“Hey, Tina,” Stone said with more easy familiarity. “How’s Danny?”
“Oh, I’m not seeing him anymore.” Cocking her head, she eyeballed Stone up and down, as if maybe he was a twelve course meal and she was starving. “I signed up for another rock climbing class. Requested you.”
He laughed softly and shook his head. “Cam takes those now.”
“Yeah? Well, maybe you could make an exception?”
“The schedule’s pretty set.”
“Well damn then.”
“An ex?” Emma asked dryly in the next aisle.
He slipped his hands into his pockets. “Sort of. We went out once.”
Uh huh. Telling herself she didn’t care, she headed up the frozen aisle toward the checkout. A beautiful dark brunette in a white tank top and a black skirt was in the middle of the aisle inspecting two different bags of frozen peas. Surprise, surprise, she nodded at Stone, though without a smile. “Hey, Wilder.”
“Serena.”
“Tell Annie her pies are ready.”
“Will do.”
“And tell your brother I hope Katie-the-new-girlfriend has dumped his sorry ass.”
“She’s the fiancé now,” Stone told her.
“Yeah, I know. With any luck, she’ll wise up in time.” The woman gave Emma a long, speculative look, then strode off.
Stone turned to Emma who shook her head. “Are you three the only guys in town or something?” she asked.
“Nah.” He smiled a little wryly. “But somehow we have this reputation.”
“Somehow, huh?”
“It goes back several generations.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. My great, great, great, great grandfather hung out with Jesse James. He ended up six feet under after a bar fight. That was the beginning of the legend. Or so they say.”
“The legend?”
“That the Wilder men will never amount to much.”
She watched him lift a broad shoulder as if that didn’t hurt in the least, but something in his eyes gave him away, and her amusement faded. “That’s quite a legacy to have to live with.”
“We’ve managed to do just that for generations.”
“How about this generation?”
He slanted her a glance, as if surprised she’d even bothered to ask, but she knew a little bit about living up to expectations. Her mother, as wonderful as she’d been, had pinned her hopes and dreams for the elusive “great life” on her only child and that hadn’t been easy to face.
“Still waiting on the final vote,” Stone said.
Interesting. They headed to the checkout, with Stone nodding to two more people along the way.
“Everyone knows everyone here,” she murmured, unloading her cart, staring at the candy bars above the row of batteries on the last-minute stand above the conveyor belt. “I feel like I’m in Mayberry.”
“Yeah. I call it Mayberry with Attitude. But as for feeling like you don’t fit in, that could be fixed.”
“How?”
He met her gaze. “We could go out.”
“Out,” she repeated, her pulse kicking into gear.
“Get to know each other. Have fun.”
“How would that help?”
“Well…” He eyed her as he rubbed his jaw, the sound of his stubble doing something funny deep inside her belly. “Maybe it’d help you relax a little. If you were less uptight, maybe people would find you more approachable.”
Hard to dispute the truth, but didn’t make it easier to swallow. To take the moment she needed, she grabbed some batteries instead of the chocolate she really wanted. AAA’s, not on sale. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s a good idea. The having fun thing.”
“No?”
“No.” She grabbed more batteries. “It’s nothing personal.”
His eyes revealed the skepticism of that statement.
“It’s just that I’m not going to be here long, and—” More batteries, because they were helping so much.
He eyed her cart with wry amusement. “You either have a lot of very little flashlights, or a busy vibrator.”
She looked down at the six packs of batteries and grimaced.
“You know, I have a better way to relax,” Stone murmured in her ear, his voice low and husky, and dammit, hypnotizing.
“The batteries are for my…” What? They were for what? She was drawing a big, fat blank.
He just raised a curious brow.
And she deflated. “Oh, be quiet.” In turn to his soft chuckle, she put the batteries back. It was time—past time—for her to blow that popsicle stand, cute mountain bums and all.
After a night of heavy rain, Stone and TJ took a group kayaking down the Cascade River. It was Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, mostly because their guests had lied about their kayaking skills, and also because the rains had the river rushing and swollen.
Taking a break from keeping their clients alive, Stone and TJ pulled everyone off the river for a late afternoon lunch. Their guests stretched out, enjoying some sun and Annie’s sandwiches.
TJ and Stone sat a short distance away, trying to recover when Cam called Stone’s cell. He listened to their complaints and laughed from 7500 miles away. “What do you mean you’re exhausted? You going to let a couple of clients kick your collective asses?”
“You have no idea,” Stone muttered.