Cabin by the Lake Read Online Free PDF Page B

mean to startle you, but I knocked at the front and there wasn’t an answer.”
    “What can I do for you?” asked Vivian.
    “I’m hiking cross-country and I’m afraid I don’t know exactly where I am. Looks like we’re in for some bad weather, and I was wondering if I could get directions to the nearest town. I’m running low on supplies.”
    “You got a name?”
    He shrugged out of his backpack and walked over with an extended hand. “Mike Rodgers.”
    She shook his hand. “Vivian Lancaster. Where’re you from, Mike?”
    “Up north,” he said vaguely.
    “You don’t sound like a Northerner.”
    He laughed at her directness. “That’s because I’m from North Carolina, ma’am.”
    She nodded. “And where are you headed?”
    He shrugged. He’d already had more conversation than he’d had in weeks and he didn’t feel like being grilled. He’d had enough of that to last a lifetime. But he could surely understand her curiosity. He knew what he must look like; rough, dirty and unshaven. Thinking about it, he realized he was probably lucky she didn’t pull out the shotgun that he suspected she had handy. She looked the sort to be ready for anything. “Just wherever the path leads,” he finally said, smiling.
    “Well, no wonder you’re lost,” she shot back, eliciting a small chuckle from Lydia who had been quietly watching the exchange. “This is my niece, Lydia—”
    “Lydia Steadman,” she supplied.
    “Ma’am,” he said, tipping his ball cap as he turned his attention to her.
    He tipped his hat, for heaven’s sake! she thought, highly amused. She had been sizing him up at her leisure and she thought she had his number. Drop-dead handsome underneath that layer of dirt. Oozing gentlemanly charm. Of course her male attraction meter was spiking off the charts, which meant he could be nothing but trouble.
    Uh-uh, no way. Of course I’m attracted, because I’m attracted to every loser within hollering distance, she thought. She’d fallen in love with every charming conman who had given her the time of day and made her feel special. Special for a while, anyway. But those days were over.
    She may be attracted—who wouldn’t be, with that shaggy surfer-boy blond hair falling out from under his cap and those dreamy golden-brown eyes? But guys like him had ruined her life and she was immune now to the scruffy bad-boy types that seemed to draw her to them like metal shavings to a magnet.
    She realized abruptly that they were staring at each other. “Nice to meet you,” she mumbled, brushing some imaginary dirt from her jeans, feeling her cheeks heat up and hating the fact that she had no control over the way she blushed.
    At that moment, fat raindrops began to spit from the sky. “Grab your pack, Mike,” Vivian said, “and come up on the porch out of the rain.”
    Without hesitation, he turned on his heel, retrieved his backpack, took three long strides and joined them on the covered porch. Lydia was struck by how easily he moved, like an athlete, arm muscles bulging as he effortlessly picked up the giant backpack as if it weighed nothing.
    “How long have you been out hiking?” Vivian asked.
    “Two or three weeks.”
    “Two or three?”
    He shrugged. “Could be more like four, I guess. Turned off my phone, took off my watch, and I’ve just been walking. I haven’t really been keeping up with what day it is.”
    She looked the man up and down, and then nodded, seeming to come to a decision. “You look like you could use a shower, Mike,” she said, and Lydia gasped involuntarily at her aunt’s irresponsible offer of hospitality.
    He gave an easy laugh. “Sure could, if it wouldn’t be too much to ask.”
    She pointed a thumb over her shoulder. “Go through that door, down the hall to your right. You’ll find clean towels under the sink.”
    “Thanks. I won’t be long.” He unzipped his backpack, fished out a smaller bag and disappeared inside.
    Lydia instantly began to