Page 1 of Making a Mountain Man (Summer in the Pines #16)

Jill

“ T he suck my cock guy? My first big assignment as a senior journalist is to write about the suck my cock guy?” I dropped into a chair in front of my editor Heather’s desk.

“Yes, and you should be thanking me.”

I made a dismissive sound. “That story is months old. Every newspaper, blog, late night show, comedian and magazine covered it. There’s nothing left to tell.”

She had a glint in her eye when she leaned her elbows on her desk. “What was the one thing missing from every one of those stories?”

I shrugged. “A family friendly way to talk about cock ?”

She laughed. “Not a single one of them had an interview with the man himself.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Go on.” If I could get an angle on this story that no one else had, it could be huge for my career .

“I have it on good authority that he lives here now. Up on Strawberry Hill, right outside Springwood.” She held out a piece of paper with a name and address on it. “You’re welcome.” She crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” I snatched the paper out of her hand and hightailed it back to my desk.

This wasn’t how I pictured my first story going.

I wanted to research real hard hitting news.

Connect crime cases, investigate fraud and corruption.

Not rewrite the story of some internet rando who was on the tail end of his fifteen minutes of fame.

Even so, this had the potential to draw in readers.

It was all about ad money at the end of the day.

Everyone knew the suck my cock guy story.

It had every element the media loved: a good looking guy, a moral lesson and an excuse to talk about dicks.

Still, I needed to refresh my memory. Then I could come up with a plan on how to get him to talk to me when he had refused every news outlet in North America.

I fired up my laptop, grabbed a notepad and got to work.

Name: Wesley Watson

Age: 42

Summary:

January 2024: W posted a picture on dating site Immedi-Date. There was graffiti in the background that clearly said ‘suck my cock’.

Screenshot was shared. Became a meme used to promote discussion about: women’s safety online, modern dating culture, divorce rates, the decline of the modern family structure and misogyny.

February 2024: W became internet famous…or infamous? Smear campaign is more targeted towards him

Internet sleuths revealed his name and information.

Media pressure, story goes even more viral. Immedi-Feed LL C, who owns Immedi-Date, condemns him and announces new initiatives to keep users safe

March 2024: W claimed he didn’t see the graffiti, apologized for any offense, then disappeared.

March 2024-July 2025: no idea

W moves to Springwood - Date?

July 2025: Story assigned to me

Questions:

Why does he live here?

What’s the story I want to tell?

Does the punishment fit the crime?

I stopped writing and chewed the end of my pen.

He had already been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion.

There was no point in rehashing whether he knew the graffiti was there or not.

No one cared about that anymore. I needed a fresh angle that I could only get with his input.

What that fresh angle would be? I had no idea.

Shit.

I didn’t want to talk to him without a plan, but how did I come up with a plan when I had such limited information? We all knew the Immedi-Feed’s side of the story, but what was his?

I sighed and shut my laptop.

I felt the pressure to get this story right.

When you’re a childless woman over forty, people expect you to either have one hell of a career, or a whole herd of cats.

I had been single for so long that thinking about dating sites and dicks all day had me eager to put pajamas on and cry into a romcom.

None of the questions I had mattered, unless I could convince him to talk to me. But how?

I scanned through a few more articles, only finding more of the same information, when my eyes caught on something. The name in the newspaper articles was Wesley Watson, but the name on the paper Heather had given me was Wesley Monroe.

Blood flooded my face at the sight of that name.

Up until I was around fourteen, I was neighbors with a boy named Wesley Monroe.

He was a year older than me in school. He had been my first crush and my first kiss.

Then he’d moved to Vancouver to live with his mom.

We’d stayed in touch for a while, but within a year or two of him moving, we’d lost contact.

Surely this wasn’t the same guy? And why the name discrepancy?

Question: Is Wesley Monroe the same one I knew?