The hermit.
The man who is fine not seeing anyone for weeks at a time, longer if possible. Now I’m ruined. And it was Camila’s fault.Completely.
I shake my head and sit in the chair I’ve brought closer to the window and listen to her caterwauling, not avoiding the inevitable grin that appears on my face, when suddenly, everything went quiet. And dark.
Shit.
I pull my curtain open and look toward the direction of her place. It’s eerily quiet, and all the lights on the inside are out as well. The snow must have taken out the power. I pull my phone from my pocket to turn on the flashlight feature and move through my place to where I have an emergency kit stored and ready to go.
But instead of lighting the candles, I toss the banana bread my brother Elidropped off and a bottle of bourbon I hardly touch. All without overthinking why the hell I was making a basket of goodies. I only drop the stuff on the ground for a moment while I put my coat on and a beanie over my head before stepping out of my place and straight into the cold to get to Camila, hoping to fucking god she’s okay.
2
CAMILA MENDES
“Power outage,” I mutter to myself as I look around my new place.
I’ve been here for a month, and it still feels like someone is going to show up and kick me out. When the attorney handling my uncle’s estate showed up at my doorstep, I could have sworn the whole thing was some kind of weird prank.
But it hadn’t been.
Life was funny. It had a way of showing you curveballs you could never have predicted. . Living in the mountains after having been born and raised in a small desert torn, raised by a single mom who had worked way too hard until the day she had been taken too early. A week before my twenty-first birthday, I’d buried my mom when a drunk driver decided that getting hammered and rushing to pick up his dog from the groomers was more important than calling an Uber.
My beautiful, hardworking mom, who had just enrolled to go back to school, had been crossing the street to reach the bus stop when the guy turned the corner. Never bothering to even blink, nor stop.
I’ve been all alone after that.
Alone in the big, bad world and I wasn’t too proud to admit, I’d been lost too. I ahdnt even known my mom had a brother. One whom, when she was kicked out as a teenaged single, unwed mom, she’d lost touch with and had never tried to contact him in fear he would think all she wanted was his money.
He somehow found out about her passing and kept tabs on me. Then, when his time came, according to his attorney, he left me a very generous nest egg and a beautiful property in one of the sweetest small mountain towns in the world.
Moonlit Pines was the perfect place for me to start fresh.
Not to mention the hot, grumpy mountain man neighbor, whose property faces mine, wasn’t too bad to look at. Not that he feels the same. The man hardly says two words without grunting. I’m pretty sure Reed doesn’t likes me. But that’s okay, I’m not for everyone. It didnt make him any less eye candy for me though.
I shiver, unsure if it’s the sudden chill from the heater going out or the thought of my tall, dark, and broody, sexy-as-sin neighbor. Either way, I can’t sit around. A power outage is something I’m not prepared for, but I have a couple of candles in my bedroom.
I look at my phone and wince.Great!I have ten percent of battery left. That isn’t good. I’m terrible at charging my phone before it completely dies and seriously have to get better.
My best friend, Stella, was always on me about that. My heart tugs at me as I use the flashlight feature to stand, and walk toward my bedroom. I miss her. She’s still in our desert town about an hour away from Los Angeles. She promised she’ll make time and save up to come visit before summer comes. I offered to pay for her trip, but my beautiful friend is too proud. She wouldn’t take any of it.
But she’s my person.
My family.
Which means I’m seriously tempted to just buy and send her a ticket. Like me, she can work from wherever as long as she has Wi-Fi. Though with the possibility of power outages, I definitely need to invest in a generator. Maybe I can ask Reed to go with me into town to get one. Not that he leaves his place all that often from what I’ve noticed
I wasn’t spying, I’m just an observant girl. I giggle at myself. I can almost hear Stella’s eyes roll if I ever say that out loud around her. She already thinks I’m half-stalking my mountain man neighbor. I grab the three-wick candle and a lighter when a knock sounds, and I freeze in place.
Shit.
“Relax,” I whisper to myself, trying to calm my suddenly scaredy-cat heart, “it’s probably just Reed.” The thought shoots a thrill through me.
There is something about the man that calls. A pull and an attraction I cant deny. I love talking his ear off just to watch him stare at me and hear his grunts. But every so often, his lips twitch into an almost smile that leaves me aching for more.
For the whole shebang!
A man has never made me work that hard for a smile. But I am determined to get there.
