Tormented Mountain Man (Seduction Summit Warriors #3)

Chapter 1

1

JOELY

W elcome to Seduction Summit.

The sign had me breathing a sigh of relief. God, I’d missed this place. I never thought I’d say those words either. I’d left here sure I was going to make my mark on the world. I got a degree from a top university and landed a job in Nashville as an assistant for an urban planning and design firm.

Okay, so I was a small fish in that huge pond—both at the firm and in the city itself. But on paper, my credentials were impressive. “Paper” these days meant social media. I could blast a thousand pictures of myself hanging out in the city and being all worldly and such. To the kids I’d grown up with—now adults—I looked like the most successful person ever.

But deep down, I knew the truth. I was so not a city girl.

As I came into town, I took in the changes. I would’ve visited for Christmas, but my parents moved to Texas soon after I left for college. They said Seduction Summit was becoming too big a city. I’d quietly laughed at them. They didn’t even know what a big city was.

But now, I saw what they meant. To my right was a big shopping center—The Shoppes at Brighton Village. It was charming enough, with its old-world European architecture, but it told me the town had come a long way since I’d last been here. Back then, this had all been a construction zone. It was hard to believe how much they could accomplish in just a few years.

The same went for the restaurants and strip malls I passed—law firms, an insurance agency, a real estate office, followed by a fast-casual restaurant and a gigantic grocery store. Well, gigantic compared to the tiny market we’d had growing up.

Then I saw it up ahead, and my mouth immediately started watering. Miss Rosie’s Diner. I missed Rosie’s burgers and fries like they were old friends.

I glanced at the clock on my dashboard. I’d skipped dinner, trying to get here as quickly as possible. It was well after dinnertime now, so chances were, everyone at the cabin had already eaten. They wouldn’t expect to feed me this late.

I was heading up to a huge log cabin at the top of the mountain. We’d all be sleeping under the same roof, then tomorrow morning, we’d get up, get ready, and a minister would show up to marry my childhood best friend, Mallorie, and her fiancé, Memphis.

Mallorie and Memphis. How alliterative. I couldn’t believe she’d settled down so soon. She wasn’t even through law school yet, but it looked like there was a law firm in town now. When she finally did get her degree and pass the bar, there was at least work here. I’d been hoping I could talk her into joining me and my roommate in Nashville. That was definitely a no-go now.

“Fuck it. I’m going in.”

I flipped on my turn signal and glanced behind me. No cars back there. In fact, the road was pretty deserted, but that wasn’t unusual for this ski town in the summer. Despite its efforts, Seduction Summit still wasn’t the year-round destination it wanted to be.

I parked as close as possible to the door and looked around. The parking lot was mostly empty. I assumed the couple of sedans on the very outskirts belonged to employees. One would be Rosie—I couldn’t wait to see her smiling face. The other vehicles would belong to servers and cooks.

I was smiling bigger than I had in a long time as I got out of my car and walked to the front door. I needed this. My BFF was doing me a huge favor by asking me to come back and be a bridesmaid. She didn’t have any siblings, and even though we hadn’t lived in the same town since soon after high school graduation, we talked every day.

I was the first person she told when she realized she was in love with a mountain man. She sent me a picture, and damn if he wasn’t fine as all get-out. My immediate response had been, “Where do I get one of those?” She’d replied that there’d be a couple of them at her wedding, but I’d just laughed it off—like I could get a hunky hermit who lived in a cabin to move to the big city. And I had to stay in Nashville until I had enough experience to get work elsewhere.

“Joely! Oh my gosh, Mom! It’s Joely!”

Pepper—short for Penelope—Simpson was standing in the center of the empty restaurant, hands on hips, a big smile on her face. We’d graduated together, and our class was small enough that we were all pretty close.

Plus, everyone knew her mom, Rosie, who owned this place, which had been the big hangout spot back in the day. Probably still was, although you wouldn’t know it looking at it right now.

“Well, dip me in gravy and call me a biscuit,” Rosie called out as she emerged from the back room, the door still flapping behind her. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in months.”

It had been a whole lot longer than that, but who was counting? I crossed the room, meeting Rosie halfway, and found myself in a three-way hug, practically being squeezed to death. It was no wonder I’d missed this place so much.

“I’ve been craving some of those french fries of yours,” I said.

“Well, I’ll hook you right up,” Rosie said. “Are you in town long?”

“She’s here for Mallorie’s wedding, I’m sure,” Pepper said. “I tried to wrangle an invitation, but I guess they’re just keeping it small.”

I nodded. Mallorie insisted she didn’t want a big show. Just a weekend with her closest friends and family. A small group of friends and relatives were staying in the hotel near the city line and showing up in the morning just before the ceremony at the cabin.

“This town needs you back,” Rosie said. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s changed a little.”

I nodded. I’d noticed.

The ding of bells behind me told me someone else had entered. I started frantically looking for a seat. I shifted my gaze to the bar—an old-fashioned ice cream counter. I’d just sit there.

“Did you hear?” Pepper asked. “We serve alcohol now. Just beer and seltzers.”

As she spoke, my gaze landed on a large cooler full of exactly that. Cans of beer and flavored seltzers. Last I’d heard, the ski lodge was the only place in town to get alcohol. Everyone else had to go across city lines, like a few of my classmates had done in high school.

“I heard this town has a bunch of hot logger guys now,” I said.

I set my purse on the stool next to me and looked at Pepper. She hadn’t spoken. Her gaze was on something behind me.

“Yeah, there’s one right behind you,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”

There was a hot logger behind me? I wouldn’t look.

“It’ll take a while to get that big an order together,” Rosie was saying. “Just have a seat at the counter and I’ll grab you that drink.”

Oh great. I was going to have company. A hot logger as company, no less.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a hulking form approach. I figured he’d take a seat at the end, leaving plenty of stools between us. Instead, he came surprisingly close and pulled back the seat only two down from me. And then he spoke.

“Are you Joely?”

My head snapped up at the sound of my name. I looked over and nearly fell off my stool at what I saw. Holy hell, this guy was gorgeous. He was not at all what I’d expected.

Loggers were supposed to have long beards and look like they hadn’t showered for days. I’d been perplexed how my best friend had fallen for one until I saw his picture and noted that he was not scruffy like I’d expected. The mountain men we’d seen roaming around town when we were kids never looked anything like this.

As I stared into those intense eyes and tried to ignore the chiseled jaw and solid build, I said, “How did you know my name?”

He held out a hand. “I’m Hunter.”

A handshake? Were we doing business? I was used to it at work, but I didn’t have too many men thrust their hands out at me when I was out with friends—or sitting alone at a bar, which I never did now that I thought about it.

I eyed his hand for several seconds before finally reaching out and sliding mine into it. The warmth that shot straight up my arm and through my body made me jerk the hand right back again.

What the heck had just happened?

“You’re one of the two bridesmaids,” he said. “The bride has been talking about you. Actually, we’ve all been waiting for you to arrive.”

That made sense. There were only six people in the wedding party, including the bride and groom, and we were all staying at the cabin tonight. One missing bridesmaid would definitely be noticed.

“I’m picking up a bunch of burgers for the group,” he said.

That was when it hit me—I wasn’t supposed to be here eating. They were getting dinner for all of us late. They’d probably even waited until I was closer to town. I should have dug into all those missed texts better.

Pepper approached, pulling my stare off the guy’s handsome-as-heck face. “Burger and fries?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I’ll take a root beer float to go,” I said, glancing deliberately at the logger guy. “I have a wedding to get to.”