To Claim the Mountain Man

Chapter 25

HEATH

"I'm thinking of buying a fishing boat." My friend Dexter leaned against the edge of my work bench.

He'd shown up announced at my backyard shop an hour ago and showed no signs of leaving anytime soon. Knowing Dex, he'd stay until sunset, suggest that we go to Rex's Bar & Grill for dinner, then ditch me for a hot waitress midway through the meal.

I wiped a drop of sweat from my brow. "Do you even like fishing?"

"I might if I had a nice fishin' boat," Dex shot back without missing a beat, shooting me a toothy grin.

Shaking my head, I readjusted my grip on my saw, bent my knees, and continued cutting through a slab of hard pine that I'd turn into a table for Ms. Harper down at the florist shop. I'd chopped down the pine earlier that morning, when I returned from my mother's house.

"Y'know," I grunted, bearing down on the wood. "If you're gonna sit there, you could at least make yourself useful. Hand me the tape measure?"

I'd met Dex in the fall after high school graduation. All of my closest friends had gone to college, leaving me alone in Laurel Peak, resentful toward everyone that had left me in the dust. I had the grades to get into college, but not the money or the ability to leave Ma. Dexter had just started working at a local lumberyard, and he helped me pick out the wood for my first custom tables.

He was a bit obnoxious and rowdy, and the man drank more beer than he did water, but I'd never forget how he kept me company when I had no one else. He was a friend, but not someone I'd want around my loved one's... Or an open flame.

Dex pushed off my worktable, grabbed the tape measure, and brought it to the sawhorse I had set up in the yard. "This is a nice piece of wood."

"Sure is—"

"Goddamn, that is one beautiful woman."

I stopped sawing in an instant. My eyes flashed toward Dexter, but his focus rested entirely across the yard—toward Isla's house. I looked up, and my chest tightened at the sight that awaited me.

Isla stepped out onto her back porch, wearing a little white tank top and cut-off jean shorts that displayed miles of long, tan legs. Her hair was loose, fanning out over her slim shoulders and covering the swells of her breasts. She plopped into her lounge chair and opened her laptop. When she saw me and Dex in the yard, she lifted her arm and waved. A radiant smile peeled on her lips.

Dex whistled low, unabashed admiration shining in his muddy brown eyes. He waved back at her, wiggling his fingers in the air. "They don't make 'em like that over in Silverton."

The muscles lining my spine pulled taut, and I dropped my gaze back to the wooden plank. "That's Garrett Holmes' little sister," I mumbled, the biggest hypocrite in the world. "He'd kick your ass for so much as looking at her the wrong way."

Or I would.

"No shit," Dex mused. My words didn't seem to dissuade him. He ran a hand through his dark brown locks and stood a bit taller, puffing up like a peacock displaying its feathers. "I never knew Garrett had a sister."

Yeah, because Garrett tried to hide her from you. I bit back the words.

Although I met Dexter after Garrett left for college, he seamlessly fit in with our friend group. A blue-collar thirty-year-old who enjoyed the little things that a town like Laurel Peak, or the neighboring city of Silverton, had to offer.

But no one in their right mind would want Dexter to date their sister.

"Yeah, well, she was gone for a while. Went to school in New York, but she just moved back." My throat felt tight, and my skin itched. Although I kept my gaze on the wood, I sensed that he was still drinking in the sight of her, and I wanted to blacken his eyes as a result.

"Damn, and she's your neighbor?" He puffed a deep breath. "You're a better man than me. You can bet I'd have a woman like that in my bed no matter who her brother is."

"Yeah," I mumbled, and shame nearly suffocated the word before it escaped my lips.

Dexter was quiet for a moment, but I felt his eyes burning into my back as I kept my head bowed low. "Hang on... You've already fucked her, haven't you?"

"No," I growled, glowering in his direction. "Jesus, of course not."

Nottechnicallya lie, but guilt still squeezed at me like a vice, ripping my gut to shreds. I had to stop sawing before my hand slipped against the razor-sharp teeth.

Dex narrowed his eyes. "But you'dliketo?"

My chest deflated with a long sigh, my patience wearing dangerously thin. "Dexter, she's my best friend's baby sister."

"That's not a no." He wore a shit-eating grin.

I ground my teeth to the point of pain, setting the saw aside and standing to face him at last. "No. I don't want to." Liar. "I'd never do that to Garrett."

He shrugged, seemingly accepting my claims as the truth, then turned his attention back to Isla's back porch again. "Shit, if you're not going to try anything, I will. Garrett might throw a hissy fit at first, but he'll get over it. Especially if his sister is happy."

I recoiled, both livid at his blatant desire for Isla and struck by the sense behind his words. Was it possible that Garrett would accept a relationship between me and Isla if it made her happy? If I never gave her a reason to cry or feel lonely. If I gave her the world and allowed her to become the center of mine?

I forced my fingers to unfurl from a fist. "You couldn't keep Isla happy. You're not a one-woman sort of man."

"Last I checked, neither are you. But I think I'd like to give it a try for that woman." Dex dipped his head toward Isla, who extended her long legs in front of her to soak up the evening sun. "You think she'll be at Garrett and Natalie's place this Thursday?"

Fuck. I'd forgotten that they were hosting a party for the Colorado Rockies' last regular season game before the playoffs. If I had to guess, they'd invited Isla to join our group, which meant she'd be surrounded by half a dozen men—some of them even worse than Dexter.

I bristled at the thought.

Every bone in my body yelled at me to warn Dexter away from Isla. To threaten the fucker if he even dared to speak to her. But he'd already suspected too much, and I'd proven to be unable to hide my feelings when it came to her. Opening my mouth again would only cause more trouble.

I shrugged, feigning nonchalance. "Hell if I know."

"Think I should go introduce myself now?"

"No," I snapped, practically seething the word.

He gave me a 'what the fuck' look laced with suspicion.

"I mean, you look like a fuckin' mess right now," I amended, warmth crawling up my neck. I hated every damn second of this. "Wait until the party. Make sure you've showered and you're respectful."

Looking back, I should've kept my mouth shut.