Mountain Man Guardian (Mountain Men of Pineville #7)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

ASTRID

The day had begun with so much promise. But now my vision blurred from reading the name on the chart I was currently holding with a death grip. I had to pinch myself to make sure this wasn’t some random dream.

Shoot. Not a dream.

I thought I’d put that part of my past firmly behind me, and yet, if I were honest with myself, knowing the possibility I’d one day run into this particular London brother again would pop into my head at least once a year.

Standing outside a therapy room in the physical therapy clinic where I worked, I had to do a quick scan instead of going through my typical deep dive into a patient’s information before I met them for the first time.

But this patient had been handed to me at the last minute when my fellow PT had to go home to a sick kid.

So there was no way out of this. Everyone else was already with their ten o’clock appointments.

Okay, Astrid. You can do this. You’re a professional. The pep-talk did little to untie the knots in my stomach, so I switched to some deep breathing. Maybe I imagined that this patient with the all too familiar name was the same man from my past.

I scanned the chart again. He had recently retired from the military in his late thirties with the same birthdate. This Chase London had taken a bullet to his lower lumber region, tearing through multiple muscles and creating havoc to the surrounding tendons, ligaments, you name it.

The bullet had missed his spinal column be mere millimeters and been successfully removed. The damage was not insurmountable, but he was lucky to be alive. He’d recently been released from in-patient care at an East Coast VA hospital.

So why was he in my clinic?

The odds of him being the same London brother who’d gone deep undercover years ago, the one that Kane’s wife Chassie said hadn’t been in contact with the family for at least five years, had to be slim to none.

Not that I’d asked after him in the last year or two. Or maybe, okay, come to think of it, last Christmas I had a bit too much spiked eggnog, and my brother and Zoe had just gotten engaged, and whatever, that didn’t count. I rarely thought of him.

Because that Chase London was someone I never expected or wanted to see again, especially after the humiliation of being dumped just one week after I gave him my virginity.

Kane knew about what happened after graduation between Chase and me, right? There was no way he’d allow me to be blindsided, would he?

There was no one to trade patients with.

And reassuring myself that the man on the other side of that door probably wasn’t who I feared facing for the first time in decades wasn’t working.

“Please don’t let it be him. Please don’t let it be him.

” I whispered the mantra over and over to myself.

I lowered my head, took a cleansing four-beat breath, and schooled my features into a bored, yet professional mask.

Somehow, I found the nerve to open the door even as my heart pounded loud enough that even our receptionist could hear it.

“Hello, Mr. London. My name is Astrid and I’ll be working with you.

” My gaze dropped from the ceiling, where I’d instinctively placed it upon entering.

A last-ditch effort to delay the inevitable.

A cold sweat and full-body goosebumps erupted as my eyes took in the six-foot-two, thirty-nine-year-old, now-retired soldier.

Now more handsome, devastatingly so, than he’d been in high school.

Now seeking rehab for damaged musculature and tendons that had been stitched back together after taking a bullet.

A Chase that was more imposing physically, his features sharper, his gaze harder, full of secrets and experience most men would never see in two lifetimes.

Overwhelmed by all the thoughts bombarding me, I couldn’t miss that ever-present edge he’d worn even back in high school as it poured off him while his gaze roamed over me.

When his eyes finally settled on my face, the cold sweat was replaced by a full-body, super-heated flush that probably had already turned my cheeks red. And by the minute lift of his lips in the same smirk he often wore in school, he’d noticed my body’s reaction to him.

Sexy as hell and full of a then eighteen-year-old’s confidence, but now aged like a fine wine. What had I done to deserve this intrusion, this unwanted flash from my past into my now settled, if boring, life?

Life for me and my son had finally tipped into the positive. No more drama from my ex, my job, and my soon to be finished first house had proven that I was doing pretty damn good for a single mom in this rocky economy.

But this? Him? What had I done to deserve the shock of coming face-to-face with the man who’d taken my virginity then taken off without a word, never to be heard from again until this moment?

“Hello, Astrid. Long time.”

Oh no, he didn’t. He didn’t get to play this moment off like some innocent happenstance. With a gruff and casual greeting. He had to know I worked here because when our patients check in, they’re given the name of the therapist who would work with them in case of any last-minute changes.

So, yeah. Chase London didn’t get to appear back in my life just when good things were happening and my son Josh was in a good, well, an okay place with his dad. The road with my ex had been long and filled with drama. Even though my heart had mended years ago, my son’s had taken longer.

I so didn’t need the man who’d spun my world out of control, sending me on a path of questionable choices in men that I’d married the exact opposite of Chase in every way I could find. Nope. Not going to happen.

I was going to hold it all in and act as if I didn’t have a care in the world, or any ill-will towards him. Chase was going to get nothing but my professionalism, even if it damaged a part of my self-worth. But if I ever saw him outside of the clinic, the gloves were coming off.

“Before either of us says anything else, I need to inform you that because of our past association, I cannot treat you professionally. I’m happy to reschedule your appointment for another time, with another PT.

Unfortunately, we're fully booked today and there is no one else available. So, if you could?—”

Chase interrupted me as he abruptly stood from the exam table, favoring his right leg. “I get it. But there’s one thing I need to say before you kick me out. Please?”

I couldn’t let his obvious injury sway me and wait, kick him out?

The nerve. The moment stretched out. I glared at him while he looked as if he had all the time in the world and relaxed.

Damn it, how could he come back into my life and just stand there looking like he wanted to eat me up and comfort me at the same time?

Before I could respond, he spoke, and the obvious changes in his voice hit me. Deeper, raspier, and the world-weary inflection hard to miss, yet compelling enough that I remained silent.

“Did you know that your life really does flash in front of you when you're close to death’s door? I didn’t.

Not until the only face I saw was yours.

The bullet could have taken my life, but now I believe it saved me from never seeing you again.

I’d really like a chance to talk. Not here, I get that.

But soon. Because Sweetpea, there’s a lot you didn’t know back then, and that’s on me. ”

Was my mouth hanging open because what in the ever-living-Swifty-universe-of-song-lyrics was I living right now?

Wait, did he just use the nickname I’d only let him get away with all those years ago?

He claimed my personality was too nice to be stuck with the name Astrid.

He had no way of knowing that in elementary school, the kids had called me “Astrid the Asteroid” or just plain “Asteroid,” making me hate my name for years.

Then, with the smile that had haunted me all that following summer after he disappeared and, okay, also my twenty-something dreams, Chase nodded and spoke.

“I’ll be staying with Kane if you want to hear what I have to say.” Then, with all his six-foot-something swagger, he brushed past me, our shoulders; well, my shoulder, his muscled bicep, touched. A sharp tingle that roared through my nervous system, and then he was gone.

Blowing out a long breath, I looked around the room and made sure it didn’t need to be reset for the next appointment. But that was just a stalling tactic. I didn’t want to go back out to the reception area until I was sure he was gone.

And he was staying with Kane. On my mountain? Okay, not all mine, but the mountain that was going to officially be my home—tomorrow. Shit! I needed help. And much-needed perspective. Grabbing my cell, I fired off a group text to all my local female friends.

Me: emergency margaritas 6p @ Renaldo’s

The replies were quick, and I couldn’t hold back my laughter as I read through them.

Mika: What's up? BTW, Berkley’s on board too she’s right here with me.

Addison: Need more info! Will bring the squirt for cuddles.

Zoe: Got you Plus baby’s craving Tex-mex

The others I included in the text couldn’t make it but demanded details later.

And to see their immediate replies gave me all the warm fuzzies.

And I had to laugh at Zoe’s response. At eight months pregnant, her cravings had been swinging wildly from spicy foods to wanting nothing but fruit smoothies.

Somehow, I made it through the rest of my day, giving my patients the attention they deserved.

I’d mastered compartmentalizing my personal and professional lives from each other, but still every time I heard a male voice that was anywhere close to the deeper register of Chase’s my heart skipped, and I froze for a split second until confirming it wasn’t him.

How was it after all these years that mere minutes spent with him could turn me back into the needy schoolgirl he knew? And, oh, my Lord, he’d morphed into a sinewy, bound, super soldier like in one of my son’s video games. Sexy as hell despite the limp and the internal injuries from his chart.

Who had Chase London become, and did I want to find out?