Baby For The Mountain Man

“Cassie? Did you stay with her? I hope she was able to talk some sense into you. Storming out of here the way you did was in complete disregard for your mother and I. Get your ass in the car and get home.”

I heard the cabin door open and I looked over to see what was going on. Travis was walking through the house with the grease of my car on his fingers. I studied his frame, taking in his broad shoulders and his strong arms. His amber eyes were downcast, trying to scrape the gunk from underneath his spindly fingernails. My eyes roamed his back, my body turning on the couch to follow him towards the kitchen sink.

He had the most beautiful ass in the jeans he was wearing.

“Ava? Are you even listening me to?” my father asked.

“Yes, sir. Sorry. What was that?” I asked.

“See? This is why your mother and I can’t find you a proper suitor. A man isn’t going to want you trailing off into your own hapless mind while he’s addressing his wife.”

“Then he should probably talk about something important or intriguing,” I said.

I watched as Travis turned around. He locked his eyes with me as he ran a rag over his hands. I quickly turned around and sat back down into his couch, but I could feel his eyes on me. Judging me. Wondering what move I was going to make next. I listened to my father drone on and on about my duties and responsibilities and how I needed to grow up, screw my head on straight, and get my ass home.

“You have your date with Timothy Wells tomorrow. Get home so your mother can pick out a dress for you,” my father said.

“Ah, the banker. He hasn’t backed out of the deal yet?” I asked.

“Get home, Ava. These childish antics have gone on long enough. You are twenty-two years old. It’s time you started acting like it.”

“Most twenty-two-year old’s are still drinking in bars with their friends while getting their college degrees,” I said.

“Enough! Get home, or I will come find you.”

My skin tingled at his threat. The last time my father had to retrieve me from somewhere, he made it a public spectacle. Chastised me in public and dragged me out of Cassie’s by my arm. I had fled to her house the first time my parents tried to marry me off. I ran to her house and stayed for the weekend, and when I refused to come home my father drove over, yanked me out of the house by my arm, and forbid me to leave the house for the rest of the month. If I wanted visitors, they came over, and the only place we were allowed was the sitting room.

But if he went to Cassie’s this time and found I wasn’t there, I knew I would suffer worse.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll be home shortly.”

“It’s about time you started obeying. No husband of yours is going to want to chase behind you whenever you run because things get tough,” my father said.

“Yes, sir,” I said. “Understood.”

I hung up the phone and sighed. I had all my stuff in my car. What was keeping me from just going on to California? It was obvious my parents hadn’t looked for me enough to see that most of my stuff was missing from my closet, so what the hell did they care? My father was a control freak, and I knew he would stop at nothing to shove me into the mold he’d created for my life. And if I ran to California while he was in tracking mode, he would stop at nothing until I was back within his grasp.

What the hell was I thinking? That I could just run away and my family would forget about me? I was the only daughter. My father’s prized possession. It was my legacy to be the most graceful, most beautiful, and most appetizing woman on the planet. That was what people expected of Harold Lucas’ only daughter, and that was what my father was determined to give them.

I closed my eyes as Travis’s voice hit my ears.

“You know you don’t have to go back.”

I snickered and shook my head.

“And what would you know about that?” I asked.

“Do you love him?” he asked.

“Do I love some banker who’s twice my age and allergic to dust mites? Hardly,” I said.

“Then you shouldn’t go back.”

“It’s not that easy,” I said.

“Running away was that easy.”

“Until my father begins to track me down. He won’t stop until I’m home,” I said.