“I asked if you minded if I work out...with you. Well, like beside you, while you work out,” she said, sounding as awkward as he felt. Close quarters in her kitchen, now close quarters in the workout room, while they both got hot and sweaty...
“Nah.” He cleared his throat. “Go ahead.”
Don’t ask about the date. Don’t ask about dinner.
“What happened to Lance?” Sure, that was less obvious.
Then a horrific thought struck him. What if Lance was joining her for the workout? Fit couples did that all the time. Workout dates. Maybe they planned to work out first, then shower together, then eat...
Montana sat on a stationary bike next to him. “He got called away. One of his Olympic teammates is in town for tonight only.”
The guy had ditched Montana to go hang out with another dude? What the fuck? Eddie wouldn’t care who was in town for one night only, he’d never trade the opportunity to be with Montana.
“Did you get a chance to impress him with your cooking skills, at least?” he asked.
“He took a to-go bag,” she said, cranking the intensity on her machine.
Was she annoyed by Lance’s actions or not? Most women would be pissed. And rightly so. If they’d gone through the trouble of coercing their neighbor into cooking dinner. But Montana wasn’t most women. Maybe the thing with Lance was just a casual thing. “Well, his loss.” He paused. “The food’s not as good reheated,” he added quickly.
“I thought you worked out this morning?” she noted.
“Keeping tabs on me?” he asked, starting to run again.
“Hardly. I just saw you go into your apartment earlier. All sweaty,” she said, her gaze checking him and his sweat out. He might have been misreading things earlier in her kitchen, but there was no denying the look of attraction on her face now before she quickly diverted her gaze to the mirror. She was definitely checking him out this time. And perhaps even liking what she saw?
Eddie pretended to check his watch. “Yeah, this morning was cardio. Tonight is weights. Just doing a quick warm-up...and done,” he said, stopping the treadmill and climbing off.
If she wanted something to ogle, he’d give her something to ogle.
Removing his T-shirt, he headed toward the weight bench.
* * *
SERIOUSLY, EDDIE?
Montana’s foot slipped from the stationary bike, sending the pedals into a chaotic spin as she watched Eddie toss his sweaty T-shirt onto the bench press. She was always surprised when she saw him shirtless. He was muscular in an unassuming way, but when he revealed the sculpted chest, biceps and abs, there was no denying he was built like a rock statue of a god.
Even most of the athletes she knew didn’t have quite the sculpted body that Eddie did. She’d dated a lot of attractive men in her younger days, all of whom trained hard and focused on creating their best bodies, but no one was quite so chiseled. Tank was a tank, big, solid and all muscle, but she preferred Eddie’s leaner look. It made him both sexy as hell and approachable. A dangerous combination.
She kept her gaze down but continued to watch as he straddled the bench, sat and then lowered himself down onto his back. He rubbed his hands together before reaching for the bar. The weights on either side looked impossible to lift, but he lowered and raised the bar with ease.
So, the muscles weren’t just for looks.
Then again, what had she expected? Eddie was a cop. He trained and worked out all the time. His safety on the job required him to be strong. Quick. Skilled.
He finished pumping out his reps, then replaced the bar and sat up. He took a gulp of water, wiped his hands on a towel as he stood and approached the chin-up bar.
There was no way to look away as he lifted his body up more reps than she could count, distracted by the bulging biceps and tight core. Sweat poured perfectly down his stomach, and Montana’s mouth actually watered.
How was it even possible to have oblique muscles like that? Smooth, tanned, disappearing below the waistband of his sweatpants...
The only other men on earth that seemed to have them were Zac Efron and Channing Tatum, and she’d always assumed they were special effects or computer generated.
“You stopped pedaling,” Eddie said as he lowered himself back to ground.
Shit. She forced her attention back to her own workout. She was annoyed at Lance for bailing and had come down to the gym to let off a little steam, not ignite flames of lust by watching Eddie work out.
Besides, that’s exactly what he wanted. He wasn’t fooling her. He was shirtless and flexing every muscle in his body right now to get her attention.
Well, if that’s how he wanted to play it...
Montana climbed off the bike. Approaching the wall, she took down a yoga mat and unrolled it along the mirror. She stood at one end, raised her arms overhead on a long inhale, then lowered them down to the ground on an exhale, walking her hands forward until her body was in plank position, then moving through her yoga flow slowly, until she was in downward dog position.
“Damn.” Eddie muttered under his breath.
Then, all she heard as she continued moving gracefully through the motions was the sound of the gym door closing behind Eddie as he left. She assumed it was to go take a cold shower.
Which was exactly what she needed as well.
CHAPTER FIVE
DIVA CURLED AT Montana’s feet as she sat on the floor, her back against the sofa in Cassie’s living room the following evening. The Siberian husky snored as the credits for the latest hit rom-com rolled on the television. As usual, Cassie was sniffing and wiping a tear from her eye, and Erika was dissecting the plot and expressing her annoyance over the way the heroine had been expected to give it all up to find love.
Rom-coms weren’t Montana’s thing in general; she preferred action/adventure movies, but these weekly girls’ nights were important to her. Spending time with Erika and Cassie helped keep her sane here in Wild River, so she put up with the overly dramatic movies full of over-the-top emotion that made her gag as much as the unrealistic dialogue that no guy would ever speak.
At least not any man she’d ever dated.
Cassie reached for the remote and hit the Pause button. “Well, I thought it was romantic,” she said.
“That’s because you’re so freaking in love right now, it’s disgusting,” Erika said, readjusting her eye masks that had started to slide down her cheeks.
Cassie raised an eyebrow. “Oh, and you and my brother are an old married couple?” She scoffed. “Hardly.”
Erika grinned. “Did I tell you we did it in an empty recovery room two days ago when he stopped by to bring me lunch?”
Montana shook her head. “Never put me in that recovery room,” she said, though she suspected Erika and Reed had probably had sex in many unusual and perhaps slightly illegal places all over Wild River. She’d shown up on more than one occasion for her shift at the search and rescue cabin to find the door locked and Erika and Reed supposedly asleep inside. And she knew Erika and Reed’s pee schedules couldn’t possibly be that in sync, yet every time they hung out, the two of them magically always had to visit a restroom at the same time.
It didn’t bother Montana one bit. It was awesome how in love and in lust Erika and Reed were. Cassie’s brother definitely pulled out another side to Cassie’s best friend. That’s why they were perfect together. Erika lit up at the sight of Reed, and he was obviously as crazy about her, but they also complemented one another. They had the whole opposites attract thing working for them.
Would she ever find that real connection with someone?
So far she hadn’t. But she hadn’t really been looking. When she was young she was wild, and free-spirited relationships were all of the casual sort. She’d met Tank years before while in Wild River BASE jumping at the original legal site, and while he’d fallen har
d for her, the feelings she’d had for him were admiration, respect, physical attraction and friendship. Even after she discovered she was pregnant and they’d tried to make things work, there hadn’t been that real solid, let’s-grow-old-together connection. She’d never been able to fully commit to Tank. Something always held her back. Something had been missing.
Then after her BASE-jumping accident, her focus hadn’t been on love or finding someone to settle down with. It had been on getting back to the person she’d once been. She’d always thought love and commitment would come to her someday...but she was thirty-four years old, and it was nowhere in sight.
“How are things with Lance?” Erika asked, as though reading her mind.
Montana straightened her legs out in front of her. “Casual. Fun...”
The other women stared at her as though she were completely oblivious to Lance’s playboy ways.
“Look, I know the boy will ruin my life if I let him, but don’t worry. I’m not in love with him or anything close.” Which was disheartening. Lance was exactly her type—adventurous, athletic, gorgeous, spontaneous, slightly unavailable, so she knew not to get too close... If she wasn’t getting those butterflies and fanny flutters for Lance, then would she ever?
Eddie had given her both.
A moment of insanity, that’s all the night before had been. She refused to read into the twelve-hour attraction to her neighbor. He’d helped her, and he was admittedly stupid hot. That was all there was to it.
“Why not, do you think?” Cassie asked the million-dollar question plaguing her. “I mean, do you think it’s just because you have walls up that you know it might not be the best idea to go there with a guy like Lance? Or are you just not feeling him?”
“I’m not sure. Little from column A, little from column B?” How did she explain it to two women so much in love? “I guess I’m being careful not to open myself up just yet, but at the same time, I’m not sure there’s any real danger...if that makes any sense?”
“How was your date last night?”
She shifted her position on the floor and avoided their hungry-for-gossip expressions. “It was good.” There really wasn’t anything juicy to tell. He’d arrived, he’d received a text, and he’d bailed...taking the food with him.
“You know you’re talking to two women whose boyfriends work at the bar, right?” Erika called her on her bullshit.
They knew exactly how her evening had gone. “It was a short date,” she admitted.
“Did he actually bail on you, after you went through the trouble of cooking for him?” Cassie asked.
Montana waved a hand. “It was nothing, and besides, Eddie did most of the work.” She clamped her lips shut. Shit.
“Eddie helped you cook?” Erika’s eyes lit up.
“Any new development there?” Cassie asked.
“Where?” Playing dumb would only afford her so long.
Cassie threw a couch cushion at her. “With Eddie!”
How did Montana know this question was coming? They really didn’t get that a conversation about her love life in any capacity should never logically turn to talking about Eddie. He was her annoying-as-shit neighbor. End of story.
Her palms getting slightly sweaty at the mention of him meant nothing. It was just a physical reaction to having this conversation yet again. “No development. Not even plans for development,” she said, reaching for her empty wine glass. “Anyone need a refill?”
They nodded, and she collected the glasses and headed for the kitchen. She knew the minute she was out of earshot, they’d be talking about how crazy she was not to see Eddie as a potential match and how oblivious she must be not to notice Eddie’s attraction to her. Neither was true. She saw Eddie’s attraction, especially the night before. But she and Eddie together? No way. The guy was the walking definition of good. And she was, well, not evil, but definitely mischievous, and she liked herself that way. She wouldn’t date a guy who might make her feel like her risk-taking and rule-bending approach to life was wrong.
Montana opened the fridge and took out the wine. As she closed the door, she scanned the pictures of Tank and Cassie and Kaia, plus several with her photobombing in the back, and she sighed. She loved being in her daughter’s life and the part-time parenting situation might be all she’d ever be capable of. Their situation worked for all of them, and she adored the coparenting routine they had working. But would there ever be a fourth adult in these pictures, and if so, what would that look like?
Single, she’d only ever had to deal with what was best for her, and dating had been challenging enough. Now, as a single mom, things were much different. She didn’t think she was looking at relationships with an eye to finding a suitable stepdad for her daughter someday, but maybe subconsciously she was. Maybe that’s why her feelings couldn’t get any deeper for the playboy snowboarder.
An image of Eddie and the memory of his arms around her in her kitchen as he tied her apron the night before appeared in her mind, and her chest tightened. She poured the wine quickly and headed back into the living room before the temporary insanity from the evening before could once again take over her common sense.
* * *
EDDIE WALKED INTO the station on Monday morning only to hear the dreaded words Captain’s looking for you from his coworker, Angel Sanchez.
A quick mental recap of the last week didn’t reveal anything he could be in shit over. “Did he say what it’s about?” he asked, dropping his gym bag on the floor next to his desk.
“No. But he didn’t look happy,” Sanchez said, returning to the mountain of paperwork on his desk. Unlike Eddie, Sanchez liked to save up his reports and do them all at the beginning of the following month. His desk was always a mess, whereas Eddie’s was neat and tidy.
Unfortunately, it meant Sanchez always looked busy and Eddie looked like a slacker from being too efficient. He hoped a transfer to a busier division would help fill the days more. Make him feel useful and confident that he was actually making a difference in the world.
Eddie walked to Captain Clarkson’s office and knocked on the partially open door. “You wanted to see me, sir?”
Captain Clarkson looked up from a file on his desk. “Come in and close the door.”
Great. Door closed was bad news. But he couldn’t remember pissing off the captain in recent weeks. When he’d first joined the department, he’d annoyed the man all the time with his overzealous approach to the job. But Eddie had quickly learned that most of the troopers in Wild River were happy with the slower pace and lack of crime in the resort town. They preferred to leave what they referred to as the drama and excitement to the local search and rescue crew.
“Have a seat,” Captain Clarkson said. He removed his bifocals and sat back in his chair. The buttons on his shirt strained to stay together. They all called him Captain Teddy Bear behind his back. He tried to act tough, but inside he was softhearted and compassionate. And he was quite literally shaped like a teddy bear.
Eddie sat.
“This came for you today.” Captain Clarkson slid an unopened envelope toward him.
Eddie’s mouth went dry seeing the Alaska Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Enforcement logo in the corner. Here he was waiting for a call or an email...but of course they’d send a letter. More formal and less personal if they were rejecting his application. He stared at it, remembering all the other bad-news and rejection letters he’d received over the years. The anticipation, the waiting, the heart racing at the sight of an answer being so close. Too many times that answer had been no, which made it impossible for him to reach for the envelope. “You open it.”
Captain Clarkson stared at him. “You want to catch big, bad drug dealers, but you don’t have the balls to open a letter?”
“That’s correct, sir.”
The captain picked up the envelope and opened it. He scanned it.
&
nbsp; Eddie watched and waited. “Well?”
“Well, I think you better find your balls. Fast.”
No fucking way. “My application was accepted? The transfer promotion request... I got it?”
His boss handed him the letter. “You’re an asshole, Eddie. For three years you drove me crazy with applications and requests for make-up testing every time you failed the written components of your application. You outshine everyone in the academy and surpass all expectations. I finally let you on my team, and now you’re leaving us?”
It was so true. Eddie had been persistent with his applications, and he owed Captain Clarkson so much for giving him this opportunity in the first place. The man had gone to bat for him, even when his third written-test scores weren’t great, and he’d obviously given him a good reference if his promotion transfer was approved...
Holy shit, his promotion transfer was approved!
He could barely find his voice. “I’m sorry, sir. It’s just—”
“It’s just that you have huge-ass shoes to fill in your family and you’re not going to do that here. I get it. Now, get out of my office before I call Anchorage and tell them to reconsider.”
Eddie stood. “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir...for everything.”
Eddie stared at the acceptance letter as he sat at his desk moments later. He was being promoted. In two weeks, he was expected to report for duty as a member of the drug enforcement division in Anchorage.
Two weeks.
He had two weeks to get a new place and move an hour away. Two weeks before the career and the future he’d been working hard for began. He could finally embark on a path that might earn him some respect in his family and make his mother proud. He could be formally involved with the investigation into the drug problem in the state. He’d worked his butt off, and it had paid off.
We are happy to accept your application...
He reread the letter, hardly believing it was real. It was really happening. He was leaving Wild River.
A Sweet Alaskan Fall Page 7