Baby For The Mountain Man

“I’m sure he’s got his redeeming qualities somewhere, but I don’t see them. Anyway, I don’t want to talk about them.”

“Then what would you like to talk about.”

“You,” she said.

My eyes rose and connected with hers as she took a sip of her coffee. She was eyeing me carefully, like she was sizing me up. And I couldn’t blame her. I was still a stranger to her. A stranger that couldn’t get her out of my thoughts at night.

“What do you want to know?” I asked.

“Have you always been a recluse?” Ava asked.

“I’m not a recluse.”

“You live on a mountain by yourself with no friends to speak of.”

“I have friends,” I said.

“What are their names?”

“Heather and Harold,” I said.

“Those are your twin siblings, aren’t they?” she asked.

“Why can’t they be friends as well as siblings? Aren’t you friends with your brothers?”

“Yes, but they don’t count.”

“That’s not fair. You just said they counted.”

Ava giggled as she took a sip of her coffee and the sound warmed my chest. Her smile lit up her bright hazel eyes, pulling from them yellow specks that reminded me of the sun. She was easy to talk to. Easy to banter back and forth with. It had been a long time since I enjoyed mindless conversation like this with someone.

And it had been even longer since I had been willing to open up about myself.

“What do you do for a living?” Ava asked.

“For now, I’m an investor of sorts. Until it’s time for me to take over the family business,” I said.

“Ah, so you have one of those, too.”

“One of those what?” I asked.

“Pesky family businesses. We have one of those. But I’m not allowed anywhere near it because I don’t have a penis.”

“Good piece of information to know,” I said.

“I don’t understand that. Why I can’t be a part of the family business because I’m a woman.”

“I don’t get it, either. It’s an archaic notion. Some of the world’s top companies were built and are currently run by women,” I said.

“I could do great things with that company if my father would just get out of my way,” she said.

“I thought you didn’t want to talk about them.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she said, grinning.

“Right now, I’m living off the trust fund that opened up when I turned thirty. I worked for my family’s business all through college and set all of it aside in savings. But life happened and it threw me down a different path, so when my trust fund opened up I invested it wisely. I live off my savings and the quarterly dividends I get from some of the company’s I’ve invested in,” I said.

“Sounds smart. You’re a smart man, Mr. Travis Benson,” she said. “I’d love to live like that. Off money I invested so I wouldn’t have to deal with people. You’ve got the life.”