Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
BLAKE
T he trail isn’t too busy today, which is good. I like to run it, and sometimes if it’s too packed, people don’t move out of the way. It can be annoying.
Hopefully, today will be a smooth trail run. I only have today off this week, and I want to exercise outside rather than on a treadmill in the hospital’s gym.
After I’ve tied my shoes, I pull my hoodie off and stow it in the car. After about five minutes, I won’t need it.
I do a few quick stretches, then set off up the trail. I usually do ten miles on this particular trail system. The elevation gain is perfect, and the views are great, too.
The ground is remarkably dry, and within just a few minutes, I’ve hit my stride and am enjoying the burn in my lungs, legs, and ass. It feels good to be in the fresh air.
I come up over a ridge and have just started to come down the other side when I look up and come to a complete stop.
Fuck. Me.
She’s not facing me and has a hat on her head, but I’d know that body anywhere. Harper’s standing at the side of the trail, stuffing what looks like a light jacket into her pack.
She’s in a purple strappy sports bra and black yoga pants that hug every curve of her fit body. She’s not simply thin.
She’s fit.
She has toned muscles. She’s lean. Her ass is round, and her waist is small.
I love women. All shapes and sizes. It’s not the size that matters to me at all, it’s the fact that she’s active, enjoys it, and I have to say, the athletic wear makes my cock twitch.
She’s hotter just as she is right now than if she were in a formal dress.
Harper finishes drinking her water and turns toward me. Her eyes go wide, and she freezes for a second before she lifts the pack and stows her water away.
“I didn’t want to startle you.” Okay, it’s a white lie. I wanted to watch her while she was unaware, and I don’t mean that in a creepy way.
Her eyes take a swift tour from my face, down my body to my shoes.
I’m just in a tank and shorts, but her cheeks heat, and she seems to like what she sees. Which is both good and a colossal shit show .
Because although she may want me, she won’t let herself have me.
“Good day for a hike,” she says as she shoulders the pack and starts to walk, and I match her pace, walking beside her. She goes at a good clip. She doesn’t meander.
“And not too crowded,” I add, and she nods. “Mind if I join you?”
“I don’t mind,” she says, offering me a small smile. “How have you been, Blake?”
Missing you, Harper.
“It’s been busy but good. And you?”
“Same. I saw you yesterday morning, but you didn’t see me.”
“Getting in the truck?” I ask, and she nods. “I saw you.”
Yeah, sugar, I saw you get in a truck with another man, and I didn’t yank you out and kiss you until you couldn’t remember anyone but me.
“Ava’s been driving me to and from work for the most part,” she says and sidesteps a log. “But she was sick yesterday, so Tucker picked me up. He’s the oldest of us, and he’s usually a pain in my ass, but he was useful yesterday.”
She snorts, and it makes me smile. “How was he useful?”
“Well, he found me a car to buy, so I don’t have to use the Hendrix Family Taxi service anymore.”
“You have my number,” I remind her, but she shakes her head.
“I’m thirty, for fuck’s sake. I needed a car.
I just didn’t want to take the time to go to a dealership and dick around with it.
That’s the worst. I’d much rather be doing this on my day off.
Or literally anything else, including the dentist. But Tuck gets big brother props for taking that off my plate. ”
“Tucker Hendrix?” I ask, and she nods and looks up at me.
“Do you know him?”
“I’ve met him, but Brooks knows him pretty well,” I reply. “And he’s joined us at the Wolf Den here and there. So Ava’s a Hendrix.”
“Yeah.” She nods, and we start up the steepest hill on this hike, but she doesn’t break her stride. “So I spent yesterday afternoon in downtown Bitterroot Valley, and it’s adorable. There’s a new clean-kitchen restaurant that’s to die for. ”
“I know. I haven’t been yet.”
And it’s way more complicated than I care to explore with her right now.
“Juliet is so nice ,” Harper continues. “She’s the owner. Anyway, the food is great, and maybe Birdie would like it there. Dani and Bridger can take her without worrying.”
I can’t resist. I reach over to brush my hand down the back of her thick ponytail.
It makes my chest tight that she thought of my cupcake when she saw the clean kitchen.
“I’m sure they’d love that. What else did you see?”
“I’m in love with the bookstore. Like, I would marry that bookstore if I could. It’s so fun , Blake. And so pretty, and I don’t always love girly, frilly things, but it’s not over the top, you know?”
My lips twitch. I’m so fucking proud of my baby sister.
“And the owner? Holy shit, she’s gorgeous. Talk about pretty without being over the top. She walks in heels like I walk in these hiking shoes. It’s baffling. And I’m a little jealous.”
“You’re jealous of her heels?”
“That she can walk in them,” she clarifies, looking honestly mystified, and it’s fucking adorable. Her perfect face is clean of makeup and dewy from our hike, and Christ, I want to kiss those plump lips.
I just want her.
I crave her.
“And then,” she carries on, completely unaware that I’m dying a slow death over here, “this other woman walked in with the prettiest red hair, and her accent is so sexy , and I was like, what universe am I even in?”
I nod and gesture for her to keep hiking. “So you enjoyed the bookstore and made some new friends. What else?”
I love that she enjoyed Billie and Skyla so much. And I know she likes Dani.
She’s basically friends with all of the women in my family, and she doesn’t even know it yet.
Billie’s my sister.
Skyla and Dani are with my brothers.
Yeah, you’re going to fit into my family just fine.
“After I ate, I dropped Ava’s book off to her because I’m making her join the book club with me, then I went home. Nothing too wild and crazy. But it was nice to be out and about by myself without having to call for a ride.”
“Did you not keep a car when you did the traveling nurse thing?”
“I did at first, but it was a pain in the ass when I’d have one assignment on the East Coast, and then the next was in, like, Texas. So I sold the car and just flew. Most of the places I was in had rideshares, but we don’t have that here.”
“Not yet,” I reply. “Probably eventually. The bigger towns have it.”
She nods, and we fall into an easy silence, walking side by side.
The conversation with this woman is always so … easy. The back-and-forth is comfortable as if we’ve known each other for years. It’s effortless, and the more I get, the more I want.
How can I go back to keeping my distance after this?
It’s fucking torture.
When we make it up to the lake, which still has some snow around the shoreline, Harper immediately removes her socks and shoes and puts her feet in the ice-cold water.
“Oh my God, that feels good,” she moans, and it makes me want to strip her out of those leggings and fuck her.
Hard.
She grins back at me, then loses her smile when she sees my face. “What’s wrong? Hey, if you want to keep going, you can head out. I was only going to do the six miles today.”
Shaking my head, I kick out of my shoes and socks and join her in the water. It just about steals the breath from my lungs because it’s so fucking cold.
But I take her hand and lace my fingers through hers.
“No, I don’t need to keep going.”
Fuck my run. Who gives a shit?
“Okay.” It’s a whisper before she bites that lip, and her eyes drop to my mouth.
But before I can dip down to kiss her, she turns to look at the mountains once more and loses her balance. Her free arm flails out.
I tug her against me and wrap my arms around her to keep her from falling.
“Whoa. That could have been catastrophic.” She laughs but doesn’t pull away.
She leans in.
And just like that, I feel the shift.
“Thanks for saving me from a very wet hike back to my car.”
I grin and kiss the top of her head.
“My pleasure.”
Now she does pull away, but she doesn’t tug her hand away from mine. Just like all those months ago, after the flight from Denver, she leaves her hand in mine, and it warms my chest.
“What’s your schedule like this week?” I ask.
“Well, I have today and tomorrow off, then I go to days for three days, then off three days.” She narrows her eyes.
“Yeah, that’s it. Sorry, it gets confusing sometimes.
It’s easier to remember the day shifts from the night ones, but I have it all in the calendar on my phone.
How about you? What’s your schedule like? ”
“I have today off,” I reply and inhale deeply, wishing for the first time that I didn’t take on so much. “I’m in the clinic the next few days, but no ER in the evening for a while. We finally hired a new ER doc to help.”
“Oh, nice. Working double shifts is exhausting, Blake.”
“You’re telling me.” I grin down at her, then tuck a stray piece of her hair behind her ear. “Let’s take a picture.”
Her eyebrow lifts. “Okay.”
She pulls her phone out of her pocket, and I take it since I have longer arms and can get a better angle. We both smile for the camera with the lake and mountains in the background. She’s tucked up beside me, my arm around her back, and fuck if she doesn’t look good right here.
When I pass the phone back to her, I say, “Please send me that.”
“Oh, sure.” She taps the screen, and my phone vibrates in my pocket. “It’s a good picture.”
“Of course it is. You’re in it.”
She laughs, rolls her eyes, and heads back to the shore to put her shoes back on. First, she pulls a small towel out of her pack to wipe herself off, then offers it to me.
“You come prepared,” I comment as I use the towel to dry my feet before putting my own shoes on.
“Always. I even have snacks. I knew I wouldn’t need them since this isn’t a super-long hike, but you never know.”
“What kind of snacks?”