Chapter 2
2
QUINN
H er vehicle was in the neighboring driveway. I noticed that the next night as I came home after grabbing dinner with some guys from my logging crew. It was the small, dark red sedan that I’d parked next to in my driveway last night.
I’d tried to shake her image from my mind all day at work, but it was stuck. Like a song I couldn’t get out of my head. I’d come home to find a naked woman in my bed. How could I forget something like that?
Last night had been a late one for me. It was poker night, and I’d been trying to beat Josiah, one of the most competitive guys on our logging crew. I’d been on a winning streak. Josiah was determined to beat me, so that had gone on until about two in the morning, when I finally told him I had to get some sleep.
The car in the driveway had me on alert as soon as I entered my house. It had me thinking about the gun in my master bedroom. Would I be able to get to it in time? Maybe I should call the police.
But one look inside that dark red sedan told me there was nothing to fear. A hot pink stainless-steel tumbler sat in the cup holder and a pair of women’s sunglasses was clipped to the visor. That had me intrigued.
Still, I entered my cabin in stealth mode, relying heavily on my senses. I didn’t call out, but I was all ears. I cleared the front bedroom, which was empty, aside from a bunch of boxes I still had stacked in there, and continued back out to the living room.
I couldn’t help but notice the master bedroom door was only partly open. I wouldn’t have left it like that. I kept that door wide open. That was when I knew something was up.
But what I hadn’t expected was the beautiful woman I found sleeping there. When I pulled back the sheets, I got the view of my life. She was sleeping on her side, but as she rolled over, I saw the most gorgeous pair of tits I’d ever seen. My body betrayed me, my dick getting hard in a moment when I should’ve been thinking about anything but sex.
Rachel. That was her name. She’d mentioned her friend Joely last night. Not in detail. Just a quick word or two. But hearing her name was enough to have me asking Joely’s boyfriend, my logging crew buddy Hunter, if he knew anything about Joely’s friend, leaving out the part where I found her in my bed naked. I would’ve gotten the ribbing of a lifetime if the other guys got wind of that.
I glanced at her cabin as I climbed out of my truck and walked to my front door. Hunter had given me the lowdown. Rachel lived with Joely in Nashville, but she was originally from Chattanooga. Her parents were super wealthy and had been pressuring her to move back home. Guilt-tripping was more what it sounded like to me. And that was why Joely found her a place to stay for a couple of weeks.
I shut my front door and looked around. Rachel had said something about my cabin looking like a rental last night. At the time, I hadn’t thought much about it, but now it hit especially hard. I kept things pretty simple with my cabin décor. I was definitely no interior decorator, but it was very obvious this place lacked a woman’s touch. Or the touch of anyone with a soul.
I headed to the fridge, grabbing a beer from the top shelf. I didn’t have a lick of food in my refrigerator. She’d probably be alarmed by that too. I’d assumed she hadn’t opened my fridge, but maybe she had. Maybe she’d taken a good look around before climbing beneath the sheets, naked.
My dick twitched at that thought. Yeah, the memory would probably never go away. It might fade over time, but right now, it was taking over my life.
I slammed the fridge door shut, stalked back over to the living room, and plopped down on the couch. She was next door right now, probably fully clothed but looking every bit as sexy as she had last night. Okay, so the lighting in the room had been low, but it was enough to see not just her curves, but her long, dark hair and the contours of her face. Damn, I wanted to run my hands over her curves and kiss those lips…
I shifted as I pressed the power button on the remote. I was already getting a hard-on. I might have to do something about that.
It had been a while since a woman had gotten me this worked up. Or worked up at all. I’d taken a break for the past couple of years, just hanging out with my buddies and working on the crew. No time for women. I didn’t want the drama.
But Rachel just might be worth it.
Three loud knocks jolted me from my thoughts. I was still flipping through the guide, looking for something to watch, but now I hit the power button to shut things off. Setting my beer on the end table, I stood and walked over to the door.
Please let it be her.
The thought flashed through my mind, as loud as a bomb going off. It froze me in my tracks. Of course, it was her. Who else would be knocking on my door at seven o’clock at night? But what was alarming was the way my heart was racing. I definitely couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. Maybe not since I was a teenager.
But I was a man, not a wuss, so I ignored my racing heart and headed straight for the front door, not even looking out the window before opening it. Sure enough, my beautiful neighbor was standing on my porch. She held an aluminum pan with an aluminum covering.
She was delivering food to me?
“I’m your neighbor,” she said. “We met last night.”
That was an interesting way to put it. We met last night. She was naked in my bed last night.
She lifted the pan, holding it toward me like an offering. “I made peach cobbler.”
I wanted to check out the contents of the pan, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was beautiful. Far more beautiful than I’d even imagined after making out some of her features in the dim lighting last night. She had big brown eyes, rimmed with long thick lashes, and a cute button nose and plump lips that I longed to kiss.
“You made an entire peach cobbler for me?” I asked.
She nodded, her smile faltering slightly. Damn, I didn’t want to put a frown on her face. That was the last thing I wanted to do.
“You don’t like peach cobbler?” she asked.
Did I say that? Not at all. But I’d somehow managed to hurt her feelings.
“No, I just mean you shouldn’t have gone to all that trouble. I appreciate it. But I feel bad that you?—”
“It’s a pretty easy recipe,” she interrupted. “But it was the least I could do after barging in on you last night.”
“Thank you.”
I reached out and took the pan. As I did so, it hit me that she’d probably have no reason to stick around. She’d go back to her cabin, and I’d be left kicking myself for not finding a way to keep her on my front porch—or in my house or in my life —just a little longer.
“Do you want to come in?” I asked.
She opened her mouth and glanced back toward her cabin before turning to me. “I’ve probably taken up too much of your time already.”
She’d been here all of a minute. Two, tops. But she hadn’t made it sound like she didn’t want to come in. Only that she didn’t want to be trouble. So I stepped back, nudging the door open with my shoulder.
“Come on in,” I said. “I’d just settled in front of the TV with a beer. Do you want one?”
I fully expected her to say no. I’d never dated a woman who liked drinking beer. Not that we were dating, but I was definitely comparing her to the women I’d dated over the years.
I closed the door behind her and wondered if she’d make herself at home on the couch. But when I began walking back through the living room, I saw her still standing near the door, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot.
“I just got back from dinner,” she said. “I met up with my friend, Joely, and a couple of her friends. I guess they’re dating guys on your crew. We talked about crashing your dinner. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you that.”
I made a face. “Why wouldn’t you tell me that?”
She looked toward my TV. Or maybe it was the couch she was eyeing. Was she thinking about taking a seat? I headed in that direction and hoped she’d follow. It was the way her beer was going, anyway.
“I guess it seems stalkerish,” she said. “Joely’s relationship is kind of new. I don’t know. I probably shouldn’t be telling you any of that either. I suck at this.”
Suck at what? Talking to a guy she just met? Making up for an embarrassing moment last night? Or being around a guy she was attracted to?
I was surprised how much I hoped it was the last of those three choices.
She started walking in my direction, and my heart did that speed-up thing again. Yeah, I was definitely going to have to get that under control.
“Anyway, I mentioned that I met you,” Rachel continued. “They said you were a nice guy. I’m Rachel, by the way.”
I handed her the beer and moved to the other end of the couch, giving her the side with the table next to it. It was the gentlemanly thing to do.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I appreciate them putting in a good word for me. And I’m Quinn.”
“I think Joely is sure that I’m going to find a mountain man and settle down. So she might be doing a little matchmaking, just to warn you.”
I took a long sip of my beer and stared at her. Was she saying her friend was matchmaking her with me or someone else? Probably someone else.
I did not like the thought of that. My mind ran through the remaining single men on my crew. We were getting smaller in number by the week. Yeah, I did not want this beautiful woman matched with anyone but me.
But I didn’t want to be matched either, did I? For the past few years, I’d been determined to stay single. I wasn’t going to be a sucker for a woman like I was seeing my friends become. I liked my life just the way it was.
“You’re only here for a couple of weeks, though, right?” I asked.
That was the way I’d understood it. But I might be wrong. Maybe she was just staying up here for a couple of weeks until she could get a place somewhere else in town.
“I haven’t given up my rental house back in Nashville.” She sighed. “I’m just taking a break. I need a couple of weeks off to get my thoughts together.”
“But your friend wants you to move here?”
She smiled and unscrewed the cap on her beer, then took an impressive swig. I never thought a beer-guzzling woman could be so sexy. But everything about this woman was hot.
“She’s discovered this town and fallen in love with it,” Rachel said once she’d lowered her beer to her lap again. “She’s convinced that everybody she’s ever met should move here. But especially her Nashville roommate. And she’s right.”
Those last three words had my breath hitching in my throat. She was falling in love with this town too. That meant she might stick around.
I never imagined I’d be excited over something like that. It definitely was not like me—even before I’d decided to swear off dating.
“The more distance I can put between me and my parents, the better,” she said. “They’re kind of a pain.”
She was opening up to me now. I took a slow sip from my beer and watched her, giving her the space she needed to talk.
“They paid for my college with the understanding I’d move back home and work in the family business after I got my degree.”
“What business is that?” I asked.
“Automotive,” she said. “My dad owns a group of very successful car dealerships. The problem is, he never really cleared it with me. He definitely said from a young age that he wanted me to work for him someday, but when it came time for college, he never mentioned it again. But living on my own… I guess I like my independence. So when the college career center showed me the opportunity in Nashville, I jumped at it.”
“Can you do what you do in a small town like this one?” I asked.
She laughed, and I loved the way it made her eyes light up. “I’m in property management, so yeah, this town is perfect for that. I’ve already started working next door on making the place more appealing. But he needs to get some good pictures before he puts it on vacation rental sites.”
“I can help with that,” I said. “I did some photography in my military days, but I’m sure the guy has someone.”
She was eyeing me now like she was seeing me for the first time. “You’ve done photography?”
“Not anything major. I was the guy they called on to take pictures on base. Ceremonies and group shots of our unit, that sort of thing. So yeah, I guess you probably want someone who has a little more training.”
“I want to see.”
Now I was staring at her. “See what?”
“Your photography. Do you have pictures around here?”
“They’re on my laptop.”
“Go get it.”
She was interested. More than interested. She wanted me to get up and go get my laptop. This was a first. Even when I went back home after returning from overseas, relatives didn’t care all that much about my pictures.
But as I got up and headed to my bedroom, I admitted something to myself. I was in trouble. All the work I’d done to protect my heart had been undone in just a short twenty-four-hour period.
There was no way I could resist her now. And if I wasn’t careful, I’d end up with a broken heart…and nothing but memories to show for our time together.