Page 8 of Trick or Treat with the Mountain Man
He has a great ass.
The kind of ass a woman might want to wake up next to every day.
An award-winning ass.
I could put a picture of his ass up at the Bear Den and take votes for best ass on the mountain. I was certain he would win.
He turned around and started coming back, a glass of water in one hand, and his cane steadying his walk in the other.
“Thank you.”
He grunted and sat back down.
As he sat, a loud groaning sound came from the bedroom, followed by a serious of thumps.
“You got a bear in there?”
Tyler shook his head. “Naw. Just the ghost.”
“The ghost! Tell me about your ghost.”
He shrugged again. “Not much to tell. It’s an old place. It makes all kinds of sounds. What you heard just now might be the bathroom pipes, except the bathroom’s down the hall. I even crawled under the foundation looking one day because I got curious. But I didn’t see any pipes running through the bedroom. So it’s strange.”
My eyes landed on his cane. I couldn’t imagine the man crawling under the house when he struggled to walk.
He seemed to realize what I was thinking because he said, “That’s just my hip. I fell out of a helicopter. We were low to the ground at the time, but it ended my military career when I abruptly met gravity. I had surgery on it half a year before I moved here. The doctor says it’s recovering well. I won’t need the cane much longer if it keeps healing like this. He’s got me on a brutal workout plan for recovery.”
“Oh!” So much information. I sifted through it all.
He’s ex-military.
Hot.
And healing.
“Were you scared?”
“When I had surgery?No.I was in too much pain.”
“I mean when you fell out of the helicopter. And how does that happen? I’ve never been in one before.”
“It happens when you’re being a dumbass. I should have had my seatbelt on. We hit a patch of turbulence, the bird tilted, and I flew out.”
Fascinating.
“But were you scared?”
He assessed me, his dark eyes scraping across every inch of me. Then he rumbled, “Hon, men like me don’t scare easily.”
Something about the way he said it sent a jolt of heat sailing through my body.
But then another round of fireworks went off outside, and I noticed him stiffen again. I had a feeling he might be lying.
To himself.
Or me.
Or both.
