Chapter 4
Ava
I studied him as he got up to get me a glass of water.
It was odd. He looked really fit… which I had been able to examine in exquisite detail since he’d never put on a shirt. But at the same time he had a limp and used a cane.
It wasn’t the polite thing to do, so I swallowed all my questions about how he got hurt and what was wrong with him. Instead, I focused on the sight of his ass as he stood at the kitchen sink drawing me a glass of water.
He has a great ass.
The kind of ass a woman might want to wake up next to every day.
An award-winning ass.
I could put a picture of his ass up at the Bear Den and take votes for best ass on the mountain. I was certain he would win.
He turned around and started coming back, a glass of water in one hand, and his cane steadying his walk in the other.
“Thank you.”
He grunted and sat back down.
As he sat, a loud groaning sound came from the bedroom, followed by a serious of thumps.
“You got a bear in there?”
Tyler shook his head. “Naw. Just the ghost.”
“The ghost! Tell me about your ghost.”
He shrugged again. “Not much to tell. It’s an old place.
It makes all kinds of sounds. What you heard just now might be the bathroom pipes, except the bathroom’s down the hall.
I even crawled under the foundation looking one day because I got curious.
But I didn’t see any pipes running through the bedroom. So it’s strange.”
My eyes landed on his cane. I couldn’t imagine the man crawling under the house when he struggled to walk.
He seemed to realize what I was thinking because he said, “That’s just my hip.
I fell out of a helicopter. We were low to the ground at the time, but it ended my military career when I abruptly met gravity.
I had surgery on it half a year before I moved here.
The doctor says it’s recovering well. I won’t need the cane much longer if it keeps healing like this.
He’s got me on a brutal workout plan for recovery. ”
“Oh!” So much information. I sifted through it all.
He’s ex-military.
Hot.
And healing.
“Were you scared?”
“When I had surgery? No. I was in too much pain.”
“I mean when you fell out of the helicopter. And how does that happen? I’ve never been in one before.”
“It happens when you’re being a dumbass. I should have had my seatbelt on. We hit a patch of turbulence, the bird tilted, and I flew out.”
Fascinating.
“But were you scared?”
He assessed me, his dark eyes scraping across every inch of me. Then he rumbled, “Hon, men like me don’t scare easily.”
Something about the way he said it sent a jolt of heat sailing through my body.
But then another round of fireworks went off outside, and I noticed him stiffen again. I had a feeling he might be lying.
To himself.
Or me.
Or both.
Because this grown man was scared of that sound.
Quietly I said, “I’ll talk to my friends about the noise. And… I can ask them to hold off on the fireworks. Someone brought over a pile of leftovers from the Fourth of July.”
His brow furrowed, and he pulled another cookie out of the cellophane bag. “I appreciate that. Very kind of you.”
“Yeah. No problem.”
The energy between us changed. Tyler seemed to be getting comfortable with me. I’d have him warmed up and friendly in another hour if he let me keep chatting.
The entire bag of cookies might be gone by then. I’d let him worry about his blood sugar levels. I just knew those sweet treats were working some magic on him.
“I bake other things, too. I could bring something by someday if you want. I make a perfect Sweet Tea Cake, and I’ve heard my classic Arkansas Jam Cake is to die for.”
His lips parted slightly, as if he were ready to eat both cakes up right now.
But he clamped his mouth shut, then muttered, “This visit is a one-time thing.”
Maybe it had been too soon to try to weasel a second invitation out of him.
His eyes narrowed. “And what did you mean when you said this is what you do? Meet strangers?”
“I just like to make people feel welcome around here. I grew up knowing everyone in this town. But I remember going to summer camp one year in South Arkansas. I didn’t know anyone, and one girl took me under her wing and introduced me to the whole camp.
I’m not really the shy type, but I was feeling shy out there until she helped me feel like I belonged. So I like to greet the newcomers.”
He scrubbed his hand across the back of his neck, a tiny furrow between his brows. “I’m sorry, Ava. You caught me at a time when I didn’t expect to have any company. And if you can’t tell, I’m a few shot glasses into my whiskey bottle. I think I’m being an ass.”
“You? Never. You’re definitely not guarded. Or suspicious. Or surly. No one would ever say those things about you,” I told him with a giant grin on my face.
As a reward, I managed to sneak another small chuckle out of him.
Step one. Get their name.
Step two. Find common ground.
Step three. Make them laugh.
Those were my rules for breaking the ice with someone new.
And it always worked.
All I needed was one good belly laugh from him, and I’d feel confident I’d cemented things between us.
He picked up his empty whiskey glass, then put it back down on the coffee table, like he’d only been thinking of filling it up again.
When he spoke, his voice was serious. “Wouldn’t you rather be hanging around with your friends right now?”
Tyler was right about one thing. You could hear music, along with people talking and laughing all the way inside with the windows shut. This place wasn’t insulated well.
“I’ve known all of them my whole life. I’m pretty excited to dive into someone new. By the end of this maybe you’ll tell me the story of how you moved to Red Oak Mountain. That’s all I’m really here for. I collect stories.”
He cocked his head. “What do you do with them?”
“Nothing. I just like hearing people’s stories.
We all make life decisions, and some of those decisions have no effect on our lives, and some of them completely change the trajectory.
Just last year, one of my friends moved back to town after leaving as a kid.
I never thought I’d see Candy again. But she showed up.
And then, wouldn’t you believe it, there was an ulterior motive for her moving back!
She’d never forgotten her first boyfriend.
She moved back to see if there was a chance that she and Walker could have a future together.
Isn’t that something? Changing your whole life on a whim?
I mean… she could have come on vacation first rather than move here. What if things hadn’t worked out?”
He stared at me, perplexed.
“Well, that’s just one example of a story.”
“What’s your story?” he asked out of the blue.
“Uh. The spotlight’s not usually on me. My story’s probably kind of boring for a man like you—someone who’s used to high-action drama like falling out of airplanes.”
He settled back on the couch, no longer ramrod straight, and put his feet up on the coffee table, wincing as he did it. Then he pulled out another cookie to munch on.
“Tell me anyway.”
Okay. Mr. Sexy wants to hear my story? I’ll be happy to tell him.
“I’m Ava Appleton. And yes, my family’s been here for a very long time.
And yes, we have apple orchards. Or I should say they do.
Although there was a bad blight that came through back in the nineteen-twenties.
After that, my family stopped producing them for income.
We switched tacks and now they farm a little bit of everything.
But Red Oak Mountain’s not conducive to farming.
Most of my relatives live down in the valley below, but my parents were the hippy types, and they moved up the mountain in the sixties and never left. ”
He shook his head. “Ava Appleton. Now I’ve heard everything. They could have called you Eve. Imagine the jokes.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve heard plenty over the years.
It’s a unique name. There aren’t too many Ava Appletons in the world, but if you do an internet search, you’ll find a few.
Nothing is truly unique. Everything’s been done before, even if you don’t know it.
We still have a small Arkansas Black apple orchard.
I could take you there someday if you want to see it.
Oh, it’s a lot of walking, though. I forgot.
Maybe once your hip is feeling better. Or I could bring you an Arkansas Black apple pie made from those apples.
Award-winning. I swear. And it’s the right season for it, too. ”
He licked his lips as if he were imagining it.
A thud shot through the house, the sound coming from the hallway. I whipped my head around as my heart sped up. “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t know. Like I said, this house makes a lot of noise.”
“And that doesn’t scare you?” I asked while I looked around with wide eyes.