Page 3 of Tempted By the Mountain man

Natasha lights up. “You can totally bullshit your way through three minutes.”

“I can’t bullshit my way into being an appraiser.”

“You’ve spent the past three years teaching teenagers who think the Civil War happened in the nineteen hundreds. The same teenagers who can’t fathom there was life before the internet. And yet, their test scores would suggest you somehow manage to get through to them. You can talk intelligently about old things for three minutes or less.”

Her speech is surprisingly moving. For a single beat, I’m almost convinced I can pull this off.

“This is stupid,” I say.

“What’s the worst that happens?” Natasha challenges. “You don’t get the job?”

She has a point.

“Best case scenario, you get the job and the three of us are on a plane to Wildwood, far away from all these judgmental assholes who’d rather believe a gross old man in a position of power than the woman telling the truth.”

“This is crazy,” I say, navigating to my camera app and flipping it to video mode. “There’s no way I’m getting this job.”

And yet, I take a deep breath and hit record as though I actually have a shot.

2

RIVER

Jade Sweeny is not a certified appraiser.

I knew this five minutes after reviewing her video application. I didn’t serve as an intelligence officer in the Marines for nothing. And yet, despite this instant discovery, I not only offered her the job on the spot, I doubled her pay if she was willing to fly out to Wildwood the next day.

To my surprise, she eagerly agreed. The only condition: I allow her married friends to stay with her in the guest cabin.

“What the fuck am I thinking?” I grumble to my dog, Marty, as I hold the truck door open. The German shepherd hops in easily, claiming his usual passenger side.

I rarely drive into town unless I have to haul back more than a sack of groceries. Granddad’s cabin is less than a mile from downtown. But expecting my guests to drag their luggage up a steep hill would probably put a damper on this whole thing considering I advised them against a rental car.

“I’m so fucked,” I mutter, hopping in the truck and shutting the door.

Making impulsive, questionable decisions is not how I operate. They’re calculated, intentional.

Until Jade’s video application, I searched for the right appraiser extensively. But any legit candidates were booked for months, and the others I didn’t trust. With my household goods arriving next weekend, I need to make space. And right now, Granddad’s cabin has anything but space.

Marty hangs his head out the window as I roll down the steep driveway, taking in the fresh mountain air.

I’m not thrilled about the circumstances that brought me to Wildwood, but fuck am I happy to be in the only place I’ve ever considered home. I’ve traveled the world during my time in the Marines, but nothing beats this quaint Oregon mountain town. The fresh mountain air, the scenic backdrop, and the quiet—all things I longed for when I was overseas.

I spot Jade and her entourage huddled on the curb outside Latte Da! A pile of suitcases surrounds them, as though the trio plans to stay a month rather than the one week I’ve allotted for this assignment.

I wait for the annoyance to settle in, but what I feel is the exact opposite. It’s a thrilling, primal sense of mine.

Jade Sweeny is a fucking sight to behold in her oversized pink Oregon hoodie she no doubt picked up at the airport. Tight black leggings show off her toned legs, making my mouth water. Because I don’t want to sport a hard-on ten seconds after meeting Jade and her friends in person, I focus instead on how Marty’ll have those pants covered in his graying fur in thirty seconds flat.

“Stay here, boy,” I say to the pup as I pull into a parking spot nearby and put the truck in park.

He glares at me.

“I don’t know how they feel about dogs yet,” I say, as though we’re having a conversation.

Marty’s irritation is understandable, considering the first words out of Jade’s mouth are, “You have a dog?”

“You must be the cabin owner,” the other female says.