sit down?” she asked.

I gestured toward the spot. “It’s all yours.”

“Thanks.”

Silence settled between us as she climbed onto the stool. I finally caught her looking at me.

“Fried mushroom?” she suddenly asked.

The question threw me off. She was offering me what was in the basket. It took me a second or two to realize that.

---