Page 3 of Seeking the Mountain Man

First, I just revealed that I’d listened to her order. Second, her words proved she’d noticed I was sitting over there. She just chose not to acknowledge me—probably for the same reason we had to chase Bill Carney out of the place. Unwanted attention was unwanted attention.

I was only sitting here now because she was grateful I defended her. She didn’t even know I’d saved her from an hour of listening to stories about Bill’s days in the Army.

“So, you live here?” Kenzie asked.

“What gave it away?”

I looked down. I was wearing a University of Tennessee T-shirt. At least I’d gone without the matching ball cap tonight. I’d been bush hogging at the back of my property all day, so I had to shower before coming over here for dinner.

She shrugged. “You’re sitting here on a Saturday night.”

“I moved to town a year ago,” I said, as if that explained anything. “I bought a property about a mile from here.”

“Not up in the mountains?” she asked.

“It’s just before the road starts pitching upward. I like to be close to everything. Where are you from?”

“What makes you think I’m not from here?” she asked.

She tilted her head to the side and smiled, showing off a row of perfectly straight white teeth. Was anything about this woman not perfect?

“I assume you’re delivering packages.” I nodded toward the logo on her chest. But really, I was just staring at her chest. I quickly lifted my gaze back to her face. “Aren’t you?”

She stalled a second, and if I had any doubt she wasn’t who she appeared to be, that erased it. “Yep. This town’s part of my route.”

“Your route,” I said.

She opened her mouth to respond, but something caught her attention. It was Bo, emerging from around the bar. He held a tray covered in food. Our dinner was ready.

As eager as I was to tackle that tavern burger, I couldn’t let the conversation go. I waited patiently while Bo set everything in front of us and asked if we needed anything else. As he headed off to fetch my ketchup, I looked Kenzie in the eye.

“Your logo is all wrong.” I let my gaze drift back to her chest. Gladly. “Look it up. The letters should be more rounded. You’re not a delivery person.”

She stared at him, her food ignored. “Why would you say that?”

“Thanks,” I said to Bo, who’d returned with the ketchup.

He barely looked at me. Someone had entered, and he was no doubt moving on to serving that person. I waited until he was out of earshot, then continued.

“Let’s just cut to the chase,” I said. “Why are you in Blackbear Bluff?”

2

KENZIE

The man with the kind eyes was onto me.

It was the strangest thing. From a distance, he looked dangerous. The kind of guy who’d have me pulling out the pepper spray if I saw him on a deserted street.

That was why I’d avoided looking in his direction. I didn’t really evenlookat him until that creep started bugging me. But those eyes told me I was safe with him. He’d never hurt me.

Sighing, I sat up, grabbing my fork. I speared a grape and popped it into my mouth, basically delaying answering.

“You’re here because of that article,” Will said. “You a journalist or something?”

“Nope,” I said once the grape was down. I pulled the toothpick out of one half of my sandwich. It was so many layers, getting my mouth around it would be a challenge. “Matchmaker.”

He’d squirted a giant pile of ketchup onto his plate, but his movements froze at that word. “Matchmaker?”

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