Page 22 of Single Mom’s Mountain Men (Mountain Men Reverse Harem #1)

Charlie

I sling the pile of wood over my shoulder and then drop it onto the crane with a loud thunk . Across the vast forest, a similar even louder thunk of a felled tree branch reverberates through the air.

Wes. Petty bastard.

All afternoon he's been matching me sound for sound as though mimicking me, probably to get a rise out of me. I refuse to give him the satisfaction of another confrontation.

That last fight was dumb and I hate that I was part of it. I’ve never liked violence not even when I was in the military. I hate senseless violence even more and I especially hate that Patty was there to witness it.

She probably thinks I'm even more of a Neanderthal caveman than she originally assumed.

And I wouldn't blame her for her concern, given my height and my propensity to talk in mostly grunts.

I sensed straight away how skittish she was, as if hyper-sensitized to the least sign of violence or aggression, so throughout her stay, I've been careful to tread softly and keep from startling or scaring her.

Once, I happened upon her in the kitchen while she was humming and frying something that smelled good. She didn’t hear me until I walked up and tried to peek at the frying pan over her shoulder. When I got close, she spun around, screamed and threw her hands up to block her face.

God, that look of terror in her eyes shattered something inside me.

I felt like the lowest piece of shit in the world for scaring her.

Even though the whole thing was cleared up in seconds–I apologized profusely, and she did too for her reaction–I haven’t quite gotten over her looking at me in fear.

“God Patty, I’m so sorry,” I said, remorse making my voice gravelly. “I really didn’t mean to scare you. Sometimes, I forget my own size, but I swear I would never hurt you.”

“It’s okay,” she said, with a tremulous smile as I mumbled out more apologies. “It’s not you, it’s…me. I guess I have a thing with people sneaking up on me.”

“Someone hurt you before?” I asked and she shook her head.

“It’s just the way I am.”

I watched as she folded her arms in front of her, almost defensively. I could tell there was more to the story, but she probably wasn’t going to share it now.

“What else don’t you like?” I asked. “So I know for next time.” I never wanted to see that look in her eyes again.

She seemed surprised by my question, and then she tentatively admitted, “Loud sounds. Yelling. Violence.” At my searching look she added, “I think it’s probably because I grew up in a rough neighborhood. I don’t like things that remind me of it.”

“Ah,” I said, “I’ll make sure I never remind you of it again.”

And throughout her stay, I've kept to that promise. I’ve been careful to tread lightly around her but also ensure my steps are loud enough for her to hear coming. I’ve never raised my voice, or even sworn in her presence.

Slowly, I was getting her to relax around me, to no longer see me as a threat.

All that is now meaningless, due to one stupid, heat-of-the-moment action.

And as much as I blame Wes for provoking it, I blame myself too.

I feel a pang of guilt for what I did with Patty even though I shouldn’t.

I'm not sure what Patty feels for Wes, but for Wes, I doubt it's more than a passing fascination. My younger brother has never been the serious connection type. All his life he’s been a ‘player’, only ever interested in brief hookups, never long-term relationships, so I assume that’s how it is with Patty too.

So why did he get so upset that I was with her? Since when does Wes get this worked up about someone he hooked up with?

Wes has never been the jealous type. He’s even offered on multiple occasions to set me up with some of his flings. Once when he was dating this cute high school teacher, he offered to stop seeing her because he thought I liked her.

So why had he flown into a rage at the thought of me with Patty?

Maybe he has deeper feelings for her than I thought.

This thought accompanies a sinking feeling. That would be the worst possible conclusion. Because I'm pretty sure I have feelings for Patty too.

Even with that, I wasn't that upset when he’d hooked up with Patty.

I was fucking jealous, but not upset enough to fight my brother even though Wes probably knew I had a thing for her first. The way I saw it, if she wanted him, if he was the one who made her smile, then who was I to stand in the way of her happiness?

It wouldn’t be pleasant, but I could let go of my feelings and let her be with him if that’s the way she felt.

But now that I've spent time with her, talked to her, made love with her, tasted her, heard her moans, seen her come apart as she flooded my mouth with her sweet nectar... shit, I'm not sure I can let her go again.

Twigs crunch under heavy workbooks behind me and I turn to find Mitch approaching him with a stern look on his face.

“We need to talk,” he says

I have a feeling I know what's coming. I keep working, stacking up logs to be tied. Mitch crosses his hand over his chest.

“This cold war between you and Wes,” he starts. “Is it because of Patty?”

I don't respond. I keep stacking.

“This isn’t the time to be mute, Charlie. Y’all need to figure out your shit because your conflict is starting to worry Patty. She’s thinking about leaving.”

That gets my attention. Not that he hadn’t had it before, just that I hadn’t really known what to say to him.

“She is?’

He nods. “Yesterday, she came to talk to me and told me she feels bad about being intimate with both of you. She thinks that she's making you fight.”

“That’s not her fault,” I say. “She did nothing wrong.”

“That’s what I told her. But if the two of you keep giving each other the silent treatment she’s going to keep thinking that it is her fault, and she doesn't want to be the woman that tore two brothers apart.

So if you guys don't figure your shit out and make up, she's going to keep feeling like she's the one to blame, and eventually she’ll leave. You don’t want that do you?”

I shake my head. That’s the last thing I want.

“Good. Then you and Wes get it together. Work it out however you see fit. One of you is going to have to apologize first, and it's likely going to have to be you because you’re older and we’ve always known Wes is a little pill since he was a kid.

Ma spoiled him too much. But he’s going to have to grow up and start taking responsibility for his actions.

For starting the fight, I've upped his quota, and he better finish it tonight.

He's been slacking off more than usual lately and it's pissing me off.”

I chew my lips. I hate to defend Wes when I'm still irked at him, but I don't think upping his quota is the right move here. Wes isn’t lazy, but he’s made no qualms about the fact that he doesn’t like spending all day working in the forest. And neither do I.

The more I do it, the more I start to chafe under this role.

I didn’t think about how much I don’t like it until Wes mentioned the thing about the garage. That's when I realized I would probably be a lot happier doing that instead. The fact that even Patty noticed my love for cars while barely knowing me is additional proof, if any is needed.

I've always been comfortable with outdoor work, so I didn't mind working here, but now… I would rather be at a garage fixing cars than in a timber yard cutting and planing lumber.

Of course, I know I can’t tell my brother this.

He’s all about us running the family business as a unit until we turn it into a thriving business.

He'll probably want us to keep running it beyond that too, just to keep a family legacy. He’s so busy trying to prove everyone wrong, and honor Mom and Dad, that he can't stop to think that maybe the rest of us have other goals.

And if we let him, he's going to run us all into the ground.

“You ever thought about selling part of the land?” I blurt out and I immediately know it’s the wrong thing to say. Mitch’s expression changes instantly from his usual staid annoyance to damn near fury.

“Banker got to you?” he snarls and I flinch at the insult.

“Of course not. I wouldn't go near that man with a ten-foot pole.”

Mitch relaxes but only a little.

“I don’t mean sell to Banker, I mean put it up for sale.

We could do without the acreage near the road since it’s poor quality land and there aren't many trees there anyway. If we sold it, we would have more than enough to hire a few new employees.” That way we don’t have to work ourselves to death and we may have money to do the stuff we want to do.

But Mitch is already shaking his head before the final words leave my mouth.

“We need that land because of its proximity to the road.

Without it, we'd have to go clear across the other side of the mountain to get to the highway, and that's more time-consuming. With it, we’re close to the road and the yard is much more easy to access. "

“So? Going around is not that big a deal, it would only add what fifteen or twenty minutes to our journey into town. It’s not like anyone comes here anyway. And we could work out a deal with the new owners to use the front of their land for signage to direct people to where we are.”

“We start selling now, when does it stop? What if the new buyers sell to someone else and we don’t like what they do with the land, or they become our competition?” Mitch says. "There’s a reason Dad never considered any of the offers he received over the years. ”

That’s because he was a stubborn old man. Just like you're turning into.

But I don’t say anything further. It’s clear that I’m not going to get through to Mitch, and it’s not the first time I’ve tried. Once my brother sets his mind either for or against something, it takes an act of God to get him to see reason.

So I simply nod, swallow the restlessness I’m feeling, and get back to work.