Page 5 of Creed (Rock Hard Mountain Men #3)

Clenching my fists in front of me so Creed wouldn’t see them, I put a big smile on my face and turned around to face him.

“Creed, it’s been a long time,” I greeted him, trying not to show my surprise at his proximity. The man was completely silent when he walked. He was already just a few feet away and I hadn’t heard him approach at all.

When we were younger, I would have run up and hugged him, but those kinds of gestures stopped on my fifteenth birthday, when I first realized the extent of my feelings for him.

From then on, whenever I wanted to greet him, I always just slung an arm over his shoulder, careful to keep our bodies angled away from each other.

Now, I didn’t even have the right for that much.

How were you supposed to greet someone that you hadn’t seen in person for years?

A handshake was too formal and didn’t adequately express how happy I was to see him, but anything else felt too intimate.

In the end, I settled for a hearty slap on the shoulder.

“It’s a miracle I got here at all. The place was hard to find. I got lost three times on the way here.”

He was bulkier than I remembered. A lot of his size came from muscle, which I could feel through his clothing when I touched his shoulder.

The man was practically made from stone.

Yet, there was also some softness around his stomach that hadn’t been there when we were younger.

It looked good on him. When we were teenagers, there had been an unpleasant leanness to him, as if he had to keep himself in fighting shape at all times and could never relax.

I’d been afraid that the military would exacerbate this, honing an already sharp blade until it broke, but it seemed like a life of service had provided him some comfort as well.

“You look good, man. Are you settling into your retirement?”

We’d spoken over the phone about how out of sorts he felt as he tried to find his place in civilian life, but that had been a week ago. Maybe he’d made some progress since then.

Creed merely answered with a shrug, which meant he wasn’t willing to talk about it.

His dark eyes then raked over me.

“You’ve gained weight.”

Anyone else would have been offended by this statement. Creed’s lack of tact had driven many people away from him in the past.

However, when I heard him, I immediately started laughing as I was flooded with a sense of relief. I’d feared that so much time apart, no matter how frequently we talked on the phone, would leave us strangers to each other.

That fear was put to rest when I found that I understood exactly what Creed meant.

His statement was not meant to be harsh or insulting.

It was merely an observation of how I’d changed.

My own thoughts had been similar when I first saw him, the only difference was I had enough tact to keep those observations to myself.

Still chuckling, I finally felt comfortable enough to throw an arm over Creed’s shoulder.

“Ah, Creed. Blunt as ever. Yep, I’ve packed on a few pounds.

There are so many places around the world with their own delicacies and unique tastes, and I refuse to be denied life pleasures for something as stupid as a waistline. ”

Just for emphasis, I patted my own stomach.

Never let anyone call me self-conscious.

“That sounds like good life advice.”

The new voice had me turning around, where I found myself face to face with several people I didn’t know.

They stood a little distance away, giving Creed and I the illusion of privacy while still being able to hear everything we said.

From Creed’s descriptions, I could already identify each of them.

From the back of the little group, Trent and Ellis watched me with mild curiosity, while Brody and Magnus each gave me a hard stare.

They were sizing me up, trying to determine if I was any threat to their friend.

A small, possessive part of me wanted to push back against that suspicion. I’d been Creed’s friend long before they ever met him. If anyone should be protective of him, it should be me.

I shoved those thoughts to the farthest recess of my mind where hopefully even I would forget about them and kept the smile on my face.

“I wish my editor agreed with you. Pretty sure she thinks I’m a reckless idiot who’s always getting into trouble.”

Magnus crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his blue eyes, but didn’t’ say a word.

Brody, on the other hand, kept a more pleasant expression on his face, but he did raise an eyebrow at me in a subtle demand for answers.

“Is she right? Are you reckless?”

If they wanted to interrogate me, that was fine.

It wasn’t anything new. Whenever I showed up as a foreigner in a new place, the locals were always skeptical of me at first. However, half of my success as a travel writer came from my ability to earn local favor so they would eventually tell me the stories worth writing about.

We may still be in America, but on this particular patch of land, I was once again the foreign visitor.

Shoving my hands in my pockets, I let my shoulders slump a bit to soften my posture, but I still stood firm.

“I don’t get paid to sit around and politely keep to myself.

It’s my job to get out there and experience what the world has to offer so other people can see it for themselves.

Sometimes that means taking risks, but I try to make sure the danger is always calculated. I’m not stupid, I’m just not shy.”

I’d taken my stand and made myself known. Now I waited for my verdict.

Before either Magnus or Brody could say anything, however, Creed grabbed my arm and started dragging me toward one of the houses.

“Come on, you dicks. Stop with the third degree. Kayden had a long drive out here and he’s probably tired. He doesn’t need you two bothering him.”

I followed after Creed so he wouldn’t have to drag me along, but out of the corner of my eye I noticed Magnus and Brody share a brief nod.

I’d been accepted.

Creed was a normally silent man, so his willingness to speak up for me probably did more than any argument I could have made.

Inside one of the houses, which I learned was Brody’s house, dinner was just being set out on the table.

An extra plate had already been set out for me, and I eagerly accepted the invitation.

I’d skipped lunch while I was driving, not wanting to risk getting lost on unfamiliar roads, and sustained myself on snacks I could eat on the go.

Chips and beef jerky were convenient, but not very filling, and the meal spread out before me looked amazing.

I was so hungry, I barely tasted the first few bites of it. They could have poisoned me, and I wouldn’t have cared. The food was simple, but well made, and probably the closest thing to a “home cooked” meal I’d had in a long time.

Restaurants were all well and good, and I always tried as many as I could while traveling, but they lacked a certain warmth that could only be found in a meal made specifically for you.

Over the course of dinner, Trent and Ellis took the initiative to ask me about my work.

I told them about some of the places I’d visited and was surprised to learn that they’d even read some of my articles.

Eventually the topic of Covid came up, and the effect that the global lockdown a few years ago had on my work.

“It wasn’t easy, of course,” I said as I pushed my now empty plate away.

“Not being able to go anywhere makes my job nearly impossible. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

During that time there was an uptick in interest for my older articles.

Since everyone was stuck inside, I guess they instead lived vicariously through my writing. ”

“From what I saw online, a lot of your fans discovered you during Covid times,” Ellis agreed.

Despite his size, he was a soft-spoken man.

I would expect someone like him to get overshadowed when surrounded by so many large personalities, but the others of this little group went out of their way to make sure he had just as many opportunities to speak as everyone else.

“You’ve been reading reviews from my fans? Uh oh. I hope they didn’t have too many bad things to say about me.”

Ellis quickly shook his head, his dark curls falling into his eyes. “Oh, no. Most people only said good things about your work. Although, there was one thing people kept mentioning that I didn’t understand. What was the llama incident?”

Groaning, I hung my head in my hands. Of course that was coming back around to bite me in the ass.

“Okay, first, what you have to understand, the llama didn’t look that dangerous.”

I spent the night sleeping in the guest bedroom in Magnus’s house.

My original hopes of coming up with an excuse to room with Creed were dashed almost immediately when it was pointed out that, of the two houses on the property, each only had one guest room.

Creed was already staying in the guestroom of Brody’s house, so that left only one clear option for me.

It was a tragedy, but I consoled myself with the reminder that soon we’d be sharing a tent together. We’d have plenty of time to get... close... soon.

Although, that may not matter if he was already with someone.

I still hadn’t managed to determine the exact nature of his relationship with Magnus and Brody.

It didn’t seem like they were sexually involved, their body language wasn’t quite right for that, but they were more protective of him than the average friends.

Of course, most average friends didn’t buy a property and build a home together, either.

By morning, I still didn’t have any answers, and I looked forward to getting our camping trip started.