Her Bossy Lumberjack (Crave County: Lumberjacks Love Curves #3)

1. Hannah

1

HANNAH

The sun beats down on the back of my neck, and birds twitter overhead as I breathe in the scent of fresh earth, drinking it into my lungs. I throw a few glances over my shoulder, but I’m not being followed. The woods are mercifully quiet this morning.

A fallen tree up ahead blocks my path, and I clamber over it, almost face-planting into the ground. It’s not exactly a typical journey to work, but I’m taking the long way. My car is in the shop, and I’m trying to avoid walking through town while Andrea Ryan is still sniffing around. She’s constantly popping up on Main Street, her hawk-like eyes seeking me out. I’m not sure how she traced me to Cherry Hollow, but I’ve managed to avoid her so far. It hasn’t been easy. I’m surprised she’s not scurrying through the woods right now, holding her phone out and screeching at me like an oversized parrot.

“Any comment on the allegations against your family, Hannah?”

“Did you know what was happening?”

“Were you involved?”

Andrea isn’t the only journalist I’ve had to deal with lately. My family is hot news in Colorado right now, and every local reporter wants the scoop. But I left Silvercrest to get away from all that. Cherry Hollow is supposed to be my fresh start: a new life in a small town away from my family and all the havoc they caused back in the city. But Andrea won’t let me get away that easily. She pestered me in Silvercrest, and she won’t let the fact that I moved away stop her from getting a story. I just need to lie low until my family becomes old news, and if that means sneaking through the forest every day to get to work, then that’s what I’ll do.

Aside from Andrea, life in Cherry Hollow is everything I hoped it would be. When I left Silvercrest, I had no idea where to go. The city was all I knew. But after my parents were arrested, I couldn’t stay hidden away in our mansion forever, so I opened a map of Colorado, closed my eyes, and pointed to a random spot. Cherry Hollow was the answer—a tiny town with a population of under 2000, ten times smaller than Silvercrest. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I guess it’s true what they say about small towns because everybody has been so friendly. Diane, my kind-hearted boss, gave me a job at the local bakery despite my lack of experience. She took a chance on me and even helped find me a place to live on the outskirts of town. My new apartment could probably fit twice inside my bedroom in Silvercrest, but I love it.

Life has changed a lot in the last month. I’m doing my best to act like a regular small-town girl, and so far, people are buying it. Nobody in Cherry Hollow knows who I really am. They don’t know that I’m the daughter of the disgraced mayor of Silvercrest, and hopefully, they’ll never need to find out. My face has been kept out of the papers—no thanks to Andrea—and I’m determined to keep it that way.

My feet are starting to ache as I continue my walk. Sugar Creek runs alongside me, flowing lazily through the forest. All I have to do is follow it out of the woods, cross the bridge, and sneak into Buttercup Bakery without attracting attention. Andrea still doesn’t know where I work. Just a few more weeks, then the world will move on and I won’t need to sneak around anymore. I can build a life for myself in Cherry Hollow, with all these sweet, kind people…

“HEY!”

The deep voice makes me jump. I whip around, heart banging, expecting to see a journalist racing toward me. But it’s not a journalist—it’s a giant. He emerges from the trees, looming over me with a scowl.

Not just a giant.

A handsome giant.

He’s six and a half feet of rock-solid muscle, with insanely broad shoulders and bulging biceps that threaten to burst out of his short-sleeved flannel shirt. Tattoos swirl up his tanned arms, and a smattering of dark chest hair is visible beneath his undone top button.

Woah.

I’ve never seen a man like this before. His warm brown eyes suck the breath from my lungs, piercing me with an intensity that makes me take a step backward. Silver hairs thread his bushy beard, and I get a crazy urge to touch it.

Act normal, Hannah.

Don’t touch the beard.

“You shouldn’t be here,” the man says, his voice like a rumble of thunder, so deep that I swear it makes the ground shake a little.

Or maybe it’s just me who’s shaking.

“I…uh…what?” My voice comes out in a garbled rush.

“You need to leave.”

For the first time, I notice the axe slung across the man’s back. He must be one of the lumberjacks who live around here; there are lots of them in Cherry Hollow, but it’s rare to see them outside of the forest. They keep to themselves and have a reputation for being grumpy loners. And judging by the way this man is looking at me, I’d say that’s pretty accurate.

“This is a public forest,” I say indignantly. Now that I’ve gotten over the shock of the man’s appearance, I feel a flare of annoyance and cross my arms over my chest. “I’ve got as much right to be here as you do.”

The man grunts and crosses his arms too, mirroring me. “I’m felling trees. It’s a safety issue. You shouldn’t be walking here.”

“Well, how was I supposed to know that?” I counter. “There should be signs.”

The lumberjack raises an eyebrow and points at a spot to my left. My heart sinks as I turn and see several signs a couple of feet away.

DANGER!

TREE FELLING IN PROGRESS!

KEEP OUT!

Dammit.

I turn back to the lumberjack, my face heating at the slight smirk on his lips.

“You were saying?” he says.

“I…well…you shouldn’t be felling trees in a public forest!”

“It’s my job, Ginger Snap. I have all my permits.”

My blush deepens at the nickname, my cheeks turning the same color as my hair. “That’s not my name.”

“So, what is?”

“Hannah.” I glare up at him. “You?”

“Kane.” His tone is gruff, but his eyes glisten infuriatingly as he looks at me. “You’re getting a little red there, Ginger Snap.”

I grit my teeth. “Your name’s Kane, huh? Figures.”

“Why’s that?”

“Rhymes with pain. Like ‘pain in my ass’.”

His lips twitch. “Guess it does, Ginger Snap.”

“Hannah!”

“Well, whatever your name is, you need to get out of here.” Kane looks at me pointedly. “Unless you want to get flattened by a tree.” Stubbornness keeps me rooted to the spot, and his frown deepens. “I’m not kidding. It’s dangerous. Leave.”

I have to get to work, but I don’t want to give this bossy lumberjack the satisfaction of watching me walk out of here with my tail between my legs. I need a distraction.

“Hey!” I point off into the distance, panic in my voice. “Is that a bear?!”

The lumberjack swivels around with a frown, and as soon as his back is turned, I take off, hurtling through the trees.

Totally normal thing to do.

Not cowardly at all.

I race out of the woods without a backward glance before crossing the bridge and darting around the back of Buttercup Bakery.

“Goodness, what happened to you?” Diane asks, surveying me over her glasses as I burst through the door. She’s wearing an apron, her gray hair tied back into a bun.

“I…jogged…to work,” I say, gasping for breath. “I…don’t…recommend it.”

Diane chuckles, shaking her head. “Since when do you jog anywhere?”

“I jog when…I need to get away from…annoying lumberjacks.”

Panting hard, I tell Diane about my meeting with Kane in the woods. But to my annoyance, her face glows with affection when I mention him.

“Oh, Kane Donovan?” she says with a smile. “He’s a sweetheart.”

“Seriously?”

“Sure! Keeps to himself mostly, but if you need him, he’ll be there.” She sighs, beaming to herself. “When I was holed up with the flu last winter, Kane brought me groceries. Didn’t even have to ask, and he wouldn’t accept a dime for them. Such a kind man. I knew his grandmother, Josie. She was the best baker in Cherry Hollow.”

“Better than you?” I ask, surprised.

“You bet. She taught me everything I know.”

Diane reaches out to pull a leaf from my hair, chortling to herself before disappearing into the kitchen to start baking more fresh pies. We don’t open for another fifteen minutes, and I use that time to rearrange the desserts behind the glass, my mind still frustratingly full of Kane’s handsome face. He must have been forty, maybe forty-five, at least twice my age. But I can’t deny that he was hot. Big, rugged, a little bit wild, and infuriating as heck. So different from any guy I’ve ever met, especially the slick city guys back in Silvercrest.

Customers start to filter in a few minutes later, and I smile at each of them. All these faces are quickly becoming familiar, and people greet me so warmly that you’d think I’d lived here all my life. But as the morning draws on, my mind drifts back to Kane: his warm brown eyes, his thick beard, the dark ink on his forearms. The thought of him makes me shiver…but then I think back to the moment I passionately declared that there should be a sign while standing right next to about five different signs. And also the moment I yelled that there was a bear and then promptly ran away like a five-year-old.

Yeah, I can never face that man ever again.

With a sigh, I head out from behind the counter and toward the door, ready to turn the sign to ‘closed’ for lunch. I’m halfway across the room when a looming figure appears on the other side of the glass, and my heart leaps into my throat. I recognize him immediately: the flannel shirt, the bushy beard.

Kane.

I only have a moment to react, so I do what any strong, independent, grown woman would do. I race for the counter as fast as my legs will carry me, duck behind it, and hide.