Tess
“Nobody move.”
I hold my breath as my fingers brush against soft, dark fur, watching as Reginald allows me to scratch gently behind his ears.
“I can’t believe I don’t have a camera,” Jeannie says in a hushed tone behind me.
I give the surly cat another scritch, a little more aggressively this time. “Months, Jeannie. I’ve known this asshole for months, and this is the first time he’s let me pet him.”
He blinks at me, looking bored, and I try for a smoothing motion of my hand down his back, which he also allows to happen.
“It’s a miracle,” Jeannie laughs.
“Hey, where do you want this stuff?”
I curse under my breath as Jarred’s loud arrival from the other room scares off my would-be friend. Reginald pounces away only to look back like he’s mocking me.
“Damn it,” I huff. “You scared him.”
Jarred rolls his eyes when I turn to glare at him. “That cat’s just mean, Tess. You have to give it up.”
“He likes me,” human Cat pipes up, wandering into the giant den with a cookie tray. “You just have to give him food. He’s a sucker for tuna.”
“So where do you want this?” Jarred asks again.
I point bitterly toward the coffee table, and he sets the ice buckets there for me to arrange, placing the bottles of unopened champagne nearby.
It took weeks to finish the rest of the reno after I persuaded the execs at HGTV to let us make this project our pilot episode for the show; I thought it would take a lot more convincing, but once I pointed out how much footage we already had in relation to their short schedule, everyone seemed to agree that it was a no-brainer.
Plus, the show has a reno budget going toward each property, so that allowed us to cover some of the bigger projects, like getting a new furnace, which Hunter hadn’t been sure he could afford, thus a win-win.
“Place looks spiffy,” Jarred notes.
I shrug. “We’ve been long overdue for a grand reopening, I think. We would have done it sooner if not for the show.”
“God,” Cat laughs. “Hiring Hunter onto your crew is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
Those pictures of him in California added years to my life.
I just love seeing everyone on the internet turning our Hunter into some mysterious sex symbol,” she says with an actual cackle.
“I feel like someone should tell them he still uses an address book and thinks a diverse wardrobe means different shades of plaid.”
I smack her shoulder lightly. “Hey. Leave the plaid alone. I’m partial to it.”
I smile as I think of how my followers constantly beg for more Hunter content; the first time I saw a post about Hunter’s article online by someone thirsting over him was jarring, though in a pretty hilarious way.
Mostly because I knew how ridiculous he would find the entire thing (and I was right).
Still. It turned out to be nothing but free publicity for the lodge, so he doesn’t complain too much.
After Hunter’s article was printed, it was less than three weeks before he started to get calls about availability at the lodge.
And the sleuths on the internet piecing together that Hot Hunter of the Hills is my Hot Hunter of the Hills only makes business boom more.
I guess he’s more of an influencer than he first thought.
“We’re here!”
I turn to catch sight of a smiling blond woman I never expected to see again.
It was a surprise finding out that the same doctor who turned my world upside down was actually mated to Hunter’s cousin, but after getting to know Mackenzie Carter, I’m actually kind of glad for it.
It doesn’t hurt to have a doctor in your corner to answer all your random questions.
Her towering mate trails behind her, looking so similar to Hunter and yet so…different. Noah is more refined, less rugged than his cousin, and it just makes me appreciate my grumpy lumberjack all the more.
Mackenzie sets down her tray of something baked and sweet that I don’t recognize and reaches out to wrap her arms around me. “How are you? Settling in?”
Oh, right. That.
I don’t think there will ever be a time when I don’t smile about now permanently sharing a space with my sometimes-salty, sometimes-sweet lumberjack, especially since it means most of my nights involve snuggling or hot chocolate or toe-curling orgasms. I’d like to tell you a girl could get used to it…
but this girl still hasn’t, really. Leaving Newport to move here for good was a big change, one that Hunter insisted I didn’t have to make.
Although once the show was finished filming for the season…
it just felt right. There’s so much history here.
Old memories and hopefully, in the future, a lot of new ones.
“Place looks nice,” Noah comments, eyes moving around the space. “Very…new.”
Mackenzie rolls her eyes. “He’s still peeved you updated ‘our’ room.”
“Well,” I laugh. “Your room is basically the same. It just has a bigger shower now.”
Noah’s brow quirks, and he leans over to whisper something in Mackenzie’s ear. Something that makes her blush and promptly smack his arm.
Mackenzie clears her throat, then asks, “Where should I put the cupcakes?”
I grin. “Kitchen is fine.”
She drags Noah away by the hand, muttering something under her breath, and I have a feeling it won’t be long before they’re booking “their” old room soon.
“Is Ada coming?”
I shake my head at Cat, grateful that my Colorado best friend loves my California best friend as much as she does. “She had some stuff to take care of back in LA.”
“I saw the announcement about the big exhibition. I can’t believe she’s mated now!”
“Yeah,” I laugh, still having a hard time believing it myself. It was such a whirlwind, after all. “Me neither.”
Not that I have any room to talk.
“Well.” Jeannie claps her hands together, a quiet sort of smile on her face. “Let’s stop dillydallying and finish setting up. Everyone’s going to be arriving soon.”
“Who would have thought?” Cat squeals. “A full house!”
“As far as grand reopenings go,” I muse, “we really couldn’t have asked for more.”
Jarred makes a face. “Can you call it a ‘reopening’ if you never closed?”
“Shut up.” I wave him away. “Go set some food out or something.”
I hear him muttering something like bossy under his breath as his girlfriend pulls him away, laughing, and I cross my arms as I turn toward the big window to watch the snow falling softly outside.
There was a time in my life when I thought I would never leave California.
I’d been calling it home my whole life…but I don’t think I really knew what home felt like.
Not until I helped carry my stuff through the doors of the lodge, blending it with Hunter’s.
Jeannie pats me on the shoulder before she goes. “You really did good, girl,” she praises. “This place looks like it did the day I first saw it.”
I reach up to give her hand a squeeze. “We all did this,” I tell her. “We did good.”
“Yeah,” she says thickly. “Yeah, we did. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.”
I nod. “I’ll be there in just a sec.”
I hear her footsteps fading behind me as she leaves the room, and I continue to watch the snow with a bemused smile.
I stay like that for longer than I mean to, and I scent him before I see him.
The soft smell of sunshine and rain envelops me as thick arms wind around my waist, a chin tucking against my shoulder before lips press to my throat.
“You’re slacking,” he murmurs.
I roll my eyes. “I’m living the moment.”
“Mm-hmm.” I can feel his smile against my neck, his teeth nipping at the faded bite mark over my mating gland and making me shiver. “You do realize we are fully booked tonight, right?”
“It was probably that tasteful nude I posted of you on the new website,” I say seriously. “The fig leaf was pretty small. I mean, they could practically see everything.”
“If I didn’t know how to use that damn thing—”
“By ‘that damn thing,’ do you mean a laptop from this decade?”
“—I might be worried you actually did that.”
“Sorry, Grandpa. Your fig leaves are all mine.”
“Your mom and dad send their love,” he tells me.
I grin at that. “Can’t believe they’re missing this to go camping of all things.”
“He’s a new man now,” Hunter chuckles. “Or so he says.”
“I just hope they don’t get eaten by bears.”
“That doesn’t happen as often as you seem to think.”
“And I wonder who put the idea in my head?”
He laughs as he kisses my cheek, sighing when he rests his chin on my shoulder. “It’s a pretty day,” he says, squeezing me a little.
“I should take a picture.”
“Live the moment, remember?”
I laugh, lifting my hands to my face to form a square as I click my tongue. “Yeah, yeah.”
Hunter spins me then, his arms around my waist and his expression amused as he gives me that trademark Hunter sort-of-smile. The one I’m madly in love with—exactly like I am with everything else about this man who completely took me by surprise.
“Everything is nearly set up, anyway,” I tell him. “They’re setting out the charcuterie boards now.”
He purses his lips. “It’s just meat and cheese.”
“But that doesn’t sound nearly as fancy.” I tap his nose. “Oh, what do you think of an ice sculpture, by the way?”
He turns his head. “What?”
“I was thinking it would be such a waste not to utilize your skills,” I say with a straight face. “I mean, what is ice sculpting if not frozen whittling?”
He seems less amused now, his mouth turning down in a frown at my joke, and I laugh at his grumpy expression. I raise my hands again to take another mental picture of his narrowed eyes, knowing I’ll be paying for that comment later, but, oddly enough, I don’t mind in the slightest.
Hunter cocks an eyebrow at me. “Another memory you need, huh?”
“You just look so cute when you’re annoyed,” I coo.
He scoffs. “Cute.”
“As a button,” I tease.
He smiles at me then, not his usual tiny one but something full-blown and breathtaking—the smile that still catches me off guard no matter how many times I’m graced with it.
His scent is a burst of joyful contentment, one that I pick up on him a lot more often now.
It’s insane to me that we crashed into each other’s lives completely by chance, that an upheaval in my life could be the very thing that would deliver me more happiness than I ever thought possible.
“You know you did all this, right?” He gestures around the room. “We wouldn’t be here without you.”
“Don’t sell yourself short,” I tell him. “You helped.” My mouth quirks. “I mean, sure, there would absolutely not be Wi-Fi at this place without me—I don’t know how you’d even begin to set up the router—but still.”
His eyes are narrowed again, but I can tell he wants to laugh. “I think you’re kind of a brat.”
“Well, I think”—I wind my arms around his neck, pulling him down to me—“you kind of want to kiss me.”
His eyes roam over my face with a warmth like he’s of a similar mind. “Only a stupid man wouldn’t,” he reminds me before he leans in to press his lips to mine.
There’s still a whole slew of reasons why it’s crazy that we’re here.
I still don’t know much about classic rock, and I still have to show Hunter how to unlock his new smartphone half the time…
but here, in this snowy little town of Nowheresville, with my surly but loveable mate, I learned what love is.
There’s still a lifetime of real moments to experience…and I want to live every single one.