Falling for the Babysitter

Rosie smirks. “I don’t know, Buck. Right now I think Harper and I are mostly worried about our boy Dean Wilder, here,” she says, pointing to me. “About finding him a good, solid wife. And I don’t see how that’s going to happen in Seattle.”

Jaxon laughs. “Yeah, you don’t want some woman who can’t hack it in the woods.”

Rosie furrows her brow. “Buck tells me you weren’t always a mountain man yourself, Jaxon. Careful now.”

Jaxon runs his hand over his beard, shaking his head at us. “Yeah, but you and Harper have the right disposition for this life. Not every woman does, is all.”

“I’m right here, you know,” I tell them, raising an eyebrow at this crew who thinks they know what I need.

“We know, Wilder, we know.” Buck laughs, lifting his coffee to his mouth. “We just feel bad for you. Never getting laid, all by your lonesome up there in your tiny cabin.”

I laugh, “You guys are a bunch of fuckers, you know that?”

Rosie clucks her tongue. “Regardless, we know that you need a woman, but not some city-slicker girl who won’t play nice with us.”

“You’re telling me not to get laid when I’m in Seattle?” I shake my head, knowing I’d never tell Rosie this, but the prospect of getting laid tonight is half the reason I said I’d go.

“You can sleep with whomever, Wilder. I’m just saying, don’t knock anybody up that we haven’t approved.”

too?” I ask Buck. He just grins like a lovesick puppy. Rosie winks at her husband before going back to the

giving you a hard

says. “And selfishly they want another friend. It’s lonely up here

my own hours, am my own boss, and work with the greatest guys I’ve ever known. But damn, Jaxon, my oldest friend,

I take another drink of

need to get off this mountain more than

need to go get

2

just support me. That’s what I need. That’s all I’ve wanted. My family to have

sip of her mimosa before

seem to understand that we all aren’t married to stockbrokers living in posh waterfront homes. Some of us are just trying to pay

you’ll make more money updating the homes of my friends.

furniture for mansions is redundant. I want

out to be the villain.