Chapter 1

Kit hated being late.

The thought of being late to her very first day of work was especially horrifying, and her muscles tensed as she shot another glance at her SUV’s dashboard clock. She only had seventeen—sixteen, she mentally corrected as the digital numbers changed—minutes to find her new house, unhitch the rental trailer containing all her worldly possessions, and get to the police station on time. She swore under her breath as the pickup in front of her slowed to inch around a curve.

It wasn’t looking promising.

Justice shifted in the back seat, giving a low groan as he settled into a new position. Flicking a look at the bloodhound in her rearview mirror, Kit couldn’t keep from smiling. With his long ears and floppy jowls, Justice always looked adorably rumpled.

Quickly turning her attention back to the twisting road, she saw the achingly slow truck’s signal light begin to flash.

“Hallelujah,” she muttered, easing to a crawl as the pickup turned. For the past twenty miles, she’d been stuck behind the wheezing old vehicle, which had only sped up from its painfully slow pace whenever a passing lane appeared. She’d left the Denver hotel before five that morning, assuming that would give her plenty of time to get to work before seven, but she hadn’t anticipated congested traffic on the snow-glazed roads.

At least the turtle-like speed allowed her to take in the views. This was only her second time in Colorado; the first was when she’d come to Monroe for her interview in late summer. The scenery was beautiful in a terrifying way, with shoulder-less roads edged by sheer drops and hairpin turns slicked with ice. A thick layer of snow covered everything except the road, piled off to the sides in dramatic, towering walls that narrowed the highway into claustrophobic corridors. The feeling surprised her. She figured being in such a small wilderness town would seem open and freeing, but the mountains and snow piles and even the twists and turns in the road pressed in on her, heavy and oddly menacing.

“It’s just different from what we’re used to,” she told Justice, needing to hear a reassuring voice, even if it was her own. Her SUV topped a rise, and Monroe appeared before her, nestled in a valley and looking cozy enough to be the centerpiece of a snow globe. The sight of the adorable hamlet settled her nerves a little. How could anything bad ever happen in such a picture-perfect postcard of a place? Working here was going to be relaxing to the point of boredom. “This’ll be good—much better than Wisconsin. We just have to get used to it. Right, Justice?”

Justice grunted, and Kit chose to take that as agreement.

Just as she passed a small sign reading Welcome to Monroe, elevation 7,888 feet, her GPS spoke up, telling her to turn right in half a mile. She obeyed, swinging her SUV wide so the trailer didn’t cut the turn and catch on a curb. She shouldn’t have worried. There was no curb. There was barely a street. Under the layer of packed snow, the road was painfully narrow and either gravel or so worn that most of the asphalt had given up, leaving only a potholed mess. She felt a pang for the townhome she’d left behind.

“Stop it,” she ordered before she could jump into a full-fledged pity party. “This will be better. Justice will have a yard, and there won’t be any shared walls, so you won’t have to listen to the neighbors fighting over who put the empty milk carton back in the fridge. You’re going to love it here.”

As she rounded a bend in the road, the house came into view. She pulled up in front of the cedar-sided cabin and let out a long, relieved breath. It was perfect. She’d seen pictures, but photos could hide a lot of flaws. Tidy and well-maintained, the small house looked exactly as she’d hoped it would. The drive and walkway to the front porch had even been cleared. There were a few other homes around, but they were definitely far enough away that she wouldn’t hear any neighbors arguing unless they made a point of being heard.

“See, Justice? There’s that big fenced yard I was telling you about.”

Her relief didn’t last long when she caught another glimpse of the clock. Even if she was extremely speedy, she was definitely going to be late to her first day. She muttered various creative swear words under her breath as she pulled her SUV and the trailer past the end of the narrow driveway.

As she started backing up, turning the trailer into the drive, she noticed another vehicle in the street behind her and quickly slammed on her brakes. Craning her head out of her open window, Kit spotted a dark-haired, bearded man behind the wheel of an elderly pickup. Her swearing was less muffled that time. It was hard enough backing such a small, wiggly trailer without an audience—an audience most likely impatient for her to get out of the way so he could squeeze past her SUV and get wherever he was going. If she rushed, she’d just end up sending the trailer cockeyed and getting it stuck in her new yard.

She looked at the snow mounded on either side of the skinny road. There was no way the pickup could go around, not without getting caught in the four-foot drifts. With a resigned sigh, she started backing up again. The pickup was far enough away that she wasn’t in any danger of hitting him with the trailer. The only danger was humiliation if it took her a half hour to get it into the driveway.

Turning the steering wheel, she watched as the back of the trailer lined up with the driveway entrance. Slowly, she started backing it in.

“It couldn’t be this easy, could it?” she asked Justice, hope blooming in her chest, marveling at the way the trailer was obediently rolling up the lane. Even as she spoke, the trailer turned too far, leaving it cockeyed and headed for the snowbank. Kit hit the brake before she got the trailer stuck in the drifts lining her new yard. “Of course it can’t. This is my life, after all. Everything has to be as embarrassingly painful as possible.”

With a sigh, she shifted her SUV into Park and got out, heading for the driver’s side of the waiting pickup. Might as well get this over with. The man rolled down his window as she neared, and Kit did a stutter-step when she got her first up-close view.

He was the most beautiful person she’d ever seen.

Taking his features one by one, he wouldn’t sound that attractive—short, dark brown hair, matching beard, hazel eyes—but there was something about him that knocked her sideways. He was rugged yet refined, with sharp cheekbones, full mouth, and a strong jaw and chin evident even underneath the beard. His lashes were long and lush enough to make pageant contestants weep. His model-like beauty was only emphasized by the contrasting mountain roughness of his untrimmed beard and utilitarian clothes, making him look like an actor playing the role of a backwoods lumberjack.

He was startlingly attractive—and unexpectedly intimidating.

Kit blinked a few times to reorient herself and remember what she was going to say. Years of working with cops and other first responders had inured her to burly, masculine men…at least that’s what she’d thought. This guy had taken her off guard, however. His unbelievably gorgeous face and silent regard were giving her a flashback to high school, and all the long-forgotten insecurities of a flat-chested, dorky teen tried to elbow their way back into her brain. She nipped those feelings in the bud. There was no way she was going to let anyone make her relive the misery of her teen years.

That thought and a sharp, cold gust of wind snapped her back to reality, and she realized she’d just been standing there staring for much too long. She held back a groan. What a way to make an impression on one of her new neighbors.

Get it together, Jernigan.

“Hi,” she said, trying to make her smile seem casually friendly despite her strange reaction. She had a trailer to park and a new job to start. There wasn’t time to get distracted by a guy, no matter how distressingly pretty he was. “This is probably going to take me a few minutes. Can you back up and get where you’re going a different way? Otherwise, I can drive around the block to let you get by.”

His glance moved from the trailer’s torqued position and back to her face. “I don’t understand the problem.”

She blinked. “Just what I said. It’ll probably be a few minutes before the road will be clear. I’ll need to pull forward to straighten the trailer before backing it into the driveway again.” That was assuming she’d manage to keep it straight on the second attempt, which she highly doubted, especially with Mr. Gorgeous Lumberjack sitting there watching her.

He looked at the trailer again. “Why did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Turn the trailer like that? Why didn’t you just back it in straight?”

Great. Hot mountain man’s an ass.

Kit bit back a rude answer and sent the man a steady look. She had to give it to him—he had a great poker face. Even though she knew he was being sarcastic, there wasn’t anything in his posture or expression that gave him away. He even rumpled his forehead as if honestly puzzled by her ineptitude. What was next—a crack about women drivers? “I’m working on doing just that, but this small trailer’s a bit tricky. Just give me a few minutes, and I’ll be out of your way—unless you want to back up and use someone else’s driveway to turn around in.”

“What’s tricky about it?”

She took a silent breath, trying to hold on to her impassive expression. Being a cop for eight years should’ve allowed her to perfect the look, but her emotions always showed too easily. Honestly, she didn’t need some incredibly-hot-but-snarky jerk to mansplain as she prepared to humiliate herself in front of him…again. At least he didn’t seem to be in any hurry. He could sit there and mock her, but she wouldn’t have to waste time driving around the block to let him though. “Okay. I’m going to go give it another attempt. If you’re going to stay, just know that my ability to back a bumper-pull trailer is inversely proportional to the number of judge-y eyes staring at me.”

His head cocked, and his full mouth turned up at the corners in a smile so unexpectedly sweet that Kit couldn’t breathe for a solid four seconds. “Inversely proportional? You like math?”

The question threw her even more off balance. “Sure, I guess? I mean, I like it more than backing in this trailer.”

His smile widened, showing off white, mostly straight teeth. The front two overlapped a tiny bit, and she found that small flaw surprisingly endearing. “It’s the same thing.”

“What?” Still confused, she frowned at him. “No, it’s not.”

“Yes, it is. Everything is math.”

“Uh…okay.” Another gust of wind caught her, reminding her that she was still standing in the street, trying to figure out what this beautiful stranger was talking about, becoming later and later for work with every second that passed. She took a step away from the pickup and the odd, distractingly handsome lumberjack. “I guess I’m going to go do math, then.” She hitched her thumb toward the trailer. “Hopefully, I’ll remember enough high school algebra to get my trailer out of the way so you can get on with your day.”

“Not algebra.” The wrinkles in his forehead deepened as his smile changed, turning more quizzical than delighted.

“Right, of course. Geometry, then.” She headed back to her SUV, shaking her head slightly as she got into the driver’s seat, trying to brush off the strange encounter so they could get on with their lives. As she glanced in the side-view mirror, a movement caught her eye and she jumped.

The stranger had followed her, now standing right next to her back bumper—and he was enormous. Adrenaline nipped at her, and Kit mentally scolded herself for letting down her guard. She’d turned her back on a stranger, even though she knew better than that. Just because a guy was hot didn’t mean he wasn’t a threat. As if sensing her tension, Justice sat up and peered out the window. When he caught sight of the stranger, his tail thumped against the seat. Ferocious, Justice was not.

Kit put a hand on the door latch, ready to get out of the car if the man came any closer, but he’d stopped. The tension in her muscles eased a tiny bit when he kept some distance between them, and she stuck her head out the window to give him a questioning look. Justice sniffed the air through the partially open window and then licked the glass with his broad tongue.

“I’ll help,” the mountain man said. “Otherwise, the trailer will end up stuck in the snow.”

She frowned, pretty sure he’d just insulted her. “Help how?”

“I’ll do the math, and you can drive. Together, problem solved.” He swept his arm to the side in a dramatic wave that erased her lingering tension, making it impossible to be intimidated. With his enormous bulk and shaggy beard, she hadn’t expected him to be so wonderfully dorky. He was like a nerdy, math-loving Sasquatch. Any lingering insecurities dredged up earlier were flushed away. She’d be willing to bet a lot of money that this guy hadn’t been one of the popular kids in high school either. No, this guy had been getting stuffed into lockers right alongside Kit.

She eyed his broad shoulders. At least, he’d been stuffed in lockers until he’d hit a growth spurt.

A smile tugged at her mouth as she lifted her hands in defeat and pulled forward, straightening the trailer before shifting into reverse again. After turning a circle on the seat, Justice lay down with a groan and closed his eyes.

“Turn the wheel eighteen degrees to the left,” the man called, and she darted a glance at him in the mirror. He didn’t look like he was joking. With a small shrug, she did as he suggested—or as close as she could manage. From his exasperated look, that wasn’t precise enough for him. “I said eighteen degrees, not twenty-six.”

Instead of annoying her, she found the mild scolding amusing, and she gave him an apologetic wave as she straightened the wheel slightly. It must’ve been acceptable to Mr. Tall, Hairy, and Exacting, because he gave a slight nod.

“Now continue backing for four feet and eleven inches.”

Four feet and eleven inches, Kit repeated in her head with a mental eye roll as she eased the trailer back. The extreme micromanagement struck her as funny, but she held back her laughter. The man seemed so earnest, and she didn’t want him to think she was making fun of him. He was being nice enough to help her out, after all.

“Stop!”

Startled by his shout, she slammed on the brake. Adrenaline was rushing through her again as Kit leaned out the window, frantically trying to see behind the trailer. “What? Was I going to hit something?”

“No.” He turned his puzzled gaze to hers. “You were about to go too far.”

She stared at him, annoyed by the remaining anxiety threading through her body. “Did I actually go five feet instead?” Immediately, she felt bad for mocking him, especially when he gave her such a warm smile in return.

“No. You’re perfect.” Above the top edges of his beard, his cheeks darkened as he cleared his throat and looked away. “Perfectly positioned, I mean.”

“Of course.” A hundred teasing responses rose in her head, but she restrained herself and just stayed silent, waiting for the next instruction.

Staring at the snow-covered road, he rubbed at the back of his neck, and Kit had a feeling he was flustered. By her. That was a novel experience. Even as a kid, she’d always been considered one of the guys. It was rare that she induced speechlessness in a man—especially one as gorgeous as this one—and she was reluctantly flattered by his reaction.

Then her gaze moved to the dashboard clock, and the time made her stomach sink. She was going to be so horrendously late. “What’s next?” Her voice was too loud, making him glance at her, startled.

“Right.” He took a deep breath, the air expanding his broad chest even more, and he looked between the trailer and her SUV, his gaze calculating. “Straighten the wheel, and reverse another three feet, two inches.”

Kit eased up on the brake and allowed the SUV to back up. Prepared this time, his urgent “Stop!” didn’t startle her.

“Turn the wheel six degrees to the right.”

Kit was quite impressed with her self-control, since she managed to keep a straight face throughout the process, even when his extremely specific directions included half inches. But even she had to admit that his math-inspired technique worked. The trailer ended up in a perfect spot: right next to the walkway and leaving just enough room on the other side for her to park her SUV once she got home. Setting the parking brake, she hopped out and went back to unhitch the trailer, but the stranger was already on it.

Kit dug a good-sized rock that was bordering the walkway out of the snow and wedged it behind one of the tires as a wheel chock. As she straightened, she noticed the man eyeing her with approval. She flushed, thinking that he’d been focused on her bent-over backside, but he gestured at the rock, instead.

“Good idea,” he said, and she felt stupidly disappointed that he hadn’t been admiring her rear end—and then she felt silly for being so shallow.

“Thank you.” She reached out to shake his hand. There was a pause where she wondered if he was going to accept the gesture, and then he took off his right glove and clasped her hand in his. It was warm and pleasantly rough, and his huge hand completely swallowed hers. That enveloping hold made her feel disconcertingly small, and she hurried to speak to distract herself. “This would’ve taken longer without your help.”

“Yes.” Now that he had her hand, he wasn’t releasing it, and things started to feel awkward again. “A lot longer.”

Once again, Kit wasn’t sure whether to be offended or amused, but she settled on amusement. After all, the man wasn’t wrong. Letting out a huff of laughter, she gently tugged her hand back. “I’m Kit Jernigan.”

Finally releasing his grip, he gave a small nod but remained quiet rather than give his name.

With another small laugh, Kit headed back to the driver’s seat of her SUV. The guy had just saved her a bunch of time and aggravation. The least she could do, she figured, was let him keep his anonymity. She’d return to cop-mode soon enough.

Opening the car door, she looked over her shoulder at her new friendly neighborhood Bigfoot, who was still standing where she’d left him. “Well, I hate to math and run, but I’m already late for my first day at my new job. Thank you again, though.”

With another short lift of his chin, he watched as she pulled out of the driveway and turned away from his pickup. Before she reached the next intersection, she couldn’t resist another glance in the rearview mirror. He’d moved next to his truck, but he was still watching her, and Kit jerked her gaze back to the road.

“What an interesting guy…whoever he is.” She realized that she was smiling. “Just between us, Justice, I kind of like him—even if he is too pretty for his own good.” The dog, who’d been snoozing for most of the trailer-parking process, opened his eyes and thumped his tail against the seat in what Kit took as agreement.

Blowing out a hard breath, Kit focused on getting back to the police station. It was still her first day at a new job in a strange town, but her encounter with the nameless Good Samaritan had given her a fizzy sense of hopeful anticipation.

If all her neighbors were as interesting and helpful as her mystery mountain man had been, maybe her new life in Monroe wouldn’t be so terrible after all.