Page 69 of Craved By the Mountain Man

“Jesus.”

“Yeah.”

That covers it.

She is quiet for a moment.

“That all happened the same year?”

“Yeah.”

“What did you do?”

“Sold the house. Kept this piece of the land farther up the mountain. Left.”

“For the military.”

I nod.

“My parents were gone. The two people I trusted most after them had betrayed me. Wildwood had too many memories I didn’t want.”

The service gave me somewhere else to put my head.

Work.

Orders.

People beside me who did what they said they would do.

Eventually, Kaden.

“Years later, I came back and built this place.”

Her eyes move around the kitchen.

“You built this?”

“Most of it.”

Hannah picks up a piece of bacon but doesn’t eat it.

“And after Emma?”

I know what she is asking.

“There were women.”

She nods once.

“Nothing serious.”

“How not serious?”

“One night.”

Her eyebrows rise.

“Usually.”