Page 33 of Mystery in the Mountains

“I’ll be back.” After stepping out the back door, he shifted and made his way home.

He always loved that Sunny’s place butted right up to their mountain, as he’d leave a tub of laundry near the woods by her house, a quick run for him to get to her. Shifting and heading home after a breakfast with Sunny made him feel like he was nineteen again.

Before he knew it, he was back, knocking on her front door, dressed in his jeans, a plain white T-shirt, and a flannel tied around his waist.

He bit his lip and shook his head as he heard her fumble her way to the door.

She pulled it open, and she was in a sunflower midriff shirt, with a long green skirt and her hair pulled back in two French braids. The familiarity of this enveloped him as she greeted him with a small smile.

“Hi,” she said as she opened the door, letting him in.

“First things first. I’m headed to the basement to find you some crutches, so you stop being a menace.”

“Awww, puppy. I’ll never stop being a menace.”

His wolf rolled over again at her nickname.

He made his way to the basement; one you would expect to find in a dilapidated one-hundred-year-old house. It did look like something had found its way in the coal shoot and done some damage . . .

He wasn’t sure if anything down here was good but then he spotted crutches leaning up against old shelving. After grabbing them, he walked back up to find Sunny talking on the phone.

“Yeah . . . He was over here earlier today . . . Yeah, he offered to buy the house . . . of course I’m not selling . . . Yeah, I’ll be in for lunch. . . . Love you, too.”

She hung up the phone.

“Who was that?” Asher wiped down the crutches with a damp rag before giving them to Sunny.

“That was Aunt Betty. She was telling me about the suit poking its head around town.”

“Yeah?” he asked, handing her the crutches.

“Yep, and I told her I’d be in the diner for lunch . . . if you wanted to go with me . . .”

“Yeah, I do. I wonder what he’s doing poking his head around the Hollow?”

“I don’t know . . . but I’m sure Betty will have more information for us when we go. You know how she is.”

“What were you hoping to tackle today?”

He glanced into the dining room, and it looked like she had gone through all the boxes, but one was sitting on the table that looked like she’d been doing something with it.

“Yeah, I have some phone calls I need to make. Trying to get my dad’s estate sorted with the mess it was in and being gone for four years is proving troublesome.”

“Well, why don’t you work on that, and I’ll work on that porch and replace all the rotten planks.”

“That sounds good. Thank you, Asher. I mean it.”

He nodded and headed out to his truck to fetch wood he’d brought over. With his saw out, he set up on the bed of his truck and got to work.

Throughout the morning, Asher worked on the porch, while Sunny got the estate organized.

About midday, Sunny came out on the porch dressed with her shoes on and her purse in hand. “Hungry?”

Asher pulled a bandana from his back pocket and wiped his brow. “Yeah, that sounds good. Just let me wash up.”

When he came out, he was expecting to drive, but Sunny was already in her van with the engine running.

Fuck. He wanted to drive. Not for some macho bullshit reason . . . but because he didn’t want to be in the house on wheels that had carried her away. Though he wasn’t quite sure how to say that, so he walked over to her van and opened the door.

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