Page 7 of Mountain Man Obsessed (Hard Timber Mountain Men #3)

HARLAN

The next day, I was halfway through counting a big box of paracord when Dane strolled in like he owned the place.

“Good morning.” He set a cardboard box on the counter full of medicine balls. They were a ridiculous shade of neon yellow. “I was cleaning out some stuff in the back of the gym and figured the kids would love trying to toss these around during Adventure Weekend.”

“Put them in the back,” I said.

He didn’t move. Instead, he leaned on the counter and grinned like he had a secret he couldn’t wait to share. “Have you seen the latest?”

“No.” I didn’t need to ask what he meant. He’d been keeping tabs on the Ex-List drama like it was his damn job.

Dane lifted his phone and flicked his thumb across the screen. “The poll about the Ex-List is split between me and Trace, but there’s a dark horse favorite.”

“I don’t give a fuck.”

“You should, man. Because the dark horse is you.” He turned the screen so I couldn’t miss it.

A thread of comments scrolled by, all those anonymous handles and fake names and people I’d known since grade school hiding behind cartoon avatars.

Comments like My money’s on The Warden. Heard he’s been real friendly with a certain Thorne.

And below it: Which one? A string of laughing emojis with a single eggplant followed.

My hands tightened around the braided cord until it bit my palms. “Why don’t you go put the box in the back, Dane.”

He glanced up at me and the smile slid from his lips. “I’m not trying to wind you up, man. As ridiculous as it sounds, it’s out there. Thought you should know.”

“And now I do.”

He set the box in the back then headed for the door, whistling under his breath. “I can’t believe people are actually posting about you and Jessa. Funniest damn thing I’ve seen all year.”

After he left, I set the paracord down and looked at my dull reflection in the knife case. I still saw the man who could handle a storm, fix a bridge, haul someone out of the woods in the dark. But now I also saw the man who might tear his own life apart over the one woman he couldn’t let go.

Bubbles let out a soft huff from his bed behind the counter. I scratched between his ears, and he thumped his tail like everything was fine and I should take him outside to sniff mailboxes.

Instead, I grabbed my keys.

I found Jessa in the community center. She was going over notes for Adventure Weekend with a handful of people, including Rowan from town hall, smiling and laughing as she made notes on a big piece of paper taped to the wall.

When she spotted me in the doorway, her smile faded.

It was like she could tell why I was there before I even said a word.

“Can I have a few minutes?” My voice came out rougher than I intended.

“Of course.” She thanked everyone for coming and said something about following up via email.

Rowan held her clipboard to her chest as she passed me on the way out. “It’s all coming together, Harlan. You were smart to hire Jessa.”

“Yeah, I know.” My chest pulled tight with a knot of pride, need, and panic that I couldn’t seem to untangle.

Standing in front of a group of people and sharing her plans for an event she’d created out of nothing but an idea, Jessa was in her element.

I’d been a fucking fool to doubt her. Whoever ended up hiring her would be lucky to have her on their team.

For a split second I wished that someone could be me.

When the door shut, the quiet settled, raw and unsteady, like it was daring one of us to break it. She capped the marker she’d been using and set it down on the table. “What do you need, Harlan?”

I forced myself to hold her gaze even though looking at her gutted me. “Whatever we started up on that ridge… it has to end.”

The words tasted like metal, but she didn’t flinch.

Her mouth curved into something that wasn’t even close to a smile. “Because a handful of bored people on the internet are playing guessing games online?”

“So you saw the poll.” I took a step closer and lowered my voice.

“I don’t care what people think. But your brothers are going to get ideas, and they’ll come asking.

Holt will barge through my door ready to break my jaw, and Thatcher won’t say a word, he’ll just look at me like I’m dead to him.

Even Dane’s going to turn his back on me.

He’ll pretend to laugh, then make good on all the threats he’s ever joked about.

Because whether or not you want to admit it, they’re my family and this?—”

“This is mine.” She closed the distance the rest of the way and pressed her palm, warm and flat, against my chest. “My choice. My heart. Not theirs.”

Her touch only made it harder. I took a breath that didn’t go anywhere. “You think I don’t know that? I know exactly what I’m choosing. That’s the problem.”

“Then choose me.”

Simple. Clear. It should have been easy to say yes. But the word got stuck behind everything I’d built to keep my life from coming apart.

“You want to burn it down?” I asked. “You want to go out there, make an announcement at the cafe, let half this town clap like they got what they wanted, and the other half dig for how long we’ve been sneaking around? You want to watch your brothers find out from someone else?”

“I want you to stop treating me like I’m a mistake.” Her voice didn’t rise. It went softer, which made it worse. “The other night was amazing. But the second we came off the mountain and the town started to joke around, you want to run.”

The pressure of her hand on my chest increased. It was a question, a chance for me to do the right thing. To do what I wanted and not give a shit about anyone else for a change.

“I’m not running,” I said. “I’m keeping something from breaking.”

She tilted her head. The patience in her eyes was replaced with solid steel. “So you’d rather lose me than disappoint them.”

That landed where nothing else had… deep in my chest… in a spot that had never been anyone else’s business. I had an answer, and it was ugly. “I’d rather not lose both,” I said. “But that doesn’t seem like an option.”

She stepped back like I’d reached out and slapped her. “Do you know what I hear when you say that? I hear you choosing fear and calling it loyalty.”

I dragged a hand over my jaw. “This isn’t fear.”

“It is. You’re afraid of pissing off my brothers, and you’d rather let me go instead.”

“You don’t understand. They were there for me when no one else was.

” My words came out low and rough. I didn’t like talking about the past, but she needed to understand.

“You were still in elementary school the year my mom left, and my old man went off the rails. Thatcher stayed over every night, and we took turns taking care of my dad. Holt learned how to run the register at the store, so it didn’t go under. I won’t ever forget that.”

Her face softened. “I’m not asking you to forget it. I’m asking you to stop using it as a reason not to live your life.”

“Living my life with you would make me dead to them.”

“They might surprise you. Being together could give you a better life than trying to hide behind rules you made when you were only a kid.” She hugged her arms to her chest. “I’m not asking for you to go public with me yet.

I’m just asking you to stand next to me when I walk into your store.

I’m asking you to not step away like I might burn you. ”

“I don’t step away because I’m afraid you’ll hurt me,” I said. “I step away because being around you and not being able to touch you like I want to is killing me inside.”

Her mouth parted. I hated and loved the way she looked at me then. Like I’d said something true by accident.

She smoothed her hand over a stack of papers sitting on the table.

Her voice came out strong and steady. “Here’s what’s going to happen.

I’m going to keep planning this event. I’m going to keep coming into your shop.

I’m going to keep kissing you if you let me, and I’m going to stop if you tell me to stop.

I’m not going to be your secret. Not for long.

I deserve more than that and you know it. ”

I stared at the map behind her to keep myself from fixating on her mouth. “I can’t give you anything right now.”

The room felt too small. I could hear my own pulse in my ears and the ugly part of me that always knew how to end a fight told me to get loud, to scare her back a step, to make her think it was easier to leave than stay.

I didn’t. I put my hands on the edge of the table and leaned on them until the wood creaked out a complaint.

Outside, someone laughed on the sidewalk. A car door slammed. The world kept doing what it always did while mine narrowed to the woman in front of me and the line I couldn’t make myself cross.

“You deserve better than me,” I finally said.

She smiled. It was small and meant to cut me to the bone. “You’re right. I deserve a man who won’t try to hide me or downplay what we have. But let me worry about that for now.”

I let go of the table. “The gossip’s not going to stop.”

“I don’t need it to.”

“Your brothers?—”

“Aren’t the ones you’re kissing.” She took a breath and lifted her chin. “We’ll tell them on our terms. When you say you’re ready. Not because someone hiding behind a screen name thinks they get to write our ending.”

There was a world where I could have said yes. This wasn’t it. “I can’t promise you that,” I said.

“Then don’t promise me anything.” She picked up the stack of papers, her shoulders sagging, her voice resigned. “Just let me do my job.”

I stepped out of her way. She brushed past me, all heat and stubborn sunshine, and I felt the ghost of her shoulder for a long time after the door clicked behind her.

I stood in that loud quiet until my breath came back.

Then I went outside and looked up and down Main like answers might be hiding in the shade of the awnings.

Nellie swept the sidewalk in front of the cafe.

Two high school kids walked by sharing a milkshake and a phone, laughing at something on the screen.

The mountains looked the same as they always had, but I’d never felt further from steady ground.

Back at the shop, I put the stuff Dane dropped off away, then realized I’d put it in the wrong spot and moved it again.

Bubbles followed me from aisle to aisle, his nails clicking on the hardwood floor like he knew something wasn’t right and didn’t know how to help.

Hell, I didn’t know how to make things better either.

I adjusted the new display Jessa set up in front, the one that made the window look like it belonged to a store people might actually walk into on purpose. My hands wouldn’t stop trying to straighten a lantern that wasn’t even crooked.

A few more customers stopped by. I helped a guy looking for waders but was out of stock in his size, answered a question about stove fuel, and told a man I didn’t carry the brand of fishing line he wanted and suggested he look online.

Hell, maybe this town did need a place like Wild Wilderness.

I couldn’t even manage my own life, much less keep up with what people wanted from my store.

When the place was finally empty, I stood behind the counter and stared at the door until my eyes stung. For a guy who prided himself on always staying in control, I’d never felt more powerless in my life.