Stranded: A Mountain Man Romance

by Piper Sullivan

  She pursed her lips, a clear sign she didn’t believe me, but let it go. For now. She would be here for a few days so I knew she wouldn’t forget about it altogether, even if I wished she would. “Right. So, what’s first?”

  I grinned. “There’s this restaurant here I really wanted to check out but I didn’t want to go alone.”

  “Fancy?” she asked with a beaming smile.

  “French, so probably.”

  “Let me change and then we can hit the road.” She grabbed her suitcase and opened it, plopping down on the floor in front of it and pulling out several pieces of clothing. She chose carefully and once she was locked in the bathroom, I changed into a long rainbow summer dress with a thick white shawl and ran my fingers through my hair. Santa Fe was pretty casual and I felt comfortable, which I would need for the duration of Casey’s visit.

  The trip to the restaurant took no time and we were seated quickly. I scanned the menu because I always did, out of habit, but also to keep Casey from starting her interrogation. “What looks good?”

  “You know what I like, choose anything,” she said easily, her gaze focused on me. “So, tell me everything. How have you been? Do you like the restaurant? Where are you going next?”

  I sighed. “There’s not much to tell. I’m all right, the restaurant is fine and the staff is great. And I have no clue where I’m going next.” That part was causing me the most amount of stress. I had, at best, a week before the new chef was given a clean bill of health, which meant I should already have a job lined up. I didn’t. “I work a lot and by the time my shift is over, I hit the shower and crash until morning.”

  Casey blinked. “But you don’t open until one,” she said, confusion lacing her concerned tone.

  “Yes, but you have to hit the markets early to get the freshest food every morning. If you get there at eight, all the good stuff is gone.”

  “Shit,” she said on a long breath. “That’s a long day.”

  “It is,” I agreed easily.

  “But there is something else going on, I can feel it. And don’t try giving me that ‘nothing’ crap when we both know it’s something. What’s wrong? Are you still sad about Rex?”

  Casey was my best friend in the whole world. Had been since we were about eight years old and she moved to Cody with her dad. If there was anyone in the world I could talk to about this, it was her. But she had a mile-wide protective streak that didn’t give a damn about secrets when it came to the people she loved. So I had to be careful. Very, very careful. I took a deep breath and released it slowly as our eyes collided. “If I tell you this, I need you to promise on our friendship that you won’t say a word to anyone. Anyone, Case.” She nodded, but I really needed her to get it. “Casey, you can’t confront anyone, threaten or do anything that might make anyone guess or suspect what I am about to tell you. Under any circumstances.”

  “But, what about-,”

  I cut her off. “Any circumstances.”

  She pouted, fire pulsing through her and then deflating out of her with a resigned nod. “Okay, fine.”

  “I’m pregnant. I found out about a week or so ago.”

  “Rex?”

  I nodded. “Rex.”

  I saw the outrage build up in her and then explode out. “You have to come home and make him do the right thing, Lena! That baby is his responsibility too!”

  I just stared at her. “You promised.”

  She sighed and sagged into her seat. “But-,”

  “No. Buts. It is my business and mine alone, Casey. If I can’t trust you to keep it to yourself, tell me now.”

  She sat quietly for a long time, staring and weighing her options, I guess. “Fine. I’ll keep my trap shut even if I think you’re wrong. But now we need to work on a new plan.”

  I grinned, feeling my heart swell with love for my friend. “I have a few plans already.”

  Her face brightened. “Any of them involve a small town in Wyoming?”

  “They do, but I’m pretty sure it’s the worst option. And I have figure some stuff out first, Case. This is a mess.” It was really an understatement but the clock was ticking on my time in New Mexico and I needed to figure out my next move at least.

  Casey and I spent her time in town enjoying a spa day before we checked out art for her trip back to Cody. We ate more than two single women should and we saw everything touristy there was to see before I dropped her at the airport with a long hug and a promise to call soon.

  Once she was inside the airport, I pulled out my phone and pressed the call button. “Jared, it’s Lena. Can you talk?”

  Rex

  “Shit Jared, you’ve made a ton of progress in a short period of time.”

  I pulled into the sprawling property Jared had bought on the outskirts of town where Cody and Shadow Mountain became one. A sign hung from the metal arch at the halfway point of the driveway that proclaimed the place to be McGregor’s Wild Rides.

  “It’s crazy what a little bit of money will motivate people to do.” He pulled two beers from the fridge. “The house, the lodge and the staff cabins are all complete. Now we just need to get tracks and trails done.”

  The house looked great with gleaming wood all over, cozy cotton and flannel textiles everywhere. It was rustic but upscale. “This kitchen looks like it belongs at the back of a restaurant.”

  “It should, I had it outfitted because I need a full time chef to feed the masses. Plus, I need someone to put all this into tip top shape,” he grinned and smacked his belly. His expression sobered and I felt uneasy. “You look like shit, Rex.”

  “Thanks, Jared. You really say the sweetest things.” I’d been sleeping like shit. Another month had come and gone and there’d been no word of Lena. If Marcus or my mom knew where she was, they were keeping it to themselves. Which was part of the reason for my trip to see my brother. “It’s like Lena vanished. What if something’s happened to her?”

  Jared stared at me uncomfortably for a long time and I swore I saw a flash of wariness in his eyes. “What makes you think that?”

  I didn’t want to get into it, but I had no one else to talk to. No one who knew the whole story, or the gist of it.

  “She’s not anywhere. She hasn’t used any of her credit cards or cash machines since she left. What’s she doing for money?” Lena was sheltered. Sure, she’d gone off to school and worked a few jobs, but she’d spent her life in this small town. She didn’t really know what it was like out there, what big cities were like. She could be hurt and no one would know it.

  “You hired a PI to find her,” he said with more amusement than surprise. “Anything come of it?”

  “Nothing after leaving New York. Not gas or food, or even a hotel. What the fuck? Do you know where she is?” Someone had to know something and Jared was the only hope I had of finding an answer. I refused to even go to Casey because she would probably skin me alive.

  “No,” he sighed but it was heavy like there was more he didn’t want to say. “But I do know that she’s safe and said she wanted to be left alone for a while to ‘get her shit together’ her words, not mine. You can understand that, can’t you?”

  Yeah, I understood it. I lived my life being left alone, at least I had for the past decade or so. I stood and went to the large stainless steel sink, gripping the edge of the counter as I looked out over the lush, dewy grass. It didn’t even make sense, why I was so obsessed with making sure Lena was all right. She was a grown woman, capable of taking care of herself and making her own decisions. She didn’t run off because I was a dick to her, and hell, if she did that was on her. Out the window I saw a small flash of white with long blond hair trailing behind it and I blinked. Was that…? It couldn’t be. “Have you started hiring people?”

  “Yep. It’ll be a while before we’re up to full speed, so for awhile it’ll just be me and another guide just doing hikes, some rafting and fishing. Maybe rock climbing.”

  “No one else?” I thought I saw that same flash o
f blond again and familiar curves sculpted by denim and wool.

  Jared’s phone rang and I didn’t need to turn around to know he’d answered it and walked off. Luckily my curiosity was too piqued not to go in search of that familiar blond. A quick trek across the grass revealed that she’d disappeared, but a door was open in the middle of the cluster of cabins and she appeared, shoving two big boxed onto the small porch and picked up one of them. As soon as she began to walk my way, I knew it was her.

  She walked right past me and into the open kitchen door where she set the box down and went back for the other. I watched, my anger growing, as she picked up the other box and put it in the kitchen as well, then she started to unpack them. And she still hadn’t said a fucking word. “What are you doing at my brother’s place?”

  She said nothing, didn’t even look up like I was fucking invisible as she pulled out knives, utensils and all kinds of kitchen stuff.

  “I’m talking to you.”

  She set down a bamboo steamer and those green eyes sliced me open. “Well I am not talking to you. So please, Rex, go fuck yourself.”

  Whatever I’d expected her to say to me, it hadn’t been that. I was too stunned to do anything but laugh. Long and hard until I clutched my gut with laughter. Damn I hadn’t laughed like that in a long time. “It’s good to see you too Lena. How have you been?”

  She said nothing, just turned back to those damned boxes.

  “You’re upset,” I said because clearly she wasn’t happy to see me.

  Still, nothing.

  “Everything all right in here?” Jared asked as he entered the kitchen, staring back and forth between me and Lena.

  “No, actually. I asked your brother to leave me alone and he’s refusing. I’ll come back to finish my work when he’s gone.” She carefully restacked everything on the counter into her boxes and pushed them into the pantry. Then she left.

  Jared let out a high-pitched whistle when he was sure she was gone. “That is one pissed off woman, brother.” He smiled but I caught it again, that wariness in his gaze.

  “Tell me something I don’t know,” I scoffed, still staring at the spot she’d abandoned. “Like why in the hell is she here and you didn’t say anything to me?”

  Jared shrugged, not at all worried about my dark tone or the fact that I had at least fifty pounds of muscle on his scrawny ass. “Lena is an adult and she can disappear anytime she sees fit. You’re not her keeper and judging by that,” he pointed to the spot she’d been standing, “you’re the last person she wants to find her.”

  That much was obvious. “When were you going to tell me?”

  “I wasn’t. She asked me not to.”

  He was being obtuse on purpose. “You knew I was going out of my mind trying to find out where the hell she was, and you knew. You weren’t going to tell me? Why did she come to you, anyway?”

  He shrugged again and I fought the urge to smash his shoulders with my fist. “I realized I needed a chef and asked if she’d help me out for a while.”

  “A while? What the fuck does that mean?” My temper was seconds away from its breaking point. I couldn’t believe he knew where she was and hadn’t said one damn word about it.

  “It means until she saves enough to move away and open her own place up, or until she gets sick of cooking for adrenaline junkies. Either way, I’m happy to have her for as long as she wants to be here. She is family, after all.”

  “You’re making her sleep in one of the cabins like a fucking employee?”

  “She requested it. You know I actually think of her as a sister, and I did offer one of the suites in the big house. But she didn’t want to be anywhere you could show up without her permission. At least I assume that’s why.” He smiled, taunting me on purpose because little brothers were put on earth to bring the rest of us misery.

  “Asshole.”

  He laughed. “Never said I wasn’t. Did you apologize to her, at least?”

  “She didn’t give me a chance before telling me to fuck off.”

  At that, Jared laughed. Hard. “Too bad I missed it.”

  “I need to talk to her Jared.”

  “Why?”

  I had no fucking clue and told him as much. “But I still do.”

  “Don’t bother her while she’s working and if she asks you to leave her property, that cabin, do. If she calls the cops, you’re on your own.”

  “Way to come to the aid of family, baby brother.”

  “This is business. She’s my employee and my friend Rex, I won’t let you harass her.”

  I nodded because I got it, even admired it. But that didn’t mean I was giving up. I didn’t know why it was so important, just that it was. “I hear you.”

  “You’d better. I’d hate to have put you down, old man.”

  I laughed. “In your dreams, kid.”

  Two days later I was back on Jared’s property looking for a moment alone with Lena. I walked around the compound, going first to the cabin I’d seen her exit before, but it was empty. Next, I headed to the main house and found her in the kitchen. The warm, steamy kitchen filled with smells so delicious my stomach growled.

  She hadn’t heard me come in over the music that she hummed along to, completely lost in her own little world. I stood there, watching her for several long minutes, feeling grateful to Jared for asking me to swing by and help out. But it seemed like maybe he wanted to help me out. “Afternoon, Lena.”

  She froze and turned the music down, but she didn’t respond to my greeting. She bent over the counter, folding little pieces of dough and making little pockets.

  “Jared asked me to stop by to-,”

  “He’s around here somewhere.” Without looking up, she turned to something on the stove and stirred really fast before turning back to the counter.

  “Actually I was hoping that we could talk for a minute. I want to explain some things.”

  She shook her head and held up her hands in surrender. “There’s no need to explain anything. It doesn’t matter anymore, not to me.” She looked up, emerald eyes seared into me so I could see that she meant it.

  I stared at her, wondering who this stranger was. “So that’s it? You don’t get your way, so you give up?”

  “I don’t owe you an explanations, Rex.”

  “I guess I was right,” I taunted, arms crossed over my chest. She never could resist hitting back at any taunt, no matter how hurtful or hilarious.

  She didn’t take the bait, just continued to chop and stir and make up little plates of food. Lena moved like a dancer who’d choreographed the whole play as she moved between the counter and the stove, the fridge and the counter. I took the opportunity to study her and I didn’t like what I saw. She was pale and thinner than she’d been before leaving Cody. Lines of fatigue bracketed her eyes and mouth, and she looked sad. Not just melancholy or depressed, but a bone deep sadness that she wore like a cloak.

  “Are you okay, Lena?” I had to ask because she looked anything but okay.

  She sighed and looked at me again. “I am not your concern, Rex.”

  “Now you’re just pissing me off.”

  “I don’t care.” She pulled a salad spinner from the sink and dried the lettuce, chopped and whipped up what looked like a dressing.

  “Dammit, Lena! Will you just talk to me?” I smacked my hand on the counter and she jumped. Gasped.

  “Shit!” She pulled her hand back and stared at one of the fingers before shoving it in her mouth. “God,” she swore again and turned to the sink, holding her finger under the water and turning the water pink.

  I was on her in seconds, grabbing her wrist to check out the damage. “Are you okay?”

  She pulled her hand from my grasp. “I can’t take care of my damn self!”

  “Just let me help,” I insisted, grabbing her a little harder than necessary as she struggled against me.

  “Don’t touch me!” She shouted over the music and I stepped back, shocked at her burst of anger,
at the hate shining in her green depths.

  “Shit. Sorry.”

  “Everything good?” Jared asked as he strolled in, his casual gait at odds with the intensity of his stare.

  “Yep. I just need to take care of this and then we’ll get started with the menu. Does that work for you?” Her tone was professional but completely devoid of any emotion. Like a zombie had taken over her body.

  Jared nodded, staring at her with an odd expression on his face before he answered. “Works for me. Are we having special drinks or can I just have whatever I want?”

  “You’re the boss,” she said with a forced laugh. “Besides, people want what they want. I can have a few signature cocktails if you’d like. Let me know,” she said and disappeared down a dark hall.

  “What the hell is going on?” Jared asked, his look dark. Worried. “I heard her shouting all the way down in my office.”

  “She cut herself and I tried to help. She didn’t want my help.”

  He shook his head, concerned and disgusted. “Take a seat. You’re here to help me out with the food.”

  I took a seat but I wasn’t feeling easy throughout the meal. Lena returned completely composed and face blanked of all emotion. White blond hair was pulled back into a severe bun and her chef’s jacket was bright red, a sharp contrast to her pale skin and big green eyes. As she served the food, she stood and took notes on everything Jared said, tossing out a few suggestions of her own. “You might want to consider a garden to cut down on food costs. I’m happy to take care of it if you have room.”

  Again, her words sounded right but everything else was all wrong. She’d lost her spunk, her glow. Everything that made her the pesky little girl who followed me around, batting her eyelashes and calling me handsome, had vanished.

  Her light was gone and she seemed broken.

  “Sure, look around and find a few places so we can narrow it down, yeah?”

  She nodded and turned back to the stove, returning with more small plates of mouthwatering food. I didn’t like this new version of her, it made me uneasy. It made me feel guilty, and I didn’t fucking do guilt. It was pointless.