My Mountain Man by DeeDee Lane

Author:DeeDee Lane [Lane, DeeDee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: western, time travel, romance
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2015-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Pulling with his teeth, Jake maneuvered the wooden stopper out of his buffalo hide canteen and drank deeply. The water was cool on the back of his tongue. Stowing the canteen in his possibles bag, Jake squinted at the horizon. He’d promised to meet Addy at the swimming hole before sunset.

I’m running out of time.

The thought sent shivers through him, and he automatically checked for the Green River knife he carried in a sheath at his side. Jake had pulled scout duty for the day, which basically meant securing the entire valley to keep the rendezvous safe from rival trappers, hungry natives, mountain lions, and grizzly bears. He and Paint had scared up plenty of dust and even shot a handful of turkeys to take back to Shorty, but otherwise the perimeter was quiet—nothing to report. Now Jake was ready to get back to his girl.

Jake liked being a married man. No, better than that, he loved it. This summer with Addy had flown by, and she’d continued to surprise him with her passion, hard work, and sense of humor. That woman could make him laugh, make his knees weak with lust, and impress the hell out of him in the space of two minutes. He’d never met another woman like her, and he felt like the luckiest man in the world. Digging his heels in, Jake let the strong stallion have his head. They had come across some tracks just after noon, and Jake had followed them to make sure they were heading out of and not into the valley. The tracks were grizzly, a four hundred-pound female and her cubs, by the look of them, and potentially dangerous to the growing rendezvous party. The tracks had taken him farther west than he thought. He urged Paint forward even faster.

Rounding the bend near the swimming hole, Jake saw the long shadows of the weeping willow tree flickering in and out of his path. For some reason the sight sliced through him, and Jake felt cold in the warm afternoon sunshine. In that moment he pictured Addy and how sometimes the intensity of her gaze was so sad. It was like she was imprinting him in her mind and heart. No matter how many times he told her he wasn’t going anywhere, she just never seemed to believe him. Suddenly, a thought came into his mind that nearly froze him to his saddle.

Maybe she’s leaving?

The woman was a puzzle he couldn’t figure out. He’d never been much of a talker, being on his own so much of the year, but tonight he and Addy were going to talk it out. He had a feeling deep in his gut this was a puzzle he needed to solve, and soon.

A haunting scream cut through the air and galvanized Jake into action. He galloped toward the swimming hole. The scream was followed by the answering roar of a grizzly bear.

As the swimming hole came into view, Jake’s fear tripled. He saw a

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.