Chapter 3
3
EMMY
I couldn’t walk. I had to be able to walk.
I also needed to be able to drive my car from downtown Seduction Summit, where it was still parked, back up to the lodge. To the room where I’d be sleeping tonight—the room where all my belongings were.
My plan was to pack up in the morning and move to one of the hotels near the interstate. There were several of them, and I’d gone ahead and reserved a room for the week. I had no idea what I was going to do after that week, but hopefully, I’d be able to find an apartment in Adairsville that I could move into on short notice.
“I’m back!”
The voice of the mountain man who owned this cabin filled the open space, bouncing off the high ceilings. Tobias had carried me to the sofa and settled me in front of the fireplace, even being kind enough to turn on the TV before he left. I couldn’t process the images and sounds coming from that large flat screen, though, so I’d ended up muting it. All I could think about was how nice it felt to be taken care of for the first time in a long, long, long while.
“I caught them right before they closed,” Tobias said. “There’s a twenty-four-hour chain drugstore farther into Adairsville, but I prefer to buy from locally owned places.” He came around the couch, holding a bag, and looked down at me. “You doing better?”
Next to me on the end table was the bottle of over-the-counter pain pills he’d brought to me in the bathroom, along with a glass of water. He’d offered something stronger, but I didn’t have anything to do with liquor. Not with my genetic predisposition to alcoholism.
“Thank you,” I said. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“You’ll need it to get your business loan tomorrow,” he said.
I tilted my head. “You think if I limp my way in wearing a cast, they’ll feel sorry for me and give me the loan?”
Actually, I was worried it would be the opposite. They might decide I was too accident-prone to trust with running a business.
“You won’t be limping,” he said. “I’m going to fix you up.”
And that was when I realized he planned to do this for me. He already had the bag on the floor next to him as he knelt in front of me—in front of the foot that, luckily, still bore the gel pedicure I’d gotten before leaving the town near coastal South Carolina where I’d lived all my life.
From the beach to the mountains. Since nature had been the only good thing about my life growing up, may as well keep it in my life now. Sand, trees, water—those things you could count on. Even hurricanes were predictable. Humans always let each other down.
“So first, I’m going to bandage it,” he said, “and then I’m going to put this on.”
He pulled out a space-age-looking contraption. It was clearly a boot, but it would definitely not blend.
“Oh, wow,” I said, my eyes widening.
He looked up at me. “Yeah, you can’t really hide it under your pants, can you? It was the smallest one they had. You might be able to find something online, but this is a quick fix until then. Maybe you could put off your bank meeting until later in the week.”
“No, it’ll be fine,” I said. “They might consider the fact that I was checking out the site as a sign I’m going to really kick ass at this.”
He glanced up at me, and I’d swear he looked a little impressed. Was it my use of a cuss word? I had a feeling it had more to do with my determination.
“I’ll just leave this bandage on,” he said. “That’ll keep the ointment in place. But you may want to change the bandage and put more ointment on in the morning, after you shower.”
Tobias looked down as he said that last part. It was almost like he was shy. Did his words call to mind an image of me naked, water running over my body?
No, that probably hadn’t occurred to him at all. A guy like him wouldn’t be interested in someone like me. He was older, experienced, and hot as hell. I was young and just starting in my career. I didn’t know who I was yet. I had no place even thinking about a relationship.
He pulled out a roll of elastic bandage and removed the plastic wrap over it, eyeing my foot as he did so. It was almost like he was afraid to touch it. Maybe he was remembering the sight of all that blood. I doubted it, though.
“I can wrap it if you don’t want to,” I said. “I don’t mind.”
He shrugged. “It actually feels good to take care of someone besides myself for a change.”
It felt good to be taken care of for a change, but I didn’t mention that. He didn’t need to hear my sob story.
“Are your feet ticklish?” he asked as he reached for my right foot.
I shook my head. I didn’t think they were. But the power of suggestion could have me giggling as soon as his fingers touched the sole of my foot. I held my breath, hoping that wouldn’t happen. How childish would that be?
But instead of tickling, his touch brought the opposite reaction. Suddenly, a part of me that I generally ignored came to life. Warmth spread to that area of my body, and I wondered if he could tell.
That was silly. Of course, he couldn’t tell. Unless he directly touched me there, he would have no idea what was going on, right?
Crap if I knew. All of this was foreign to me. As foreign to me as a country I’d never visited.
“Just sit back and relax, and I’ll have you all doctored up in no time,” he said.
Tobias didn’t crack a smile as he began wrapping the bandage around my foot. Around and around he went, his thumb brushing my insole, my toes settling against his palm. There was something about the look on his face as he worked—an almost loving kind of expression.
This guy would make a great father.
That thought shot through me like a lightning bolt. Good parenting was another thing I knew nothing about. But I found myself drawn to this guy solely because of the way he was taking care of me.
Yeah, I could see raising a family with a guy like Tobias. And I was someone who was scared to even think about getting married and having kids of my own. But if I did, someone like him would be perfect.
“So where are you from?” he asked.
“South Carolina,” I said. “Lived there all my life.”
“Really? I spent some time at Fort Jackson. But I was based out of Texas my last couple of years.”
“Well, Seduction Summit, North Carolina, is my home now. Or Adairsville. One or the other.”
“You’ve already moved here?” he asked.
How did I explain this? He probably wouldn’t understand a woman who had very few possessions—enough to fit in the trunk of a small sedan. I’d rented a furnished bedroom in a retired woman’s basement for the past five years, and before that, I went from foster home to foster home, never quite finding that forever family.
“Already moved out,” was all I said.
“Why Seduction Summit?”
“This was where the competition was being held. I researched it. It’s as good as any other place, and it’s more reasonable to start a business here than a more established touristy area.”
“What about family?” he asked.
He wasn’t looking at me as he spoke. His full attention seemed to be on my foot. But he’d just asked a question I wasn’t prepared to answer.
I opened my mouth, closed it again, then opened it, then closed it again. I probably looked like a fish. Thankfully, he wasn’t watching.
“My parents are both gone,” I said. “Car accident when I was a baby.”
I left out the part where they were both raging alcoholics who barely had their lives together. Neither could keep a job and, from what I’d heard, we were practically living on the street when they died. They’d left me with nothing.
“At the same time?” Tobias asked.
I shook my head. “Separate accidents, two years apart. It all happened when I was too young to really know what was going on.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“What about you? Is your family nearby?”
He shook his head. “My mom died when I was in high school. My dad, well, he’s in jail. Now let’s try this boot.”
He looked up at me then, boot in his left hand, and his expression changed. It was subtle, just a slight flicker, but I saw it.
“You said your dad’s in prison?” I asked, rushing to ease the strange tension in the air between us.
“Jail,” he said. “He likes to get high and drive. He always said smoking pot wasn’t the same as drinking, so it was fine to get behind the wheel. Anyway, I have a sister in Miami. We do holidays together. She has two kids and a husband. That’s all the family I need.”
It was more family than I had. The words were on my lips. He’d opened up to me. Maybe I should do the same, but something held me back, and I knew what that something was. It was the same something that held me back from getting close to anyone.
I had to protect myself at all costs.
His voice broke into my thoughts. “You know what? You might want to get this checked out.”
“What?” I asked.
“Your injury. Have you had your tetanus shot?”
I sucked in a breath. I wasn’t sure, and there’d be no way to find out.
My medical care had been spotty throughout my life, to say the least. And there was nobody to keep up with my medical records when I was younger.
“Maybe I should get one just in case,” I said. “Is it dangerous to get one twice?”
“No idea,” he said. “Do you have someone you could call and ask? A stepparent, or whoever adopted you?”
“Nobody adopted me.”
There. It was out. I’d said it. And it felt damn good. If he judged me, so what?
He wasn’t going to judge me, though. I knew that even before he looked up at me with an interested expression. He wanted to know more about me. The hottest guy I’d ever seen wanted to know more about me.
“Growing up I was shuffled from one foster home to another,” I said. “A lot of people sign up to be foster parents for the wrong reasons. Anyway, you don’t want to hear my story.”
“I actually do,” he said. “I know we just met, but you’re the most interesting woman I’ve ever spoken to.”
He said all that without looking at me. Instead, he busied himself with my boot. It wasn’t easy to get on. There were straps that had to be tightened, and that was after I wiggled my foot into it.
“You’re pretty interesting yourself,” I said while he worked. “I can’t believe I met a real-life mountain man in an alley in the middle of town.”
“I’d hardly call that construction site an alley. It was an empty lot with a bunch of trees just a few months ago. But yeah, I guess I qualify as a mountain man. I live in the mountains in a cabin. I have electricity and running water, though, as you can see.”
I smiled. “Yeah, I actually assumed all you guys were crapping in outhouses and pumping water out of wells. Isn’t that what mountain men do?”
I had actually just used the words “crapping in outhouses” in front of this man. Yes, I had. I was mortified. What was wrong with me?
But when he looked up at me, he wore a big smile.
“No outhouse here,” he said. “I don’t think anybody lives like that. Not in these mountains, anyway. If so, I haven’t met them.”
I sucked in a deep breath, gave a nod, and said, “Let’s see if I can walk around on this thing.”
And with that, I moved to push myself to my feet. He rocked back on his heels a little to give me space.
This was it. I’d get up and walk around. He’d determine I was fine, then he’d drop me off at my car and go on with his life.
Walking on the boot wasn’t easy, though. In fact, I almost toppled over. But then I felt his hands on my arms, steadying me, and warmth spread through my body. He’d stood at some point when I was busy trying to put one foot in front of the other, and now he was behind me.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Fine,” I said. “But you can keep your hands there.”
I clamped my mouth shut when I realized those words had actually come out. How did I explain them?
We’d both frozen. That meant we were standing there with his hands on me. Yeah, he could definitely keep touching me.
“It might take a little walking around for you to get your balance,” he said. “But I’ll stay with you.”
That wasn’t why I wanted him to keep his hands on me. But he’d just given me a free pass on my awkward comment.
I began walking, and he stayed behind me. It had to be weird for him, but he managed to keep his hands on my arms as I moved around his living room. When I turned, his arms fell to his sides. I missed his touch immediately.
“Thank you,” I said. “You’ve been so helpful. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t heard me scream.”
“I didn’t hear you scream,” he said.
We were looking at each other now and standing far closer than we ever had. Up close, I could see the gold flecks in his brown eyes. They were subtle, but they made him even more interesting.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
The air between us had suddenly gotten extremely thick with tension. But it was a good kind of tension, and I didn’t even mind the way it stole my breath. Everything hinged on his next words.
“I saw you standing by that barricade while I was driving by,” he said. “I stopped to tell you that you weren’t supposed to be back there. But it was only because I wanted to meet you.” He shrugged. “And that’s my confession.”
As our eyes held in a long, heat-filled stare, I knew one thing more than I’d ever known anything in my life.
He was about to kiss me.
And it would be the best kiss of my life.