Mountain Man: A Contemporary Romance (Contemporary Standalone Romances Book 3) Read online

  “Has he ever tried defending himself against the rumors?” I asked as my eyes remained glued to where he was standing, and I imagined that beard tickling the sensitive flesh between my legs. Yes, it had been way too long since I’d enjoyed this man. And the truth was that he was the best lover I’d ever had. It almost annoyed me that I’d taken him for granted so long ago. Well, I wouldn’t do that again.

  “No, he never bothers with anyone. Honestly, I don’t think he cares.”

  “Thank you so much, Jane, I love my hair,” my customer commented as she ran her hands through it and smiled happily at me. She’d slipped away to the bathroom while Sandy and I were having our discussion, and I’d promptly forgotten about her.

  “It’s Janet,” I corrected her with an impatient smile. Truth was she was getting on my nerves and I wanted her to leave, so I could find out more about what Sandy knew regarding William.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said and then smiled like she was embarrassed. She paid Sandy and then walked out the door, leaving me to watch William get into his truck and start the engine.

  “Now he’ll go to the gas station and fill up his tank,” Sandy said as she faced me with a smile. “And then he’ll head to the bank before he goes back up the mountain.”

  “The bank?” I repeated, suddenly wanting to see him. Actually, scratch that, I needed to see him. Yes, I knew it was risky, but I couldn’t get rid of the need. The more I thought about it, the more I convinced myself I could follow him into the bank and just make sure I stayed out of his line of sight. I just wanted to watch that big, burly body as he walked and take in those long, lean legs and those insanely broad shoulders. “Do you want me to do the bank drop before we close?” I asked, knowing tomorrow was the day I normally went to the bank but maybe Sandy wouldn’t mind.

  She looked at me and raised her eyebrows in a knowing sort of way. “Looks like you might be interested in getting a little more up close and personal with our mountain man.” she chuckled annoyingly. “Eh?”

  “He seems interesting,” I admitted.

  She didn’t say anything but started for the cash register. She fingered through the bills and then looked back up at me. “We had a pretty good week so far so yes, that’s fine if you want to deposit it now instead of tomorrow morning.”

  “Okay,” I said as I approached her and accepted the wad of bills.

  “Now don’t go getting a crush on him because I’d say he’s bad news. Even if the rumors aren’t all the way true, he isn’t exactly the friendliest of people.”

  “I won’t,” I said, almost reluctantly.

  “Besides, I’ve heard he’s got a personal investment in the bank.”

  I stopped walking toward the door and turned back to face her. “I’m not sure I follow. A financial investment, you mean?”

  “No, honey,” Sandy chuckled as if her meaning should have been obvious. “Meaning he’s got a crush on someone in the bank.”

  “Mountain man is crushing on someone in the bank?” It sounded ridiculous when I phrased it like that, but I couldn’t imagine William being interested in anyone in this horrible town. Not when he’d had me for so long. Whoever she was, she wasn’t a concern of mine.

  “That’s what Mrs. Brown says.”

  I bobbed my head in acknowledgement. “So, what makes her say that? And who does he supposedly have this crush on?”

  “One of the tellers. She’s a real sweet girl named Delilah.”

  Delilah. Interesting. Yes, I was definitely going to go to the bank armed with this bit of info. I’d find this Delilah, so I could verify the threat level. Maybe this wasn’t going to be as simple as I’d hoped. This little setback was frustrating to say the least. The last thing I needed was some silly girl getting in the way of my plans. “Why would he like her?” I asked, not meaning to sound harsh, but there it was.

  Sandy shrugged. “She’s the only one he talks to and he waits for her line to open up whenever he goes to the bank.” Then she stopped talking and eyed me with a knowing smile. “Why are you so interested in William anyway?”

  “No reason,” I answered quickly as I started for the door again but not before reaching inside my purse and pulling out my large sunglasses. Better to try to remain as inconspicuous as I could, just in case William happened to notice me. “Just curious about the goings on in this town and… the gossip,” I answered with a wide smile that was intended to cover the real reason I was interested.

  Chapter Two

  Delilah

  The sun was starting to dip, setting low over the horizon; the craggy mountains in the distance were shadowed black against the corn yellow of the rays. I had to shield my eyes as the flares of light beamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, hitting me square in the face. Squinting, I checked the clock on the wall above the double glass doors.

  One more hour until the end of my work day. One more hour until the end of my work week. One more hour that would mean he hadn’t come into the bank for three weeks in a row now.

  I began to tap my pen against the counter as I willed the minutes to go slower in the hopes that I would get to see him… I mean, he had to come in sooner or later, right? Usually he was in here every two weeks, so he was definitely overdue.

  I straightened behind my teller’s counter and told my heart that it needed to get a grip. He was just a man who probably didn’t even know that I existed. My time would be better spent doing other things. Except I couldn’t help but wonder about where he’d been these last three weeks or why he hadn’t come in.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted one of my regular customers inching toward me. Mrs. Brown was a kind old lady who always did her best to stay ‘hip’ and ‘groovy’. These were the terms she used, endearing but from a nearly forgotten era. She was sweet though. She was also one of the nicest people in this godforsaken town.

  “Hello, Mrs. Brown, how can I help you?” I asked as I put on my best smile and faced the elderly woman who was standing in front of me. Her fire-engine red hair was piled high atop her head which meant she’d just visited Sandy at the hair salon before stopping to see us at the bank. Sandy was one of those quirky characters who didn’t fit in anywhere, least of all in this small and small-minded town. With her bohemian lifestyle, her yoga mat always tucked under one arm, and her insistent talk about chakras and energy fields, she was definitely an acquired taste.

  Mrs. Brown’s fuchsia lipstick, overly pink cheeks, and the lively blue of her eyeshadow hinted to the fact that Sandy must also have done her makeup. Sandy was…partial to “Miami” colors, as she called them.

  “I need to make a deposit,” Mrs. Brown said in her rickety voice as she released her walker and then reached a liver-spotted hand toward me, giving me a wad of bills.

  “Of course, Mrs. Brown,” I answered with another smile as I accepted her money and counted out two hundred fifty dollars. “Will this be deposited into your checking account or your savings account?”

  It shouldn’t have come as a big surprise that I knew Mrs. Brown by name. I lived in a po-dunk, small and as such, annoying town called Marshall Heights, Indiana. A place where everyone not only knew everyone else, but they made it a point to know everyone else’s business, too. A fact that had always, and would always, irritate me. Indianapolis made me forget what Marshall Heights was really like. Suffocatingly small. I knew some people found the small-town life quaint and charming. I’m sure they believed that they were happy living here, but I knew the truth. Behind a lot of fake smiles and meek demeanors, most of the townspeople were as catty, petty and vindictive as they came.

  I’d thought and hoped that when I said goodbye to this town at twenty in order to pursue my degree, it would be the last time I’d see it for a long time. Well, I guess life had other plans for me. Those other plans falling under the title of “my mom has cancer.”

  Cancer. It was this big, dreaded word. It was the formidable opponent, the one that seemed to win more times than it lost. Any way I looke
d at it, my mom needed me. I couldn’t and wouldn’t let her go through this battle alone. She was my fiercest supporter and my biggest cheerleader, and I was going to make damn sure that she had somebody in her corner. And so, day after day, I pasted on a smile and pretended like everything was going to be okay. I didn’t want her to know about the worry that plagued me when I stayed up late, sleep becoming more and more elusive.

  So here I was, a college dropout crawling back to the small town of Marshall Heights. At first, it had been daunting to find a job especially since I still didn’t have my college degree. The other part was that it couldn’t be just any job. It had to be somewhere with fixed hours and an understanding boss, because my mama might need me at a moment’s notice. Luckily, Mama was friends with the manager at the bank which meant I’d been able to land a job here pretty quickly. Thank God for small favors, because Mama’s bills were adding up and starting to prove difficult to pay even with the meager insurance that was supposedly helping.

  This job wasn’t a fancy one by any stretch of the imagination. It didn’t fit with the history degree I was shooting for, but it paid the bills, and it helped me take care of my mom. And that was all I could really ask for.

  “My checkin’ account, honey,” Mrs. Brown said as she coughed into her hand and then smiled at me. She was missing most of her teeth, but she was a kindly old lady, and she rarely inquired into my personal life which was a relief in and of itself. I only wished I could say the same about the rest of the citizens of Marshall Heights. They were like dogs with a bone when they sensed even the slightest bit of gossip. More like bloodhounds. They could smell news a mile away, and they would not relent once they got the slightest whiff.

  The second I arrived back in town, the rumors began. And there were lots of them. The most popular one was that I had gotten knocked up by a boy at school, and that he left me to fend for myself. Disgraced as I was, I’d come back home. But that rumor didn’t really last long, owing to the fact that my stomach didn’t get any bigger. Not to mention the fact that I was still a virgin and had never had a boyfriend…

  The next rumor that started was that I’d come back to take advantage of my sick mother, because it didn’t seem plausible that maybe I’d just come home to take care of my sick mother.

  “Of course,” I answered as I accepted the tattered piece of paper she handed me with her account number scrawled in beautiful calligraphy-like writing. “You have such lovely penmanship, Mrs. Brown.”

  The old lady laughed and waved away my compliment in an embarrassed sort of way, but the look of pride beamed across her features all the same. “Ah, thank you, Delilah,” she said. “How’s your mama doin’, honey?”

  I sighed as I thought about the cancer. “She’s fighting through it, Mrs. Brown,” I said with a quick nod. “She’s keeping a good attitude about it. Thank you for asking.”

  I didn’t like to go into too many details, because it filled me with a certain sadness and anger at the unfairness of life all at once. Mrs. Brown wouldn’t pry though. I knew that much, and that’s why I offered her this little bit of information. She was one of the few who asked about people because she genuinely cared not because she wanted to be the first in line to dish out the news. Besides, Mrs. Brown and my mother were friends. The kind who used to sit and cackle on the front porch like a bunch of teenagers before I left for college.

  “Mae is a strong one an’ always has been,” Mrs. Brown answered with an emphatic nod. “She’ll beat this, mark my words. I believe the good Lord has more in store for your sweet mother, Delilah.”

  I certainly hoped so. I had no one else in this world save my mom, and I was nowhere near ready to send her off into the forever. No. She had so much more living left to do. I wanted to make her proud when I graduated from college, and I wanted her by my side when I wed the man of my dreams (I needed to meet him first, but as of yet, that was just a minor glitch in my plans) and then I couldn’t wait to see her holding her very first grandchild. Of course, there would be lots more to follow…

  Well, those were my daydreams anyway. In reality, it looked like I was destined to end up an old and single maid with a legion of cats.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Brown,” I said as I finished her transaction and handed her a receipt. “I know she’s strong. The strongest person I know. I just hope I can be strong enough for her.”

  “You will be, honey. The good Lord gives us the strength we need when we least expect it. You just hang in there, darlin’, and don’t forget, I’m right here if you need anything.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You found yourself a fellow yet?” Mrs. Brown asked as she peered down her long, thin nose and eyed me narrowly. I frowned.

  “Not yet, Mrs. Brown.” I didn’t add the fact that I sincerely doubted I’d find a “fellow” in Marshall Heights. At the thought of the eligible bachelors available to me in this town, I decided I’d sooner resign myself to a life of asexuality. Well, with the exception of one man. But he wasn’t exactly the settling-down type. And he also didn’t live in Marshall Heights, so maybe it was a moot point anyway.

  Not that it should matter what I thought of him one way or another. It wasn’t just that he was out of my league; he just wasn’t an option. At all. For anyone. Least of all me.

  “Buck up, honey,” Mrs. Brown said with a quick nod as if my not having nabbed a “fellow” yet was a failing on my part. “With that beautiful face and that hourglass figure of yours, it’s just a matter of time before some handsome man sweeps you off your feet.”

  Apparently, looks were exactly what one needed to land the right fellow and the coveted ring on the finger. Why think about career, drive, or ambition, or kindness or substance when most men just wanted someone to warm their bed and cook their meals? Yep, there was definitely a reason I was still single.

  “Thanks, Mrs. Brown,” I said, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. “You have yourself a great rest of the day.”

  It was an awkward conversation, but I didn’t feel like having a drawn-out one about how I didn’t really need a man, and that even if I wanted one, I had no intention of relying on my ‘feminine wiles’ as Mrs. Brown would call them.

  Mrs. Brown nodded and patted my hand before folding her receipt and placing it in her jam-packed and overflowing purse. Then leaning into her walker, she started the trek back to the double doors…something which took a long while. As soon as she reached the door, she leaned forward and started for the handle just as it opened as if on its own accord.

  And there he was.

  Chapter Three

  Delilah

  My heart immediately flip-flopped in my chest and then started beating so fast, I started to feel dizzy.

  Mrs. Brown appeared startled as she craned her neck up to look into the face of William Black. He didn’t smile but simply nodded to her and continued to hold the door as she made her way out of it, all the while gawking at him in obvious surprise. Even though Mrs. Brown was clearly surprised, her reaction wasn’t so surprising. No, it was the same reaction that characterized everyone whenever William Black came into town. Everyone stared, everyone watched his every move, and everyone gossiped.

  William Black was a bit of a notorious celebrity in our little corner of the world.

  Not that he had done anything to earn that reputation, not to the best of my knowledge anyway. Yet, the vicious rumors persisted and swirled around him like some kind of plague which kept people both intrigued and terrified. Of course, it didn’t help that he was huge or that his middle name should have been intimidating.

  Interestingly enough, he never bothered to correct the rumors.

  “He’s even furrier than the last time we saw him,” Donna, my coworker, whispered to me as she continued the transaction with the old man in front of her, who was also staring at William. “Pretty soon his metamorphosis into a werewolf will be complete.”

  Donna had spent a long time nursing a crush over William Black. Mostly it involved her sighing a
nd fantasizing about those big hands of his, but eventually, after batting her eyelashes at him so hard I was surprised she didn’t get whiplash, she gave up. She claimed it was because the rumors surrounding him were of utmost concern, but in reality, it was probably because he never paid her the time of day. In fact, I don’t think he’d ever actually even noticed her.

  “That’s a big word there, Donna,” I muttered back to her, irritated that the only things that came out of anyone’s mouth where William was concerned were bad things. “Careful you don’t trip over it.”

  Donna didn’t answer, but I could see her rolling her eyes in my peripheral vision. I didn’t care. Donna could make fun of William Black all day long, but it didn’t change my opinion of him. In my mind, he hadn’t done anything to warrant any of the stares or the negative comments that always surrounded him. The only interactions I’d had with William had been of the friendly and polite sort which led me to believe he wasn’t anywhere near as bad as people made him out to be. Especially seeing as how he’d just opened and held the door for old Mrs. Brown.

  That was a bigger testament to his character than people wanted to believe. It meant he was thoughtful and considerate. In fact, William had a plethora of attributes that no one seemed to notice, or maybe they just didn’t care to. The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that if the mystery of William Black was ever solved, he would no longer be the punching bag for Marshall Heights.

  But nobody seemed to want that. No, it was easier to make their own assumptions about him rather than take the time to learn the truth. It was something I wished I could do. But it was also something that was completely ludicrous to even consider. Why? Because William Black was about as antisocial as they came. He kept completely to himself. As far as I knew, he lived alone and had no friends. I don’t even think he had acquaintances.

  But as to him being furrier than the last time we’d seen him, nearly three weeks ago, Donna did have a point there. His beard was wooly and maybe three inches past his chin while his pitch-black hair was so long, it graced the lowest point of his neck. Wearing his blue-and-green plaid shirt underneath his worn brown leather jacket, his faded blue jeans and his enormous leather boots, he looked like a mountain man and then some. Which I supposed was fitting in a way because that’s exactly what he was.