Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 29978 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29978 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
I clench my jaw, fighting the urge to throw the cup at his smug face. The problem is, they’re hitting too close to the truth, and it’s starting to worm under my skin. Tamlyn isn’t just a passing flirtation. I know it. She knows it. And that’s exactly what’s messing with my head.
Knox, always the one to keep it light, leans back in his chair, crossing his arms with that cocky smirk of his. “I don’t know, man. Word around town is you’ve gone all soft for this activist writer. You planning to start writing love letters on recycled paper next?”
Arrow, ever the instigator, elbows Knox. “Maybe she’s converting him. Next thing you know, Barron will be out there chaining himself to trees.”
Their laughter fills the café, a sound I’d normally join in on, but not today. I should fire back, give them hell like I always do, but instead, my grip tightens around the cup until my knuckles turn white. It’s not the teasing that’s getting to me—it’s the doubt. The nagging voice in the back of my head telling me they might be right. That I’m too damn simple for someone like Tamlyn.
Before I can even gather myself to respond, Betty swoops in, her eyes twinkling as she tops off our mugs with steaming coffee. “You boys leave Barron alone,” she scolds, but there’s no real bite to it. She’s enjoying this as much as the rest of them. “He’s found himself a nice girl. About time one of you settled down.”
She winks at me, and I force a tight smile. “But seriously, sweetie,” she says, nudging me lightly, “is it true? This Tamlyn gal’s got everyone talking.”
My grip tightens, and for a split second, the noise around me fades. The smell of bacon, the warm chatter of the café, the clinking of dishes—it all disappears under the weight of that damn question I can’t stop asking myself. Can someone like her—a woman with her head full of big ideas and her life too fast for a place like this—really belong with a man like me? Simple. Set in my ways. Stuck in a small town with my feet planted firmly in the dirt.
I take too long to respond. I can feel the smile on my face slipping, the hesitation cracking through the surface.
Archer, sitting across from me, notices the shift. He always does. His sharp eyes zero in on me, and the rest of the table quiets down just enough to catch my next words. I clear my throat, trying to push through the knot tightening in my chest. “It’s… complicated,” I finally say, my voice rougher than I intend.
“Complicated?” Knox leans in, raising an eyebrow. “What’s so complicated about it? You like her or you don’t. Simple as that.”
“It’s not that simple,” I snap, sharper this time. The frustration I’ve been trying to bury all week claws its way to the surface. I shove my coffee aside, the cup scraping against the table with a harsh sound. “She’s different. Not from here. She’s… smart. Fast-paced. She’s got plans, a life, a career. I don’t know if she—”
I stop myself, realizing I’ve said too much. The last thing I want is to pour my heart out to these assholes, especially when I haven’t even figured it out myself.
Judge lets out a low whistle, leaning back in his chair. “Damn, Barron. Didn’t know she had you all twisted up like that.”
Creed grins like the cat who caught the canary. “So it’s serious, huh? I figured you’d get bored of her the second she started talking about saving the planet.”
I shoot him a look, my temper flaring again. “It’s not about that.”
But the truth is, maybe it is about that.
I push away from the table then, ready to ease the ache that’s settled in my chest. The sound of my brother’s laughing fades quickly as the door of the cafe swings closed. A moment later I’m behind the wheel of my truck and headed for Tamlyn’s front door. I don’t know how long this woman plans on living on my mountain but I need to get to the bottom of it. I’ve been trying to play it cool in the days since that kiss, but I’m only driving myself closer to the brink of insanity, unable to sleep or work without visions of her in my head. I need to handle her once and for all, or else.
Chapter Ten
Tamlyn
The fire crackles softly in the hearth, its flickering light casting long, dancing shadows across the walls of my cabin. Barron’s been here for exactly five minutes and already I feel that familiar tension pulling in the base of my gut. It’s like my body has an instinctual pull to him, like we’re magnets, impossible to separate. I sit on the worn leather couch, staring into the flames, feeling both out of place and completely at home. There’s something about this cabin—about the way it smells of pine and wood smoke, the solidness of it—that wraps around me like a heavy blanket, warm and comforting, but also heavy. Too heavy.