Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 23426 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 117(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23426 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 117(@200wpm)___ 94(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
“Spend tomorrow looking around town and settling in,” she says as she smoothes out her apron, “You start Sunday morning. Nice and early at five AM.”
I can’t remember the last time I got up at five AM, or if I ever have, but I don’t care. I’m so happy right now, it’s going to be a joy to get out of bed.
“Thank you so much for the opportunity,” I say, turning to her with a smile. “I know I don’t have experience, but I’m a quick learner and I’ll—“
She suddenly pushes past me and rushes to the window.
“What is it?” I ask as I hurry over to join her. There are a bunch of worried people gathering outside of the building across the street.
“I don’t know,” she says as we watch more people arriving. “That’s the Search and Rescue building. Maybe someone’s gone missing.”
“Like kidnapped?”
She shakes her head. “Oh, gosh no. Around here, it’s usually a hiker that wanders off the trail and loses their bearings.”
“Oh,” I say. “I hope they’re alright.”
“Yes!” Trish suddenly whispers.
“What is it?” I say as I try to look around her. I’m behind her and can barely see.
She turns to me with a huge grin. “Get ready for the show.”
I squeeze in beside her. She reluctantly lets me in.
“What am I looking at? I don’t see—oh.”
The hottest man I’ve ever seen is walking down the sidewalk with a big droopy bloodhound at the end of a leash and with a seven-year-old girl tucked into his big muscular arms. Her foot is all wrapped up, but other than that she looks fine besides a few leaves in her hair and a tear in her t-shirt.
My heart does a little flip when my eyes jump back up to the gorgeous man carrying her. He looks like he should be on the cover of the romance novel stuffed in Trish’s apron. Long blond hair tied into a ponytail, thick beard, neck like a tree trunk, and blue eyes that sparkle all the way to here.
He’s wearing a loose tank top and scuffed-up jeans. Those flexed arms are looking tastier than the baked goods downstairs.
Trish and I stare at him in stunned silence. We’re both watching in awe as the girl’s parents run up to them and hug the girl. The crowd cheers as the father takes the girl and the nice family is reunited with a warm loving hug.
Tears flood my eyes as I watch the emotional scene.
The hot guy steps back and smiles while the dog smells the light post.
I can’t get over this guy. I can’t take my eyes off him. He’s so big. So tall, wide, and muscular. This man looks like he can snap that light post in half with his bare hands.
My mouth waters more than it did from the smell of the freshly baked bread as I stare shamelessly. My eyes are darting all over his hulking frame from his round shoulders to his massive chest to his flat stomach that I know is chiseled under that loose tank top. His blue jeans are hugging his muscular thighs and I can already tell that he’s got an amazing ass, even though I haven’t seen him from behind yet.
An ambulance arrives and the paramedics rush out to look at the girl.
“Her ankle is twisted,” the man says in a deep voice that sends tingles racing along my skin, “but other than that, she’s okay.”
They bring her into the ambulance for a routine check and the parents hop in with her. Everyone waves as the ambulance rolls down the street as quickly as it came.
“Who is that?” I ask in a breathless tone as I stare at him. He’s standing in the street, watching the ambulance go. The wind is in his long blond hair and I’m struck by the intensity of his beauty. This man is unreal. I feel something spreading all through my body. A tingling, a yearning… I don’t know what it is, but I already know that I’m going to be thinking of this man all night long.
“That’s Julian Long,” Trish says, never taking her eyes off him. “Long in name and in… other places.”
My mouth drops open as I turn to her. “You’ve seen it?”
“I wish,” she whispers as she gets an eyeful of him. “But you know I’m right. God wouldn’t make a masterpiece like that and then shortchange us on the best part.”
I exhale long and hard as I turn back to him. I’m sure she’s right. A man like that—with the air of supreme confidence billowing out around him—is probably as big down there as he is everywhere else.
He’s so unbelievably hot. He looks like he was made to be in the wild. Like he sprouted right out of these mountains fully grown.
“He works in Search and Rescue,” she says as he walks over to the crowd and says a few words that we can’t hear from up here. “There’s three of them. All incredibly gorgeous. Colin Hill is the big grumpy one, but Molly snagged him. There’s also Aiden Hughes, hot and single. But Julian is my favorite. He’s single too. If I was thirty years younger, I’d be all over that. I’d be getting lost in the woods every damn week so he could come find me.”