Page 10 of Mountain Men’s Nanny

Without a second thought, Tobias’s arm snaked around my waist, steadying me. My breath hitched. I put my hands back on the ladder and looked at him. His eyes had hardened again, his brow creased in irritation.

“What the hell are you doing?” he growled. “You could have fallen. You almost did!”

His words made it real. Not a near miss—a miss he had saved me from. I looked down for a second, imagining how I had very nearly fallen from a height I might not have survived.

“I’m sorry, I was just…” I stammered, unable to find the words.

“You were just doing everything, but thinking.” He snatched his arm from my waist.

“I was trying to help!” I snapped.

Tobias looked me up and down scornfully. “You’re here to help with Lexi, not to cook, not to climb ladders. If you want to help, just do your job.”

I climbed down the ladder carefully and retreated into the house without another word.

5

A Night Of Firsts

~

Tobias

There was no laughter around our dinner table tonight, not even from Lexi. She pushed her meatballs around on her plate listlessly, an exaggerated look of disgust on her face.

“Eat your food, Lexi,” I tried to encourage her.

She looked at me and shook her head, “I don’t like it, Dad. It doesn’t taste good.”

This was a first. The canned meatballs tasted the same as they always did, yet no one ate with the gusto that usually accompanied meatball night. Not even Gunner, who usually inhaled every meal like he hadn’t eaten in days.

“Since when don’t the meatballs taste good? You like meatballs.” I could tell my attempts to convince her were falling flat. “They’re delicious as always and full of protein. How much protein are you supposed to eat again?”

Lexi shook her head. “It doesn’t have protein, and I don’t like it anymore. You shouldn’t have been so mean to Brie. Then she would have cooked us something good and sat at the table with us.”

I stabbed a meatball with my fork, put it in my mouth whole, and hummed while I chewed, exaggerating how delicious it was.

“I can feel all the vitamins making me stronger already,” I said, urging her to eat.

“No, Daddy, I won’t eat it. You were mean to Brie, and now she is all alone. She isn’t eating, and neither am I,” Lexi said angrily, her lips held in a tight pout.

I sat back, resigned. She hardly ever gave me any trouble, especially when it came to mealtimes. If anything, she ate more than I expected her to, and sometimes even asked for seconds.

“I was not mean to Brie. I was just telling her she needed to be careful,” I argued weakly.

I had never had to defend my actions, but things had somehow changed. Lexi challenged me. Brie tested my patience at every turn. And the balance in the cabin had shifted uncomfortably since she’d come to stay. I was facing a mutiny.

“You did kinda overdo it there, Tobias,” Gunner muttered. “I mean, you told her not once, but twice, that she was thoughtless.”

I stared at him, waiting for him to take it back, to turn it into a joke like he usually did with everything, but he didn’t.

“She’s a gorgeous girl, great figure— I’m just saying she deserves better than the way you spoke to her,” Gunner shrugged.

I shook my head. It came down to primal attraction for Gunner. I didn’t doubt he thought everything she did could be excused just because he found her attractive. What I didn’t expect was Gideon’s agreement.

“You’ve snapped at her two nights in a row. It’s hardly the way to treat someone who genuinely just wants to help,” Gideon said, taking his plate to the sink. “She’s great with Lexi. You need to make it right with her. It’s just the right thing to do.”

I looked from Gideon at the sink to Gunner at the table, slowly eating his dinner as if every bite was torture, and then at Lexi, who still sat pouting.