Page 14 of Beck & Coll
“It seems okay. Not sure if I’ll be up for hiking again tomorrow…” She let her thoughts trail off.
I waved her words away with my hand. “We’re switching gears tomorrow. I’m not taking you back up the mountain until I know your leg is 100 percent.”
“So, what’s on the agenda for tomorrow?”
“If the storm breaks and the weather and the water are calm and cool, we’ll go fishing.”
“If it doesn’t?”
“Then we’ll sit down until the weather gets better. I’m a risk taker in life, but I’m not a risk taker with my clients. Their safety is my utmost concern.”
She nodded her understanding.
“Now, when I stopped by the lodge, I ran into my mother. She was concerned about you.”
“Why?”
“Somehow, she heard you hurt yourself on the mountain.”
“How’d she hear that?”
I lifted my arms into a shrug. “Who knows? She has eyes and ears everywhere.”
“Did you let her know that I’m okay?”
“Yeah,” I said with a nod of my head. “That didn’t stop her from sending you dinner since she knew you wouldn’t be able to get down to the lodge yourself.” I eyed her curiously. “My mom really seems to like you.”
Collins grinned big. “Your mom is everything. I wanna marry your mom.”
I laughed aloud. “Uh, you would have to fight my father to make that happen. Go ‘head and take your ‘L’ now. You ain’t getting Bradford Strong to come up off of Beverly.”
The smile she gave me was wistful. “I love the idea of that.”
I raised one eyebrow independently of the other and cocked my head to the side, so she would know that I needed her to expound on her thought.
“The idea of a husband loving a wife so… thoroughly.”
“You didn’t grow up with two parents I’m guessing.”
“No, I didn’t. I grew up with a loving mother—a singlelovingmother. My mother is and has always been a lover girl. She’s a huge romantic… which is probably why I don’t really fuck with romance. I’ve watched her chase the dream of being loved completely by a man and having it blow up in her face.”
Okay, now I had some insight on why she didn’t consider herself a romantic. “So, instead of jumping in headfirst like your mom may have done, you avoid romance altogether?”
“Romance. Love. Relationships.”
Even though the relationship with my ex had gone south, it hadn’t turned me off of the thought of a future relationship. Watching my parents do life together so in love and committed to one another had me wanting the same thing one day. Didn’t seem like I… or any dude would get that from Collins. I stored that information in my mental rolodex.
“Aye, you hungry? I can go grab the food my mother packed up for you from my wheels and my extra clothes. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m dripping all over the floor.”
“Yeah. Grab your stuff and the food. I don’t want you getting sick.”
Once I’d changed into dry clothes, I watched as Collins celebrated with hand claps as I pulled containers of food from the insulated carrier my mother had packed.
“Food is just your thing, huh?” I teased the beautiful woman in front of me.
She chuckled lowly. “I do love food. As you can see.” She ran a hand down each side of her waist, her hands trailing her body down her hip and thighs.
I paused mid-removal. I was so tempted to say or do something to let her know how much I was feeling her, but at the last moment, I decided to keep my thoughts to myself.
