It wasn't ideal, but I nodded. "Thanks again for everything." I couldn't get out of the medical building fast enough, and when I burst through the entrance door, I noticed I was alone.
"Don't wait for us or anything," Rosalee mumbled under her breath. "She's totally easy to carry with paperwork, a diaper bag, and her carrier."
"Shit. Sorry." I took the baby in her carrier to relieve the burden.
"Don't worry," she sighed with a smile. "It is my job, after all." To prove her point, Rosalee sat in the back of my truck with Violet.
Dammit, she threw me off with every interaction. As much as I liked that she didn't bow to my every whim, I realized I was out of practice in dealing with people—with women—who weren't courting my attention. "I'm sorry, Rosalee. I'm out of practice dealing with people." She said nothing in response to that, buther gaze stared a hole through my face in the rearview mirror. "How about I take you both out for breakfast to show I'm not a complete monster?"
"Sure," she shrugged and averted her gaze.
Dammit. She was a nice woman and didn't deserve my bad attitude. I decided to take her to my favorite place to eat when I ventured off the mountain. Belles & Boots was your quintessential small-town diner, complete with fifties-style uniforms, a jukebox just before the bathrooms, and freshly made pies every single day.
"Wow, this place is a throwback." Rosalee looked around with wide eyes and a rueful smile. "You eat here?"
I nodded. "Not often, but only because I don't leave the mountain very often."
She nodded and said nothing as we settled into a booth by the window, keeping her attention on Violet while I checked out the menu even though I knew exactly what I wanted.
"Mr. Holloway, it's so good to see you here in town!"
I pasted on the smile I only used in town these days and extended my arm to take the mayor's hand. "It's good to be here, Mayor Miller. How are local politics treating you?"
He shrugged. "Good days and bad, but more good than bad, which is all we can hope for."
"Exactly." The old man was more like Santa Claus than a mayor, which only made me like him more than the average person.
Too bad he wasn't the only person to stop at the table. Several people came by to say hello, to remind me about my various charity obligations, and a few stopped by to impress me with investment opportunities.
The waitress came to take our orders, and when she was gone, Rosalee looked at me with humor glinting in her golden-brown eyes. "Are you famous or something?" Her gaze bouncedaround the room as she finally noticed what I had the moment we stepped inside the diner.
All eyes were on us.
"This is a mountain town, and plenty of people end up lost or stuck up there, and I'm usually the one to rescue them." That was most of the truth anyway.
Rosalee accepted the answer easily, her gaze glued to the menu, alternating between the list of menu items and Violet's curious gaze. "So, did you love outdoorsy stuff as a child? Is that how you ended up doing mountain rescues for a living?"
"What little boy doesn't love to rip and run outside?" It wasn't much of an answer, and Rosalee's disappointment shone through vividly.
"Never mind."
I reached out for her and stopped abruptly. "I told you it's been a long time since I've done this with anyone other than my brother."
She shrugged as if it didn't matter to her. "Okay, how about you just tell me what you want me to know?"
That was a good option, honestly, and I appreciated it, but that just put me on the spot, and I had no idea what to say and what to hold back.
"What kind of training did you have to do for a job like yours?" she asked around an annoyed sigh. "Did you have to spend a month in the wilderness with nothing but a stick and a lighter, and whoever comes back is officially Mountain Man of the Century?"
Her ridiculous question teased a loud laugh out of me. The sound startled Violet as much as it shocked me, and a few more sets of eyes turned our way. "Not exactly. I did always love the outdoors, but after high school I went to college, earning my undergraduate degree as well as an MBA." Ignoring the surprise in her eyes, I continued the story before I changed my mind. "Idid that whole thing, hated it, and used my Mountain Man of the Century credentials to secure this job."
Her lips twitched, but she held back the smile. "Hilarious."
"Thanks," I chuckled. "I, too, find myself hilarious."
Rosalee rolled her eyes. "Seems like a very cool job, but it must be hard only seeing people when they're scared and hurt."
I never really thought of my job in that way, but it was completely accurate. "I'm just there to keep them calm and get them to safety. That's what I have to focus on in order to achieve that objective." Her words gave me pause and made me look at her a little differently. Rosalee didn't say things just to make conversation. She looked at me with interest, as if she were genuinely interested in what I had to say.
