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  BRODIE

  WILD KNIGHT’S RIDGE MOUNTAIN MEN

  LANA DASH

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  BRODIE is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2020 by LANA DASH

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without express written permission from the author/publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  1

  LENNON

  The line at the bus ticket window is moving at a snail's pace. I swear I've moved quicker through the line at the DMV. Every second I stand here, the chances increase that Stephen will find me. I can’t go back. I won’t go back.

  I pull the sweatshirt hood closer over my face, careful not to arouse suspicion. I grip the strap of my messenger bag close to me, which now holds everything I have in the world. Some clothing essentials and the few items I couldn’t leave. The line inches forward until it’s finally my turn.

  "Next!" The bored-looking woman behind the glass window calls me up.

  “I’ll take a ticket to wherever the next bus is leaving for.”

  The woman’s gaze narrows on me with curiosity. She types something quickly in her computer, her colorful nails clacking with each keystroke. “The next bus departs for Jacksonville, Florida, in ten minutes.”

  “Perfect.”

  “That will be seventy-nine dollars.”

  I empty my pockets of all the crumpled bills and loose change I could find in the apartment before I left. It’s not enough.

  “How far can I get with sixty-two dollars?”

  She clicks her gum in the side of her cheek and eyes me up and down like a woman who can spot bullshit a hundred miles away. And I don’t doubt she can.

  I don’t flinch or fidget under her scrutiny. I can’t take the chance that she might suspect something and call the authorities. Stephen has connections everywhere. He’s probably already called in a few favors to his poker buddies on the force to track me.

  She searches her computer once again.

  “You can go as far as Knight’s Ridge, North Carolina, for fifty-eight dollars."

  “I’ll take one ticket.”

  The woman looks down at the money I've pushed towards her. I realize too late that my sweatshirt's sleeve gets pushed up beneath the partition, and she can see the fading bruise around my wrist. I quickly try to cover it up, but it's too late. She takes the money.

  “Are you okay, honey?”

  “I’m fine.” I force the smile I’ve perfected over the years to convince my family, friends, and co-workers that I was okay that I wasn’t in a loveless relationship with a boyfriend who used fear, humiliation, and threats to keep me from leaving him.

  Until now.

  Someone behind me yells for us to hurry up. The woman stands from her seat and gives the guy a look that shuts him up quickly. She glances back at me, concern evident in her eyes.

  “If you’re sure.” She pushes back my change.

  I nod, doing everything I can to convey to her that I’m as sure as I’ll ever be.

  BRODIE

  “Brodie Knight, when are you going to settle down with some nice young lady?” Mrs. Etta Jackson calls to me from one of the patio chairs outside of The Roasted Bean. The recently opened—and much needed—coffee shop in Knight’s Ridge owned and run by Miss Etta’s granddaughter, Jada.

  Ever since my older brothers all managed to find love, the town’s love spotlight has turned its focus on me. It follows me around wherever I go.

  “Miss Etta,” I smile, shifting the boxes I’m holding. “You know I only have eyes for you.”

  She chuckles at the playful flirtation we have every morning when I drop off the cookies Momma bakes and Jada sells in the shop.

  Amerin, my older brother, Beauden's girlfriend, has put a plan in place to brand our family’s growing business. That includes putting our name on products we used to only serve to guests at the lodge. Now we have a handful of products sold at local businesses around town and neighboring areas to get our name out there. We tried telling her our name is already pretty well known since the town was named after our family, but she insisted. I’ve already dropped off Momma’s jams and the soaps my oldest brother, Bridger’s wife, Iris, makes to Henderson’s Market.

  “Miss Etta, are you going to save me a dance at the Mid-Summer Madness Festival?”

  “I didn’t get this hip replacement to sit against the wall and watch you youngsters have all the fun, did I?”

  “No, ma’am.” I chuckle. “Can I get you a refill on your herbal tea?”

  Miss Etta shakes her head and gestures me to come closer. "I'll pass on the tea, but if you could get me a cup of black coffee, you'll be my hero."

  I wink at her. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  The bell chimes over the door as I walk in.

  “You aren’t getting coffee! Doctor’s orders!” Jada yells to her grandmother before I can even say a word. “She is shameless.”

  “I heard that!” Miss Etta yells.

  We both laugh. I set down the boxes containing three dozen cookies.

  “My momma said to tell you that as soon as she’s up and able to walk around again, she’ll be sending you more.”

  Momma took a fall last week hiking up to Coop’s Overlook and twisted her knee. She's been baking up a storm in Bridger's office chair, sliding around in the kitchen, but she can't produce the volume many of our customers have come to expect. Thankfully many of them go way back with my family, and they understand the slowdown. Unfortunately, with the festival just days away, she’s going to need to hire someone to help her if she wants to get the twenty-four dozen cookies she promised the planning committee. Four boys and not a single one of us inherited her skills of baking a cookie that didn’t look like a charred disk when it came out of the oven.

  “I’m happy to get whatever you can bring me. They are always the first of my baked goods to go. Please tell her when she’s up and on her feet again, I will order as many as she can bake.”

  “Will do.” I smile. “How’s Simon doing? I haven’t seen him around in a while.”

  She shakes her head. “Busy. Again. He’s back in Ashville, working on some plumbing contract for the city. Called this morning to let me know he wouldn’t be back in time for our anniversary or the festival.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” I sigh, not sure what I can say. I’m friends with both Jada and Simon. And while they were the IT couple when we were in high school, I’m not sure what either of them is holding on when neither of them are happy.

  “It is what is, I guess.” Jada smiles, putting on a brave face. “Let me get you the tablecloths that your momma asked to borrow for the festival.”

  I say my goodbyes to Miss Etta as I head back towards my truck. Across the road, I notice a young woman I haven’t seen in town before sitting on the wood bench that overlooks the valley below. I drop off the tablecloths in the bed of the truck. Her back is to me, but I can still hear the distinct sound of her crying.

  I approach slowly, not sure what I’m a
bout to walk into. “Miss?”

  She jumps at my voice and quickly wipes away the tears from her red-rimmed eyes with her sweatshirt sleeve.

  She looks up at me, and it feels like I've taken an arrow to the chest. She's gorgeous. Plump pink lips I have the sudden urge to kiss. And blue eyes so pale I'm pretty sure if I stare long enough, I could get lost in them. A need courses through me to help her in any way I can. I will do whatever it takes to stop her tears.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” she says, her voice breaking slightly as she attempts to smile. It's too late. She can't fool me, no matter how pretty it is.

  “Mind if I sit down with you?”

  She looks like she might tell me to leave her alone, but then she shakes her head.

  We sit quietly, looking out over the valley. It's a view I see every day, and yet I still never get used to it—the peak of each mountain folding one over the other as far as the eye can see. I sneak a glance at her out of the corner of my eye. She's sitting ramrod straight and staring ahead.

  “First time in Knight’s Ridge?”

  She meets my glance. “How do you know I don’t live here?”

  Because I would have noticed someone as beautiful as you before.

  “It’s a small town.” I shrug. “Everyone knows everyone, so a newcomer tends to stick out like a sore thumb.”

  “I’m not staying.”

  I feel my heart begin to deflate like a balloon, fluttering around the inside cavity of my chest. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  Her eyes narrow on me. “Why?”

  “I like meeting new people.” I reach across my chest to offer her my hand. “I’m Brodie Knight. My family owns the lodge about three miles that way.” I nod over my shoulder.

  She doesn’t take my hand at first, eyeing it cautiously. I can almost see the wall she’s built around herself, fortifying itself further. I wish there was a way I could show her that I’m not a bad guy. I’m about to pull it back when she places her hand in mine. The moment we touch, I feel it. A spark. I know she feels it too when her eyes widen in surprise.

  “I’m Lennon.”

  “Nice to meet you.”

  I don’t want to let go. Ever. I’ve never felt something so instant with some as I do with her.

  "Is it warm out here, or is it just me?" she asks, pulling her hand back. Her cheeks flush a pale shade of pink that matches her lips.

  She stands and reaches down for the hem of her sweatshirt and tugs it off over her head. The fabric catches on the shirt beneath, lifting both. My dick goes rigid in the two glorious seconds I can see the soft, creamy skin of her bare stomach.

  “Oops.” She tugs awkwardly at the shirt.

  I blink, snapping out of my trance and shifting in my seat, so she doesn't see the apparent effect she has on me. I didn't notice her curves earlier, but I do now. Her full breast press against the worn cotton of her shirt—my gaze trails down every luscious dip and curve of her body.

  “I’m not sure if you’re waiting on someone to pick you up, but I’ll give you a ride wherever you need to go?”

  “No, thank you.”

  “I’m sure it’s on my way.”

  “I’m fine.”

  "It's no trouble."

  “Just stop.” She holds up her hands at me. “I can’t take you up on your offer because I don’t have anywhere to go.”

  Oh.

  2

  LENNON

  I regret the words the second they fly out of my mouth.

  At that moment, I couldn't think of a single way to shut him up, but after seeing the surprise on his face, there were plenty of ways this could have gone without me revealing just how pathetic I am right now. Shove my sweatshirt in his mouth. Melt into the ground. Run away in the other direction. All of the above.

  Maybe a part of me was freaked out by the situation I currently find myself in—hungry, broke, and without a place to sleep—I needed someone else to freak out with me.

  “Wait, hold up.” He faces me. “What do you mean you don’t have anywhere to go? Like you don’t have any plans for the afternoon, or you don't know where you’re going to sleep tonight?”

  “That one.”

  “Which one?”

  “The sleep one.”

  “Okay,” He smacks his hands on his knees and stands up. “You’re coming home with me.”

  “No, I’m not,” I scoff. “I don’t even know you.”

  He puts his palm against his chest. “I’m Brodie. You’re Lennon. We met like three minutes ago.”

  I glare at him unamused.

  "You don't have a place to sleep, and my family owns a lodge. I do not see the problem here.”

  “I don’t have any money to pay for the room. I’m not a charity case.”

  “Is that what you’re concerned about?”

  “Yeah, at this moment, money is a bit of a concern for me."

  He shrugs. “Can you bake cookies?”

  “Of course.”

  “Okay, then you’re hired.”

  “To bake cookies? For what?”

  "My momma promised twenty-four dozen cookies to be made in time for the Mid-Summer Madness Festival in a few days."

  “I said I could make cookies. I didn’t say they were good.”

  “I trust your abilities.”

  “Just like that?”

  He smiles. “Just like that.”

  “You can’t do that.”

  “I just did. You start tomorrow.”

  “That doesn’t happen in real life. People don’t just offer something like that to a stranger they’ve just met. Not unless you’re in some cheesy romance book.”

  “Oh, you mean the ones where the heroes appear on the cover riding a white horse?” He taps his chin in thought. “I’m pretty sure Wes Monroe knows someone with a white horse I could borrow. I’d look good riding one with my flannel pulled open blowing in the wind. My abs on full display.”

  I can’t help it. I burst into laughter. He laughs too.

  “You’re crazy,” I say.

  “I promise I’m just trying to help a traveler passing through town.” He crosses his heart with his finger. “I have a good gut feeling about you.”

  “You better check the receiver on that gut again. I’m nothing but trouble,” I tell him, knowing I won’t be here long enough for him to find out it’s true.

  “Are you sure this isn’t any trouble?” I ask as he pulls to a stop in front of his family’s lodge.

  It’s a large log structure that looks like it was built at the turn of the last century. It’s not fancy, but it gives off a homey lived-in quality that makes me feel a bit easier. I keep waiting for the rug to be ripped out from under me. Or for Brodie to look at me and laugh as he says to me this is all just been a cruel joke.

  We walk in, but Brodie stops me near the foot of the staircase.

  "Wait here. I'm going to have to check with Daisy about what rooms are available.”

  Here comes the other shoe.

  A beautiful woman with auburn hair wrapped in a bun on top of her head is standing behind the front desk. She’s on the phone and typing something into the computer as he approaches.

  “Okay, I’ve got you booked for two rooms on the last weekend in August.” She pauses. “Of course.” Another pause. “You as well, sir.”

  She hangs up the phone. Her bright smile widening when she notices Brodie. “Hey, Aiden called. He said he is close to finishing up Mr. Sutter’s place and will be ready to start on the roof next week.”

  "Finally," Brodie holds his muscled arms over his head in triumph. "No more patching the roof every time it rains."

  “I thought you’d be happy to hear that.”

  They smile at each other in such a familiar way. A sharp pang of jealously shoots through me. I try to shake away the feeling before it can take root.

  Yes, Brodie is the hottest guy I've ever seen in person or on the movie screen. And yes, his muscles fill his mount
ain man flannel so well I wanted to tear it off him even before he put that image in my mind of him on a white horse. But nothing can happen. I can't stay here. Just a few days, and I'm out as soon as I have enough cash to move on.

  Brodie leans against the counter. “I know we’re pretty booked with the festival coming up and all, but I need you to do me a favor.” He points over his shoulder. The woman’s gaze follows it to me. “I wondered if we happened to have any available rooms left that my new friend, Lennon, could use.”

  The woman gives me a sympathetic tilt of her head and turns back to Brodie. “We’ve been booked up for weeks. You know that.”

  “What about room twelve?”

  “Brodie,” She looks curiously from him to me, and then back again. “That room is nothing more than a closet with a window and a bed in it.”

  “I’ll take it,” I blurt out. They both turn to look at me. “I mean, I’m not picky. Anything would be fine. I don’t need much.”

  “Brodie.” The woman clears her throat. “Are you going to introduce me to your new friend?”

  "Oh right," Brodie straightens himself. "Daisy, this is Lennon. Lennon, this is my brother Bryant's girlfriend, Daisy."

  She holds out her hand to me. “I have other actual titles I go by but that seems to be the one most people use these days.”

  I shake her hand.

  “Lennon is going to help Momma bake the cookie order for the festival.”

  Daisy's face lights up. "Thank goodness! She’s been hinting all morning that she was going to ask me to help her.”

  “Is she that scary?” I look between the two of them. Not that I have an option to be picky.

  "Oh, no," Daisy laughs. "Nothing like that. I was just hoping to enjoy my next few days off for fishing rather than being stuck in the kitchen."

  "Let me get your key, and Brodie can take you up to your room." She looks around. "Brodie, can you go get her suitcase?"