BUILT_The Mountain Man's Babies_A Secret Baby & Second Chance Romance Read online

  "Sure," I tell him. Of course, I really want the front steps finished sooner, but it's not the worst thing to have to go through the back entrance. Still, I really wanted to start out Spring with me drinking cups of coffee on that front porch every morning, looking up at the mountain above me and the trees around me.

  I know it's a silly thing to dream of having. The perfect place for a cup of morning coffee, especially when a few minutes later, I'll be driving down to the diner to pour cups all day long.

  But still, I was hoping to get at least one house project started sooner rather than later.

  Jaxon must notice my disappointment because he says, "I wish another guy would come our way. Just hard find anyone these days. It's as if guys just want a job where they can sit behind a computer screen and telecommute."

  "Agreed," says Buck. "What we need are real men. Men who know how to work with their hands, who aren't just interested in iPhone apps, but want to make something with a hammer and nails."

  I smile and reach for the coffee pot to refill their mugs. Get these boys on a roll about hard work and ethics, and I'll be here all day.

  "Okay, boys. Well, in that case, you better get off your tushes and get to work yourselves."

  As they finish their mugs of java, I drop off the dirty pile of dishes, make a fresh pot of coffee, grab the special from the orders-up counter, and head back to my new favorite customer.

  "Here you go, stranger," I say with a smile.

  "And now that it's here, what is this special, exactly?" he asks looking down at the plate of goodness. “I don’t think I would have ordered something so… delicate.”

  "They are crepes. And I promise you’ll love them." I lick my lips. "Whipped cream and honey-filled crepes."

  "With berries on top?" He asks with a flirtatious smile.

  "Cherries, actually."

  "How did you know what my dreams were made of?" he asks with a groan.

  I shake my head, knowing if I keep talking about his breakfast, I will push it all off the table and attempt to ravish him.

  Death by sweet cream.

  "So," I say, fanning myself with a menu. "I don't think I caught your name."

  "It's Beau. Beau Montgomery."

  His words are slow and steady, and they make my heart beat fast just to hear them. And that southern drawl has me drooling.

  "I'm Josie. "

  "Figured as much," he says pointing to my nametag. "So, you're looking for an extra hand to work on your house?"

  "I am," I say refilling his coffee as he takes a bite of my special. "So, were you overhearing or eavesdropping?" I smile. I'm not exactly good at flirting, but this is Beau Montgomery.

  With dreamy eyes and thick eyelashes that make my knees jelly. For him, I'm interested in getting a heck of a lot better at it.

  "Overhearing." He shrugs. "And I was wondering maybe I could get an introduction to those men?"

  "Of course," I say. Then I call over Jaxon and Buck, the owners of the local construction company.

  "Jax, Buck, this is Beau Montgomery and he wanted to talk to you about some work." I look at Beau to make sure I had it right.

  Through some non-verbal man cues--chin juts and raised eyebrows--Jax and Buck slide into the booth across from Beau and they start talking about job history and experience.

  I head back to the kitchen to drop off some empty plates and peer through the kitchen door watching as Jaxon and Buck get into a conversation with Beau. At one point, Hawk joins them and then they're all nodding in agreement over something.

  After the guys leave, I head back to see Beau pulling out his wallet.

  "So, how did it go?" I ask not wanting to be too nosy but wanting to know everything.

  "Thanks for the introduction, Josie. They offered me a trial job."

  "Really?" My eyes widen. "Are you from around here?"

  "No, but I've been looking for a place to put down some roots. This place looks as good as any."

  I shake my head. "No, this place is certainly not as good as any. It's the best place I've ever been."

  "You been to many places, Josie?" He looks at me as if he's looking deep inside my heart; as if he can see the burning desire crawling up my skin. Something about this man draws me to him. That makes me want what is mine for the taking.

  "Not as many as I'd like."

  "Wanna go somewhere?" he asks.

  "What did you have in mind?" I ask, sitting down across from him. The gravitational pull so damn strong.

  "I have a truck, I can take you anywhere you like, Josie."

  "Thought you just got a new job?" I cross my arms and tease. "Already wanting to ditch out on that gig?"

  He twists his lips, runs a hand through his hair. "Nah, I don't want to run. I want to settle down, build something meant to last."

  The energy between us intensifies, how did we get to this so quickly? Before I can reach my arms around his neck and mount him here in the diner, Jaxon walks back to the table.

  "Okay," Jaxon says, "I spoke to my buddy James and he says it's good with him."

  "What's good? I ask, not minding my own business.

  Jaxon looks at me as if he knows what I'm up to. "I asked James if he was all right with us borrowing his old trailer for a while."

  "His camper?"

  "Yeah," Jaxon says. "We're gonna give Beau here a trial run. He is looking for a place to settle down for a while. Ain't that right, son?"

  I half roll my eyes at Jaxon, acting like some old man on the mountain when he’s really only thirty-six. Though I'm guessing he's ten years older than Beau.

  "That's right sir," Beau says.

  "James will bring the trailer down the mountain tonight, alright? We'll park it in the empty lot here behind the diner. Right now, you can head over to Josie's place with me and we can check out her porch. Then if the job is something you can handle, you can work there today, sound good?"

  "You won't regret it," Beau says, standing from the table. Jax claps him on the back and both men tell me good-bye.

  I wish Beau could stay longer, like until my lunch break, perhaps. But I have a four-hour shift to finish up. It kills me to watch him go. I’m wishing Beau could stay here all day.

  And with naughty thoughts filling my mind, I think about staying with him all night too.

  I watch the men get up to leave, thinking that if I'm lucky Beau will be at my place when I get off work. Beau turns before he reaches the front door, and offers me a wink. "I'll be seeing you soon, Ms. Josie," he tells me.

  I clear his table, picking up the money and bill, noticing he wrote something on it before leaving.

  J,

  Hoping I'll be able to enjoy another Josie's Special sometime soon.

  B.

  I bite my bottom lip, rereading the note, already making plans.

  I will certainly give him a Josie's special tonight as a thank you gift for fixing up my porch.

  And that special won't be crepes. It will be something else entirely.

  Chapter 3

  Beau

  I'm wiping the sweat from my forehead when Josie pulls into the driveway mid-afternoon. Buck left a few minutes ago, wanting to make sure I was doing what I said I’d do. I appreciate that they checked in on me. After all, I am just a stranger and this is their town, their community. And hell, I told him I’d just got out of the slammer. The fact they trust me means a helluva lot.

  Josie is in a little SUV and when she steps out, her face lights up.

  "You're here."

  I stand, setting down the nail gun and nod slowly, not trusting myself to say anything, because what I'd say would wipe that sweet smile straight off her face. My thoughts are dirty, devious. After spending the last few hours here, outside her home, all I've been thinking about is carrying her up to her bedroom, untying her little apron, and telling her it was high time I placed another order.

  "So Jax trusted you with this job?" She saunters toward me and I'm disappointed for a second to see the
apron has already come off. But then I realize it is just one less thing to get rid of before I have my way with her.

  I may be getting a little ahead of myself, but damn, this woman has consumed me from the moment we met. I know what I want.

  "Do you like what you see?" I ask, watching as she inspects the progress. I have a saw set up on a plank of wood that rests on a pair of sawhorses. The green grass is covered in sawdust, and a pile of rotten wood has been tossed aside after I ripped up the old flooring.

  "This is amazing," she says peering over the edge of the porch. I removed the steps, so she can’t get up to inspect my work. "You ready for a break? Looks like you could use a beer."

  I run a rag over my neck, wiping the sweat there and nod, my cock tightening at the prospect of spending some time with her, alone, and I follow her around the house to the back door.

  "The house is really old," she says. "But my Granddad loved this place. And I loved him. I'm a sucker for nostalgia. He died this year and left the place to me." She opens the door and I follow her into the kitchen. "Oh, I bet Jax told you all that."

  "He filled me in," I say looking around the vintage kitchen. "Sorry about your granddad."

  "Thanks. He was sick for a long time, and I know he was in a lot of pain. Still, I miss him of course. And this spring I'll miss the sound of his old tv blaring the baseball scores. Or the giant zucchini from his garden that he never picks soon enough. I'll miss the way he always had a pitcher of sun tea in the fridge, always ready to pour me a glass." Josie bites her bottom lip, shaking her head. "Sorry," she says. "Guess I'm a sucker for good memories, too."

  "Don't apologize," I tell her. "I can't recall ever meeting my grandparents, so I think you're really lucky, Josie."

  "Thanks," she says. "But this place he left me is due for a massive overhaul. I want a classic farmhouse kitchen with an apron sink, the hardwood floors refinished, the claw foot bathtub re-enameled. I want it to look straight out of a 1940’s photograph."

  I look around, trying to see what she sees. "This house has tons of character, but I can see why you want it renovated."

  The appliances look thirty years old, the linoleum floor is broken in places, and the Formica countertops are peeling.

  "Yeah, it’s a big project. Do you see this wallpaper?" she asks smiling. The walls are covered in 70's mushrooms and orange and yellow leaves.

  "What else did Jaxon say when he showed you around?"

  "He said not to do anything stupid when it came to you."

  "He's always trying to act like my big brother." She reaches in the fridge and grabs two beers. I take them from her and pop off the bottle tops with my hand, giving her one back. We raise our beers, then take a sip, as we head back outside.

  "Have you known him long?" I ask as she leads me to a side garden where there are a few chairs set up around a fire pit.

  "Oh, just a little over a year or so." She tells me how she moved here to help with her granddad but fell in love with the town and the people. How everyone here seems to have a half a dozen babies and how she helps the women out as often as she can, because, according to her, babies are the cutest things ever.

  Her words, not mine.

  We sit, drinking our beer, and she cocks her head to the side. "Sorry. Do I sound baby crazy?"

  I laugh. "Naw. Sounds like you found a pretty perfect place to settle down though."

  She laughs too, the sound of her voice filling the blue sky. Looking at her makes me wonder how I ended up here at all. She is fresh air and sun rises and the last five years of my life have been nothing but concrete and restrictions. She is the breath of life I need; the oxygen my body craves.

  "What about you?" she says, leaning back in the chair. "Why are you out here on your own?"

  "It's a sad story."

  "Yeah?" Josie leans in, waiting for me to say more.

  "Yeah," I take another sip of beer. I already told Jax, Buck, and Hawk most of my story before they agreed to take me on and with good reason. They need to make sure I wasn't a fucking whatever and since Hawk had been to jail himself, he gave the other guys his perspective.

  Every man needs a second chance.

  And I don't exactly want to hash it out again, so soon.

  Especially when I know it would scare a woman like Josie. Hell, it would scare any woman. "I never had much family," I tell her. "Left South Carolina when I was eighteen, a buddy from school had a relative in Idaho who needed some guys for his construction crew, so we moved out together. Building houses and learning the trade."

  "And you've been here ever since?"

  "Yeah. It's a good place, lots of trees, lots of land. Good people." I smile, running a hand over my beard. "I grew up in a small mountain town, and it's where I feel most at home."

  "But I bet you miss shrimp and grits," Josie says with her eyebrows raised.

  I give her a slow smile. "What do you know about grits, girl?"

  She shrugs. "Not much, to be honest. Went to visit a second cousin once in the south though, and they were crazy about their grits."

  "And what are you crazy about, Josie? Besides babies?"

  She finishes her beer and sets it down in the gravel. "I'm pretty simple, Beau. I like the diner, making people smile.” She twists her lips, thinking. “And my granddad’s house, I guess you could say I'm pretty crazy about it."

  "A big house for one woman."

  She swallows. "Yeah, my dad thinks I should sell it. That I should move back to Boise."

  "But you don't wanna?"

  She shakes her head. "I don't. I went to Boise State for college. Got a degree in finance, of all things. But I don't know, a job at a bank seems like my entire existence would be about paying bills and getting by. I'd like to think life could be about more than that."

  I nod. This girl and I may come from different places, but somehow, we both ended up here, right now.

  In this moment.

  And maybe we aren't that different when you look at what matters.

  "It's not the worst thing to want a life that not everyone understands, is it?" I ask her.

  "No, no it's not." She tilts her head to the side as if gauging me. "And what about you Beau? Do people understand you?"

  "Not usually."

  "What do they usually think?"

  "That I'm the sum of my past mistakes instead of a man who wants to fight for his future."

  Her eyes soften, and she looks at me with a tenderness I didn't realize I needed so damn badly. "And your future, you're ready for it?"

  "For the last five years, I've been aching to chase whatever life has for me."

  She pushes she lips forward, suppressing a smile.

  "What?" I ask.

  "And all that fighting, it brought you here?"

  I nod, standing, and reaching for her hands. We are standing but a foot apart, and I take both her hands in my own and damn, her skin is smooth, and her eyes are bright. She is the sunrise, the dawn I need. A fresh start, a clean slate.

  She is a new beginning.

  "It did, Josie. It brought me right here."

  I look down at her, wanting to risk it all with a kiss, wondering if she's as ready for this as I am.

  But I don't have to take any chances because she pulls up on her tiptoes, wrapping her arms around my neck.

  She does need this as badly as I do.

  Whispering she asks, "Are you hungry for a Josie Special?"

  My cock is stiff at her words, at her proximity, with the knowledge that this is going to happen exactly as I dreamed the entire afternoon as I was hammering away on her front porch, picturing her sweet body grinding against me.

  "Girl," I groan. "With you in my arms, it's like I've been starving my whole damn life."

  Then I kiss her.

  Chapter 4

  Josie

  His kiss is like a charge of electricity, a lightning rod. A surge of desire where all the lights go out.

  Except we’re outside, and it's his mouth that
is doing this to me. Soft and demanding as his tongue slides into my mouth, finding mine, taunting me with swirls of desire and greedy moments of delight.

  This kiss could take out a freaking power grid, it’s that powerful. In his arms, I feel like jelly. My balance and perspective and rational mind are long gone. I want him to turn up the voltage and I don't care what kind of watts he is using--I just want to be plugged into him.

  Basically: I'm turned the fuck on.

  "I don't usually do this," I tell him between kisses.

  "Neither do I, Josie," he tells me. "But I want to. Now."

  And maybe it's those words, the way he says my name between kisses. The way he tells me so plainly what he wants––me. But I know, right now, that this is really happening.

  "Let's go upstairs," I say, lacing my fingers through his, expecting him to follow me, but instead he picks me up and my legs effortlessly wrap around his waist, his hands firmly on my ass, his low growl of desire waking my core.

  "Beau," I moan as he carries me upstairs with a need I've never seen in a man before--primal and intense--but also so damn desperate. He’s desperate for me, like I’m the only thing in this world that will calm his wild heart.

  Up the stairs, I point to the last room on the left, and he lies me down on a quilt in my four-poster bed. The window is open, the spring breeze wafting through and the honeysuckle plant that blossoms below fills the room with a scent so sweet and pure that I close my eyes, letting the moment and all its incredulity, wash over me.

  "When you close your eyes, you look like an angel," he tells me, leaning over my body, his arms on either side of me, pinning me in.

  I blink, looking into his soulful baby blues. "I'm no saint," I tell him. "I've done this before."

  "So have I. But girl, never with you."

  And it's like all the times of the past just fall away. The stupid high school boys and even more idiotic guys in college. None of them compare to this because the truth of it is, this is the first time I have been kissed by a man.