Page 10 of Summer with the Mountain Man (Mountain Man Summer #16)

Chapter Ten

Luca

“What’s going on, brother?”

I look up from scratching the back of Reggie’s feathery neck and frown at Ethan. Reggie—displeased with my sudden lack of attention, or perhaps because his owner has entered the room—skreiches and bounces up and down on my knee, bright-yellow comb flaring on top of his head.

“ Fucking fire !” he squawks, comb flaring. “ Fucking fire! ”

Ethan rolls his eyes and dumps himself into the armchair opposite me, frowning at his cockatoo. “I’m never going to forgive Riggs for teaching him that.”

I snort and return to scratching Reggie behind his neck again. “Want me to teach him something new while I’m here?”

Ethan turns his frown to me. “You didn’t answer my earlier question. What’s going on?”

“Listen, mate ,” Reggie squawks, bouncing on my knee again. “ Fucking fire. Listen, mate. ”

Shoving himself to his feet, Ethan slides his hand under Reggie, lifting him from my leg.

“Listen, mate,” he says to the bird as he walks across his living room to deposit Reggie onto his free-fly perch—a thick gum tree branch that bends at a rambling right angle that’s attached to a heavy block of ironbark. “Time to zip it for a bit.”

“ Zip it, zip it! ” Reggie cries before attacking one of the various parrot toys hanging from the ceiling above the perch. “ Fucking fire .”

Laughing, I shake my head. “I’ve missed that bird.”

Ethan returns to the armchair, drops into it, and then leans forward, elbows on knees, stare locked on me. “Again, what’s going on?”

Gut clenching, I give him a what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about scowl. “Nothing.”

He grunts. “Luca, I love you. You’re my brother. But you’re a woeful liar.” He gives me a soft smile. “PTSD getting to you? I know seeing the American almost run into Mrs. Harrington’s Honda shook you up a bit.”

The American.

An image of Riley straddling my hips shears through me, and I draw in a choppy breath.

Ethan frowns. “Okay, that’s not a stressed breath. That sounds more like regret.” He narrows his eyes. “Where were you today? When I called about the fire?”

“ Fucking fire! ” Reggie squawks from his perch. “ Zip it, zip it! ”

Ethan points at him. “Zip it!”

Reggie goes back to attacking one of his toys.

Ethan levels an expectant stare at me. Waits.

Swallowing, I drag my hands through my hair and slump back into the armchair. “I was up at the Whitmores’.”

“Hudson sent you up there early this morning. Why were you still…” He trails off. “Oh. The house sitter? The American?”

A wry laugh falls from me, and I nod. “The American. Riley Diaz.”

“So you spent the day up there with her?”

“I did.”

He studies me. “Do I want to know how you spent the day?”

I snort.

“ Fucking fire! ” Reggie contributes, bobbing up and down on his perch. “ Fucking fire! ”

Ethan lets out a breath, scratches the back of his neck, and fixes me with an unwavering look.

“Okay, I want to ask you something. I’ve wanted to for a while but haven’t.

Probably should have. How are you going?

” He holds up a palm. “I mean, I know the move back here is part of your recovery, but I also know since Jade’s death, you’ve kept everyone at arm’s length, even me. ”

I frown.

“And that’s okay,” he continues, his smile easy, “because I know after what you went through, you were in a raw place. But how are you going? I don’t want you going through life on a merely superficial physical existence.

Just disconnected sex with strangers. Emotional connection is important, Luca.

I don’t want you to forget about your heart. ”

“See, that’s the problem,” I say, a wry laugh straining my voice. “It’s my heart that’s causing me grief right now.”

He narrows his eyes again. “The American?”

“The American,” I echo. “I know it’s bloody ridiculous to even think it, given I only met Riley this morning, but I think I love her.”

He blinks.

I snort. “I do. I spent the day with her, and yeah, some of it was sex—the most amazing sex I’ve ever had in my life—but most of the day was just being with her, existing with her, getting to know her.” I shake my head. “Since the accident, I’ve felt dead inside. Like I have no reason to be here.”

“Jesus, Luca,” Ethan murmurs, eyebrows knitting. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“I came home.” I shrug. “That was as loud as I could be. But when I met Riley up there at the Whitmores’ place trying to save a water dragon that didn’t need saving?—”

“Let me guess.” A smile twists Ethan’s lips. “She saw the red belly and thought it was blood?”

I laugh, and warmth flows through me. “She did. When I met her, something happened inside me. Something fell away from my heart, or maybe my heart started beating again. I don’t know.

I just know being with her, talking with her, holding her hand…

I was alive. And I haven’t felt that way for three years. ”

Ethan frowns. “Does she know this?”

I grimace. “No. Maybe. I don’t know. I didn’t tell her. I mean, who falls in love that quickly?”

He grunts. “It’s been known to happen from time to time. Especially here in the Ridge. Do you know how she feels?”

I sigh. “I thought… I got the feeling she felt the same.”

“So why are you here now sitting in my living room, patting my bird, instead of being with her?”

“I heard her call herself stupid when I was leaving to head to the fire,” I say, scowling at my feet. “Asking herself why she’d just… I don’t think she knows I heard.”

Ethan’s eyebrows shoot up. “Is that it? You’re here moping when you don’t even know what she was talking about?”

“What else would she be talking about?” My gut clenches. “We spent the day together and she called herself stupid.”

He throws up his hands. “Brother, I know I’ve been gentle with you since the accident, but you’re being a wanker right now.

You have no fucking clue what was in her head.

No fucking idea what she was talking about.

For all you know, she was calling herself stupid for not cancelling her Netflix subscription before she left the US. ”

I level my scowl at him. “I don’t think that was?—”

“But you don’t know ,” he cuts me off, leaning forward, stare direct. “And you’re too scared to find out. You spent the day with her, you slept with her, and what? You haven’t been anywhere near her since you left?” He shrugs. “Maybe Reggie is the only creature worth your love.”

I stare back at him.

“Luca,” he says, voice gentle, “you fight fires for a living. Now try something even more scary—hope.”

“ Listen, mate ,” Reggie squawks. “ Listen, mate .”

Chest tight, I straighten to my feet.

Hope.

Fuck, I hope I haven’t fucked everything up.