We’re still too far apart, but I don’t want to take her down yet. I need to get this said. Need to be sure she understands what she has done to me. What she has done for me. It might have been just a few days shacked up in the cabin to her, but it was a helluva lot more to me.
“I gave up on life after the fire. I could have ended it to be with them, but I was a coward. Truth is it took more strength not to give up. Not to end my life out of some bullshit belief I was being sanctimonious. I couldn’t know you were out there, on your way to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“You came up the mountain for research you said. To find out about the type of men who hide away up on this mountain, yeah? To find out why we wound up here. Why we stay here if we’re so alone, so broken, so starved for something more. Because we all gave up on life for one reason or another. We all need a reason to continue. A reason to try. That’s what you are, Piper. You’re my reason. I might have saved you from being stuck in that tree, but you saved me from being stuck up here for the rest of my life. You saved me, Piper. You came up here for me. And you’re going to stay up here for me.”
Piper stares down at me, the wind whipping her hair, the way she is settled in the tree making her look like a beautiful, ethereal pixie. She is not stuck there. Just as she was not stuck there the first day we met. Not at the tree, but up in that window,looking down on us. I was the one who was stuck before she found me. Stuck in a life of emptiness.
“You going to save me again, doc? Will you save me when I get chased up a tree again or lost in the woods?”
“Hell, yes, I will. I will spend the rest of time saving you, if you let me, sweetheart. Come here, let’s go home now, yeah?”
There is a brief moment of her hesitating. Her arms reach out for me and I reach for her. With the rain still coming down, she wraps her soaked frame around me. There is such trust in her embrace, in the way she gives herself to me. It was there that first day, and I believe it always will be.
Because I might be saving her from being stuck in a tree—again—but she saved us both by coming up this mountain.
Chapter Ten
Piper
Sometimes lightning does strike twice.
Being carried into a cozy cabin by a muscled mountain man for the second time is surreal. The cabin is cleared of the smoke smell from earlier but my heart still thunders as I recall the fire. How could I have been that clueless? That reckless? I risked everything with him to play cute with some cookies.
“At least I didn’t burn the cookies,” I murmur as he sets me down by the fireplace.
Pace chuckles, shaking off the rain that soaks us both. It isn’t until he starts stripping my clothes off that I recognize I am shivering. My entire body is ice cold, shuddering from the cold I spent the last few hours sitting in. I am warmed when he draws me close, cradling me against his chest.
“Explain how you wound up in a tree again, sweetheart.”
Sighing, I let him scoop me up in that hero-like way he does, clinging to him as he carries me to the chair by the fireplace. It’s going again so it will warm us both in no time. Deciding I’ve got a better idea, I snuggle into him more, settled against his firm chest, pulling the fluffy blanket down to cover us both.
We sit quietly by the crackling fire for a long time, no need for words. Pace’s skin is warm against mine despite us both being damp from the downpour. I snuggle closer, arms going tight around his broad shoulders as I play back all that has happened with us. All because I needed a meet cute for my story and saw the perfect specimen on the corner one day.
“I did come looking for you, Pace. I saw you that day, while trying to come up with a storyline for Bettie Buttons. I was stuck. Stuck in life, stuck with my work, stuck inside my own head. I came up here because I saw you and I just had to know. I walkedup here like a fool and then that damn rabbit,” I laugh as I pull back to smile down at him.
“Was it really a rabbit or were you just being cute?”
Laughing, I flush as I settle on his lap. “No, it really was a bunny. But it had horns. What are those called? Horns, fluffy ears, little furballs?”
“Babe, you can’t be serious. A jackalope? That’s not even a real thing.”
We laugh together as I shrug and fall against his chest. He kisses my jaw, down my throat, and then his tongue flicks at my pulse point. My hips start to rock on his lap and I feel his hardness between my thighs. I pull back again, staring down at him in the darkness of the cabin.
“I never should have left that way. I got spooked, Pace. I…told you I always tried to get out of the way. Tried to not make noise or catch any attention. Bettie does that for me. Bettie Buttons is my alter ego, all the loud, brave parts. I want to be more like her. Here, with you. I want your attention, I want to be in your way. I want you to come home to me with the stove on fire and know you’re going to save the day.”
Pace smiles at me tenderly, cradling my face in his rough hands. “I will always save you, from fire or a jackalope, baby. I promise. I know why you left, but I want to make it clear: being without you would be the tragedy. Not the kitchen catching fire or you burning cookies.”
Smiling at him, I nod as I settle closer once again. “Funny thing is, the cookies turned out perfect. I just…I fell asleep with Smokie and…oh! She saved me too! She drug me outside when the stove was on fire. You’re both heroes,” I exclaim, turning to smile at the dog, curled up on the floor by the fire.
“She…she did….” He trails off as he sits up to stare at the dog too. “She tried to save my sister too. But she was too little to get her out.”
“Oh, honey,” I coo gently, cradling him to me as I see tears sliding down his cheeks. “I cannot imagine the pain you have handled all alone for so long. I told you my father…he just walked out one day, said mother was too much. Too much for him to handle three of her. That’s why I tried to always be good, to stay in the shadows, not call attention to myself.”
“Look at me,” he commands gently, his hands cradling my face again. “You’re not too much, Piper. You’re sweet and kind. Funny and patient. You’re so talented. If someone thought you were too much, they were wrong. Totally fucking wrong. I can’t get enough of you, sweetheart.”
Something inside of me flutters at his words. My heart beats differently. Any of the rough, raw pieces inside of me, the ones that held me back for so long, that kept me hiding behind Bettie Buttons, they go soft. They will take time to smooth over completely, time to heal, but with him there, I know it will happen.
