“Hey, babe,” Harleigh said, giving me a side hug so as to not crush the little one. “Carter’s actually here already too. Brett has some stuff he needs go grab in town, so if you wouldn’t mind helping him set up back there, I would appreciate it.”
“Sure,” I said, a tinge of warmth on my cheeks that I tried to ignore. “We’re doing the party outside?”
“Yeah, it’s just such a nice day. Plus, Brett is dying to show off the brick grill he made.”
I laughed. “Alright, well, I’ll head back there. Is there anything I can do for you in here?”
“No, I’m fine,” she said. “I’ll try to come out there and help in a little bit. These girls just need their naps before everyone shows up. Otherwise, it will be a very cranky party.”
I walked inside and cut through the cabin to the back door. Brett had completely remodeled the place when he found out about the twins and added a back door that led to a deck at the end of the hallway. Harleigh complained about the noise for weeks while he did it, but when it was done, she was ecstatic.
Opening the door, I saw Carter, standing on his toes, trying to reach the top of the porch without a ladder. He looked back and saw me and nearly fell over. I laughed as he got his feet under him and smiled. He was tall, which I kept forgetting since most of the time I saw him, he was sitting. He was also usually wearing loose shirts and overshirts like flannel or something. This time, his arms were coming out of a nice polo, and I realized they were massive.
Suddenly, I felt like my cheeks were on fire.
“Hey,” he said, his voice low and velvety. “I was expecting it to be Harleigh. You surprised me.”
“Sorry to disappoint you.”
“You aren’t a disappointment at all,” he said and then fell into a wide-eyed silence for a moment. I smiled and went over to the table where the decorations were laid out.
“I thought I’d come early and help decorate, but it seems like you’ve got a handle on it.”
“I could use some help,” he said, a little anxiously, “I’m good at reaching stuff, but not really on the decorating front.”
“Ah, is that why you were hanging the Happy Birthday sign upside down?” I asked.
He looked down at the paper sign in his hand and laughed.
“I didn’t even realize that. See? I’m not that great at this stuff,” he said. “I haven’t thrown a birthday party since before I joined the military.”
“Oh, I didn’t know you served.”
“I did, for a long time,” he said, his eyes glazing over for a moment, then snapping back. “Only came home because they don’t need dudes who hobble much out there.”
“I never noticed you hobbling. You were hurt?”
He ran his hand through his hair nervously and turned back to the wall where he was now hanging the sign the right way up.
“Just enough that I wasn’t any damn use out there anymore. So I came home.”
“I don’t remember you before you came back and started coming to the diner,” I said, “but you say this was your hometown?”
“Yeah.” He huffed a short laugh. “I graduated sixteen years ago and joined the military right out of school. I was already in the desert probably by the time you were in middle school.”
“I’m twenty-five, so probably not,” I said.
“Oh, even better. You were in elementary school.”
“Oh,” I said, my turn to be embarrassed. “I didn’t think you were that much older than me.”
“Yup,” he said through a smile that looked a little forced. “I’m an old man.”
“Well, you don’t look like an old man,” I said, realizing it came out a little flirtier than I thought it would. “You look young. Probably all the muscles.”
I didn’t say that. I didn’t say that. I didn’t say that.
If I repeated that over and over in my head, I could take those words back and shove them deep inside my brain somewhere that they would never see the light of day.
Slowly, he turned back toward me, one eyebrow cocked, and grinned.
“I try,” he said.
What the hell was wrong with me? Why didn’t I have control of the words coming out of my mouth?
“So,” I said, trying desperately to move on to something else, “do you live up here on the mountain too? How do you know Harleigh?”
“I met her a while back,” he said. “I’ve known Brett since high school. When he and Harleigh got together, I had just come back to town I live up on the mountain over that way.” He pointed west, toward another mountain that encircled the valley. “It’s only ten or so minutes away if you take the parkway over the mountains.”
“Oh.” There were questions I wanted to ask but was trying to find a delicate way of bringing up. Finally, I settled on the closest one to not being blunt. “I can’t imagine living up here in the mountains all alone. Harleigh said when she met Brett, he was up here by himself for a long time.”