Page 2 of Wanted by the Mountain Man (Mountain Man Summer #12)

ROURKE

L umberjack Cove was a small manmade pond in the mountains of Seduction Summit. One of the guys had discovered it and told the rest of us about it, and it quickly became a popular hangout for guys on the logging crew and their families.

Tonight, there were no kids, just couples.

The guys on my crew were newer to town and didn’t have wives and kids yet.

“Yet” being the key word. The couples I was hanging with tonight were well on their way to marriage and kids despite the fact that they’d all pretty much just met.

I didn’t understand how that had happened.

But then here I was, waiting eagerly for a redheaded server to show up. Pepper was her name, but that was a nickname. Her real name was Penelope. Someone said she went by Penny in high school. I liked Pepper, though. It fit her bright-eyed, perky personality.

“Hey, Donovan!” Ryan called out. “When’s your chick showing up?”

My chick. I took offense to Pepper being called a chick, but at the same time, I liked that he was calling her mine. That gorgeous woman was bringing out stuff in me that I didn’t even know was there.

“You just worry about yourself and that woman you talked into dating you,” I shot back.

“Ooh,” Dayton said. “Rourke owned your ass.”

I cringed. It was all just playing around, but Rafe was nearby with his new girlfriend, Sahara.

He didn’t care for me much, and he’d probably learned by now that I had bought the property next to his.

He had some beef with me. Thought I was trying to pick up a woman he’d gone home with when he was new to town.

The funny thing was, I wasn’t trying to pick the woman up. I was a flirt—had been all my life. I loved the attention from women. But most of them bored me, and I couldn’t explain why. I’d always assumed I just liked a good challenge. The thrill of the chase and all.

But now I was questioning all that because the woman at the diner—the one I hoped would meet me here—had captured my attention in a way no woman ever had. And that fascinated me. I was basically stalking her more as a way to figure out why I couldn’t stop thinking about her than anything else.

Okay, so maybe that was only partly true.

The fact that I couldn’t stop thinking about her made me want to spend as much time around her as possible.

Night and day, I found myself wondering what she was doing now.

Was she at work? Was she watching TV? Was she eating dinner alone like I was?

Or did she have a full life where she hung out with her friends after working with her mom all day?

I’d just ripped off my shirt and hopped into the pond when something caught my eye.

I glanced toward the parking lot the way I had at least a hundred times in the past twenty minutes or so since arriving.

But unlike all those other times, something new was in the parking lot.

A small sedan that I knew all too well. It was Pepper’s.

I should get out and greet her, but I didn’t want to look too eager to my buddies.

They’d never let me live that down. So I wiped my eyes and slowly whipped my head around to dislodge excess water.

By the time I reached shore, the women had taken her into their fold, and she was over at the blanket with all the food, sitting with three of them.

“You’re dating the girl from the diner?” Dayton asked, sidling up to me.

I cringed at his words. Pepper wasn’t “the girl from the diner.” She was a woman. She was all woman. And her work at the diner was just that—work. It didn’t define who she was. But her mom owned that diner, and it was a safe bet Pepper would take it over when she retired.

She already did a lot around there. She pretty much managed the place. I’d seen her placing orders, and just the other day, she’d been training someone new.

But all I said in response was, “It’s new.”

“Got it.” Dayton chuckled. “I won’t get too used to having her around.”

Two guys jumped into a game of netless water volleyball while the women cheered from the sidelines with plastic cups full of wine and alcoholic seltzers. But my mind was working through what he’d said. He wouldn’t get used to having her around.

The guys thought of me as some sort of player, even though they’d never seen evidence of it. Pepper was the first woman I’d brought to something like this. Sure, I’d slept with a few women here and there—mostly tourists coming through town. But I was no womanizer.

But I wasn’t bugged because I cared what the guys thought of me. I couldn’t give a damn about that. What did bother me was that Dayton said he wouldn’t get used to having her around. I was shocked to find I didn’t like that.

Did I have a thing for Pepper? Of course, I did. But that didn’t mean I wanted to have her by my side at every function for the rest of my life.

Did I?

“Look sharp, Donovan,” one of the guys called out, snapping me out of my thoughts just in time to turn and find the ball flying straight toward my forehead.

I recovered, but not in time to get my arms into position, which meant the ball bounced off the side of my left forearm, making me look like a total screw-up. My attention immediately went to Pepper, sitting next to the food blanket with a plate on her lap.

I wanted to be over there with her, enjoying some of that cold fried chicken or maybe a couple of the sandwiches Hayden’s girlfriend had picked up from the deli. But instead, here I was, catching the look of smug satisfaction on Rafe’s face as it became clear their team was going to kick our asses.

Reminding myself Pepper was watching, I put my head solidly back in the game. We still lost, but at least it was by a smaller margin.

“Who’s up for a lumberjack competition next?” Rafe asked. “Give you a chance to earn back your dignity.”

He was looking at me when he said that. Damn it, the two of us were going to have to get this out in the open or come to blows.

I’d assumed since he had a girlfriend now, his dislike of me would end, but it was clear he just didn’t like me in general.

This couldn’t possibly still have to do with him thinking I was after some woman who’d come and gone from our lives faster than that bucket of chicken would.

I wasn’t sure he even remembered her name.

“I’m getting some food first,” Dayton said. “I’m starving.”

Thank God someone said it. I definitely needed to get some food in my stomach. We’d waited until Pepper arrived to start eating, and it was a good thing the women got first dibs on the food before the guys tore through it.

By the time I got to the bucket of chicken, only breasts were left.

I might be a breast man in other areas, but when it came to chicken, I preferred legs and thighs.

I skipped the chicken and grabbed an extra sandwich.

Either the sandwiches weren’t as popular, or someone had replenished the supply, because there were two very full, very large trays of them.

“We’re going for a swim,” the women announced, taking their containers to the large trash can the guys would empty tomorrow.

I saw Pepper lagging behind, lifting off her shirt while still seated. She then moved to the fastening of her shorts.

She looked uncomfortable, and I knew exactly why. She was about to parade in front of these guys wearing a one-piece swimsuit. As much as I wanted to ogle her, I wanted to protect her even more. So I quickly pulled the guys into a conversation about the upcoming football season.

It seemed to work. None of the guys were interested in checking her out, anyway. They were all newly in love. Just as I didn’t care anything about their girlfriends, they didn’t care about mine.

She wasn’t my girlfriend, though. And we weren’t in love. So why was I suddenly not interested in looking at any woman in the world but her?

I’d barely cleaned my plate when the guys hopped up to start their pissing match—the one we called a lumberjack contest. Normally, I’d be all over it. I was competitive by nature, and I’d just helped my team lose at water volleyball, after all. But tonight, I was all about Pepper.

The other women had left her sitting in the water alone, but she didn’t seem to mind. I glanced over my shoulder at the group that had gathered near the woods before returning my attention to her. She was floating on her back, staring up at the sky like she didn’t have a care in the world.

Did she have any idea how beautiful she was? My guess was no. I weighed my options. I could go slam an axe against some wood, or I could spend time with the woman I’d invited. Spending time with her was the right thing to do. It was polite. I couldn’t just leave her in there.

I told myself all that, but really, I just wanted to be around her. So I whipped off the T-shirt I’d put back on after swimming and stepped back into the water, wishing it were deep enough that I could show off my diving skills.

At first, she looked down at me without standing. But she soon put her feet on the ground and faced me head-on.

She nodded toward the scene behind me. “You aren’t doing that?”

I shook my head. “I’d rather go for a swim with you.”

A smile slowly spread across her face. “Really?”

I shrugged. “Does that surprise you?”

“Well, you invited me here, so I guess it makes sense.”

The conversation seemed neutral on the surface, but a lot was happening underneath.

We were locked in a stare. The warmth in her eyes told me that my comment had touched her.

She liked that I’d rather spend time with her than hurl an axe toward logs.

Despite the fact that spending time with her was what I should be doing.

It would be a total dick move to invite her here and spend the whole time hanging out with the guys.

“Do you do this stuff often?” she asked.

I crouched in the water to get it all the way up to my shoulders and ran my hands through it in some sort of weird muscle-flexing move. I was showing off for the woman, and yeah, I was a little embarrassed about how obvious I was being. That didn’t stop me from doing it.

“We come out here sometimes,” I said. “But usually, we meet at each other’s houses.”

“And you’re always the only single guy?”

“Now I am.” I looked back over my shoulder. “That part of it’s new. At first, it was just a couple of the guys, and then the next thing I knew, everyone but me had a girlfriend. It happened fast.”

“I’ve noticed that around here lately,” she said. “All these single guys suddenly have girlfriends. Where are they all coming from?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I guess you grew up here?”

She nodded. “Born and raised. I was working in that diner when I was still in elementary school.”

I hid my surprise at that, what with child labor laws and all, but I had a feeling “work” was a term she was using lightly. I doubted her mom had her waiting tables when she was ten.

“So you’ve seen this place grow?”

“ Have I?” She laughed. “You should’ve seen this strip when there were only our diner and a couple of shops and a couple of businesses. The lodge has been there a while, of course. Sometimes I don’t even recognize it.”

“Does it upset you?”

She thought about that a little bit, then finally returned her gaze to me. “I kind of like it. Especially when you started showing up at the diner.”

Oh fuck. She was going straight to it. I hadn’t expected her to be so direct. I was surprised to find I liked it.

“Yeah, I guess you noticed I come into the diner a lot,” I said.

“I have. You must really like our food.”

“It’s not the food.”

Oh, wait. The diner was owned by her mom. That comment could’ve come off as offensive.

“I mean, the food’s great,” I rushed to add. “But that’s not why I show up every morning before work.”

It was an extra effort to get there so early.

I was one of their first customers most days.

I’d suck down some coffee and have an order of eggs and toast. Sometimes I’d add bacon.

I wasn’t even all that hungry most mornings.

Not that early, anyway. But even five seconds of interacting with her woke me up better than ten cups of coffee would.

“You know what?” she asked, glancing at the people behind me again. “We could use some privacy.”

I almost groaned as my dick stirred. Yeah, I definitely wanted some alone time with her. First, because I wanted it more than I’d wanted a piece of that delicious chicken earlier—and that was saying a lot. But also because I couldn’t return to my friends now. Not with this obvious boner.

“Go underwater,” she said.

I frowned. “What?”

But she didn’t wait. Before I could ask any questions, she dove underwater. I had no choice but to duck down and see what happened next.