Chapter 4
4
DARBY
I must have lost my mind. I was belted into the passenger seat of a four-wheel-drive truck with a man I’d just met.
I knew nothing about Lucas. He could be a serial killer. But my instincts told me I could trust him with my life.
And that was exactly what I was putting in his hands as we headed up the part of the snow-covered road I’d never traveled before. I’d lived in Seduction Summit for only six months, and I’d spent all but the past two weeks of that working at the library. They told me just before Christmas they were eliminating my part-time job, but at the same time, I saw an online post about the ski lodge filling a bunch of positions, including the one I held now.
So here I was, venturing even farther up into the mountains. There was ice under the snow, I was pretty sure, but Lucas didn’t even seem to be breaking a sweat. He shifted down and up as needed and took it slow, staring out the window intently.
I, meanwhile, sat silently—for the first time in years not feeling the need to fill silence with words. He needed to concentrate, but I was pretty sure he’d be just as quiet if we were driving on dry roads. This was one guy who’d have to be brought out of his shell…and I was up for the challenge.
Finally, after what seemed like days of driving, Lucas flipped on his turn signal. I expected us to turn off on a side road, but in the short time we’d been heading up this mountain, I hadn’t seen a single side road. Just the occasional cabin.
“Home sweet home,” Lucas said as he pulled into a gravel driveway.
I couldn’t speak. I was too busy gaping at the two-story log cabin with the light streaming through the front window.
“I built this with my own two hands,” he said. “Didn’t even have help. A couple of locals wanted me to build cabins for them or improve the ones they already owned, but I only do that with the stipulation that they’ll help with the construction. Now I have a couple of guys working for me, and I hope to expand even more.”
That meant he was a builder. Something about that surprised me.
Not because he didn’t seem like a hard worker—he definitely did. I’d just assumed the guys who lived up here in the mountains and came down at Happy Hour were hermits who lived off the land. But I’d never noticed this particular mountain man at Glacier Bar and Grill before, so maybe I’d unfairly stereotyped him.
“I go in and out through the garage,” Lucas said as he stopped in front of a large garage door and pressed a button on a remote clipped to his visor. “It’s just easier that way.”
“Plus, it keeps snow off your truck.”
He gave a nod as he pulled into the garage. But he didn’t say anything else. He just pushed open his door and climbed out. I looked around, as though the answer to what I was supposed to do next would be right in front of me, then shrugged and pushed open my door.
“Whoa,” I whispered to myself as I headed toward the door Lucas was now holding open for me. “Nice garage.”
“Thanks.”
Okay, so maybe my comment wasn’t so much to myself. I’d never seen a garage this clean. The concrete floor showed not a speck of dirt. I would swear the tiny kitchen in my townhouse near downtown was dirtier than this right now.
As I breezed past him into his house, my shoulder passed within inches of his chest. I nearly gasped at the electricity that shot through my body at the near contact. I’d read about sparks flying between two people when there was an attraction, but I’d never experienced it. I’d never even imagined it could happen in real life.
The garage opened into a laundry room with hooks on the wall that held various types of jackets—all male, all huge. I glanced over at his washer and dryer, then walked through another doorway into an open-plan cabin.
I was in the living room, but from here I could view the kitchen and a dining area. A gigantic fireplace was on the far wall with the biggest flat-screen TV I’d ever seen. On either side of it were speakers. The furniture looked cozy and inviting.
I’d expect to find an entire family living in a home like this, not a single man. He was single, wasn’t he?
“You live here alone?” I asked, turning back to stare at him.
If it came out he had a wife or even a girlfriend, I’d probably lock myself in the bedroom and refuse to come out until he agreed to take me back down to the lodge. The last thing I wanted to do was mess with someone else’s man.
“Yeah,” he said. “Lived alone most of my life.”
I frowned at him and opened my mouth to ask questions. I had a lot of them. Most of his life? Did that include childhood?
But before I could say anything, he reached out his hand and said, “I can take your purse and hang it with the coats.”
I suddenly remembered I had the strap of my purse on my right shoulder. I’d grabbed it from my wrecked car that morning, then headed out the door with it once my shift was over.
I wasn’t wearing a coat, ignoring my mom’s years of advice to always keep one in the car in the winter months in case I got stranded by the roadside. I skipped grabbing it, figuring it wouldn’t kill me to walk across the parking lot to the front door of the lodge without one, even in these temperatures. It was what? Two minutes of my life?
“Sure,” I said, handing over my purse.
He was already shrugging out of his coat as he grabbed the strap, seemingly careful not to make contact with my hand. Was he feeling this weird zing of electricity between us? Or was he avoiding all contact with other human beings?
No, he wasn’t a hermit. He was a builder, a developer. I needed to quit with the stereotyping.
But I still couldn’t seem to shrug off this feeling that the guy was a loner. He’d said as much only a minute or two ago.
But just because he lived alone didn’t mean he wasn’t social. He might have a whole group of friends. Maybe he even headed down to the bars in Adairsville to meet women. Not to date them, but to sleep with them. Guys had needs, didn’t they?
“Make yourself at home,” Lucas said. “Are you hungry?”
He’d eaten while sitting at the bar, waiting for me. But it was well past dinner time now.
“I had a salad on my dinner break,” I said. “But if you have anything to snack on… Maybe something sweet?”
“I’ll see what I can rustle up.”
While he walked to the kitchen, I awkwardly settled onto the far-left side of the sofa, facing the TV. I closed my eyes as my butt sank onto the cushion. This was a nice piece of furniture. Nothing like the worn-out, hand-me-down couch in my own living room. In fact, all of my furniture was gifted by relatives and family friends. Anyone who had a piece of furniture they were trying to get rid of immediately went on my mom’s radar.
My mother knew I was struggling to make it in this mountain town where I’d dreamed of living all my life. And even though she was only a couple of hours away, I may as well have moved to the big city, the way she bragged about her successful daughter working at a ski lodge in the mountains.
“Do you like ice cream sundaes?” Lucas asked.
My eyes widened as I looked over to my left. I’d been restlessly considering sneaking over to the laundry room to grab my phone out of my purse. It felt awkward just sitting here. I could probably pick up the remote and turn on the TV, but that felt wrong when it was someone else’s house.
“Of course,” I said.
“Chocolate or caramel?” he asked.
“Yes.”
It was meant as a joke, but he didn’t laugh. He just looked confused. I could see that from here. His brow was furrowed and his eyes narrowed as he stared at me.
“Both,” I said.
And then I shifted my stare to the pitch-black TV screen. I could see myself living here. This was the dream. Not my little townhouse with no view whatsoever. This cozy log cabin with gigantic windows to my right and a big fireplace in front of me was…perfect. I couldn’t see much outside those windows, but I’d bet in the daytime it was breathtaking, considering where this house sat.
“Do you have a view?” I asked, looking over at him.
He approached the couch with a bowl in each hand. I could see a spoon sticking out of the top of each one. He handed me one of the bowls and sat at the other end of the couch.
Immediately, I was aware of the distance between us. He was too far away.
“Yeah, I guess you can’t see it right now,” he said. “Hold on.”
He leaned forward and grabbed a large, square device with a screen on it from his coffee table. He tapped around on the screen, and suddenly the outside lights flipped on.
“Shut the front door,” I said as I stared at the scene in front of me.
It was a giant window, similar to the one at the bar and grill. But instead of overlooking ski slopes as the lodge did, this cabin overlooked some sort of waterway—maybe a pond, maybe a lake. On the other side of it was what looked like a snow-covered forest with trees as far as the eye could see.
“That’s why I picked this lot,” Lucas said, scooping a big spoonful of sundae into his mouth. When he swallowed, he looked toward the window and said, “It’s also why I’m careful about how we source our lumber for our projects. When people pick lots, I want to leave as many trees up as possible, and that’s not easy when you’re trying to get wood to build the cabins.
“Have you thought about taking some of the trees from the ski runs?” I asked. “I feel like they’re a safety hazard. It just takes one skier losing control and veering over toward the woods and…disaster.”
I was putting together the perfect bite of a blend of ice cream, chocolate, and caramel when I realized he’d stopped eating to stare at me. I backtracked, trying to figure out what I might have said that had him gaping.
“Your boss would never let that happen,” Lucas said. With a chuckle, he shook his head. “No way, no how. If he did, though, it would be for his own project.”
I slid a spoonful of ice cream into my mouth and stared at Lucas, trying to figure out what was going on here. His tone definitely changed when he mentioned my boss.
“You don’t like Alex?” I asked.
He narrowed his eyes again. This time, he seemed to be studying me.
“What makes you think that?” he asked.
“The way you were talking about him. I sensed a little…contempt.”
I paused before saying that last word. After I finished speaking, I wondered if it was too harsh. Contempt? My boss was a pretty likable guy, but he was cutthroat in business. From what I could tell in the brief time I’d known him, it had a lot to do with his dad starting the ski lodge decades ago. Alex was trying to keep the family business going, and it was a struggle every step of the way.
“I’m not really a businessman,” Lucas said. “I started building cabins for the love of it. I don’t need the money, but I want structure—something to look forward to each day. Since leaving the military, I’ve struggled to find that, but now…”
He didn’t finish that sentence. I waited to see if he would. With that brief monologue, I’d learned more about him than in any conversation we’d had so far. That wasn’t saying much, though.
“I do think my boss is too into his business,” I said.
Lucas was eating again. He had his attention on his food, but now he looked up at me and paused, seeming to think through what I’d said. Maybe I was digging too deep, but I wanted to know what made this guy tick.
“It’s not that,” he said. “I’m all about starting and running a business. It’s the fight for the almighty dollar at all costs.”
Now I was frowning. I didn’t know what that meant. He thought my boss was too greedy?
“Both your boss and that Brandon guy building the shopping center downtown seem to want to capitalize on the opportunity here,” Lucas said. “This town is about to see huge growth. I just want to build some cabins. Although, I guess to outsiders I look pretty greedy myself.”
I was still frowning. “What do you mean?”
“I built a cabin on the strip coming up the mountain. The one with the sign advertising custom-built log homes.”
I sucked in a breath. “I know that building. That’s you?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “I guess that looks like I’m capitalizing too. The city said I couldn’t run my business out of here. I was perfectly fine to do just that. So I got my two guys, and we constructed what you see on the strip. It’s just a sales office, basically.”
“But you don’t have a salesperson working there,” I said. “I know because when I was looking for a job?—”
“You emailed me.” He lowered his bowl and stared at me as though seeing me for the first time. “You were working for the library, but they did away with your job.”
I nodded. “They told me around Thanksgiving that the week of Christmas would be it for my position. They just don’t have the budget for a part-time library assistant anymore.”
“And I didn’t respond to your message,” he said. “I’m such an ass.”
I smiled and set my spoon back in my bowl. I was making considerable progress on the sundae. It was so good, I couldn’t seem to stop myself, but I didn’t want to look like a complete pig in front of him.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I got the job at the lodge, so it all worked out.”
“Did it?”
He asked that question with no apparent emotion. His expression was completely neutral. But even though I was sure he didn’t intend it, it felt like a therapy session.
“No,” I said. “It didn’t.” I sighed and lowered my bowl to my lap, staring past him out the window. “The library felt like it might lead somewhere. I loved working with the kids, but I don’t have a college degree, so I’m limited in what I can do, and it’s not like there are a lot of jobs in this town. But I always dreamed of living in the mountains. It’s just…”
My voice trailed off as I searched for the right words. I didn’t want him feeling sorry for me. I didn’t even feel sorry for myself. It was the way I’d been brought up. Life handed you lemons, you made lemonade. Working as a hostess at the Glacier Bar and Grill was my version of lemonade.
“It’s not like I dreamed of living in a townhouse in a subdivision filled with people who mostly work in the next town over,” I said. “I dreamed of this.” I gestured with my left hand to indicate my surroundings. “A cozy log cabin with a fireplace and a beautiful view. Turns out you need money to have all that.”
“Or a bunch of lumber and the know-how to build it yourself.”
I got the message he was sending with that. He wasn’t rich by any means. He’d built this with his own two hands. The lot probably hadn’t been all that much because, at the time, Seduction Summit was on nobody’s radar as a great place to live. People came here to ski and then left. And when the snow melted, this town died.
“Come on,” he said, standing up.
He reached out, and for a second, I thought he was going to take my hand, but he was staring pointedly at my bowl. “I’ll show you around.”
As I handed him my bowl and pushed myself to my feet, I realized just how much I was hoping he’d wrap his big hand around my small one and pull me up. I was craving his touch far more than I’d craved the chocolate and caramel I’d just eaten.
If I wasn’t careful, this guy could hurt me. He didn’t strike me as someone who got involved with women easily, and I was certainly not the type of person who could seduce a guy. I’d never even had sex.
I was out of my element, but no matter what happened, this would still be the most exciting day of my life. And I was going to enjoy every second of it.