Her first few days on the mountain passed relatively quickly and without incident. Trent kept his distance from her, and he let her settle into their way of life without giving her too much trouble. Morgan was surprised at how at home she felt when she let herself relax, and Emma seemed to adore having her around.

They rose at seven a.m. each morning, and for the first week, Trent was there with them, as he said he would be, making sure things went to plan. Morgan would help Emma with her outfit for the day, then she would brush her hair, wash her face, and braid her hair however she wanted. When they had finished getting ready, they would head downstairs and have breakfast together, Trent would check in with them, but he was always absent, and he seemed to take the opportunity to grab a quick shower.

As she and Emma ate their toast and cereal downstairs, Morgan could hear the sound of the shower in the rooms above and she couldn’t help but imagine what Trent would look like without his clothes. She had kept her mind out of the gutter, especially considering how rude and arrogant he had been with her, but it was something she always did, and she couldn’t help but daydream.

When Emma was all set for school, he would come down, and Morgan regularly found her breath catching in her throat. For a man so much older than her, he really did rock the look well.

His hair was always slicked back in just the right way that still left it looking wild and untamed, he wore battered jeans, old t-shirts and vintage leather, and his stubble was always just the right length to cause a shadow but to not look scruffy. He was rugged, but the well put together kind… as if it was just how he was supposed to look without making any effort whatsoever.

He would let Morgan drive and would sit in the front with her while Emma would sit in the back.

“You need to get used to the roads this early,” he’d said sternly. “In fact, I think you may need a truck rather than this old tin can.” He slapped the dashboard and then leaned back in his seat.

Morgan was nervous around him anyway, but when he was judging her driving skills, it only made her heart beat faster and she just longed for the journey to be over.

“This car is fine,” she’d told him feistily, but he had snorted and shook his head as if she didn’t have a clue what she was talking about.

Once Emma was dropped off at school, Trent would either disappear into town, or he would give Morgan a list of errands and drive the car back while she got to work. Sometimes, he would come back to collect her a couple hours later, or sometimes, she would tell him not to worry until it was time to collect Emma from school in the afternoon.

She knew the town well, and she wasn’t short of things to do, and on the days when he took the car back, she sometimes found herself walking along to her parents’ house and having a coffee with her mom.

“Well, Emma sounds wonderful,” her mom had said.

“She truly is,” Morgan had agreed. “And the house, well, it’s pretty nice too.”

“At least you’re settling in,” her mom had smiled.

And she did feel as if she was, but at the end of the day, she was still living in someone else’s home.

 

By the time the first week had passed and they were into some kind of routine, Trent was picking up more hours down at his office on Main Street and Morgan was seeing less of him altogether. He tended to be out of the house before the girls even woke up, and when he returned in the evening, he liked to spend his quality time with Emma while Morgan found herself cleaning and tidying, or chilling in the annex.

“I was going to start cooking for us,” Morgan said one afternoon when Trent had come back home, before she was about to go and collect Emma from school. “I know I haven’t as of yet, but I think it would be good for Emma to be used to the regularity of a hot meal being ready for her on the table when she gets home.”

“And how are you going to manage that?” Trent asked cockily as he looked over at her with disdain. “If you’re out there collecting her?”

“I have my ways,” Morgan said with a secret eyeroll. “Have you never heard of a slow cooker?”

Trent stayed silent and leaned back on the counter and sighed. When Morgan looked over at him, she still couldn’t believe she was standing there with him sometimes. He was so unlike anyone she had ever met before. He was so full of testosterone and anger, but he also had a real quiet side to him. He always seemed to be lost in thought and contemplation, as if he was always trying to make sense of the world around him.

“If you want to,” he said finally. “Then you go ahead.”

“It might be nice for you to be around too if you can,” she offered and then instantly regretted saying it. He had hired her to look after Emma, not to demand that he left work to go and hang around with them as well.

“I know I haven’t seen much of Emma this past week, but I was just getting stuff sorted out in the office,” he said as he looked up at her from beneath a hooded brow. “There’s a lot of crazy stuff happening in town, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“I hadn’t, actually,” Morgan said with interest as she crossed the room to stand closer to him.

Trent eyeballed her for a moment and then he cocked his head to the side.

“You grew up here and you don’t know anything about this town?” he asked her, it was like he didn’t believe her.

“It’s not that I don’t know anything,” she said. “It’s just that I’ve been busy with you guys… And I try to stay out of town gossip.”

“This isn’t town gossip,” he assured her as he crossed his big, muscular and hairy arms over his chest. “This is a serious issue that needs to be stopped.”

“What is?” she asked as she reached for the kettle and started to fill it with water before she put it on to boil.

“Developers are trying to take over Main Street,” he said as he ran his rough hands through his hair. “And I’m helping the locals try to stop them.”

“Really?” she asked. She almost couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Why would a man like him, someone from practically out of town, want to be so involved in helping out the town’s folk of Wakestone Pines?

“What are the developers doing? Why are they interested in here?”

Trent sucked in a lungful of air and sighed.

“I can only assume tourism,” he offered. “This place is quaint and small, it has an old-world charm and tons of independent stores. If the developers move in, there’ll be a goddam Starbucks on every corner and before we know it, a hotel will be going up, then another, and another, and the whole place will be overrun with summer camps, and skiers, and it won’t be Wakestone Pines anymore… It’ll just be another resort on another mountain.”

It was a surprise to hear him talking that way, but Morgan couldn’t help but be inspired by his passion.

“And this is why you need me?” she asked.

“For now, yes,” he told her with a cold stare. “But I wouldn’t get too comfortable.”

Morgan turned and rolled her eyes.

“I mean, I’m doing what I can with the knowledge I have. I worked in construction and I know what these developers are offering is false. Something is off and I’m just trying to make sure as much of this town is preserved as it can.”

“Well, that’s good of you,” Morgan smiled warmly.

She did mean it, but she also hated the way he was speaking down to her. Memories of Mr. Sweeney flashed back in her mind and she wanted to scream.

“I don’t know how long I’ll need to keep up extra hours. It’s not exactly like I’m earning anything by doing it, but I know I need to have the work and the interest. I’m the kind of guy who has to keep busy.”

Morgan could tell that for sure.

“If you rest, you rust,” he said to her with a cocky wink.

“I’ve heard that before,” she smiled at him before she picked up the whistling kettle and started to fill two mugs with boiling water to make them both a coffee.

“Anyway, I better go and get Emma,” she said as she took a hurried sip of her drink and pulled on her coat. “Maybe that will have cooled down by the time I get back.”

Trent nodded his head and watched her as she walked toward the door.

“So, what are you cooking?” he asked her sternly. “I’m home tonight, maybe it’s time I let you rather than insisting on pizzas that neither of you even like that much.”

Morgan smiled.

“Well, I’m impressed, I thought you would never ask,” she laughed. “Emma and I will stop at the store and it can be a surprise.”

Trent raised his eyebrows.

“I don’t like surprises,” he said sternly.

“Obviously,” Morgan laughed as she wound her scarf around her neck and reached for her purse. “Is there anything I can get for you while we’re out?”

Trent shook his head and took a sip of his drink. Morgan reached for hers and took another hot swig too before she placed it down on the counter and headed toward the door.

She had no clue why she had made them both a coffee right before she was due to head out and get Emma, but it had felt right and as if it was the sort of thing she should have been doing.

Even though Trent could be a complete ass and rude beyond belief, there was still a part of her that craved to look after him. And now that she had tapped into it, she didn’t know if she was ever going to be able to let it go.

 

“My dad is a man’s man,” Emma said as they pulled up to the house and Morgan slowed the car to a halt. “So, I think he’s going to like the steak.”

They had been to the store after school pick-up, and Morgan had selected three big T-Bone steaks she was going to season and cook on the grill on the veranda. She had once heard that the way to a man’s heart was through red meat… so she just hoped this would make Trent loosen up a bit and stop giving her such a hard time.

She had also gone girly and bought salad leaves, a vinaigrette dressing, and some red onions to balance it out for her a bit, and Emma had told her that Trent loved big, thick cut fries with his steak, so she had bought some potatoes to make her own.

“The things you do,” she whispered to herself as she climbed out of the car and lifted up the brown paper grocery bags.

As the girls went back into the house, she couldn’t help but notice how quiet it seemed, but it wasn’t long before Emma had turned on the television and she was bouncing around on the couches and singing along to the tweeny TV shows that were blasting out on Nickelodeon.

Morgen smiled as she put the steaks out on a plate and started to season them, and then she turned on the oven and headed to the wine rack. She had noticed that Trent had a pretty good selection of reds, and she had been curious to try some.

She made sure there were some cool beers in the fridge for him, and then she turned to look toward the veranda when she saw the glint of something in the fading sunlight.

She stepped toward the French doors and looked out and down into the valley. The view was always impeccable, but on that early evening, it was made even more special when she saw Trent there…

He was wearing nothing but a muddied vest and a loose pair of khaki trousers, and he was holding his huge, muscular arms above his head as he brought the gleaming ax down onto the logs in front of him. Morgan found her breath catching in her throat as she watched him, and her heart began to race a little faster.

Damn, he looks good… she thought as she chewed her bottom lip.

The way the veins in his arms bulged and throbbed made her spine tingle, and she couldn’t believe how perfectly tanned and rugged he looked as he was smudged with dirt and looked as if he had been working outdoors all day.

She wondered what he had been doing since she had been gone, and whether the wood he was chopping was because he was going to build them one hell of a fire.

“I hope so,” she bit her lip and grinned.

“What did you say?” Emma called over to her, and Morgan turned and shrugged.

“I don’t think I said anything,” she told a little white lie. “I’m just thinking out loud.”

She moved away from the French doors reluctantly to tear herself away from the incredible view of the older, sexier, mountain man who was also her boss.

“Get a grip,” she said even quieter as she reached for the wine and began to uncork it. She poured herself a glass and took a big sip before she set it back down on top of the counter and got to work. She had a lot to do, and she wanted to ensure that she was as prepared as she could be before Trent came back up to the house.

By the time he came back into the kitchen, he was sweating and covered in streaks of mud and woodchips, and Morgan’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. He smiled as he rested down some of the logs and looked over at the set table and at the thick cut French fries cooking in the oven. When his eyes settled on the steaks, he raised his eyebrows and nodded his head approvingly.

“Not bad,” he said with authority. “Not bad at all for a first try.”

“Well, I may have had a push in the right direction,” she mused as she looked across at Emma.

Trent hauled the logs over into the living area and started to stack them up at the side of large, open fireplace and he threw a few onto the already smoldering embers. They hissed with the damp that was still inside of them and then began to pop and crackle as the fire took hold.

“How do you have it?” she asked him as she motioned to the steak.

“Rare,” he said through gritted teeth. “Bloody.”

Morgan found herself wincing. She knew it was how most people preferred it, but to her, there was no way she could eat red meat without it being cook right through.

“Can I sit at the table?” Emma asked as she bounded through and wrapped her arms around her dad’s legs.

“Sure,” Trent said. “Sorry about the mud.”

He looked down at Emma and smiled at her as he rubbed her head.

Emma shrugged and sat down at the table on her chair and she looked from Trent to Morgan, and back again.

“I need to use the grill on the deck,” Morgan said as she stepped toward the French doors. “If I need any help can I give you a shout?”

Trent was watching her with amusement and he nodded and smiled.

She turned and left the kitchen with the plate of bloodied meat and a set of tongs, and she went to the grill and opened the hood.

By the time she had gotten the damn thing working, the sun had almost set, but she was determined she was going to do everything she could before she gave in and called to Trent. This was his quality time with Emma, and the last thing Morgan wanted to do was interrupt it or get in the way.

When she had finished cooking all three of the steaks, she had beads of sweat forming on her own forehead from the heat off the grill, and she was glad to get back into the house and sit for a moment.

She started to plate up the meat, and she carried them over to the table one by one, laying out an apple juice for Emma as she went, and a beer for Trent, and then a glass of red wine against her own place setting.

“Thank you for having me for dinner tonight,” she said to them both as they both watched her eagerly. “But just for today, I mean, this is your quality time together, I don’t want to impose.” 

Trent finally cracked a smile and seemed to agree with her. But Emma didn’t seem as keen.

“I want you to eat with us every night,” Emma pouted. “Can she, Daddy?” she tugged on Trent’s arm and he looked away uncomfortably.

“Hey,” Morgan said to divert Emma’s attention. “Why don’t you tell your dad what you told me in the car on the way home? About your upcoming school trip?”

“Oh, yeah!” Emma said excitedly. “We’re going to go to the museum in the center of town and we get to look at all the old artifacts that were found up on the mountain when the first settlers came here.”

“Artifacts…” Trent said with an impressed grin. “A nice big word, Emma, I like it.”

“I don’t know what it means,” Emma said with a sigh and a shrug of her shoulders. “But it sounds grown up.”

Trent’s dark eyes glistened and beamed when he smiled, and Morgan couldn’t help but watch him and how different he was when he watched Emma.

“Well, I hope you enjoy the food,” Morgan said as she started to put some salad onto her plate before she offered the bowl to Emma. “And like I say, I will do this for just the two of you every night. It would be my pleasure.”

Trent’s eyes were fixed on her again and she wanted to look up, but was feeling nervous, so she kept them averted to her plate. She suddenly didn’t know where she should look, and so she took another swig of her wine and cleared her throat.

“This wine is lovely, Trent,” she said. “It pairs perfectly with the meat.”

He nodded his head and chewed. When she looked across at him, she could see that he was still covered in dirt and sweat, and it made her heart flutter.

So goddam good… she thought. Just look at him…

She scratched the back of her neck and looked away toward the windows.

They ate in silence, but this time, Morgan felt a lot more at ease. Emma hummed along to the sound of the television and Trent ate everything on his plate and mmmed and ahhhed as if he was truly enjoying his meal. When Morgan turned her eyes up to watch him, she inevitably found that he was looking back at her, and it was both startling and exciting.

“Bed time,” Trent said to Emma when they had all finished and she pushed her plate away. “I’m going to come up with you and get you ready tonight. I think we should let Morgan have a bit of a rest after cooking us up that marvelous feast, don’t you?”

“I sure do,” Emma said as she bounded over to Morgan and wrapped her arms around her neck and gave her a big hug. “Thank you, Morgan.”

Her voice was a little sing song and it was melting Morgan’s heart more and more each day.

She watched them as they left the table and headed toward the stairs and she felt warm inside. She knew they weren’t her family, but already, in such a short amount of time, she was feeling as if they were people she was close to and that she didn’t want to lose.

She smiled and ran her hands through her hair, and then she rose to her feet and started to clear the table.

It had been the first night that Trent had been properly back in the house, and it had been a success. She could feel it. He had liked her being there, he had enjoyed the food, and Emma had loved it even more.

Morgan wrapped her arms around herself and held herself tight. Maybe this job was going to work out for her after all. Maybe leaving the general store had always been written in the stars, and the only reason she had lasted that long was so that she was led to this exact moment.

She rolled her eyes at her own romanticism and then continued to clear the table and clean the kitchen. She was going to have to keep her head screwed on. Trent was her boss, and he was a lot older than her.

Hot or not…

Morgan was going to have to ignore it.