Page 12 of Kissing My Mountain Man

“Ding. Ding. Ding.” She points at me. “Give the handsome man a prize.”

“Don’t try to butter me up with your sweet pillow talk,” I tease.

Landry smiles and shrugs like she doesn’t know what I’m talking about. “I just think if we’re really going to finish reading this and find out what happened, then what better place than where it all happened.”

My pack that I keep ready to go at the station is always filled up with a few days’ worth of rations and a couple blankets in case I get stuck on the mountain. We could stay the night if I allowed us to.

“I guess I could radio down to Kit and let him know that we won’t be back until tomorrow.”

The smile flashes me would shame the sun with how bright it is. And I can’t be the one to crush her dream. She’s wanted to come up here for so long. I’d be an asshole if I didn’t do my best to give her more time if I could.

“I’ll gather some wood, and you can get a fire going,” she says, setting down the journal and pushing to her feet.

I’ve never met a woman like Landry before. It seems like the simplest things make her happy, like spending the night on a mountain sleeping under the stars. There was no one in my old life that would’ve even considered embracing this adventure the way Landry has.

I watch her walk off into the tree line to grab some wood. And I can’t stop myself when my gaze slips down to the round globes of her ass. I need to stop thinking about her this way. Nothing can happen between us. For one thing, she lives several hours away, in the city, for crying out loud, and she’s my sister’s friend and roommate. That could make things awkward, especially after the stink I made about Devrie and Alec getting together. They’d both rake me over the coals for taking this further.

Landry returns shortly, carrying a handful of sticks and branches as I finish up making a pit for the fire. Soon a warm fire is burning, and I lay out the rationed food I have in my pack—a bag of trail mix, a few protein bars, some freeze-dried fruit, and jerky.

The sun starts to dip closer to the horizon as we pick through the food for our makeshift dinner on the mountain.

“Do you like working as a park ranger?” she asks as she pops a piece of dried pineapple in her mouth.

“Sure,” I shrug. “When I’m not hauling around graduate students on the mountain.”

Landry tosses a piece of pineapple at my head, but I dodge the flying fruit. “Very funny.”

I chuckle and sit back, stretching out my legs in front of me as I chew on the bite of jerky.

“When I was a kid, my dad used to take Devrie and me out exploring in the woods behind our house. No matter the season, we’d go at least once or twice a month, for a day or a whole weekend, and camp out under the stars.” I smile at the memories. “He’d teach us about wildlife and how we need to respect nature and the animals. We’d study the plants, what were poisonous, and what were safe to eat or use medicinally.”

“My roommate Devrie did all this? The girl who can’t go anywhere without a coffee shop every few blocks?”

“She went, but I didn’t say she enjoyed it.” I laugh. “Especially the time she got poison ivy all over her because she didn’t listen and laid down in some. It took a whole bottle of calamine lotion to cover it all. I had to wait on her hand and foot after she told my dad that I tricked her into laying in it.”

“Did you?”

I shrug. “Who can even remember?”

“I’m sure Devrie can.” Landry laughs.

I scan the woods around us and draw in a deep breath of fresh air.

“After I quit the force. I needed to get away. Find a place that was going to make me feel happy again. Being out here in nature has always been a familiar and safe place to me and becoming a park ranger was the perfect job that went along with it.”

“I think it suits you. I mean, your life here on the mountain. But you are lacking the long scruffy beard and coat made of pelts.”

“What century do you think we are in?” I scoff. “Besides, you don’t think I look the part?”

“Well, sure, you are ruggedly handsome in that ‘I need to go chop some wood and build a modern log cabin’ sort of way.”

I shake my head at her. “I’m not sure if I should be insulted or just take the compliment that you think I’m hot.”

“Whoa, I said handsome.”

“But I think you meant hot.”

Landry’s cheeks flush pink as she laughs and looks away. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

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