Page 3 of Backed By You
Three years since I’ve set foot in Montana, since I’ve been home… Three long, lonely years. And all I want is to be left alone.
I stare up the road toward my property, itching to get over there and start blocking off measurements for the next cabin. The very idea of manual labor has my blood heating.I need that, I realize. Sweat on my brow, the familiar ache in my muscles from a hard day’s work, the peace that kind of solitude brings me.
My family may think thrusting me into some bonding dinner party is what I need right now, but it’s the last thing I want.
And it sure as shit ain’t the kind of lonely I need fixing.
After dinner—and countless pictures witheveryone—I try to get away and head to the cabin, but I’m thrown into more talking about this ‘double wedding’ happening in less than two months for Butch, Duke, and their women.
Which sounds like a waste to me, given they’re already married, but what the hell do I know? All I want is to get to the cabin, shower, and go to bed so I can start fresh in the morning with my list of projects.
I stand from my father’s favorite recliner in the living room—he wasn’t fooling anyone by insisting I sit here. I’ve been breathing Montana air for less than six hours and I’ve had enough coddling for a lifetime. “Thanks for dinner, Ma, but I think I’m going to head out. I’m pretty beat.”
“You can take my truck tonight, Beau,” my father says, tossing me his truck keys.
I catch them. “Thanks.” I lift my chin to Butch, the logger of the family. “I’ll give you a shout when I get the land blocked out and we’ll get those trees hauled away.”
He eyes me, judging, but keeps his thoughts to himself. “Sounds good.”
Rhett raises his beer in my direction. “I’ll put the lumber order in as soon as you get the building specs, brother. We’ve got you.”
After a quick goodbye, I head to the truck and toward the cabin. It’s a short ride, a mile curve up the road, but that’s about the distance between my family on this mountainside.
I park in front of the two-bedroom rental and breathe a heavy sigh as I take in the familiar sight. Well, it might as well beunfamiliar with how many damn potted and hanging flowers are all over the place.Did my mother do this?
I’ve never been one for flowers.
The majority seem to be centered around the single-bedroom cabin. The front porch, along the cabin side, the stone walkway, the driveway—they’re fuckingeverywhere.
I get out, staring at the outdoor rustic, black lantern light mounted beside the front door—idly noting it doesn’t match the one on the other cabin. It crosses my mind that I should introduce myself, but I decide against it.
I’m already irritated enough this evening.
I walk up the steps of the two-bedroom cabin where I’ll be crashing for the next three nights, the soreness in my knee reminding me to do my nightly stretches.
When I unlock the door, a car pulls in behind me. I turn as a baby-blue Jeep Wrangler with the top down and the doors off, whips in beside my father’s truck.
My brow furrows as the wild woman driving throws it in park, carelessly leaving the Jeep angled at forty-five degrees and the wheels turned to the right. Not evencloseto properly straight.Doesn’t she know that leaving a car parked in such a state is bad for the drive shaftandalignment?
My irrational irritation soon fades when a goddess hops down from the driver’s seat.
Light grey sweatpants, a white tank top, and pink flip-flops. Sunkissed tan skin, hourglass curves, honey-blonde hair in loose curls that stop with a bounce just above her shoulders.
I’m awestruck.
And a fuckin’ moron.
She reaches into the backseat of her car, her sweats stretching taut over her plump ass and making my cock thicken. Thighs, ass, hips, the dip of her waist, her ample chest—no bra and pert nipples. Even the slightest details have me captivated…from the peppered freckles along her shoulder blades to the small rose tattoo on her exposed ankle.
This can’t be my tenant.
A loud, aggressive bark snaps me back to reality.
A giant-ass German Shepherd leaps down from the passenger seat. This dog is easily three times the size of any German Shepherd I’ve ever seen.
He stands behind the woman…protectively.
Honey-blonde locks whip in surprise over a gorgeous face free of makeup and…Fuck. Her full lips part, hazel doe eyes wide with thick lashes that grab at the heart strings I didn’t know I had.
