Page 7 of Challenged By the Mountain Man

I go back to the strap.

Ten minutes later, there's a knock on my door.

Bear loses his mind.

He doesn't bark. He's not a barker, but he scrambles to his feet and rushes the door like we're under siege, tail going so hard his whole back end is wagging.

"Bear. Down."

He sits, but he's vibrating with excitement.

I cross to the door and open it. She's standing on my porch again, and this time she looks even more pissed than yesterday.

"Did you leave a generator on my porch?" she asks.

No *hello*. No *thank you*. Just straight to the accusation.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

I lean against the doorframe, same as yesterday. "Because you don't have power."

"I didn't ask you for help."

"Didn't say you did."

Her jaw tightens. She's wearing the same jacket as yesterday, but her hair is down now, long and dark and tangled like she's been running her hands through it. There's a smudge of dust on her cheek. She looks exhausted and furious and beau-

I cut the thought off before it finishes.

"I don't need your charity," she says.

"It's not charity. It's a loan."

"I don't need a loan either."

"Then leave it on the porch. Freeze when the temperature drops tonight. Not my problem."

She stares at me, and I stare back, and for a second, I think she's going to throw the generator at my head.

Instead, she says, "What do you want for it?"

"Want?"

"The loan. What's it cost me?"

I blink. "It doesn't cost you anything."

"Everything costs something."

There's something in the way she says it: flat, certain, like it's a fact she learned young.

"Not this," I say.

She doesn't believe me. I can see it in her eyes, the way they narrow just slightly, the way she shifts her weight like she's bracing for a fight.

"I don't know you," she says. "I don't know why you'd help me. So, either tell me what you want, or take it back."