Page 23 of Mountain Men’s Nanny

His voice didn’t match his face. There was still fire in his eyes, a passion he was fighting not to satisfy.

“I’ve been awake for a while, just… just hanging out.”

Tobias pursed his lips into a thin line. I could tell he was thinking, wanted to say something, but couldn’t find the words. I stood in front of him, staring, waiting. There were so many awkward, unspoken things between us in such a short time, and I was ready to hear what he had to say about all of them.

“Thanks for what you did for Gunner last night,” he said. He bit the inside of his cheek, still trying to get to what he actually wanted to say.

“I did what anyone would have done, really. It wasn’t as bad as some things I’ve had to do at the pediatric ward,” I said.

I immediately regretted it. I had come here to forget, yet I was the one bringing it up! I could feel my eyes sting and tried to swallow, but my throat felt too heavy to move. I just stood there on the verge of tears, thinking about the life I had left behind and why I had come here in the first place.

“Look, you shouldn’t take Gunner seriously,” Tobias said, reaching out to touch my shoulder, then quickly pulling back and crossing his arms. “He’s a flirt, and it doesn’t help that he hasn’t been around a woman like you in a long time.”

I blinked, trying to bring myself into the moment. One problem at a time.

“What do you mean a woman like me?” I asked, crossing my arms too. It could mean anything, but I didn’t like any of the things that came to mind.

“An attractive woman,” Tobias smiled. “Our work usually takes us into Salmon, and most of the women there are either too old or too young. Now we have you.”

I nodded, a compliment. That was new. The only words I had heard from Tobias so far were rage instructions and carnal nothings groaned in the throes of an encounter he didn’t want to speak about.

“So that’s what you came to tell me? That Gunner kissed me because I was the only candidate around for miles?” I asked.

Tobias looked caught out. He shifted his weight from his left foot to his right, then focused on a scuff mark on the floor.

“Well, you’re holed up in your room and I figured he made you uncomfortable. I want you to know that you can tell him to back off. That kiss was just typical Gunner, nothing more. Don’t take it to heart.” He was back in control, his most comfortable position.

“Thanks, I guess.” I shrugged and stepped back into the room, sure the conversation had come to a disappointing end.

Although I wasn’t sure yet why I was disappointed. He’d come to clear the air. Knowing that Gunner wasn’t interested in me should’ve been great news.

“We’re going to town for some supplies. Winter is blowing in faster than we expected, so we’re going to have to start getting ready to hunker down.”

“Hunker down?” I asked.

As far as I was concerned, we had been hunkering down from the day I first arrived. I hadn’t walked past the first line of trees. Hadn’t left the property at all.

“Well, at the worst of winter we won’t be able to leave the cabin much, and getting into town is going to be impossible. You remember the rations I told you about? That’s what they’re for.”

Tobias smiled, an actual smile this time, not an awkward or an embarrassed one. It reached his eyes and made him look more human. A tiny crack in the cold and detached persona he played so well.

“For most of the winter, even trying to get to the shed is tricky. It gets pretty cold, windy, and icy. Trust me, it’s not like the tourist sites say. Not here anyway,” he explained.

I gave a wide-eyed nod, the reality of our situation finally sinking in. When winter came, it would be much harsher than the bad weather we had the night before. We’d essentially be trapped in this cabin together with no relief until it had played out.

Before I came here, I had never even gone on a wilderness camp. I knew nothing about roughing it or not having the convenience of just slipping out and going to the store to get something. But I was here now, and I was determined to stick it through. Even if it meant living through a lockdown with two intimate strangers, a flirt who kissed me just because he could, and the little girl who ran their lives.

“Anyway, I tried to convince Lexi to stay home, but she’s not having it. You know how stubborn she is,” Tobias continued. “So if you don’t mind tagging along… You could get some personal items. We’re leaving in fifteen minutes.

Tobias turned to leave before I could reply, as if he knew instinctively that I’d be ready to go in fifteen minutes. He was right. There was no way I was going into hibernation before I said goodbye to civilization and some semblance of normal life, populated with new faces and things to buy. Even if it was in Salmon.

“See you in fifteen,” I called out.

I started layering again and topped it off with a puffer jacket just in case. I was probably overdressed, but I didn’t know what to expect. This cabin was full of surprises, and I was one of them. I’d been surprising myself almost daily. Definitely not the same Brie who’d packed up from her nursing job.

I walked out and found Gunner tossing his keys in the air, nowhere close to the man I’d been afraid would bleed out on the living room floor. He was his normal boyish self, full of flirtatious charm and waiting for a chance to tease.

Like Tobias and Gideon, he was easy on the eye. With a bit of polish, he would’ve been right at home in a Ralph Lauren catalog. I pictured him dressed in a striped sweater he wouldn’t be caught dead in. Exactly the kind of man I would’ve expected to find in a cabin like this one. Shaggy hair, a scruffy, low-maintenance beard, and scuffed boots that had seen more of these woods than I ever would. He belonged here in a way Gideon and Tobias didn’t, even though they had been here for a long time, did the hard labor, and had the calloused hands to prove it. Gunner was like the woods: beautiful, an enticing escape, but there was a lot more to him than met the eye.