Or what was left of it.
From this distance, I couldn’t see the damage. It just looked like a house, sitting peacefully in the valley. But I knew the truth. I knew everything I’d lost last night.
“You can see my house from here,” I said softly.
Hall went still beside me. “Yeah.”
“Is that how you knew about the fire? You saw the flames?”
A pause. Then, “Yeah. I saw.”
I turned to look at him, this quiet mountain man who’d saved my life. “Thank you. I don’t know how to thank you enough. If you hadn’t seen… if you hadn’t come…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.
“I’ll always come,” he said, and the words settled something restless inside me.
We ate in comfortable silence, watching the sun climb higher over the mountains. The food was simple but delicious, and I realized I was starving.
Hall ate methodically, his eyes on the horizon. I studied his profile while he wasn’t looking. He had a slightly crooked nose, and he furrowed his brow when he was thinking.
He was handsome. Really handsome, in a rugged, unpolished way.
It felt like fate, as if the universe had put him on this mountain above my farmhouse, just so he could be there when I needed him.
I knew that was ridiculous. But he was kind and strong and had carried me up a mountain in his arms. And right now all I could think was that this man would fixeverythingthat was wrong in my life.
Even though my house had just burned down throwing my whole world into a tailspin, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasexactlywhere I was supposed to be.
Abeline, and the people in it were the farthest they’d ever been from my mind.
Chapter 6
Hall
I’d never brought a woman home before.
Not to this cabin. Not ever.
And now Cassidy sat across from me on my back deck, wearing my flannel shirt and my socks, her hair a wild tangle of chestnut waves, and something in my chest felt like it was cracking open.
She lookedrighthere. Like she belonged in that chair eating the breakfast I’d made with my own hands.
Which was crazy. Absolutely crazy.
I barely knew this woman. I’d watched her from a distance for months, sure, but that wasn’tknowingsomeone. That was just… observing. Like watching wildlife. Harmless.
Except it didn’t feel harmless anymore. Not with her sitting three feet away from me, her soft curves barely hidden by the flimsy nightgown.
I tried to keep my eyes averted, but it was difficult with her nipples hard and poking delicately against the thin fabric. I wanted to close the distance between us and tug that cloth down to inspect them more closely.
My cock stirred at the thought, and I shifted in my chair, grateful for the table between us.
“I should call work,” she said, reaching for her phone. “And let them know what happened.”
I nodded, watching her as she dialed.
Had I done that so I could watch her all day? Study the way she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. The way she bit her lower lip while she waited for someone to answer. The way her breasts pressed against the flannel when she took a deep breath, making her nipples poke harder at the fabric?
I was a damn fool.
