Evidently, the man found silence to be a good companion, because it seemed like a natural way of existing for him.
But I’d learned a few things in between his bouts of silence. He’d trapped the turkeys on his own land, then cleaned and froze them. Corbin was a thoughtful man in his own way, even if he tried to keep it hidden.
Every so often I checked my phone signal, but it was still out. I figured it would stay out until the storm blew over.
Finally, when the silence had started to feel cloying, I asked him, “Is this what you do every night? Sit here in your cabin in silence?”
He snorted. “It’s not like I walk around talking to myself all the time.”
“But what do you do to keep busy? This can’t be it.”
There was no TV in his living room. Or any books. Or hints of hobbies.
Sure, it was a small space. But there was nothing in it other than a couch—that we were both currently awkwardly sitting on—a dog bed, and a coffee table.
He shrugged a shoulder, then stood up and took his winter coat off, hanging it from a peg hook on the wall. The hook only held his one coat and a dog leash.
“I don’t mind the quiet. You get used to it. And TV never interested me. I’d rather watch the world go by outside my front door. It’s a more interesting channel, in my opinion.”
“Ah. A nature lover. I never would have pegged you for that. But I guess with the way you spoil Hopkins here, I should have guessed.”
“I don’tspoilhim. He’s a tough Arkansas mountain dog.”
It was impossible not to laugh at that. The dog was currently snoring in my lap while I gave him lazy belly rubs.
Corbin glanced at Hopkins in my lap, and I swear his mouth twitched. It wasalmosta smile. “Well, maybe he’s alittlespoiled. But he had it rough. He deserves a nice life now.”
I giggled. “A touch of humanity popping through. You better watch out, or your reputation as a big bad mountain dude is going to be ruined.”
He shook his head and growled, “Don’t get any ideas, woman. Just because you’re spending the night doesn’t mean you’re going to ‘tame the wild Corbin Wallace’. I’m not the domesticating kind.”
He talked a good game, but I had a feeling he was lying to me right now.
After tonight, I knew we’d be on the path to being friends.
I grinned. “From ‘little girl’ to ‘woman’. My nicknames are leveling up.”
Corbin studied me, eyes latching on to mine.
My breath caught as he saw me staring at him.
It wasn’t my fault that the man was so handsome.
I was trying to place where my unnatural draw to him was coming from.
His nose was slightly crooked from where someone had broken it previously. His lips were set in a perpetual frown. And his brow seemed to live in a furrowed state.
There was also the matter of the jagged scar that ran down his cheek, similar to the one that poor Hopkins had. And ears that some might have considered a touch too big.
But when you took all those broken parts of him and put them together into one grumpy package, somehow I found him to be devastatingly handsome.
My friends would think I’m crazy right now.
And if I were being honest, I might have developed a tiny little crush on the man. Spending Christmas Eve with him was kind of like a dream come true.
Chapter 10
Corbin
