Page 38 of Trapped with the Mountain Man

Sarah takes a long sip of her coffee and doesn’t look me in the eye when she responds. “That’s understandable,” she says in a voice that sounds just like our mom. “Do you think you’ll try subbing again?”

“No, I already took my name off the substitute list for the rest of the semester.”

“So, what’s next then?” Her voice shoots up an octave with artificial cheer.

I shrug again.

“I’m sure you could find a job as a private tutor, or maybe they could use some help at the library. You always say that you would have been a librarian in another life,” she says enthusiastically.

A scream is trapped in my chest. I’m so tired of people trying to fix things for me.

“Yeah, maybe,” I say noncommittally.

I’m saved from whatever Sarah is about to say by the waitress stopping by to take our order.

After she leaves the table, there is a strange silence between Sarah and me. She’s rarely this quiet. Sarah is the type who loves long, drawn-out conversations, but will settle for idle chatter. Anything but silence. She’s chewing at her cheek and staring off at the parking lot through the window beside our table. It’s so unlike her that it’s making me nervous. For a second, I actually consider bringing up the tutoring again just to placate her.

When she does finally speak again, her voice comes out wobbly.

“Abby, I know you don’t like to talk about him,” she starts, sending my guts into a free fall at the mere mention of him. Hunter. “But maybe you should try to talk to the guy. If nothing else, it might give you some closure.”

“I don’t have his number. Plus, I don’t really know what I’d say. It was a four-day fling…I’m sure he barely even remembers it by now.”

“I doubt that’s true.”

Honestly, I doubt it as well. If there’s one thing I feel confident about, it’s that the sex we had was not forgettable. But that doesn’t mean he wants to hear from me. And it doesn’t mean I forgive him for being a jerk in the end.

“You could call the ranger station. I’m sure they would put you in contact with him,” Sarah presses. “Maybe you could even go visit. I could lend you the money for a plane ticket if you need it.”

My eyebrows shoot up. It’s the last thing I expect to hear her say. Given Sarah’s reaction to my first trip to Tennessee, it’s bizarre to hear her offer to fund a return visit.

“It’s not the money, but thanks for the offer,” I say.

“Then what is it?”

I sigh. Sarah knows bits and pieces of the story, but she filled in the blanks by herself. She knows that Hunter was more to me than a random boredom-busting hook-up. If she’s really astute, she probably even knows that I am afraid of finding out that all I was to him was a random hook-up. I think I’d rather never talk to him again and hold onto my own beliefs about our time together than find out otherwise.

“I’m not sure that he’d want to see me. I’m not even sure that I want to see him.”

“Because you’re afraid that all it will be is closure?” she asks.

Obviously, she understands more than I am giving her credit for.

Chapter 20

Hunter

“I heard a rumor about you,” Ryan says, propping himself against the frame of my office door.

“Oh yeah? Was it the one where I fought off a grizzly with my bare hands to rescue a woman from certain death?”

Ever since my brush with fame in the news, women have started going out of their way to ask for me at the station. I’ve heard some crazy shit about myself since the articles started coming out, none of which is actually true.

“No, but I’ve heard that one, too.” Ryan winks. “Hope it at least got you laid.”

I shrug. I hadn’t, but not for a lack of trying on a few women’s parts.

Ryan walks into my office and sits across from me, one ankle propped up on his knee and that stupid grin on his face. “The rumor I heard was about you throwing your hat in the ring for the District Ranger job now that Gary is retiring. That true?”

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