Free Untouched: 2 (Rough Boys) by Em Petrova

prickled but she clamped down on it. She was not going to snap at Brady because of the crises in her life. It wasn’t his fault and she was going to own her problems.
    “All right, buddy. We’ll run through the ATM, and then go to the store for some milk.”
    “With the red lid.”
    “With the red lid,” she repeated. She waved at Mason and turned, speeding away, praying he didn’t follow. Because she was going to the bank to remove funds from the Dorsey account for the second time in two days.
    There had to be a solution, but for the life of her, she couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

Chapter Five
     
    “Hunter’s breakfast!” The waitress slid Mason’s platter before him. The scents of sausage, pancakes and eggs wafted to him and his stomach clenched in renewed hunger. Since leaving the house this morning, he’d felled about twenty trees and spent an afternoon visiting his injured employee.
    “That’s your second breakfast today, Dorsey.” The waitress, Karen, smiled at him across the worn laminate counter. The interior of the diner hadn’t changed since Mason was a kid. He remembered elbowing up here with his dad and a logger on the other side of him, listening to them talk trees while hammering stacks of pancakes. The pea-green interior somehow added to the place’s charm.
    He picked up his fork, tines down. “It sure is. A man sometimes finds himself in need of two breakfasts.” Especially when he’d gone all weekend without even speaking to the woman he’d slept with Friday night. Monday morning couldn’t have come fast enough, but he’d been out in the woods before he’d gotten a chance to set eyes on Eva.
    “Rough day?” Whit Hammond hitched himself onto the stool beside Mason, cradling his steaming coffee mug.
    A grin spread over Mason’s face at the sight of one of his oldest friends. He and Whit had grown up running the surrounding woods and farms, hunting, fishing and later fighting over girls.
    “Little bit rough, yeah.” Mason drew a sip of coffee into his mouth and savored the brew. “Had a man to the ER Saturday.”
    “Bad?”
    “Just stitches. Could have been much worse.” He forked up a piece of sausage and popped it into his mouth.
    “You’ve had a good run so far, Dorsey. No injuries in the year you’ve been operating the old man’s business? Count yourself lucky.”
    “Believe me, I do.” He let his mind wander to his luck the past few days. Having Eva in his bed had been consuming his every thought. But he seriously had to think about his future here. Did he want to stick around or unload the forestry business, which was his original plan? He couldn’t help but feel as though he were a kid trying to fill his dad’s shoes and they simply would never fit. Dorsey Forestry was his father’s life. Never Mason’s.
    “What else is new over there at the Dorsey place?” Whit’s question sent off alarm bells in Mason’s brain. He’d heard that cajoling tone more than once in his youth. The last time was associated with one particular cheerleader, if he recalled correctly.
    Mason swallowed his food and looked at his friend hard. “What’s on your mind, Whit?”
    “Well…” Whit set his mug down and twiddled with a napkin, twisting it. “I heard there was a party for old Osborn. And that you were there.”
    Mason raised a brow.
    He continued. “Rumor is you left pretty quickly with a beautiful woman.”
    Irritation prickled Mason. Eva was breathtaking—more gorgeous than any of the women he’d ever been with. But he didn’t want Whit to acknowledge that beauty.
    He set down his fork and leaned away to pierce Whit in his gaze. “Took the town long enough to spread that story.”
    Whit grinned. “When it’s a good one, it travels faster than a log truck on a back road. So what happened, Dorsey?”
    “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He picked up his fork and started eating again, though his stomach was no longer eager.
    “You don’t