Page 3 of Kissing My Mountain Man

I shake my head and shrug my shoulders at him. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about that promise you made to your sister.” He points to the phone on my desk. “Going out to Bishop’s Ridge to the old homestead with her roommate. Any of this ringing any bells?”

“No.” I lower the thermos from my lips. “That’s next week.”

Kit only shakes his head and points at the Fish and Wildlife calendar hanging on the wall before returning his attention back to his book.

No. No, no, no!

I run over to the calendar. The plan was that I wasn’t supposed to take her up until next week. But there it is in bold red lettering—Dev’s friend Bishop’s Ridge Homestead.

This couldn’t be coming at a worse time. I need this break and I don’t want to spend it leading around some city girl princess that thinks she can handle trekking through the park. The journey up to Bishop’s Ridge isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s such rugged terrain that it’s the reason that the old homestead has hardly been touched since the old woman who lived there died a hundred years ago.

Fuckin’ hell.

“Hey, Kit?”

“No.”

“Come on, buddy. You don’t even know what I was going to say.”

Kit lifts his gaze from his book to meet mine. “Don’t even ask what you’re thinking. I’m the only one here today at the station. Trust me. I’d much rather be out on the mountain than staying indoors, but alas, those are the cards we’ve been dealt.”

I roll my eyes after his little speech when I notice the steaming mug of coffee next to him on the desk with a powdered jelly donut and a well-worn copy of a biography of Jedidiah Smith in his hands.

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re really brokenhearted about it,” I say, pushing open the screen door and walking out to the porch with Kit’s laughter ringing out behind me.

I pull my phone out of my back pocket and scroll through my recent contacts list, looking for my little sister’s number. Her phone rings three times before she picks up.

“No, big brother, you aren’t canceling on Landry,” she says by way of greeting. “She’s already on her way up there, and she’s really excited.”

I drop my head and let out a frustrated sigh. “Devrie, this is my only day off in weeks. I’ve been counting down the days to take some time for myself finally.”

There’s a shuffling sound, and I hear the muffled sound of my best friend Alec’s voice. My already shitty morning goes from bad to worse as I’m reminded of the fact that he is now dating my sister. I’m not happy with this turn of events in either of their dating lives, but as Devrie has reminded me in so many colorful words that it’s none of my business who she dates, and I should just be happy that she’s happy. And I am—I guess. There are way worse guys in the world than Alec, but it’s still hard to wrap my head around it.

“I’m sorry that this isn’t a good time for you, but you promised. We talked about this and had this all planned for two months. Landry needs this for her thesis project. She has been working so hard and is so close to graduating. You don’t want to be the one to screw this up for her, do you?”

I throw my head back and gaze up at the cobwebs in the corner of the porch ceiling. My sister has a gift for laying on just the right amount of guilt to get anyone to do precisely as she wants, and I’m just the idiot who can’t say no to her.

“Fine.” I run my hand over the back of my neck. “But I’m not happy about doing it.”

“You don’t have to be, but I love you all the more for doing it.”

“You’ll owe me,” I tell her.

“How about we call it even for punching my boyfriend in the face?”

“Wait a minute,” I hear Alec say in the background, sounding much more alert.

I laugh, not needing to see his expression to know the look he’s giving my sister right now.

“Come on, Denny. You’ll love it. Landry’s cool, and she understands what she’s asking of you.”

“I hope so,” I say seriously. “It’s not going to be easy getting up there.”

“She knows that. I promise. Besides, it’s not like you weren’t going to be doing something similar on your day off anyway. I know how you like to play on the mountain.”

“I wasn’t going to be playing on the mountain,” I growl with annoyance. “I was going to go fishing.”

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