Free Rocky Mountain Hideaway (To Love Again Book 2) by Kate Fargo Page A

She was up earlier than any of them, getting breakfast ready and making sure everyone had a good start on the day. When they’d gone off to school, he knew that she’d have a hot and filling lunch on the table for her husband when he came in for his break at noon.
    His father never took any of it for granted. He worked hard in the fields, in all kinds of weather, but it was clear he believed that her work was of equal importance. They pulled together as a team, and his father valued her contribution as much as his own. His father always said that a family was built on the foundation that a woman would lay. Over the years, Tray had started to wonder about that bit of wisdom.
    Seeing his middle brother Jesse get married had raised his first questions. It seemed that his new sister-in-law had not so much laid a foundation, as laid a trap. Before Jesse knew what was happening, he was a new father and a husband. Jesse claimed to be happy, but Tray knew that he’d had bigger dreams than living down the road and taking care of a pig farm. But Jesse had done the honorable thing and married the girl. Honor was important in their family and it was too small a community to not step up and take responsibility.
    After that, Tray had taken no chances. He’d been sought after by the girls in the area, but he’d made it clear he was unavailable. Being unattainable seemed to make him even more desirable, something about human nature that Tray still didn’t understand – psychology major or no. He was best man at Jesse’s wedding, and decided, standing at the altar, that he wouldn’t be back at the front of a church until he was good and ready. Before that happened, he had a lot of living to do and his psychology degree to finish.
    This weekend was designed to get him closer to his goal, but at this point he couldn’t judge the success of his plan. There was no question that he was learning a lot from Isabel, but he was starting to question if it was the type of thing that he’d want to use on another woman. He was afraid that if he spent too much more time with Isabel there’d never be another woman for him.
    He knew that his emotions couldn’t possibly be this engaged with this woman. They’d only had a couple of days together, but he recognized his feelings, if only because he’d never experienced them before.
    Isabel didn’t seem like the type who would try to trap him into anything. For one thing, she obviously thought he was just a cute boy. For now, it worked well for her to think so, but if he wanted to develop something deeper with her, she would have to start thinking of him as a strong, capable man. He wasn’t sure how he could possibly bring about that transition. He knew that people usually stuck with their first impression, although, he was hopeful that Isabel’s professional perspective would give him more of a chance.
    Tray and Isabel crested the mountain at the same moment and Isabel’s brow furrowed with concern as she saw the dark clouds moving quickly through the valley. The wind whipped her hair about her face and she clutched at the jacket to shield herself. “Tray?”
    “There’s a storm approaching, no question. Looks nasty, Isabel.”
    Isabel looked around at the bare rock. “What do we do?”
    “We get ourselves down.”
    “We’ll have time to get home?”
    “No. We’ll be lucky if we can get back to the tree line.” Tray was digging through the pack and handed Isabel a pair of mitts and an orange hat. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Put it on, you need to keep your body heat in.”
    “Tray,” she protested. “Do you think it will be that bad?”
    “It doesn’t look good. The temperature has already dropped.” There was no mistaking the glimmer of fear in her pretty blue eyes. He wished he could instantly make it better, but all he could do was get them to safety. “It’s moving pretty fast and the wind is getting stronger. Those are snow clouds. We could find ourselves in a