Baby For The Mountain Man

Ava

I laid there in front of the fire as the silence of the cabin overcame me. The rain was coming down in sheets as the wind kicked up. It howled against the windows and whistled against the top of the chimney, sending bursts of cold air down that had me shivering all over again. I closed my eyes and tried to will my body to stop shaking, but it wouldn’t. No matter how hard I tried, it continued to expand and contract at a rate that was mind-boggling.

“Travis Benson.”

His voice took me by surprise and I jumped. Why did that name sound so familiar to me? I turned over on the couch cushions and looked up at the man in the chair, his eyes cast down towards me. His hands rested on the arms of the chair as his legs relaxed, spread wide for all to see. I felt this warmth overcome my entire body as it slowly stopped shivering, and I decided to blame it on the flickering flames of the fire.

Anything else made things much more complicated.

“Are you thirsty?”

“No, thank you,” I said. “I’m Ava Lucas.”

The man cocked his head, almost as if he was studying me. His eyes danced along my rigid form as I laid on the couch cushions and his hands began to grip the armrests of the chair. Was something wrong? Had I said something to upset him?

Shit, was this guy some kind of serial killer?

He didn’t look like one. There was a kindness behind his amber eyes that denoted a sense of compassion. Psychopaths weren’t capable of that, right? I mean, I was no psychologist or anything, but I was pretty sure psychopaths weren’t capable of caring. But I had nothing to go on. I had no idea where I was, I had no idea how far away I was from California, and I had no idea when this rain was going to let up so I could get the hell out of here.

“Where am I?” I asked.

“Kettle, Washington. Just outside, in the mountainous terrain,” Travis said.

“Great,” I said with a sigh.

“Where are you wanting to be?”

I looked up at Travis and he was still staring at me. He was relaxed in his seat and his hands were now in his lap. Every time I looked over at him, he seemed to grow in size. The flames of the fire were casting sharp shadows upon his features, making him look more intimidating by the second. His beard reflected colors of gold and red even though the hair on his head was brown and red. Like the hardwood floor I was laying on as I tried to get dry.

“California,” I said.

“Still a ways out from there,” Travis said.

“Figures.”

I couldn’t do anything right. I couldn’t even fucking run away from home right. Kettle was, what… maybe an hour outside of Seattle? I had run away for all of sixty minutes before I got lost and found myself in trouble. Maybe my father was right. Maybe I was only suited to bear children and keep a home. I couldn’t even take charge of my life correctly when given the opportunity to.

“Any reason why you were scaling the mountains during a storm?” Travis asked.

“Wasn’t intentional,” I said.

“Wrong turn devolves into several. Sounds intentional to me,” he said.

“Well, good thing you don’t know anything about me, then.”

My voice was harsher than I had intended it to be and I started feeling guilty. Which was another fun little trait my mother had instilled into me. Even if someone was patronizing me, I always had to be polite. Anything less than respect for anyone who paid me the time of day was considered grounds for a day-long guilt trip festival party.

“I didn’t mean that as harshly as it came out,” I said.

“You did. But it’s fine,” Travis said. “And to answer your other question, I don’t know.”

“About what?” I asked.

“Your stuff. Your car. We can’t get out there tonight, and there’s a slim chance that we’ll have an opening tomorrow. I don’t know if your stuff is going to be okay. Do you have insurance on the car?”

“My parents do,” I said, murmuring.

“If things get damaged and your insurance company-”