Page 1 of Seeking the Mountain Man

1

WILL

The woman in the brown shirt wanted us to believe she was a delivery person.

She was no delivery person.

I couldn’t say how I knew. Maybe it was the way her hair cascaded down her back. Any delivery woman I’d ever seen had her hair pulled off her neck. Usually with a cap on her head.

Or maybe it was the glass of wine in front of her on the table. White wine. She’d gone to the bar and ordered it while I sat near the window, staring at those curves. The kind of curves that’d drive a man like me mad with wanting.

But the real kicker was the car. Yes, car. Not a delivery truck but a little white electric thingamabob. One of those fancy cars you didn’t see around Blackbear Bluff.

Delivery people drove trucks and vans, not fancy little cars. And usually those vehicles had a logo printed on the side. That logo let people around here know you weren’t in town to cause trouble.

The door to Scoreboard Bar and Grill burst open and in walked Old Man Carney. I squeezed my eyes shut and took another generous swig from my beer bottle. This was going to be a problem.

As usual, Bill Carney walked up to the bar and ordered a whiskey, neat. But that was where his normal behavior ended. He’d spotted his prey, and he was going in.

“Hey there,” he said, carrying his glass over in her direction. He took a long sip and set it down on the table. “You’re not from around here.”

That much was obvious. I exchanged a look with Bo, who stood behind the bar. The message between us was clear. If an intervention was needed, I’d take care of it. Bo was the owner’s son, and he’d bounce a guy out when necessary, but there was no need for him to anger one of the bar’s most loyal customers.

“You work for one of those delivery companies,” Bill said, obviously having taken a look at the logo on her shirt. “The one with the brown trucks.”

She glanced over at me then. I tried for a look that would let her know I’d take care of this. She didn’t have to worry about it getting out of hand. My goal was to let this curvy lady know she was safe.

“I do.” She nodded as she shifted her gaze back to Bill. “Just taking a break after a long, hard day.”

“Eating dinner here?” Bill asked.

The woman seemed confused by the question. I couldn’t blame her. I was too. What was he getting at?

“I have an order coming,” she said. “I’d asked for recommendations, but it’s a little too late.”

“The tomahawk steak!” he said, his voice at least a couple of decibels too loud. “You wouldn’t think a sports bar would do steaks well. But J.J.’s got the best back there in the kitchen.”

She looked over at me. “J.J.?”

I nodded at Bo, who said, “My dad. He owns this place. I help him run it.”

“Bo there has a sister in school.” Bill picked up his glass and nudged it toward Bo, as though to toast him. “Pretty little thing, just like you.”

Okay, this was getting out of hand. But this pretend delivery person looked like someone who could handle herself. I gripped my beer bottle and imagined what I’d do to this guy if he laid a hand on the beautiful creature seated at that table.

Like my buddy Granger, I’d done my training and four years of active duty in the military. Granger told me about this mountain town in Tennessee with affordable cabins and plenty of work, thanks to a logging company that always needed help. There was no traffic, no people packing into the grocery store—no gigantic grocery store at all, in fact. Just a little market with everything a man needed to get by.

And this bar, with great beer and steak.

There was only one thing missing. That thing was a view like the one I had right now. The view of a beautiful woman with an ass that filled out a pair of shorts and a short-sleeved T-shirt that stretched across her generous tits.

Yeah, Blackbear Bluff definitely had a shortage of hot women.

“Mind if I join you?” Bill asked, but he already had his hand on the chair across from her.

The woman stared up at him, and I’d swear she turned several shades paler. Even in the dim lighting, I could see that.

I grabbed the bottle a little tighter and took a deep breath, then I swallowed another few swigs. If this was about to get ugly, the beer would cool my temper a little.

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