Cutter Mountain Rendezvous Read Online Free PDF

she didn’t need at the moment. “Just once have a little faith in me. I have to be able to support myself down the road.”
    “Get back to your roots, Kate.”
    “What do you think this is about?”
    “You know what I mean. You had the sense to leave Trey. Start writing again. Nothing’s holding you back but yourself at this point. The inn’s a diversion.”
    “The inn’s my livelihood. You and mom need to accept my decision.”
    She hung up. There was no way to go back and recapture the momentum of ten years ago. Too much had changed in the music industry. Life changed, and the inn was her effort to get things back on track to prove she could make sweeping changes by reinventing herself.
    Why couldn’t he encourage her instead of throwing in a dig to undermine her already shaky confidence? Neither of her parents understood the price she paid to set aside her dreams to be a good wife and mother.
    Between Cousin Jeff and her dad’s comments, then Colton’s surprise to her aversion to rent to a stranger, she found herself wondering if an inn was a safe environment for Lindsay.
    She wandered aimless around her bedroom to stall.
    Let the famous ballplayer wait.
    Grabbing a hairbrush, she smoothed her hair back into a ponytail. She examined her fingernails, too long to play guitar. Mostly, they needed a manicure.
    One good cleansing breath and she headed down the steps to the kitchen. If Mr. Rich Britches thought he would bulldoze his way into a room with his wallet, she was about to show him she ran this inn.
    Kate entered the kitchen to find his broad shoulders hunched over Lindsay’s Barbie coloring book. His face brightened with a smile that could melt paint off walls. Her pulse fluttered in response.
    “Got bored. Hope Lindsay won’t mind.” He read her name off a picture she had colored. “How’d I check out?”
    “You didn’t come up on any predator databases, if that’s what you mean.”
    “I could have told you that.” He put a blue crayon back into the box and set them on top the coloring book.
    Conflicted about renting him a room when she didn’t feel organized made her push for cash, sure he would refuse. Then she would be helpful and find him a room in town. “How does two hundred a day cash in advance sound?”
    His eyebrows shot up. Scuffing back the chair, he stood staring down at her with his hands on his hips. “For a floor?”
    “Uh, that includes three meals.” Oh man! What made her say that ? She let his looming height intimidate her. Not to mention it was a haul into town to eat the simpler meals.
    “Fair enough. How about I write you a check?”
    “You wanted to pay with cash and that’s fine with me.”
    “Did you call Judge Ludlow?”
    “No. I called my dad. He’s County Sheriff.”
    “But Judge Ludlow can tell you I’m good for a check.”
    “Why? Because you’re some hotshot ballplayer?”
    “Ah, honey, that’s a low blow. But, yeah, I’m some hotshot ballplayer.” He opened his wallet and stuffed in the driver’s license. Eight hundred dollars was pulled out and slapped on the table. “That leaves me ten dollars and change. You want to see that too?”
    Kate swallowed the lump in her throat. “How about I take six of your eight and hold as a deposit. I’ll return anything you don’t use up.” She leaned in to take the money, her flannel shirt flapping open.
    He clamped a loose hold around her wrist and let go as fast. His hands went back to his narrow hips. “You always wear a gun under your shirt?”
    “It’s legal.”
    “Oh, right. This is the mountains. Rifles and fishing rods in gun racks mounted on the back of good ole boy trucks.” He hummed a bar from Deliverance . In tune, she noticed. This man was a living, breathing menace.
    “You’re in Tennessee not Georgia. We’re simple mountain folk.”
    “Whose women pack firearms?”
    “I don’t wear it all the time but I’m out here alone with Lindsay so I’m cautious. Bears wake up in