Their Rustic Retreat (The Men of Evergreen Mountain #5)

1. Serena

ONE

serena

It’s damn near a torrent of fur sometimes when I walk into the kennel.

We try to train them well, to get them to not rush people when they walk into the room, but they’re always so excited to see me. At least the training has stuck enough that they know not to knock me over, and instead all are excitedly looking at me with wildly shaking tails.

There’s one dog in particular I’m here for, though.

Reuben. My overly happy and excited golden retriever. He’s near climbing me, and I’m ruffling his fur. “Yes, yes, I know. I was so cruel for making you stay in here with all of the other dogs.”

I had just gotten back from a trip out of state to go look at a veterinary school to pursue my dream. I wasn’t too sure of the one I’d visited, but the truth is, I’m not too certain about any of them. The idea of being so far from home is daunting.

As such, I had to keep Reuben here with the rest of the dogs. One of the things us Moores did in Evergreen Valley was run a place for people to keep their dogs when they had to go somewhere without them, as well as some dog training and the like.

“You’re my little prince, and I wouldn’t make you stay with all these peasants if I didn’t really have to,” I say, the so-called peasant dogs ignoring my insult. I liked them all the same, too, and the feeling was certainly mutual. I usually took them out on walks, gave them treats, and fed them.

I always wanted to do more, though. I loved animals of all shapes and sizes, and while our home cared for a lot of them, whenever we had a sick or badly injured one enter into our care, we had to call in a veterinarian from Smithport. Evergreen Valley is such a small town that we didn’t have a vet who worked here, full time, outside of a few here or there, who were strictly contracted to rich folks and their fancy horses.

I tend to the dogs, giving them their morning meal and prepping Reuben for a walk. We step out, and I look over the family homestead. I guess it’s sort of a ranch with how we focus on raising and training animals, but given that Evergreen Valley is surrounded by woods and mountains, the term ranch seemed far too western.

It is home, though, including all of the people I love.

Including Hawk, the complete and total asshole that he is.

He’s sitting at one of our picnic tables, enjoying breakfast with his wife, Lavender. They met last year and fell quickly in love. He and his friends have been working on constructing a home for Hawk and Lavender, but there’s a particularly rough phase of the construction presently, so he and Lavender are back in the family home for now, if only for just a few weeks.

I’d never admit it to their faces, but I’m jealous as all hell of him and what he has. He’s so sweet to Lavender, and she’s sweet right back. The way they hold one another, the way they look into one another’s eyes. It’s so bloody saccharine sweet, it makes me want to puke, but at the same time, I want it. So damn bad.

Yes, I’m only nineteen. Yes, I’m aware that in today’s world, sometimes people don’t find forever love until they are, like, forty years old. But call me selfish. I just wish it were me, and I wish it were me right now.

“Serena?” Hawk calls out, noticing that I’m staring. “Are you going to join us, or are you going to keep your creepy voyeurism thing going on?”

I glare at my brother, wanting to go over there and smack him upside the head.

Instead, I decide to do the normal, if incredibly stupid, thing of doing as he asks.

“Reuben is joining us, too, I see,” Lavender says, my dog betraying me to go get the ear ruffles from her. I didn’t hate her or anything, but I guess my jealousy shines through in the strangest ways at times.

“Did Frankfurt State not knock your socks off or anything?” Hawk says as he offers me an apple from the fruit bowl the two brought with them.

“It was... well, it was a school. That’s what I can say about it. It’s the most boring school to ever go to.”

“That bad, huh?” he replies with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s not that it’s all that bad. I think they focus a bit too much on cows and horses and stuff. It’s way out West. And I wanted to focus more on companion animals like dogs, cats, birds, and the like.”

“We get horses and cows here sometimes.”

“Yeah, but it’s more of an oddity. Most of the cows can go to the ranches on the outskirts of town.”

Ironically enough, as soon as I speak of cows, a cow appears.

A big box truck pulls up on the road. It’s not one of Hawk’s friends, this time. It takes me a moment to put together who it is, because we don’t see him all that often. Mr. Bell, I realize. He’s one of those ranchers on the outskirts of Evergreen Valley that I mentioned.

“Dad’s yearly meat shipment has arrived,” Hawk announces. “I guess I need to go help with it.”

“Yearly meat shipment? Meat doesn’t stay good for that long,” Lavender says. She’s still got a lot of rich girl in her, but she’s learning.

I watch as Mr. Bell gets out, greets my brother.

And then I see something: no, someone, who totally takes my breath away.

He’s got the most piercing blue eyes, and he hasn’t even looked directly at me yet. I just caught the corner of them. His hair is buzzed short, in the most handsome way. He’s wide, he’s strong, his arms looking like he spent a healthy amount of time in the gym. And they’re covered with tattoos. Dark ones, mostly, but plenty with colors. Flames, skulls, and some flowers too.

Someone like him sticks out like a sore thumb in Evergreen Valley, and he’s absolutely captivating me.

He goes into the back of the truck and then emerges with a whole ass cow carcass draped over his shoulders. It’s wrapped in plastic and ice packs, so it’s nowhere near as disgusting as it sounds.

“Is... is that a whole cow that guy is carrying?” Lavender says, very much surprised by what she’s seeing.

“Dad apprenticed for a butcher back in his younger days,” I explain. “Learned enough to carve up the cow himself. And he’s been doing so for decades.”

“But a whole cow?”

“Beef prices are high. He’s deduced it's cheaper to buy it like this. We got a garage full of freezers to deal with it.”

The strange tattooed man carries the cow like it’s nothing. As if he is the Incredible Hulk. My eyes remain glued to him, only briefly having left him for the half minute he disappeared into the truck.

He goes over to the garage, chatting away with Hawk who is opening the door for him, as well as spotting him. Hawk himself is impressed by this guy.

During that wandering glance, the man’s eyes meet my own, and I feel like he’s staring into my very soul. I gaze back, frozen in place like a deer in headlights.

He smiles, and I damn near melt.

I hurriedly shift toward Reuben, who apparently had been trying to get my attention. I stroke my dog’s back, trying as hard as I can to keep my eyes away from him.

God, I just made myself look like the most awkward weirdo in the world, didn’t I?

“You all right, there?” Lavender asks. “You see a ghost or something?”

“Uh, no. Just, um... just don’t worry about it, okay?”

She smirks. “Was it the tattooed guy?”

“I told you not to worry about it!” I snap back at her.

She laughs me off.

Sure, she’s absolutely right. He’s hot as all hell, and I’m intrigued by just who he is. I’m going to be thinking about him for a long time even if I never see him again.

It’s not like I’m terrified of talking to boys I find attractive. That the one crush I had before this didn’t lead me to hiding in the bathroom from him.

Out of the corner of my eye, though, I notice someone approaching me.

It’s him.

Oh God.

And the closest bathroom is so, so very far away.