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I start making my way through the crowd. As I move, people randomly reach out and shake my hand, wave at me, or say hello.
“Hi, hello, thank-you-for-coming!” My entire mouth feels like it’s full of superficial greetings and comments, but that’s fine. It’s more than enough for me. It’s enough to get me through this moment.
Just a few more hours, and then I can go home and finish packing because tomorrow, I’m going on an adventure.
Tomorrow, I’m going to go lose myself in the forest.
Tomorrow is the day when I finally get to walk away from the city, at least for a little while, and just find some peace and solitude.
Tomorrow is the day when everything changes.
Chapter One
Heath
“Come get a drink with us.”
The slender blonde receptionist is lovely. She’s cute, perky, and helpful, but she’s also not even sort-of my type. She happens to be the object of affection for half of the real estate office. There would be no quicker way to cause a ruckus in town than to take up Elizabeth’s offer of a drink, even if it is as part of a group.
“I’d love to,” I tell her honestly. “But tonight’s no good.”
One of the realtors behind her visibly relaxes, and I nod my head toward him. His lips cock up in a little smirk. Yeah, we understand each other. I have no interest in moving in on his woman. Whether he’s mated to the girl or not, he’s got his eye on her, and that’s as good as being unavailable in my book.
“Too bad,” she smiles. “Maybe another time.”
I don’t say anything. Instead, I nod and turn, heading out the door with my bright red folder in hand. It’s hard to believe that I finally acquired the rest of the land I wanted. It took me a long time, but I’m finally the owner of nearly fifty acres.
It’s all mine.
I shake my head and head through the tiny parking lot and to my car. Then I climb inside, start the engine, take off back into the mountains.
Back toward my home.
The drive takes less than half an hour and when I pull into the narrow parking lot in front of my cabin, I breathe a sigh of relief.
“Home sweet home,” I mutter, and I get out of the car. Spot, my blue heeler, sees me from the window of my little cabin, and I hurry up to open the door and let him outside. Spot jumps up into my arms and I hold the little guy. He was the runt of his litter and even now, as a full grown adult, he’s small.
“Good to see you, boy,” I tell him.
I mean it, too.
Heading inside, I leave the door open so Spot can come in after he runs around for a few minutes. It’s cool outside: not cold, though. The weather is perfect for leaving the door open on a night like this. The sun is starting to set, but it’s cold enough that there are no mosquitoes: no bugs. It’s just me and Spot tonight.
That’s just the way I like it.
I start frying up some meat for dinner and open up a biscuit mix. Most of my food comes fresh. I grow just about everything I eat. Well, I grow it or I kill it. Either one. Biscuits, though...those are one thing I’ve never been able to give up.
I’ve been in the mountains for over a year now, but biscuits are still a comfort food to me. Even after everything that happened to me, I still crave that. Having something delicious, tasty, and easy to make just somehow helps all of the stress and the tension just float away.
It’s a wonderful feeling, really.
It’s the best.
Once I’m done cooking and I’ve set the table, I call Spot inside for the night, close the door, and sit down to eat. He starts chowing down on his own dinner over in the corner, but I take my time. I’ve got a new romance novel by Terri Jones to enjoy. I picked it up while I was in town. No, it might not be hyper-masculine to enjoy reading romance books, but I don’t really care.
Losing myself in a book, just as I lose myself in baking, is a wonderful feeling.
Besides, I’ve had enough stress and pain in my life. I don’t need to prove how masculine and manly I am by using my free time to do things like watch war movies or go camping. Not that there’s anything wrong with either of those things. It’s just that for me, books and food mean a whole lot more than war.
