Chapter 2
2
HUNTER
I couldn’t take my eyes off Joely.
Our small group was gathered around the coffee table in the living room. The happy couple was on one sofa, joined by Joely, the beautiful redhead I’d met at the diner. I sat across from them on one sofa, while the other groomsman and bridesmaid, Dane and Cassady, sat on a loveseat at the end of both sofas.
All eyes were supposed to be on the bride and groom, but Dane and Cassady couldn’t stop looking at each other. The chemistry between them filled the room. My full attention was on the redhead sitting on the sofa next to the bride.
“Hunter single-handedly rid the entire mountain of deer,” Memphis, the groom, teased.
That got my attention. My gaze skittered over to Joely briefly. She was staring down at her mostly full wine glass. She’d barely sipped it during dinner, instead focusing on the root beer float in the foam cup.
My girl had a sweet tooth. That was good to know.
My girl . Since when had she become my girl? She wasn’t. I didn’t need a relationship. And even if I did, this woman was from Nashville. She was a big city girl chasing a career in urban planning—whatever that was. I lived in a small town, which was the opposite of “urban.” There was no way we could work out.
So why couldn’t I get my mind off her?
“I just took out a few deer,” I said, looking at Joely as I explained. “We had an overpopulation problem here. They were worried about the number of deer running out onto the main road and getting hit by cars.” I glanced at Memphis before returning my attention to her. “They tasked a few of us with helping thin the herd. Since I have a military background, I volunteered.”
I couldn’t read anything from her expression. She didn’t look horrified. She was just watching me, almost studying me. Was she making a judgment? Had she labeled me a bad guy? I killed deer. Women didn’t like that sort of thing. They’d grown up watching cartoon deer and had the urge to protect them.
Yeah, I was making a bunch of assumptions there. For all I knew, she might be anti-deer.
“Our friend Gianna hit a deer,” Joely said, looking over at Mallorie. “Remember?”
Mallorie shook her head. “I don’t remember that.”
“Tore up her car pretty bad,” Joely continued. “It happened in college. She was driving back and forth from home. Missed a couple of days of classes while she got her car drivable again.”
“Was the deer okay?” Mallorie asked.
Everyone looked at her. The bride had a sweet, wide-eyed innocence. I didn’t get that same vibe from Joely. Maybe it was because she’d lived in the big city for a while already. She’d definitely stepped out of the Seduction Summit bubble.
“I don’t know,” Joely said. “I think she was more worried about her car.”
“That’s the problem,” Memphis said. “They did a whole presentation at the city council meeting about how many people are injured in accidents with deer. It’s a safety issue.”
“Not to mention the piles of poop,” Mallorie said.
Once again, we all looked at her. What the fuck?
“They leave piles of deer shit everywhere,” Memphis said. “It’s a nuisance.”
“So you’re a hunter?” Joely asked. When I snapped my attention back to her, she was still studying me. “It’s both your name and what you do?”
I smiled. “I guess it’s my legacy. But no, I’m not a hunter. I’m a logger. I don’t even hunt for sport. Memphis and I have the background for it, I guess. I’m kind of competitive. Military training had me stepping forward to volunteer where I was needed.”
“Former military?” She glanced between Memphis and me. “Are all the guys around here these days former military?”
“A lot of us,” I said. “Word spread throughout the military community about this place. There’s plenty of work here for those who can handle heavy manual labor.”
“And now, so many hospitality jobs,” Dane said. “That’s why the town’s growing so fast.”
“We’ll be as big as your city soon,” I said to Joely.
She blinked at me, and this time, I found it even harder to read her expression. It was almost like she was weighing reality.
“I hope not,” she said. “I’d never want my hometown to lose its small-town feel.”
“Well, we have an early day tomorrow,” the bride said. “I think we’re going to head to bed.”
“The bride and groom are tapping out first?” Dane teased.
“I’m kind of tired myself,” Cassady said.
I glanced at my watch. It was barely after ten. Were they serious? But as I looked up, I realized they were eager to get some alone time, and I couldn’t blame them. I’d sure as hell love some alone time with the redhead seated across from me.
“I’m not tired yet,” Joely said. “I may stay up and finish my wine.”
“Want some company?” I asked.
I couldn’t help but notice the two couples who’d been standing to leave had stopped everything to look at us. Nosy fuckers.
I gave Dane a look, and he seemed to get the message. He put his hand on Cassady’s arm and off they went, followed by the bride and groom. On his way out, Memphis tossed me a “don’t do anything I wouldn’t do” look.
“So, are you and Memphis good friends?” she asked.
That was a question I wasn’t really prepared to answer. Obviously, she and the bride went back a long way. That wasn’t the case at all with me and the groom.
“We’ve worked together on the logging crew for a while.” I paused and thought about it for a second. “Yeah, I guess we’ve gotten close over the past year or so.”
“How long have you lived here?”
“A couple of years,” I said. “Like most of the guys in town, I moved here for the job opportunities and low cost of living. Where else can you get a cabin like this?”
Her eyes widened. “You have a cabin like this? Is this yours?”
I laughed. “Not even close.”
I found myself wishing this were my cabin, if only to impress her. Which was crazy, because I wouldn’t want her to like me just for my money.
“A cabin like this would cost at least a million somewhere else,” I said. “Probably multimillions in a touristy mountain town. But I’m sure the cost of living here will keep going up as it becomes more popular, which is good news for those of us who own property here.”
“Buy low, sell high,” she said.
I smiled. “Exactly. What about you? Plan to stay in Nashville forever?”
She settled back onto the couch and took a long sip of her wine. “I don’t think so. I love what I do, but city life wears on you.”
“I wouldn’t know. But you’re an urban planner. Does that mean you have to live in a big city?”
She laughed. “I guess the name sounds that way, but urban planners are needed in lots of places, and there are remote opportunities. I just need to get experience first.”
That was good news. Wait, why was it good news? What was I hoping? She’d fall madly in love with me and move back here?
No.
Yes.
No.
I was so confused.
“So you could see yourself someday moving back to, say, Seduction Summit?”
I held my breath as I waited for her answer. What if she said she’d never live here again? It wasn’t that I was set on Seduction Summit, but I loved it here. I didn’t really want to move elsewhere.
Why was I even thinking about moving? I specifically relocated to Seduction Summit because of its lack of female residents. It was perfect for the bachelor lifestyle I planned to live. Not just today, not just tomorrow, but for the rest of my life. I had good friends, fresh mountain air, and a job I enjoyed. What more could I want out of life?
The answer to that was supposed to be nothing. But I was having serious doubts all of a sudden. And it was all because I’d met a woman who intrigued me. A woman I couldn’t take my eyes off of. A woman who’d stepped right out of my fantasies.
“I always said I’d never raise my kids here,” she said. “Too small a town. Did you know there were twenty-seven people in my graduating class?”
“Mallorie was one of them?” I asked.
She nodded. “We’ve been friends since kindergarten.
“I guess most people left because there weren’t that many men around,” I said. “We fixed that problem. Now there aren’t enough women.”
Not that I was complaining. Did that make it sound like I was complaining? Truth be told, I barely paid attention to the women around this town. Whether it was the ski bunnies at the lodge or the women working at the few businesses in town, it took a lot to get me interested in a woman. In fact, Joely was the first who’d caught my attention in a long, long time.
“So, you want kids?” I asked, trying to keep my voice as neutral as possible.
She started to lift her wineglass to her lips, but then she froze and looked at me, still not taking a sip.
Why I was clocking her alcohol consumption was beyond me. Maybe a part of me just wanted to see how strait-laced she was. Was she against drinking? Profanity? Sex?
I had to be honest with myself. Sex was the specific thing I was thinking about. Mallorie was twenty-three or twenty-four, so I assumed Joely was around that age.
“Just one,” she said. “I want to do a little bit of everything before I die. Have a career I love. Be a mom. Fall madly in love.” She paused before adding, “Have sex outdoors. You know, the usual.”
With that, she took a long sip of her wine like she hadn’t just uttered words that went straight to my groin. Should I comment on it or just let it go? No, I couldn’t just let it go.
“About that last one,” I said. “Does that come before or after you fall in love?”
I wasn’t sure what I’d think if she said she was waiting until marriage to get really kinky. She was in her early twenties and lived in the city, so I assumed she’d had normal kinds of sex before—just not the outdoor stuff she mentioned.
“Before,” she said. “I don’t plan to fall in love anytime soon. I know that’s something people don’t exactly plan to do. Most of the guys I meet in Nashville bore the crap out of me, anyway.”
She stopped and stared, once again studying me. Was she comparing them to me? Was she trying to decide what it was about me that was similar to the guys who bored her in Nashville? Or maybe she was trying to figure out whatever this was between us.
“They’re not outdoorsy like you,” she finally said.
I raised my eyebrows. “You see me as outdoorsy?”
“You work outside all day. And you live in the mountains, so I assume…”
I was about as outdoorsy as they came. She definitely read me right on that one.
“There’s no way I could stand being in an office all day,” I said. “But I couldn’t live in the city either. The traffic, the noise…”
I needed greenery around me. That came, in part, from my deployment. I’d spent far too much time in cramped spaces, sleeping in bunks and waking before sunrise. Sure, we’d been outside, but we’d hardly had a chance to appreciate our surroundings.
“The first thing I did when I got here was walk out on the balcony and breathe in the air,” I said.
“When you first arrived in Seduction Summit?”
“No. Well, that too, but the balcony is specific to arriving here at this house.”
“You have a balcony?” she asked. “I don’t.”
“You can come share mine anytime.”
That was definitely flirtatious. She might even see it as coming on to her. And hell, if she did, that was fine with me.
“I may take you up on that,” she said. “I love a good balcony.”
With that, she took another long sip, not taking her eyes off me as she did. Was this woman hitting on me? And was I so out of practice I didn’t know what to do about it?
Yes and yes. Those were the answers.
I still had game. I’d just buried that part of me so deep, I wasn’t sure I could even access it anymore.
I inhaled deeply and said exactly what the old Hunter would have said—the one who didn’t worry that he’d scare off a woman by flirting with her. “Why are we sitting here, then? Let’s go get some fresh air.”
Without waiting for her response, I stood and headed toward the same stairs our friends had taken minutes earlier. Thank God our rooms were on a separate end of the house from everyone else’s, because if I could talk this woman into going to bed with me, I planned to rattle the rafters by the end of the night.