Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 99967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
“Do you know him?”
“I’ve met him, but Brooks knows him pretty well,” I reply. “And he’s joined us at the Wolf Den here and there. So Ava’s a Hendrix.”
“Yeah.” She nods, and we start up the steepest hill on this hike, but she doesn’t break her stride. “So I spent yesterday afternoon in downtown Bitterroot Valley, and it’s adorable. There’s a new clean-kitchen restaurant that’s to die for.”
“I know. I haven’t been yet.”
And it’s way more complicated than I care to explore with her right now.
“Juliet is so nice,” Harper continues. “She’s the owner. Anyway, the food is great, and maybe Birdie would like it there. Dani and Bridger can take her without worrying.”
I can’t resist. I reach over to brush my hand down the back of her thick ponytail.
It makes my chest tight that she thought of my cupcake when she saw the clean kitchen.
“I’m sure they’d love that. What else did you see?”
“I’m in love with the bookstore. Like, I would marry that bookstore if I could. It’s so fun, Blake. And so pretty, and I don’t always love girly, frilly things, but it’s not over the top, you know?”
My lips twitch. I’m so fucking proud of my baby sister.
“And the owner? Holy shit, she’s gorgeous. Talk about pretty without being over the top. She walks in heels like I walk in these hiking shoes. It’s baffling. And I’m a little jealous.”
“You’re jealous of her heels?”
“That she can walk in them,” she clarifies, looking honestly mystified, and it’s fucking adorable. Her perfect face is clean of makeup and dewy from our hike, and Christ, I want to kiss those plump lips.
I just want her.
I crave her.
“And then,” she carries on, completely unaware that I’m dying a slow death over here, “this other woman walked in with the prettiest red hair, and her accent is so sexy, and I was like, what universe am I even in?”
I nod and gesture for her to keep hiking. “So you enjoyed the bookstore and made some new friends. What else?”
I love that she enjoyed Billie and Skyla so much. And I know she likes Dani.
She’s basically friends with all of the women in my family, and she doesn’t even know it yet.
Billie’s my sister.
Skyla and Dani are with my brothers.
Yeah, you’re going to fit into my family just fine.
“After I ate, I dropped Ava’s book off to her because I’m making her join the book club with me, then I went home. Nothing too wild and crazy. But it was nice to be out and about by myself without having to call for a ride.”
“Did you not keep a car when you did the traveling nurse thing?”
“I did at first, but it was a pain in the ass when I’d have one assignment on the East Coast, and then the next was in, like, Texas. So I sold the car and just flew. Most of the places I was in had rideshares, but we don’t have that here.”
“Not yet,” I reply. “Probably eventually. The bigger towns have it.”
She nods, and we fall into an easy silence, walking side by side.
The conversation with this woman is always so … easy. The back-and-forth is comfortable as if we’ve known each other for years. It’s effortless, and the more I get, the more I want.
How can I go back to keeping my distance after this?
It’s fucking torture.
When we make it up to the lake, which still has some snow around the shoreline, Harper immediately removes her socks and shoes and puts her feet in the ice-cold water.
“Oh my God, that feels good,” she moans, and it makes me want to strip her out of those leggings and fuck her.
Hard.
She grins back at me, then loses her smile when she sees my face. “What’s wrong? Hey, if you want to keep going, you can head out. I was only going to do the six miles today.”
Shaking my head, I kick out of my shoes and socks and join her in the water. It just about steals the breath from my lungs because it’s so fucking cold.
But I take her hand and lace my fingers through hers.
“No, I don’t need to keep going.”
Fuck my run. Who gives a shit?
“Okay.” It’s a whisper before she bites that lip, and her eyes drop to my mouth.
But before I can dip down to kiss her, she turns to look at the mountains once more and loses her balance. Her free arm flails out.
I tug her against me and wrap my arms around her to keep her from falling.
“Whoa. That could have been catastrophic.” She laughs but doesn’t pull away.
She leans in.
And just like that, I feel the shift.
“Thanks for saving me from a very wet hike back to my car.”
I grin and kiss the top of her head.
“My pleasure.”
Now she does pull away, but she doesn’t tug her hand away from mine. Just like all those months ago, after the flight from Denver, she leaves her hand in mine, and it warms my chest.