Chapter Nine
Ariella
“Everything okay?” I asked. He’d gotten a work call, and while he’d taken a step away to answer it privately, I couldn’t help but wonder who it was or what he might need to do. Eagle Tactical. He’d mentioned the name of the company. While I hadn’t heard of them before arriving in Breckenridge, the fact he worked there had me curious, especially when he’d told me they were former military soldiers who owned the company.
“Just a work thing,” he said and shoved his phone back into his pocket.
Was he hiding something? Could he not talk about work? A part of me was curious about what he did for a living, how he coped with danger.
“Do you need to go to work?” I asked. I did not know what his hours were. Just because I didn’t have a job didn’t mean he didn’t have to work.
“No, I have the day off,” Jaxson said, matter of fact. He stepped closer toward me and took a breath, a pause before coming up from behind. His hand rested on my hip. I expelled a soft, nervous breath when he rested his hands over mine to help guide me with the ax.
The moment was intimate, and had it not been so cold outside, I might have been warmer, but the truth was my fingers were numb, and my face tingled. Even with my gloves, hat, boots, and thick winter coat, I was still cold.
“You’re freezing,” Jaxson said, his breath against my cheek.
I didn’t hide it from him. “Yes. I hate the cold.”
He laughed and pulled me closer. The ax fumbling from our hands to the ground. “Careful,” he warned me. “You could get hurt dropping a blade so carelessly.”
We’d both dropped it without thinking, but I didn’t want to point that out. I spun around in his embrace, our jackets thick and keeping me from really feeling his body against mine like I wanted. He reached for my hat and pulled it down a little further on my head to cover me a little better. “We should go inside and warm up,” Jaxson said.
“I don’t want to wake Izzie.”
“That kid will sleep through anything,” Jaxson said, his breath warm against my frozen cheeks. He took my gloved hand and led me back into the cabin. The warmth of the house immediately put me at ease, and while it wasn’t as toasty as it had been earlier, Jaxson brought a few logs inside and brought the fire roaring back to life. “Do you know how to start a fire?” he asked.
I removed my cold, damp outdoor clothes—my hat, gloves, shoes, and jacket—leaving them by the fire to dry.
“If I have lighter fluid and a long lighter, I can figure it out.”
“You are not using lighter fluid in your wood-burning stove. Is that clear?” His tone forceful and his eyebrows raised in alarm, he didn’t seem the least bit amused in my humor.
“That was a joke.” It was mostly a joke. I’d had bonfires outside and knew how to start those types of fires.
He loaded the wood into the stove, and the hot ashes at the bottom caught right away. Another few minutes and the fire roared back to life.
I sat quietly on the sofa, and Jaxson came over once he seemed satisfied with the fire, sitting beside me. We’d only known one another two days. I wasn’t ready for a relationship, even with the most handsome man I’d ever met. If there hadn’t been a kid involved, I would have let my guard down further and allowed myself to indulge in a fantasy involving him, but that was out of the question. We couldn’t, and besides, I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on with Izzie’s mother.
“You’re quiet,” Jaxson said, sitting back relaxing on the sofa.
“Just thinking,” I said, avoiding his stare as he kept watching me.
“About?”
“It’s been a long time since I’d been around another man.” I wasn’t sure I should have brought up my ex-husband or the divorce, but it was the truth. I wasn’t used to dating or sex with anyone but the bastard I’d been married to for way too long. There was more to it, a place I didn’t want to go or drudge up. Not that he would have known.
Jaxson sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I know the feeling. Well, maybe not another man.” Chuckling, he nudged me. “Have you ever been married?”
“Yes.” I glanced at Jaxson, exhaling a heavy breath. “We’re not together anymore. He’s a distant memory, one I wish I could erase.”
“Divorced or separated?” he asked.
“Divorced. What about you?” I held my tongue on the fact he was in prison. I wasn’t ready to talk about that with anyone.
“I’ve never been married. After I took full custody of Izzie, she’s been my entire life.”
I brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. The way he stared at me sent a shiver through my body and made my insides toasty. “I can see that. It’s clear you’re a good father.”
“Thank you,” Jaxson said, his eyes shining.
“It’s true.” I shifted on the sofa and our legs touched briefly.
“I have to ask, and I hope you don’t mind, but many people who come out to the mountains, a small town in the middle of nowhere, are running from something or someone. Are you running, Ariella?”
The way he said my name made me shiver. Could he know my secrets? Did he know who I was and what I’d been accused of doing? I hadn’t changed my first name, and Ariella wasn’t the most common name like Mary or Jennifer. I assumed hiding in plain sight had been to my advantage, but I was wrong.