“Why in the heck would you do that, Dad?”

Sometimes I hated that my vision for my future required that I rely on other people. In this instance, other people was my father.

Marcus Masterson was a good man. He just didn’t relate to the real world because he’d been rich since well before I was born.

“Listen Lena, Lulu and I have been talking and we think-,”

I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me. “No Dad, you and Lulu are no longer married, you shouldn’t be thinking collectively on anything.”

Ever! I didn’t have a problem with Lulu, not even a little bit. She was a pretty, fortysomething year-old woman who had lived a life of hardship and then luxury. She’d been happy to have a guy like my dad in her life because he was eager to do anything for a pretty smile. But unlike brides two through four, Lulu’s idea of luxury was a fancy cruise. Which was a drop in the bucket for Dad. But they’d divorced a few years back, after just a few years of marriage. I never really knew why it ended, but now they were seeing each other again. Whatever in the hell that meant.

Dad had a hard time being alone ever since my mother died. I was eight when she was diagnosed with cancer, and ten when we’d finally lost her. Neither of us had ever recovered.

“We want you kids to work together. We were family once”

“No, we weren’t.”

I was so angry I could barely get a word out as I shoved my feet into my hot pink Converse and grabbed my Army green canvas bag before flying out the door. Winter would be over soon and the past few days had been especially sunny and warm. “Why this way, though? You realize it’s crazy to put that man in charge of anything when he never leaves the fucking mountains, don’t you?”

“Language,” he said, warning in his voice.

“Dad, come on! You just told me that I can’t open my restaurant if some guy I barely know doesn’t agree. Does that seem right to you?” I knew I shouldn’t be driving when I was so angry, but I needed to get up the damn mountain to see one Rex McGregor.

Handsome bastard.

“It is what it is, Lena.”

“A circular statement if I ever heard one. Fine. If this is how you want it, so be it. I’ll just have to get a job in a big name restaurant until I make enough money to make my dream a reality.” It wasn’t a threat, I had no problem working for what I wanted. But this just pissed me off when he was the reason I came back to Cody in the first place.

“Get Rex to agree, or the answer is no.”

Oh, I was already headed to see the hermit man of the mountain. “No thanks, Dad. I have no problem doing it like everybody else. It would have been nice to know before I left Chicago though.”

“Honey,” he began, regret mingling with annoyance in his tone.

“Gotta go. Enjoy your cruise.” I disconnected the call and let out a string of curses that would’ve made a sailor blush. I screamed as my little red SUV pushed its way up Shadow Mountain, home to Lulu’s oldest—and hottest—son. I could admit that I might have nursed a bit of a crush on Rex when he’d first come to the house with Lulu, but he was quiet and moody. Brooding and surly. And that was when he bothered to come around. Which wasn’t often. “Damn you, Rex!” But damn Daddy more, he should know better.

I called up my best friend Casey, because I needed to vent. “Hey Case, are you busy? I need to bitch for a few minutes?”

“Sure. It’s dead up here right now, what’s up?” Casey managed the General Store which was the last place to buy supplies before heading up Shadow Mountain, and the place was always either a ghost town or a madhouse.

I took a deep breath and told her about my dad’s ridiculous stipulation. “So basically, if Rex continues to be his reclusive, gorgeous self, I’m screwed and leaving town.”

Casey was silent for a moment before she reacted. “I’ll go with you,” she said on a frustrated breath. “Maybe we both need to put this town in our rear view.”

I agreed with her to a certain extent. Cody was a small town of less than ten thousand people. But it often felt like less. That meant young people like me and Casey had no job prospects we didn’t create, and no hope to find a husband. At all. Ever.

“Maybe my dad really does hate me.” I wasn’t one to succumb to self-pity, but I’d been working on these plans for the past year.

“Just seduce Rex into agreeing, it’s not like you haven’t wanted to jump on that for years.” She laughed because in Casey’s mind, she was a real comedian.

“Oh please, I am so over all that.”

“Yeah, right,” she laughed, much harder than she really needed to, in my opinion. “Lie to yourself sweetie, but I know you still want to hit the sheets with sexy Rexy.”

“Eww. See you later, Casey.”

“Yeah, fine. Be careful there’s a-,”

“Case? I think I’m losing you.” This fucking mountain was going to be the death of me. Sure it was great. Big, imposing, and scenic most of the year, but the roads were narrow and treacherous and reception was shitty at best. “Casey?”

Nothing. No reply. I’d lost her.

It didn’t matter, soon I would be at Rex’s cabin in the woods, where he was determined to live out his days as a recluse. And that was just fine by me, but now it interfered with my own business plans.

The house I’d grown up in was really more of a small mansion. It was big for a town like Cody, but compared to the mansions of Beverly Hills, it wasn’t that impressive. But it was home and it would be the perfect location for the dinner service I wanted to offer. Every night there would be a specialized menu at a set price for just fifty guests. High end, locally sourced food, served to people who appreciated something other than steak and potatoes. During the days I would serve the kind of lunch that would appeal to the average Cody or Montana citizen. I had it all worked out perfectly.

Until Rex.

And Dad.

I turned down the gravel road that lead to Rex’s cabin and spotted his black truck in the driveway. Good. This shouldn’t take long, I could be back home by sunset. Jumping out of the car and marching up the steps with cold hard determination, I balled up my fist and knocked.

And waited.

There was no answer, so I rapped again. And waited some more.

It became clear that though his car was here, Rex was off playing Big Bad Mountain Man somewhere. I plopped down on the top step, softly sanded by hand. In fact, every inch of the place had been built by hand. By Rex. It was impressive if one thought of it objectively. The place was two stories with a big ass fireplace in the great room, and three smaller ones in the bedroom suites. There were wooden chandeliers and a gourmet kitchen that had made me salivate the one and only time I’d been here before.

A rustling in the distance drew my attention as a chill set in. In forty-five minutes the sun would disappear and the temperature would dip lower than I wanted to risk.

Moments later, a broad shouldered figure that I would know anywhere, appeared. “About damn time,” I grumbled because I needed to focus on something other than how damn good he looked in that long john shirt and those wicked, sexy as sin jeans. I hadn’t seen Rex in more than a year and my memory didn’t do the man justice.

“I don’t remember invitin’ you,” he said and let the words hang in the air as his heavy footsteps fell on the stairs beside me and he walked inside the cabin. The damn door was unlocked all this time! I trailed inside after him.

“Well it’s not like I can get in touch with you any other way. Look, none of that matters anyway. I’ll just say what I have to say and be gone.” He nodded and turned to face me, dropping a red cooler on the floor. “Dad says you have to sign off on my use of the house for my business.”

“Okay.”

He stood staring at me, those dark blue eyes mixed in with yellow and gold flecks looking right through me. Overgrown brown hair sat wavy on his head, nearly brushing his shoulders, matching the copper and coffee beard covering much of his face.

“That’s all you have to say?”

“You want to tell me more?”

I resisted the urge to throw something at him. “No, I don’t. I don’t want to be here at all, but apparently this is a joint decision.”

“Well then, without more details I’ll have to think about it.”

“What? What in the hell is there to think about? I’m not asking you for money, or for a say in how I run my business. Just say yes so we can be done with this.” Like he needed details on my business.

“I can’t just say yes without hearing the details, Lena.”

He was playing with me. I could feel it. Just like when I was younger, Rex and his younger brothers, Jared and Owen, would tease me mercilessly. At least I hoped he was just teasing, because if he said no, my plans would take a decade to put into action.

“You weren’t going to say yes, anyway.” I could see it now. Dad didn’t want me to set up a business in the house. It had to be the reason he’d given Rex a say in what happens to it. Dad was letting Rex do his dirty work for him. “Whatever. Screw both of you.”

I refused to cry in front of Rex, or anyone for that matter. Working in a kitchen surrounded by men had given me a thick skin, but it wasn’t too much to ask for your own father to keep his word, was it? “Damn men,” I grumbled and yanked the door open and froze. The sky was as dark as midnight and snow whipped around the air like the beginnings of a tornado. The ground was covered in at least a few inches of snow. “You have got to be fucking kidding me!” I stood there for a moment, frozen between the front door and my car just a few feet away, indecision warring within me.

The epitome of stupid would be trying to drive down the mountain during this weather without any clue how much snow was expected and how long the storm would last. But staying with Rex spelled a whole different kind of trouble.

The kind that usually ended with a girl like me completely screwed and totally fucked.

Fuck. My. Life.