My Mountain Man Muse

The only problem is, she’s due to leave in the next hour or so and she hasn’t decided on staying yet.

Mr. Miller’s eyes narrow when he sees me.

“Hi Lily,” he says as he gives me the stink eye. “I hope the locals weren’t a problem.”

“Not at all!” Lily says brightly. “Jayden has been wonderful. He let me stay at his cabin when I locked myself out.”

“You locked yourself out?” he says with his eyes widening. “Why didn’t you just use the spare key?”

“Spare key?” she chokes out.

“There’s a spare key right here,” he says as he reaches behind the mailbox and pulls it out. “It was in the instructions I sent you. You did read the instructions, right?”

Her cheeks are blushing as she turns to me with a cringe on her face. “He he. Must have missed that part.”

I shake my head as I chuckle. That’s why I love this girl. She keeps everything interesting.

Little does she know that I have the key in my pocket, but I’ll never tell her that.

Mr. Miller opens the door for her and I wait outside while she goes in and gathers her things. She can walk pretty well now and it shouldn’t be a problem to drive home on her ankle.

“That’s what you brought?” I say with a laugh when I see the size of her suitcase. “How many dancing pug pajamas did you bring?”

“You can never have too many dancing pug pajamas,” she says as she struggles to pull the behemoth suitcase down the two steps that lead to the driveway.

I just watch with my hands in my pockets and my heart in my throat as she awkwardly struggles to drag it to her car. She looks at me expectantly after she pops the trunk, but I don’t move.

I’m not helping her leave. I can’t.

“A little help here, big boy?” she asks. “Unless you want me to break my spine right after my ankle healed?”

I don’t move.

“Okay,” she says as she bends over and tries to pick it up. With a grunt, she tries to lift it, but she ends up slipping on the ice and falling on top of it.

I’d laugh if my heart wasn’t breaking.

She gets up, dusts herself off with a nervous giggle and then tries it again. This time, she manages to get the suitcase off the ground, but then she slips backward onto her ass and the huge thing falls down on top of her.

I rush over and easily lift it off. She’s blushing in embarrassment as she looks up at me.

“What are you doing?” I ask in a cutting tone.

“Lying on the cold ice and freezing my ass.”

“No,” I say as I toss her suitcase into the trunk. “Why are you leaving?”

She pushes up to a seated position and starts fidgeting with her purple woolen mittens. “It’s Sunday. The week is over.”

I sit down in front of her, crossing my legs as she looks at her mittens. “It doesn’t have to be over. It’s not over for me.”

Tears start rolling down her cheeks as she avoids my eyes. My stomach starts churning. She can’t go.

“Lily,” I say as I gently touch her chin and lift it up until she’s looking into my eyes. Her blue eyes are all watery and making my heart ache. It’s painful to see her cry. “Don’t go.”

“But I’m not brave like you,” she says as her chin quivers. “I don’t live on mountains and do whatever I want. I’m not the type to quit my job and go after my dreams. I don’t have the courage to give up everything for a man I’ve only known for a week even if my heart is begging me to.”

I lean in and give her a soft kiss. Her body shudders and I lick her salty tears off my lips when I pull away.

“You are brave,” I tell her. “You wrote a whole book in a week. Most people don’t do that in their entire lives even though they say they will. You jumped in a freezing cold river. You chopped wood. You seduced me.”

“I think you’re remembering that last part wrong,” she says with a laugh.

“Maybe,” I say as my chest tightens. “But you did make me fall in love with you.”

It’s true. She has.

The man who could never get along with anyone, who had to escape from society—escape from people—and live in the mountains by himself has fallen in love. I still can’t believe it.

Her beautiful blue eyes widen and her back straightens as she looks at me in shock.

“I love you, Lily. I really do.”

“But…”

“No buts,” I say. “I want you to stay on this mountain, with me. Please don’t tell me no.”

I can see her brain working, trying to come up with a reason why it won’t work. There are so many reasons, but there’s one reason to stay that trumps all the others. I love her.