“OK. So we’re neighbors. Cool!” It’s then that she pulls the ripcord on the chainsaw and it starts up again with a loud whir. I’m in a state of freaking out and trying to figure out how I’m going to take it from her without hurting either one of us when her eyes widen in surprise and she falls backward, flat on her ass, while fortunately the chainsaw drops in front of her. It immediately starts to spin out of control.
"Shit. Get back!" I curse under my breath and jump toward, scooping her up her before it gets too close and swiftly get us both out of the way.
“Whoa. I think you might be right about that chainsaw. It’s way too big and heavy.”
My nose picks up her scent from her close proximity. Something floral and heady. It takes every ounce of control to stop my body from reacting to her and the jolt of electricity that sparked as soon as I felt her in my arms.I’m more lonely than I thought…
“Promise me you won’t try to use it again,” I grumble, setting her down as far away from the crazy chainsaw as possible. “Not until we get you one that’s the right size.”
“OK,” she whispers, her hands slowly sliding away from my shoulders as her feet touch the ground and I step away, needing as much distance between us as possible. “Thank you, Dylan.”
I grunt in response, grabbing a piece of lumber and using that to safely turn the blasted chainsaw off.
As I pick it up with one hand and turn back to her, I immediately spot her bottom lip trembling, her eyes teary. "You cryin’ now?"
“No,” she forces out, her voice audibly tight as she shakes her head. “I just…I thought I could do this. And the very first chance I had, I messed it all up. My mom is gonna have a field day when she finds out. She was so against me coming—”
“You’re a grown-ass woman, aren’t ya?” I rumble. She nods, and my heart threatens to melt at the pouty sight of her.Why do I want to scoop her up and carry her away caveman style, so badly?“Then it doesn’t matter what your momma thinks.”
“I just want to do a good job,” she whispers, rolling her lips. “I want to make this place even better than it once was.”
“On your own?” I look from her to the barely standing cabin to my left.
“Well, yeah. Girl boss babe and all that,” she says with a sniffle and a chuckle. I have no idea what a girl boss babe is, but I do know that a curvy littleinexperiencedthing like her shouldn’t be trying to take on a project so huge without any help.
“You need help.”
“Help is out of my budget. But I’ll be OK. I promise.” She flashes me another smile and I shake my head, a tight feeling in my gut screaming at me that I can’t walk away from this. From her…
“No. You’ll need help.”
“Dyl—”
“I’llhelp you,” I say, watching and loving the way her mouth pops open and forms an O. “Give me the rest of today to sort this shit out with Marvin, then I’ll get to work on this mess with you in the morning. Does that work?”
“Ah…sure,” she says. “Thanks, Dylan. That’s so kind and neighborly of you.”
She smiles brightly, and dammit, but it makes my body light up. To quell the longing ache I seem to have around her, I pull my face into a scowl. “Not neighborly. I just can’t trust you not to kill yourself with this thing,” I grunt, lifting the chainsaw I’m still holding in my hand. “I’m protectin’ my own conscience.”
“OK. Well, I still appreciate it.”
“Suit yourself, sunshine. I’m takin’ this with me, by the way.” I gesture with the chainsaw again. “I can’t trust turnin’ my back on you while it’s here.”
“I understand. You’re a good man, Dylan.”
I look at her with a quirked brow. “You have no idea,” I say, before I disappear back into the tree line from where I came, muttering to myself the whole way home.
I've spent God-knows how long keeping to myself and being perfectly happy that way. I sure as hell don’t need a tiny, curvy blonde—who seems to be a pocket full of trouble—turn that on its head. I’ll help her clear the land and do a little heavy lifting, and then that’s it. She can live her bubbly, sunshiny life, and I can go back to my quiet one. Alone. In solitude. Just the way I like it.
Millie
Since Dylan asked me to give him the day to talk to the man at the hardware store, I had no reason to go back into town, so my hankering for more of those delicious cupcakes would have to wait. But since I’m not one to go without a delicious treat when my heart and tummy want sweets, I set about making myself toffee-drizzled croissants from tinned pastry. They worked out great using my tiny camper van kitchen, and it’s while I’m sipping French-pressed coffee, nibbling on the remnants of my creation while checking in with my followers online that Dylan arrives on my lot.
Talk about a hunk! When he gets out of his old, blue pickup, it’s hard to deny that despite his grumpy countenance, my new neighbor sets my heart a flutter. He’s an easy six-foot-three, green-eyed, brown-haired, bearded, and all man—well,mountainman. If ever I were to claim that my loins were aquiver over the sight of someone, it’d be this man. I've never felt such a rush of electricity like this over another human before. Evenwithall the grunting and growling.
"Mornin’,” he grunts, his thumbs hooked into his jean pockets as he heads my way.
“Morning!” I smile, jumping out of my seat and rushing over to him. “You just have to try this,” I say, holding a small piece of my homemade croissants up to his mouth.
