Free Her Mountain Man by Cindi Myers Page B

don’t know if my fragile ego could handle it.”
    “I’ll have to be sure to mention that if that reporter decides to interview me.”
    “Sierra? Why would she interview you?”
    “For background on you. All the dirt and gossip.”
    “What dirt and gossip?”
    “I’d have to make something up,” Josh said. “It would be worth it to get to know her better.”
    “Forget it.” He called Indy and ordered the dog into the Jeep, ignoring the flare of anger at his friend. Was it the idle threat of rumors, or Josh’s interest in Sierra that upset him so?
    “The Railbenders are playing at The Outlaw tonight,” Josh said. “You going to be there?”
    “I might.”
    “I’ll save you a spot at my table—at least until I find a good-looking woman to fill it. You could bring Sierra with you.”
    Would she agree to come to The Outlaw with him? Could he somehow convince her that doing so was necessary for her story? But how pathetic was he if that was the only way he could get a date? “I don’t know if Sierra would be interested,” he said.
    “Isn’t that her, headed our way? You can ask her.”
    Paul whipped his head around and saw Sierra, hair blowing across her face as she trudged up the road toward them. He was out of the Jeep, going to meet her, before he even realized what he was doing. He had that crazy vertigo feeling again, as if the world had tilted.
    Sierra was red-faced and out of breath by the time Paul reached her. “You should have called and I’d have come to your hotel and picked you up,” he said, taking her arm and escorting her the last few yards to his Jeep.
    She didn’t resist, and even leaned on him a little. “I like to walk,” she said when they stopped.
    At the vehicle, Indy greeted her with a happy bark and much waving of his plumed tail. Josh stepped forward, hand extended. “Hello,” he said. “I’m Josh.”
    “Sierra Winston, meet Josh Merton,” Paul said as the two shook hands. “Don’t believe half of what he tells you, especially if it’s about me.”
    “Why is that?” Sierra asked.
    “Don’t listen to him,” Josh said, still grinning. “He’s fallen and landed on his head a few too many times. It’s made him paranoid.”
    “I’m only trying to protect her from you,” Paul fired back. “The local women don’t buy your ladies’ man act anymore.”
    “He’s just jealous because I won the best legs competition at Rotary Park last year.” Josh winked at Sierra. “He only got honorable mention.”
    “Only because I’d spent the summer in the Himalayas,” Paul said. “I was a little pale.”
    “A little pale? The judges had to wear sunglasses to keep from being blinded by the glare.”
    Sierra laughed. “You should take your act on the road,” she said. “It’s very entertaining.”
    “We were a big hit in Katmandu,” Josh said. “Though they didn’t get all our jokes in Tanzania.”
    “The two of you have climbed together?” Sierra asked.
    “A few times,” Paul said.
    “We climbed Everest together,” Josh said. “It was the trip of a lifetime, but now I prefer to stick to the local fourteeners or scaling the ice here in the winter.”
    “Fourteeners?” she asked.
    “Colorado has fifty-four peaks over fourteen thousand feet in elevation,” Josh explained. “Fourteeners for short. I leave the bigger stuff to this guy here.” He clapped a hand on Paul’s shoulder.
    Paul shrugged off Josh’s hand. “What can I do for you?” he asked Sierra.
    “We need to sit down together and continue our interview,” she said.
    “Right.” He’d promised to talk to her today. What would she think of him when he spilled his story? And how much of it was he willing to tell her? He could talk about climbing and about Victor, but there were some parts of his personal life he never mentioned to anyone. Call it superstition, but not talking about bad memories was his way of keeping them safely behind locked doors. If he wanted to rehash his past,