His brothers might not even think of this place if they haven’t been using it over the years.
“What about”—I motion toward the piles of wood and materials outside—“that?”
His jaw hardens, and instead of answering, he just stalks outside, snagging an axe from beside the door that I hadn’t even noticed. I follow him out and watch him storm across the clearing toward a stack of logs protected under a hastily built awning.
He grabs one, sets it on a stump, and swings down on it hard, sending pieces flying off each direction.
I’ve seen the McBride brothers do this work before, but never like this. Never up here where it’s so wild. Never when so pent up with whatever it is that’s eating at him. Not when so angry.
The part of me that loves to poke and prod Connor McBride and get him riled up so badly wants to cross the space between us to do just that, to demand answers. But a warning echoes in the back of my head, the same one I gave the people of McBride Mountain in my story that got him so riled up the other day—that they should leave him alone and steer clear.
Take your own advice.
I retreat a step, then another, making my way back into the small cabin. Once inside, I shift my bags up against the wall, freeing up a few square feet of floor space to move around.
A delicious smell permeates the air, something rich that reminds me of Grandma’s Sunday stew, and my stomach rumbles. Other than a few granola bars and some beef jerky during the hike, I haven’t had a real meal since dinner two nights ago.
All the pain permeating my body momentarily overwhelms my hunger, and I almost drop onto the bed and allow sleep to take me. But whatever he threw on the stove smells so good that it makes my mouth water.
I force my feet to move to the stove and find some kind of thick soup beginning to bubble away in the pan. It certainly isn’t the delicious food Elaine and Matt serve at the diner, but it’s honestly about the same level of cooking skills as I possess. So, I can’t really complain.
And I’m so hungry at this point that I’d eat just about anything.
I scan the sparse items around the space and find a wooden spoon in the can filled with utensils. My stomach rumbles again as I stir what’s on the stove and continue to take in the place where Connor has been staying.
He’s been living like this?
There isn’t any way up to this remote location other than on foot, which means he brought everything up in a backpack or otherwise carrying it.
All the food.
All the tools outside.
He’s probably been coming up here with more and more stuff each time…
For some reason I absolutely don’t want to explore, my chest aches.
He would rather be here, living like this, than down with his brothers, Willow, Niall, and Lucky. He would rather live this life than the one he has there on the homestead with the people who love him.
“What is going on inside that head of yours, Connor McBride?”
My question goes unanswered in the silence of the tiny cabin.
I don’t understand why he brought me here or why he thinks that anything he could say to me will get me to stop writing my story when it has to be done.
Whatever he thinks he’s going to accomplish by keeping me locked away up in this wilderness hideout, it isn’t going to happen, but it seems I may have to wait out Connor McBride.
CONNOR
The heat of the morning sunlight finally starts to cut through the pre-dawn mist that always settles over the mountain, melting it away slowly, but it can’t do anything to dispel any of the frustration still pent up inside me.
I raise the axe again and drive it down into another piece of wood, sending the pieces flying onto the growing piles around me.
When I’m up here alone, I barely heat the cabin unless I need to cook something. I prefer it chilly in there because that’s the way I always feel—cold, dead, and empty inside.
The warmth tends to lull me to sleep, and sleeping opens the door to the nightmares I can’t outrun, not even up here.
It might not be practical to keep the stove off once winter hits, but I’ll deal with that problem when it comes. Right now, my only problem is the blond one currently rummaging around the cabin and no doubt judging every fucking thing she sees.
