Page 2 of Wild for the Mountain Man
Him?!
He’s my new landlord?
As I opened my mouth to speak, Gracie burst through the back door and said loudly, “Oh my God, El, these muffins are an orgasm for my mouth. Don’t you—” She stopped short and clamped her mouth shut, muffin crumbs in both corners.
I bit my lip to keep from laughing as I watched Gracie’s cheeks flush in real time. When I snuck a look at Walker, he bore no trace of a smile. None. Only a look of pure annoyance.
I desperately wantedto roll my eyes and kick the guy out so I could go back to setting up, but he didn’t budge from where he stood in front of my counter, his intense stare not wavering.
Gracie raised her eyebrows at me, then disappeared as quickly as she swooped in, leaving me alone with grumpy Walker once more.
“My father told me you only rent for a month here. Is that right, Elora?”
The way he said my name, the syllables rolling off his tongue, caused a tingling sensation throughout every limb.
I ignored it. There would be none of that.
“Your father? You mean Ed?”
“Yeah, he gave the business to me.”
The puzzle pieces clicked into place. Ed, my previous landlord, had mentioned he had a son, but had said little else. It still surprised me he left town. He loved it here, where he lived for years, raised his kid, and buried his wife. But there was the problem- everywhere he turned around here, he saw her. And that hurt.
“Ed told me about his wife, your mother. I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thanks,” he grumbled. “Back to my question. You rent this space for a month each October, right?”
No wonder he’s grumpy. He just lost his mom. Who wouldn’t be upset? “Yes, that’s correct.”
“I’m not sure that’s going to work anymore. I want to make some changes around here.”
“But Ed said there wouldn’t be any issues when you took over, besides the rise in rent, which I don’t think is fair, and neither did Ed. He kept me at a locked rate.”
“And he set himself up to fail because of that. Expenses go up, prices go up, and he should’ve been raising the rent. But it doesn’t matter now, because I’m here to fix it.”
My attraction for him teetered on the edge of annoyance and anger. “Okay. Well, it was nice to meet you. Now, if there isn’t anything else I can help you with it, I need to get back to my work.” I smoothed out the cloth on the refreshments table and opened the bag of paper plates, setting them out in a single pile.
“I’ll draft up a proposal. I’m going to need you to rent for at least six months a year. It’s only fair, as it’s not always easy to find good tenants. Nor is it easy to find ones that want to stay. How am I going to quick a good set of tenants when the six months is up just because you want to come back?”
He made a good point, yet I grew angrier by the second.
There was no way I’d find another place I could afford. But Ed did it for me. He knew my parents. Why was his son being such a jerk?
I can’t lose my business, and I can’t afford to rent it for six months straight. I’d bankrupt myself.
“My store is very niche and holiday specific. I don’t need a year-round store front. I’d lose money hand over fist.”
Walker stared at me and said nothing. “Well, I’ve already lost money. And I don’t want to do so again. So, we’ll need to figure something out.” Then he turned on his heel and walked out the door without one look back.
Okay, it was one thing to be sad.
But it was another thing to be rude and unwilling to work with me.
My new landlord was officially a grumpy silver fox.
I was in trouble.
CHAPTER TWO
