Whether he was or not, wasn’t really the point. I was fresh out of a complicated relationship. Diving into another one would be insane. And it would be complicated; we both thought we owned the same property after all.
Sex could just be sex. It didn’t have to lead to anything more than an orgasm and a wet spot. Eventually, the sex would just be a footnote in my story of starting over. He wanted to be alone, and I couldn’t handle complicated.
With that reality check in mind, I slid out from under his armand headed to the kitchen in search of coffee.
That was where I encountered a problem. I forgot I’d drunk the last of it the day before. I needed to get some groceries. It was the first thing I would have done after dropping off my stuff if I hadn’t been surprised by Grant in the kitchen.
Was it weird to go to town and come back with a car full of stuff? We didn’t yet know who the cabin belonged to, and the fact that we’d gone from consoling each other to fighting to working together to fucking didn’t really straighten things out either. I chewed my lip.
“What’s wrong?” Grant said, stepping into the kitchen. His hair was mussed with sleep, and he hadn’t yet buttoned his shirt. My clit gave a hard pulse between my thighs. I wanted to push him back into the bedroom, lay him down and repeat everything we had done the night before.
But not without caffeine.
“Out of coffee.”
His spine straightened. “Get in the truck. We’ll go to town.”
His tone didn’t leave room for argument, and I was desperate for caffeine and breakfast anyway. Besides, getting out of this cabin would probably do me some good. The world still spun out there somewhere. This weekend would end, and the reality of only one of us living here would eventually intrude on our lives.
Grant fed and watered Tuck, and I scrambled into some clothes before we got in the truck and headed for the main road to town.
Words likemain roadandtownwere a little misleading. Iron Peak wasn’t a big place—it couldn’t be. The town was wedged between mountains, so there was nowhere to grow.
People looking for a slower pace found it.
People looking to hide from the world, like Grant, I assumed, found it too.
Watching the trees whip by out the window made me want to know his story. It was none of my business and maybe I was digging myself a bigger hole by getting to know him, but that didn’t stop me from asking the question.
“You mentioned before you moved up here for work?” I asked.
He tightened his hands on the steering wheel. “Yep.”
“That is a great story. The art of storytelling is lost to most, but you—”
He laughed, but it was strained. “Logging. Okay? I do selective logging. I don’t cut down big swaths of trees. I cut the most profitable ones. That way I can work by myself.”
“Seems like a good career given your personality.”
He shot me a look. “It is.”
I nodded and looked out the window. His past was clearly a sore subject for him, and I didn’t want to lose the easy way we’d gotten along the night before. After a minute, he huffed out a breath.
“I was raised around here. Some of the time anyway. Single mom. Never knew my dad. She passed when I was just out of high school. I moved around a bit, tried a few things, but ultimately ended up back here.”
“And that’s when you met Walt?”
He nodded. “Father I never had.”
I licked my lips, knowing he wouldn’t want to see pity on my face. “I never spent much time in town when I would visit. Where are we headed?”
“Ridge Diner. Not exactly a coffee shop, but it’s the best place in town to eat.” He was talking about food, but hedidn’t look happy about it.
A few minutes later he pulled into a dirt parking lot.
A bell jingled above the door as we walked in, and every eye in the place swiveled in our direction. I suddenly understood the tension in Grant’s face. If you didn’t like people, this was not the place to be.
Chapter Fourteen
