Page 2 of Mountain Man Bodyguard (Mountain Men of Pineville #4)
TWO
CHASSIE
Rolling onto the long driveway of the Triple R oddly felt like coming home.
I had never experienced that feeling. Not as a child, or even as an adult.
I was always looking out for my younger sister, with no time to focus on the dysfunctional parenting since it was the only kind we’d known.
Finn raised himself, and was out of the house at eighteen, but seeing him now with Sami and their son made me wish for a moment my life had played out differently.
But that feeling vanished because I am who I am today because of every experience, no matter how painful, how trivial or brief the interaction was worth everything. I’d become a nurse because someone told me they made great money, especially if you specialized. So that’s what I did.
Looking back, I think I became a nurse for more than the natural empathy I possessed.
I now realized I’d become a nurse because I’d suffered and wanted to fix myself when I was disappointed over and over by well-meaning but unwilling to buck the norm doctors who labeled my symptoms as “being born female.”
Well, I proved them wrong. Finally, and emphatically and it had become my life’s mission, no, my passion, to educate all women who were underserved, patted on the hand and told to live “with it” when it came to their body’s signals that something was wrong.
I am woman, hear me roar, and all that jazz. But a few months ago, a couple years into my crusade, more commonly known as a women’s health influencer, I started getting creepy texts from someone who claimed to be my “super fan.”
The bigger my audience grew, the more content I put out.
The more my confidence and connection with other influencers in the same space grew, so did the number of messages.
First, they were in the comments section of my TikTok and insta accounts.
But somehow this person got ahold of my personal cell number, and that’s when the anxiety spiked.
I went to the local police, the FBI, any agency that I thought could help me.
They took my phone and told me to lie low and be happy they hadn’t figured out where I lived. Or so they think.
Thank God all of this came to a head when my big brother was in town, and Finn said he knew just the person to help me out, but I needed to leave my house. I packed as many bags as I could carry, bought a new pay as you go cell at the local drugstore and sped off to Pineville Mountain.
Running wasn’t my style. But the texts were getting bolder, next level creepy, and as competent as I felt the Pineville PD was, I knew Finn was my best bet at protection.
He and the man he’d chosen to be my “bodyguard” now stood, discussing me no doubt, on the wrap-around porch of the lodge renovated by their buddies from the Ranger unit they’d all been in.
It was now a veterans and first responder’s retreat that provided a safe space to rest and reinvent. It’s the reason Finn had come back to Pineville after all these years, and maybe, just maybe, move his family back.
My mind settled as I met his beautiful wife, Sami, and held my nephew Theo for the first time after having to settle for video chats since they got together.
Maybe this was the reason I had a warm, fuzzy feeling as soon as I drove up.
But the longer we chatted, the more my senses became tuned into what was happening on the porch.
And the more I snuck glances at the dark-haired man with muscular arms currently crossed over his impressive chest encased in a snug-fitting black t-shirt. Kane’s ropy, veined forearms ignited a never before damsel-in-distress scenario in my mind, which made me want .
Want all over.
Want his arms holding me.
Want those sun-kissed, capable-looking hands and long fingers in some places that were now begging for attention and?—
“He could pass as a movie star instead of the stuntman he was, don’t you think?” Sami had taken a sleepy Theo from me, settling him expertly on her hip.
When I tore my gaze from the towering mountain man, now bodyguard, a heated flush covered my cheeks as my sister-in-law grinned.
“Those former Rangers make it hard for a gal not to stare, and even harder to?—”
“Don’t finish that sentence. The less I know about you and my brother, the easier it is for me to believe Theo was an immaculate conception.” Ridiculous, but that’s how I dealt with my siblings' sex lives. They didn’t have one. And as far as they’re concerned, neither did I.
But, oh, did I want to restart mine. Not only thanks to my new estrogen patch, but because my brother, whether or not he realizes it, just dropped a tall, dark snack and a half into my long-neglected orbit. So, if the opportunity arose, I’d be saying yes to a ride on Kane’s, er, rocket.
Wow, where had that pun come from? Probably the same place my mind had been ever since I locked eyes with the handsome former stuntman, deep in fantasy land.
“You’ve got a bit of drool…” Sami reached up and wiped the edge of her mouth. “Right about here.” She winked just as Finn and Kane stepped off the porch and headed toward us, Theo now snuggled into her neck, sound asleep.
“What?” Panicked, I flipped my head, and my sunglasses went sailing into the air and landed at Mr. Walking Fantasy’s feet.
Holding back a groan, I gave Sami an exaggerated eye-roll and then whispered, “Is it gone?” She didn’t hurt my feelings, but I would get her back.
Some women would be hurt or stomp off in a snit.
Not me. Teasing was my love language, and Sami just cemented our relationship.
As our chuckles died off, I could only hope she dished it out to my brother just as easily.
He’d been so damn serious growing up. Yet seeing his face light up as their gazes met and how he sweetly took Theo into one arm—the baby never even stirred — then wrapped his other arm around his wife and pulled her in close made my chest tight.
I was happy for him. For them, I really was.
It’s just I was firmly in the no-relationship camp, but that didn’t mean I didn’t hope like heck theirs would last. If anyone deserved some happiness, it was Finn.
Our dad had been a shitty role model, and our mom wasn’t any better.
About the best that could be said for either was they never struck us, just fought like cats and dogs and were emotionally unavailable.
That’s why for me, it was fun times only.
And thanks to early perimenopause, those fun times had not been a thing the last few years.
“Chassie, this is Kane. Kane. Chassie.” Finn was brusque and made me feel like I got a glimpse at what he’d been like when he’d been active duty.
“I brought Kane up to speed on the situation. He’s got a cabin behind the lodge where you can stay until the cops or the feds locate who's harassing you. We were in the same unit, and he’s like a brother to me, so I know he’ll be one to you too.
” Eyes narrowed, Finn swung his gaze between Kane and me.
Thirty-nine, almost forty and my brother was still warning men off, even the one he hand-picked to be my bodyguard.
I glanced at Sami to see her reaction and caught the tail end of an eye-roll.
Yup, we were sisters for life. Too bad for Finn.
I couldn’t wait for the holidays and this crap to be over.
And once I convinced him and Caitlyn to move back, it would be three to one. It’ll be so much fun.
“Chassie, you still with me?”
“Sir, yes, sir.” I saluted and then curtsied.
As expected, he released a heavy sigh, but my new bodyguard laughed even though it felt a bit sarcastic.
But that deep rumble from his massive chest, and oh, my!
It set off a zap, then a rush of warmth filled my lower belly and settled lower still.
And yes, please, that was a sound I needed more of.
Because that reaction was the first physical reminder I still had a healthy libido since my surgery.
But I wasn’t going to let him know how he affected me. Hot guys, especially the beautiful ones, usually meant they had a type, and I was never it. Besides everything about him screamed broody heartbreaker with a side of arrogance. I mean, if I looked like that, I might be too.
Then he caught me staring, and our gazes held, and that tiny voice deep down inside me, which until this point had never led me wrong, whispered, “But what if?”