Instant Gratification (3 page)

“You should have seen your face when she brandished that needle.” TJ turned at the Wilder Adventures turn-off. “I thought you were going to crawl off that table with your ass cheeks.”

That was the Wilders for you. Lots of love all the way around.

“Your bare ass cheeks.” TJ grinned. “Ah, man. Good times.”

“TJ?”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up.”

TJ nodded, trying to go solemn and not quite making it. “You’re right. That was rude.”

“Thank you.” Stone let out a long breath, trying to relax.

“So.” TJ tossed him a look.

“So?”

“What’s it like knowing she’s seen your junk, and not from your best angle?”

Stone craned his neck and gave him a death stare.

“Sorry. Not funny yet?”

Stone just sighed and closed his eyes.

T
wo days later, the pain from Stone’s cracked rib, aching joints and open wounds had subsided just enough that he could move around.

Sort of.

He got out of bed and left his cabin, heading up the trail toward the big lodge that housed Wilder Adventures. Pine needles crunched beneath his boots. The early morning air was chilly, only about fifty degrees, but by noon it would probably hit closer to ninety-five.

Around him, birds screeched. Insects hummed. He was dive-bombed by an errant wasp. He swatted at it and kept going through the woods. The trail was well kept but beyond it, nothing but remote wilderness. Approximately 75,000 acres of subalpine and alpine forest, granite peaks, and glacially formed valleys and lakes, all government owned and available for exploring.

He knew every inch of it.

By the time he climbed the steps to the lodge and got to his second story office, he was already tired. Still, he began the uphill battle against the mess on his desk. Over the next few months, he would plan and lead many varied treks—but for
now he was diving into the mountain of paperwork required for those treks. There were permits to secure, equipment to order, treks to map, billing…and he did it all while fantasizing about playing doctor with a certain Dr. Evil in fancy clothes, with a set of baby blue eyes and a mouth that was made for—

His door opened and Annie walked in. Though she was only ten years his senior, his aunt—and Wilder Adventure’s chef—could kick his ass on a bad day, and given her scowl, it would appear it was exactly that. “Don’t go away mad,” he murmured wearily. “Just go away.”

“No can do.” She was wearing an apron that read:
I’D TELL YOU THE RECIPE, BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU
, which pretty much summed up her usual attitude.

An attitude that today, happened to match his. “You didn’t knock,” he said.

“Because you wouldn’t have said come in.”

Good point.

Definitely not leaving, she picked up the scrawny cat sitting in his spare chair—Chuck, a stray who’d adopted them nearly a year ago—and sat herself, where she studied Stone like a hawk.

A mother hawk.

Chuck yawned wildly and settled on Annie’s legs. Only a few months ago, the cat had been so skittish no one could even feed him, but Katie, their bookkeeper and now keeper of his brother Cam’s heart, had tamed both the man and the cat in one fell swoop.

Annie absently stroked Chuck’s chin as she eyed Stone.

Uncomfortable with the scrutiny, he shifted, jarred his poor body, and paid for it with a stab of pain. “Don’t ask me if I feel as bad as I look.”

“Okay.” She petted the cat some more. “But do you?”

He let out a careful breath.
Yes
. “No.”

“Liar.”

Ignoring her, he went on with his paperwork. Or tried. It wasn’t easy with every movement pulling on a wound or bruise. Ignoring that too, he pulled his keyboard closer. Once upon a time, he’d loved handling the paperwork for Wilder Adventures. But then they’d gotten busy and it’d become a real pain in his ass. He’d hired a bookkeeper, Riley, who’d then decided to become Mr. Mom, so he’d hired Katie, who’d fallen in love with his brother and was currently traipsing across the Andes on an extended pre-wedding honeymoon.

Leaving just him, TJ and Annie. Since neither TJ nor Annie ever touched the paperwork, he was on his own—and it was killing him.

He just needed a break, he thought. And an entire bottle of Advil.

Annie put her feet up on his desk, getting comfy, which meant he was going to be stuck with her for a while. Her long dark hair was back in a single braid. With her Wilder hoodie and dark jeans, she might have been sixteen rather than forty.

“Seriously,” she said. “You look like something Chuck dragged in.”

She acted as if she was either his boss or his mother, and though officially she was neither, unofficially she’d taken on both roles years ago, running the lodge and their hearts with equal ease.

She had help. Her husband Nick was one of TJ’s oldest friends. Nick worked as their mechanic and helicopter pilot, and was as indispensable to Wilder Adventures as the rest of them. “Okay,” he admitted. “I feel like shit. Happy?”

“Aw, baby. Here.” She pulled Advil out of her pocket and handed them over.

“Bless your black heart.”

She watched him swallow three tablets dry, then turn to or
ganize some invoicing, swearing as he did. “I did warn you,” she murmured, “About letting Cam fall in love with the bookkeeper.”

“They’re meant to be,” Stone said, and meant it. Cam had never been so happy, not even when he’d been a world champion snowboarder. “They deserve each other.”

“You sound like a chick. You sure you didn’t have a concussion after that fall?”

Stone shook his head. “You know, I actually tell people you love me.”

“I do love you. Cam will be back from taking Katie through the Andes in a few weeks, so stop moping. We’re doing just fine.”

Fine was relative.

Their business had grown in huge proportions this past year, especially with all three of the brothers now leading various treks. But with Cam gone for the past month, wooing the woman he intended to bring into the Wilder fold permanently, it’d left a void.

And not just in the office.

He missed the sonofabitch. TJ was around, and indispensable, but he handled all the long treks, meaning he’d be gone soon enough as well.

Leaving Stone by himself.

“It’s not brain surgery,” Annie said.

He laughed softly—ouch—and looked at her. “You know, with you and Nick tossing out your divorce papers instead of filing them, I figured you’d be all warm and fuzzy.”

“I dressed up as warm and fuzzy once for Halloween.” Annie dropped Chuck to the floor and stood to pace.

Stone watched her a moment, realizing she wasn’t here just to drive him crazy. Something was wrong, and his gut tightened. “What?”

“He wants a baby.”

He blinked. “Nick?”

“No, the damn Easter Bunny. Yes, Nick. Jesus, Stone, keep up.”

“So what’s wrong with wanting a baby? You’re only forty.”

She shoved her hands in her pockets and looked…scared. “I already raised the three of you. I don’t want to start over.”

She’d been little more than a kid herself when she’d taken them on, but she’d kept them fed and out of jail—above and beyond the call of duty as far as he was concerned—and she’d been good at it. No, raising another kid wasn’t what was bothering her. “That’s not why.”

“Okay.” She walked the length of the office, pivoted, and did it again. “I’m not ready to take our relationship to that level.”

“Come on.” He had to laugh at that. “You’ve been together twenty years. A baby would be fun.”

“
Fun?
” She whipped around to face him. “Fun? Let’s see you breastfeed it. That we could call fun.”

He shuddered. “I’m just saying.”

“Well
I’m
just saying! I can’t have a baby, I’m already getting fat just
thinking
about it.” She plopped herself back down and glared at him. “I started running.”

She hated exercise with the same passion she reserved for hating spiders. “Why would you do that?” he asked, alarmed not just for the guests they needed her to be nice to, but for him and his brothers. Running would only make her all that much more distant from warm and fuzzy. “Don’t do that. Don’t take up running.”

“I have to. This body isn’t what it used to be. Things aren’t holding the way they used to.” To show him, she cupped her breasts and jiggled them.

“Jesus!” He slapped a hand over his eyes. “Stop that.”

“And my ass.” She cupped that next. “It’s falling, Stone. Losing the fight against gravity.”

“Shoot me,
please
.”

“So I’m running.” She sagged back. “Dammit.”

“There’s got to be a better way. Surgery.”

“Hell no.” She pointed at him. “You, the wussiest of the Wilders, are not alone in your needle phobia.”

“TJ told you.”

“Oh, yeah. He told me. Dr. Evil? Really?”

Stone shook his head in disgust. “He has a big mouth.”

Annie laughed. “Yeah, he does. But we spent all last year worrying ourselves to death over Cam before the kid got his shit together, and apparently now we need a new obsession. We picked you.”

“When? When did you pick me?”

“When TJ and I talked to Cam on the phone last night.”

Stone shook his head. Last year he and TJ and Annie had nearly killed themselves trying to save a devastated Cam, who’d lost his life’s passion—racing—to an injury. They hadn’t been able to reach him, to help. But then Katie had come along and done it for them.

But Stone didn’t need anyone worrying about him. He was fine.

“You’re not yourself lately.”

“Am too.”

She slanted him a glance.

“Okay, I’m not.” He shoved his hands in his hair. “But I’m fine.”

“Fine as in you’re going to vanish for a year?”

“That was Cam.” He blew out a breath. “Not me. I wouldn’t vanish. I love it here, you know that.”

“But…?” she pressed. “’Cause I definitely hear a but at the end of that sentence.”

“But…” The truth was, the business had been TJ’s love child, funded by Cam’s professional athlete winnings, and run by Stone.

Which was fine. Great. Because how many people could say that they, literally, played for a living? Plus, it’d kept him and his brothers together, when once upon a time he’d wondered if they’d ever be okay.

But the guiding, the business end of things, none of it had been what Stone had seen himself doing with his life. Truth was, he was so damn far from his own dreams of renovating and restoring the glorious old historicals in the area that he couldn’t even picture it anymore. He shrugged. “But we’re busy. Really busy. And yeah, I know it’s fun stuff we’re busy with, but it’s a lot of work.”

“Oh, baby. You’re tired is all.”

“Yeah.” It’d been ten years since he’d bought his first falling-down-on-its-axis Victorian in town and flipped it. He’d managed only two houses since then, and he wanted to do more, but he didn’t have the time. He could buy something and hire out and get things moving, but he didn’t want that either.

He refused to be a Cadillac contractor. He wanted to strap on the tool belt himself.

For that, he needed time.

Lots of it. “I want to do another building renovation.”

“Oh.” Annie lifted a brow. “I didn’t know you were still thinking about that.”

“Yeah, I—” On his desk, his Nextel beeped. Then came TJ’s voice. “Stone you there? Over.”

“See?” he said to Annie. “Busy. Too busy. I’m here,” he said to TJ. “Over.”

“Get the Doc and meet me at the base of Granite Meadows. ASAP. Or yesterday. Yesterday would be better. Over.”

TJ was at Granite Meadows with clients, two women who’d
wanted to be taken to the top of the peak for a photo session. TJ had taken them up there in his Jeep. It was a four-wheel trek but an easy one, no hiking required. “What happened?”

“You’re not going to believe this, but one of them is having a fucking baby.”

Indeed, in the background a woman screamed, long and loud, bringing goose bumps to Stone’s flesh. He leapt up, the movement agony. “Call Doc,” he said to Annie, grimacing at his own quick movements. Shit, he hurt. “Tell him I’m coming for him—”

Ah, hell.

It wasn’t old man Doc anymore at the clinic.

It was sexy Dr. Evil, who’d last seen Stone sprawled out on her examination table, naked and bloody. He’d had x-rated dreams about her for two nights running, dreams involving her white coat and nothing beneath it. Well, and maybe those prim heels…

Jesus, he needed his head examined. “Tell Emma I’ll be there in five minutes and to be ready for a birth.” He pushed the button on his Nextel as he moved fast enough that his still healing ribs protested. “On my way, TJ. Over.”

“Hurry.”

TJ sounded panicked, and hell, Stone couldn’t blame him. He’d have said over the years that they’d seen and done it all, but this was new.

A baby on the trail.

Yeah, it was new, and not a good idea. He had basic medical training from working volunteer Search and Rescue, but none of them had delivered a baby. Just the thought left him a little wobbly.

Or maybe that was leftover from his own body recovering, but he was at the Urgent Care’s driveway in seven minutes flat. It was a duplex, with the living quarters above the medical facility. He was relieved to see Emma running down the
stairs toward him without him having to take the time to go get her.

So far so good.

She was wearing another pair of her fancy trousers, black this time, and a pale peach silky number on top that defined her very definable breasts.

Yeah, he was noticing. He’d have to be a hell of a lot more tired not to. She had real breasts and real hips and they drew him in like a magnet. Just last night, in his most excellent fantasy, she’d been straddling him with those hips, and—

She hopped up into his truck, dropped her medical bag into her lap and looked at him. “A baby on the trail? Are you kidding me?”

He liked that she didn’t waste time with pleasantries. “It’s a new one to me, too.”

“People just can’t go having babies out in the middle of nowhere. The nearest hospital is thirty miles away.”

As he knew all too well.

“Did you call and put them on alert?” she asked.

“Yes, they’re standing by if we need a heli.”

“So no one is coming but you?”

“And you.”

She just gave him a banal look. “Speaking of that, why me?”

“Well I thought maybe it was the only way to get you to go out with me.”

When she narrowed her eyes, he offered a smile.

She didn’t return it. “Is there really a baby or not?”

“There’s really a baby. Well, not yet, but soon.”

“On the trail,” she clarified. “Where there are bears and dirt and bugs and oh, I don’t know, a thousand different germs and bugs, not to mention things that could go wrong?”

“Yeah.”

“
Shit
.”

Stone out and out grinned. She might be edgy and bossy and seriously tense, not to mention bad-tempered, but she wasn’t boring. “I hope you weren’t too busy.”