Page 9 of Devoted Mountain Man

“No way. You’re staying here. I want to know you’re safe too.”

With those words, our eyes met and my heart rate sped up a little. That hadn’t happened in a long time. Maybe ever, I was embarrassed to realize.

The fact that this was new to me told me all my previous relationships had been wrong, and that was no surprise. Even with my fiancée, something had been bugging me. It had neverbeen right between us. That certain spark was missing. And it was a spark that was here, in full force, with Vanessa.

I wanted a wife, kids, the whole nine yards, but it had to be with the right person. So really, Jeana did me a favor by cheating on me while I was overseas. I dodged a serious bullet there. If we’d gotten married, I would’ve been tied to the wrong person for life.

“Thanks,” she said. “You don’t know how much this means to me.”

Me too.

I thought the words but didn’t say them. Just having met her had changed my life for the better.

But she was only here temporarily. So that meant unless I could talk her into sticking around, I was up for some serious heartbreak when she did finally blow out of here.

5

VANESSA

Steak. That was what I smelled. Maybe a ribeye. It could be a sirloin. Heck, I couldn’t tell the exact cut of meat, but I definitely smelled steak.

I opened my eyes and looked around. I wasn’t in my tiny studio apartment back in Boone, nor was I in the rental cabin. Steak wouldn’t have made sense in either of those scenarios.

I lifted my left arm to check the time on my fitness band. 6:20 a.m. Holy ravioli. That was way too early for steak. Or for cooking at all. In fact, if I was in the rental cabin, I probably would have rolled over and tried to go back to sleep for another couple of hours.

But I hadn’t been up all that late last night. I could get up early. I’d definitely had a solid eight hours of sleep.

I pushed myself to a seated position and looked around. The mountain man next door. Dayton. He’d shown me to my room, then headed off to bed. It had been way earlier than I usually fell asleep.

I left my phone next door, though, which meant I couldn’t stay up late poking around on social media. I had nothing to do but lie here, thinking about him. The image of him in boxerbriefs was trapped in my brain, playing on a loop. Over and over and over. Finally, I drifted off to sleep.

I may as well go see what was going on. I couldn’t stay in bed forever. Maybe he was cooking in his underwear. My heart leapt at the thought.

But when I opened the door, I could clearly see he wore a shirt. The cabin wasn’t all that big, and everything but the bedrooms was wide open.

His back was to me, so he didn’t realize I’d come out. The jingle of tags on Gigi’s collar gave me away. She came rushing toward me, her little paws tap-tapping on the hardwood floors. She stopped in front of me, her tail wagging, along with most of her lower body. She had a full-body wiggle going on by the time I knelt to pet her.

“Hi there,” I said.

Those little soulful eyes looked up at me, her nose moving as she sniffed. I was dying to scoop her up in my arms, but I had to remind myself this was not my dog. I should get the owner’s permission first.

“Gigi, down!” Dayton called out as soon as her paws touched my legs.

I hadn’t even been aware he was watching us until then. When I looked up, he’d turned, spatula in his right hand.

I opened my mouth to say it was okay, but then I realized he was probably trying to train the dog. So I stood, effectively dislodging Gigi’s paws, and started toward the kitchen.

“Bathroom’s in there,” he said, pointing. “I realized after I went to bed that I probably should have told you that.”

Oh, yeah. I definitely needed a bathroom.

“I could always go back to my cabin…”

My voice trailed off there. Ishouldgo back to my cabin. I should thank him for his hospitality and let him get back to his life. He’d probably be relieved. He was a gentleman, so hewouldn’t kick me out. He’d let me stay as long as I needed, but I couldn’t take advantage of that.

“You can’t leave yet,” he said, obviously assuming I was anxious to get the heck out of here. “I’m making breakfast.”

“You made breakfast for me?”

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