Page 47 of Mountain Daddy (Mountain Men #2)

Luther

I’ve given her twenty minutes.

Given myself twenty minutes to calm down. To get my body under control.

With a pillow and rumpled blanket on the couch, I leave the bathroom light on but shut the door.

If Joe comes out to the kitchen for anything in the middle of the night and sees the couch empty, it will look like I got up to use the bathroom, nothing more.

Decoy set, I open Kendra’s bedroom door.

The lights are off, but she left her curtains open, allowing moonlight to spill into the room.

Blankets rustle. “Luther?”

“Yeah, Baby.”

I close the door and undo my jeans, letting them drop to the floor.

I pause with my hands on the hem of my shirt, wondering if I should leave it on. But if Joe catches me sleeping in bed with his daughter, without pants on, I hardly think the status of my shirt will make a difference.

I pull my shirt off.

“What are you doing?” Kendra rolls to face me.

“Just sleeping.”

Tugging down the blanket, I climb into Kendra’s bed.

Once I’m on my back, I hold out the arm closest to her.

Kendra doesn’t need me to ask. She moves into her spot—head on my shoulder, leg thrown over my thigh—and I hug her to my side.

A chilly hand lands on my bare stomach, and I tense.

She starts to slide it off, but I drop my free hand on top of hers and hold it still. “Keep your ice fingers in one spot.”

Kendra snickers.

I hold her tighter.

“Thanks for keeping me company today.” Her words are quiet as they skitter across my chest. “Everyone was super nice, but it was a bit overwhelming.”

I try to be smooth as I turn my head so I can press my nose to her hair.

This girl.

She makes me feel needed in a way I’ve never experienced.

But what’s even better than feeling needed is feeling wanted. And she makes me feel that too.

I breathe against her. “You don’t have to thank me.”

Her warmed fingers slide over my stomach until her arm is draped across my waist. “I do. Today was really fun.”

“It was.” I agree.

Her exhale tickles my chest hair. “I was planning to go, ya know?”

Kendra’s body is relaxing against mine, her words getting harder to hear.

She’s falling asleep.

“Planning to go where? The party?” I rub my thumb against her arm.

“Back to the Inn.”

My breath catches.

Back to the Inn.

She was going to come back to me.

“When?” I whisper.

“That morning. With the pancakes.” I feel her yawn.

There’s a part of me that hadn’t let go of the stress I felt, thinking I’d never see her again.

A part of me still feels like it’s stuck in a spiral of panic. Like these last couple weeks might turn out to be a dream. That I’ll wake up, and I’ll never find the Kendra Baby I met in the bar.

But she’s here.

Curled against me.

Once again ready to fall asleep in my arms.

Once again rocking my world.

Even if her dad hadn’t turned out to be my best friend, she still would’ve come back to me.

I allow my anxiety to unravel its hold on me.

My thumb traces another circle.

“I was looking into private investigators,” I admit.

I was ready to hire one. I just needed to convince myself it wasn’t creepy to go through the credit card records for her motel room to find her full name.

I would’ve done it. Probably would’ve done it that same weekend.

“We’d have found each other,” I tell her. Meaning it.

Her breathing is getting slower. “What if it ends badly?”

My throat feels tight as I swallow. “It won’t.”

“Promise?” Kendra’s whisper slides into my heart.

“I promise, Baby Doll.” I press my lips to her hair. “Go to sleep.”

Kendra relaxes into me.

And as I follow her into dreamland, I hope I told her the truth.