LITMIR.BIZ

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driven up Piney Knob to Jeremiah’s cabin, waded out into the stream and started chattering like a damn magpie. The older man had covered everything in his ramblings from the differences between fishing lures and flies, to asking Jeremiah’s opinion on whether or not Harv should take on a partner in his fishing and hunting business, Piney Knob Outfitters.

      Jeremiah had ended up tuning out most of it, but apparently the fish hadn’t. Since Harv showed up and started in with his motormouth, Jeremiah hadn’t had so much as a nibble.

      “What did you catch for your supper? Rainbow or brown trout?” Harv asked, turning to slowly wade back to the stream’s rocky bank.

      Jeremiah checked the willow basket creel slung over his shoulder. “Four rainbows.”

      “That oughtta be enough for the two of you,” Harv said, over his shoulder.

      “The two of us?” Jeremiah frowned. “What the hell are you talking about, Harv?”

      “Looks like you’re gonna have company for supper.” The older man grinned as he raised his hand to wave to someone on the bank. “Afternoon, Katie.”

      Jeremiah turned so fast he came close to having the fast-moving water knock his feet out from under him. Sure enough, there stood Katie Andrews on the path leading back to the cabin.

      “I wonder what she wants?” he asked, thankful his question had been drowned out by the babbling sound of water rushing over the rocks in the stream bed.

      Since moving to the Smoky Mountains a couple of months ago, Jeremiah hadn’t gone out of his way to get to know any of the Dixie Ridge residents, except for the man trudging through the water ahead of him. And it was impossible not to get acquainted with Harv. The man never shut up. He’d completely ignored Jeremiah’s attempts to keep to himself, and before he knew how it happened, he and Harv had become friends—something Jeremiah rarely allowed to happen with anyone.

      When they carefully picked their way over the rocks scattered along the stream bank, Jeremiah cursed himself for standing there in front of Katie as speechless as a pimple-faced kid in the presence of the prom queen. Never in all of his thirty-seven years had he ever had a problem talking to women. But for some reason, he couldn’t think of a thing to say, nor could he figure out why.

      “What brings you up here to the crick, Katie?” Harv asked as he took his fishing rod apart and put the sections in a storage case. “Thinkin’ about catchin’ yourself a rainbow for supper.”

      Smiling, she shook her head. “Not today, Harv.”

      “Do you fish?” Jeremiah asked, finally getting his tongue to work.

      “I’ve been known to catch a fish now and then,” she said, nodding.

      Harv’s laughter indicated there was more to her fishing experience than she was letting on. “Katie’s won the Fourth of July Powder-Puff Fishin’ Derby for the past eight years. And she was runner-up for four or five years before that.” Chuckling, he finished storing his fishing rod and snapped the case shut. “I ’spect she’s a shoo-in for this year’s title, too.”

      “Is that so?” Jeremiah didn’t doubt that a woman could be good at the sport of fly-fishing. He’d just never met one before.

      She shrugged one shoulder. “My dad and brother started taking me fishing with them when I was four years old.”

      They stood, staring at each other for several strained moments before Harv finally asked, “If you didn’t come up this way to go fishin’, what did you come up here for, Katie?”

      Jeremiah watched a rosy blush color her porcelain cheeks. Good Lord, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a woman blush.

      “I…um, came to talk to Mr. Gunn about the money he left at the café,” she said, sounding uncertain.

      “Didn’t I tell you she wasn’t none to happy about you leavin’ that twenty bucks?” Harv asked, starting down the path to the cabin.

      “Yeah, Harv, you told me,” Jeremiah muttered, waiting for Katie to fall into step ahead of him.

      Actually, Harv had reiterated that fact at least a dozen times over the course of the past two hours, and each time he told the story Katie was a little more angry than the time before. By the time Harv got finished embellishing the actual facts, it had sounded as if she was ready to tear him apart with her bare hands for leaving the money.

      As they walked the short distance to the house, Jeremiah tried not to notice how her well-worn jeans hugged her long legs, or the sensual sway of her full hips. By the time they reached the cabin, sweat beaded his forehead and his own jeans felt as if they’d shrunk a couple of sizes in the stride.

      What had gotten into him? He wasn’t some over-sexed teenager with nothing but hormones racing through his veins. He was a grown man and should have gained a little more control over the years than that. Had he been so long without a woman’s charms that just watching one walk in front of him turned him on?

      “Well, I’m gonna leave you two kids to fight it out over that money,” Harv said, heading toward his truck. He tossed his fishing rod case into the back. “Sadie’ll take a strip off my hide a mile wide if I don’t get home in time for supper.”

      “Tell her I said hello.” Katie waved as the older man opened the driver’s door and slid behind the wheel. “And I’ll see you tomorrow at the Blue Bird, Harv.”

      Once Harv’s truck disappeared down the lane, Jeremiah tried to think of something to say. When nothing came to mind, he motioned toward the cabin’s front porch. “Would you like to sit down?”

      She looked uncertain, then taking a deep breath, nodded and preceded him up the steps. Before she sat down on the wooden porch swing, she pulled two ten dollar bills from the front pocket of her jeans.

      “Here’s your money,” she said, handing the money to him.

      He shook his head as he seated himself on the bench facing the swing. “I left that to pay for the lunch I ordered and a tip for your trouble.”

      She stuffed the money into his hand. “Canceling the order was no big deal. And that was too much for a tip anyway.”

      An electric current zinged up his arm when her fingers touched the palm of his hand and he had to swallow hard to keep from groaning. “But—”

      She shook her head as she lowered herself onto the swing. “I didn’t do anything to earn it.”

      He admired her principles, but he wished like hell she’d kept the money and left him alone. For some reason that he couldn’t quite figure out, Katie Andrews made him about as edgy as a raw recruit doing a belly crawl through a swamp full of alligators.

      “Mr. Gunn, there’s something—”

      “Jeremiah,” he interrupted. Needing something to do to keep from staring at her, he pulled the little table he used to make fishing flies closer. “The name’s Jeremiah.”

      “Oh, yes. Sorry. I forgot.” She sounded a little breathless and a quick glance her way told him she had more on her mind than returning his twenty bucks. “There’s something I’d like to discuss with you, Jeremiah.”

      He picked up the fly he’d been working on that morning and began to wrap red nylon thread around the tiny feathers hiding the fishhook. He couldn’t imagine what she wanted to talk to him about, but he could tell that whatever it was made her nervous as hell.

      “I’m listening.”

      She stood up and began to pace the length of the porch. “This isn’t easy for me. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

      He glanced up in time to see her nibbling on her lower lip as if she was trying to work up her courage. “Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad,” he said, trying not to think how cute she looked. “Why don’t you just say what you have to say and get it over with?”

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