Page 2 of Winning with the Mountain Man
My dad tried his best, but as the single-income life wasn’t easy, he worked plenty of overtime to make ends meet.
A few minutes later, Lucian and Carina walked over, Lucian pulling a cart behind him piled high with bags of mulch.
“What up, Hudson? Business still doing good?” He passed the cart handle off to Carina.
“You know it,” I said before taking the handle. There was no way I was letting Carina pull these heavy bags of mulch.
“Maybe one day, I’ll start my own business, too. Been thinking about it. Don’t want to run the family business forever, you know?” Lucian looked between the two of us.
Carina’s eyes widened. “Don’t let Mom and Dad hear you say that.”
“What? We’re all going to work here for the rest of our lives?”
Just then, Journey and Barbara, their mother, walked over, and Lucian’s face went pale.
“What was that, Luc?” Barbara said.
Carina laughed. “Let’s go get this mulch in your truck. I’m sure you’ve got a lot of work to do.”
I nodded gratefully and headed for the front door, Carina by my side. Her family chatted loudly behind us, both of us glad to be walking away from the family drama.Another downside to a large family.
“They’ll be arguing over what Lucian said for a while.” Carina laughed some more.
“Does it ever drive you nuts?”
“What? My crazy, large family?”
“Yes.”
“All the time. But I wouldn’t change it for anything. Do you have any siblings?”
“Nope. Just my dad and me.”
“Makes sense,” Carina said as we walked through the front doors and into the parking lot.
“It does?”
“Yep. You’re quiet. Mysterious. It makes me curious to get to know you more and figure out what makes you tick.”
“Is that so?” Blood rushed through my ears.
“It sure is.”
Give it a chance…what have you got to lose?
I opened my mouth, but the words never came. Instead, I said nothing as we walked the rest of the way to my truck.
When we got there, Carina flashed me the smile I loved and offered me a wave. “Well, I better get back to watering my babies. See you around.”
“See ya,” I responded and began loading the bags in the back of my truck, all while watching her sexy ass walk away.
Another chance to make her mine gone.
CHAPTER TWO
Carina
“Hudson seemsto be into you, huh, sis?” Lucian asked me as soon as I walked back into the garden center.
