Baby For The Mountain Man

She thought she was being quiet, but she wasn’t. The moment she stood outside of my door I knew she was getting curious about the place. I was glad her body had thawed a little bit, but I wasn’t appreciative of the fact that she was snooping around last night. I would’ve been more than happy to give her a tour of the place.

I understood her reservations. I knew what I looked like and how I came off to other people. I had no intentions of hurting her, but I also had no way to prove that to her. She was a scared young girl trapped in a storm she had no idea how to deal with, so it only made sense that she would be on high alert.

But I did get nervous when I heard her turn down the hallway last night.

What was behind that door was for my own personal use. It was a room that didn’t get used often, but when it did it was a way for me to lose myself. A way to escape the fights my family battled over this land. It allowed me to release the anger and the hurt I had endured at the hands of so many people, including the woman I once loved. I had added that room on as a later addition after my father had this cabin built for me, and it was under lock and key. Even if she had tried to open the door, she wouldn’t have been able to open it.

The mere fact that she was curious, however, was why I stood and listened.

I listened to her explore the cabin. I listened to her run her hands along the wall. I listened to the little gasps I was sure she had no idea she was making, and I listened as her footsteps walked down the damn hallway. I rolled my shoulders back and readied myself to intervene, just in case she started looking around for a way to open the door. I kept the key on the top of the doorframe. Easily accessible but hidden away in case the door needed to stay closed.

But if she went searching for it, I was ready to step out and get her to stop.

There was silence for a little while before her feet ran her back down the hallway. She ran past my bedroom and I heard her collapse back onto the cushions. I hated that she was so afraid. There was nothing to be scared of in my cabin. She seemed brave enough, but her emotions were getting the best of her.

What was a young girl like her doing racing off to California by herself?

I tossed and turned while I slept as dreams of a former life plagued me. When my eyes finally shot open, it was still dark outside. The sun hadn’t yet broken through the trees of the forest that surrounded us, but there was one sound I expected to hear that I didn’t.

Rain.

It was no longer raining outside.

I got out of bed and pulled on some clothes. No use in taking a fucking shower when I was about to fix a damn car. I promised this young woman that I would help her get back on the road and that was what I intended to do. The sooner I could get her on the road the sooner I could have my fucking house to myself.

I walked towards the front door and grabbed a coat to throw over my shoulders. The fire had dimmed to nothing but sparkling embers as Ava laid there on the couch cushions. I saw her pants hanging over the couch and something in my pelvis roared to life. There was a young woman with no pants on wrapped up in my blankets and lying in front of a fireplace.

In another place and time, I would’ve slipped right underneath them with her and pulled her close to me.

Shaking the thought from my head, I opened the door. I set out the same route I had walked last night, my eyes searching for her car. I walke

d a little farther than I had last night, but when I came across the car I felt the slightest bit of relief flood my body. The water had washed it down the ditch that followed the road until the ditch disappeared and became level with the trail. It was sitting on its tires on the side of the road as if nothing had ever fucking happened to it.

Man, this young woman was lucky.

I opened the car door and took stock of the inside. Nothing seemed to be damaged and there wasn’t any trapped water on the floorboards. I sat down in the seat and tried to crank the car, but it took me a few tries before I could get it going.

The engine wasn’t completely waterlogged, but there were some things that would need work.

I drove the car back up to the cabin and got to work on it. I went and rolled my toolbox out into the driveway and popped the hood of the car. There were a couple of busted pipes and a lot of the parts under the hood were still wet from the rain. I took off my jacket and removed my flannel shirt, so I could start soaking up some of this water.

I hunched over her car as the sun began to rise above the trees and got to work. I cleaned out the engine and made sure it was still good to run. I changed out the busted pipes and cleaned down the alternator. I had to loosen up a belt in order to get it back on its track and there was a small dent in the fender I worked out with my bare hands. The car just needed some tough love to get it back in working order, and I was just about to slide into the driver’s seat and crank it up when I heard the door of the cabin open behind me.

I looked over and saw Ava standing there in the clothes I found her in last night. My eyes scanned her body as I turned her name around in her head. The name ‘Ava Lucas’ had hit me like a ton of bricks the night before. I wondered if she had any relation to the Lucas family who was trying to scout this area for a gas line. If she was related to them, then they owned half the fucking town in the first place. A family out of Seattle that owned property scattered all over the Washington State area. Her name had thundered through my mind all through the night until dreams of my previous life surfaced, but seeing her standing on my porch renewed my sense of fear.

I had to get her out of this fucking cabin just in case she was a trap.

“How’s the car?” Ava asked.

“Not as bad off as I expected. About to crank it up and see how the engine runs,” I said.

She nodded her head and I cranked up the car. It sputtered and roared to life as a grin crossed my cheeks. The look of shock on Ava’s face turned into a broad smile, and she clasped her hands over her mouth as her eyes sparkled. She looked positively radiant at the fact that her car worked. Such a simple thing for someone to be this overjoyed about. There was a slight twinge of something in my chest.

Something almost akin to pride.

I turned the car off as she came down the porch steps, her feet carrying her as fast as they could. She came around the door and reached into the car, popping the trunk so she could get to her things. I heard her rummaging around as I got out of the car, holding out the keys for her as she pulled a new outfit from her suitcase.

I got just enough of a look into the trunk of her car to see that it was stacked to the brim with her things.