Maybe not the glowing review I was hoping for, but liking the geography was a good start.
“How’d you get into sewing?” He wasn’t looking at me when he asked the question, but I was thrilled he was keeping the conversation going.
“My mormor—grandma—taught me how to sew. She had this huge room with six different sewing machines and any supplies you could possibly dream of. She left them all to me when she passed away.”
“Is that what you always wanted to do?”
I shrugged. “I liked sewing stuff for my friends and moms, but I didn’t think it could be an actual business. I’d planned to enroll in community college after I graduated, but I didn’t like school and didn’t get great grades. When a storefront became available on Main Street a week after I graduated, I just went for it.”
I braced myself for his judgment.
“Sounds like you made it work.”
I swallowed hard, a smile tugging at my lips. “Yeah, I think so.”
“You still like it?”
The standard answer I always gave was on the tip of my tongue, but that’s not what came out. “I don’t know.”
He arched an eyebrow, prompting me to continue. “At first, I wanted to focus on custom clothes, but tailoring seemed like a safer and more straightforward way to earn money.”
He frowned. “But it’s not what you want?”
I shrugged, my chest tight. “I’m not really sure what I want anymore. I should have figured out my life by now, but I’m still just living in my hometown and running my small shop.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” he grunted, and it filled me with warmth. My cheeks grew even more heated when his gruff words made me perfume.
A low growl rumbled through his chest but was quickly cut off. He got up and moved to the window…to get away from my scent? The rain was still coming down hard and the pattering on the roof created a calm, soothing rhythm.
“I didn’t even know it was supposed to storm today,” I said.
He turned to face me. “Why were you out on the mountain without checking the forecast?”
I shrank back in my seat, fixing my eyes on the frayed edge of the quilt. If he had a needle and thread, I could reinforce the edge so it didn’t fray further.
Wilder sat down again, but this time he was on the side of the couch closest to me. “Sorry. That was too harsh.”
“Harsh but true. I should have paid more attention.”
He sighed as he fluffed the pillows supporting my leg and adjusted the placement of the ice pack. My ankle barely hurt anymore, but I would happily sprain it again if it meant he would keep taking care of me.
“You could have gotten seriously injured if I hadn’t come along. Did you spend the night on the mountain?”
“Yeah. I left yesterday morning and camped overnight.”
“Why were you camping? Doesn’t exactly seem like your thing.”
“You’re going to think I’m stupid.”
“Try me.”
I chewed my lip. Was I really going to tell this stranger what I hadn’t told my friends and family? Maybe I would regret it, but I just wanted someone to know.
“I just turned twenty-nine and my life isn’t what I thought it would be. I feel kind of lost.” I shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal, but the bitter edge to my scent gave me away. I hadn’t brought my scent blocker with me camping since I didn’t anticipate the wholesexy mountain alpha rescue, but I wished I had. Growing up, I’d loved the idea that my alphas would be able to sense my emotions through my scent, but in practice, it was pretty embarrassing. Especially since Wilder wasn’t my alpha.
“I saw an omega online talk about hiking and it seemed so empowering. I’ve never gone camping before, but I thought connecting with nature could help me, you know, find myself.”
God, it sounded so ridiculous when I said it out loud. After a miserable, sleepless night, I’d crawled out of my half-collapsed tent—the tent I’d abandoned on the mountain when the storm intensified. I’d tried to refold it to get it into my backpack, but after fifteen minutes of battle in the downpour, I’d given up.
