Page 16 of Jealous Mountain Man
He tilted his head slightly. “Do what?”
“Leave without telling me where you are. I was worried sick. I know it’s early in our relationship, but the silence is theworst.”
“I didn’t have your phone number,” he said.
“I tried to give it to you.”
“Yeah, I was dead set on getting my business taken care of first. You understand?”
“I understand.”
“I’ll never do it again.” He lowered his head, pressing his forehead to mine. “As soon as I finish kissing the hell out of you, I’m going to make sure I have your phone number and you have mine. Then I’m going to take you back to my cabin and make love to you all night.”
I winced. “I have two hours left on my shift.”
He groaned. “So I have to wait even longer.” He hesitated, looking around, then said, “It’s okay. I’ll give you the address to my cabin. You come straight there when you get off work. I’ll have dinner waiting for you.”
That was a plan I could get behind. I knew I’d be grinning for the rest of my shift.
“One more kiss before you go,” I said. “Just to tide me over.”
He smiled. “With pleasure.”
As his lips pressed against mine, I was grateful for a lot of things. But the biggest of all? My goal of becoming an influencer had led me into the arms of this guy, who was worth more than all the money in the world.
EPILOGUE
LARSEN
The two bare-chested men in front of me knew I was shooting video of them. That was obvious by the way they flexed.
It was almost funny. The two of them—my Uncle Ryan and my husband—were trying to out-lumberjack each other. It was unofficial, of course. Something the guys around here did to unwind after a long, hard day of work.
I stood in front of our SUV, shooting video for a full five minutes without either of them noticing. There was one big difference between today and eleven years ago. I had no intention of posting this online. No, this was for me and Aunt Gennie, Uncle Ryan’s wife.
I nearly drooled as I watched my husband pull the axe way up in the air and hurl it toward the tree stump in front of him. When he was finished, Uncle Ryan stepped up to stand next to him. They were discussing something. As I watched, trying to figure out what was happening, they suddenly turned and looked at me, both waving.
I straightened, tapping the screen to stop recording. They were used to me and my camera. In fact, I’d turned each of theloggers into a Man of the Month at some point. One of them—Rafe—had gone viral and attracted more than a few women to town looking for him.
But these days, I’d shifted from being a book influencer to a mom influencer. My “frugal mom” posts had taken off, and I now made a full-time living off paid sponsorships and ads.
“You going to cut our heads off before you share it with the world?” Uncle Ryan asked with a teasing smile.
I shook my head. “Nobody’s seeing this but me and Aunt Gennie.”
“Yeah, she’s more likely to share what we had for lunch than our log-off,” Enzo said.
“Your husband’s still got it,” Uncle Ryan said.
I smiled. “Don’t I know it.”
He was talking about Enzo’s axe skills, but I was referring to the spark that still existed between us, stronger than ever even after eleven years. Twelve years, technically, since we’d been engaged for eight months before we headed off to our destination wedding in Costa Rica. That had been the start of an adventurous life together, although we stayed on the safer side now that we traveled with the kids.
“Gotta go get the kids from their party,” Enzo said to Uncle Ryan. “See you tomorrow, bright and early.”
“Bright and early,” Uncle Ryan said.
My uncle was spending a lot more time with the logging crew these days, now that his moonshine distillery pretty much ran itself. I helped out occasionally when they were shorthanded, and even Enzo had gotten in on that action. He was far better at moonshine tastings than I was.
