Page 16 of Cuddling Carly

Get used to it, Carly. He doesn’t want you. Not since he probably knows what a freak you are.

Even with those thoughts, she wondered if she should text him. She felt like a jerk just standing him up like that.

Then again, by that point, he’d probably seen the picture the mayor had received—the one of her in Little Space. He wouldn’t want to go out with her, anyway.

“Come on, Mr. Pumpkin Head. We best just get to Mountainville.”

She thought of grabbing her suitcase but rolling it for half a mile would get tiring. So, she’d leave it behind. There was no way she was going to leave her stuffie behind, though!

As Carly started walking, she couldn’t help but be a little creeped out. They were truly in the middle of nowhere! What if something happened to her? It was so remote, it could be a long time before someone found her.

All that was missing were tumbleweeds and vultures, she thought.

Surely someone would happen by and find her eventually if she needed help. She couldn’t be the only one traveling to Mountainville, and according to the map, the road she was on dead-ended at the town gates. Anyone going to or from there would have to see her.

Suddenly, the sensation that she was being watched crept over her, and she felt just like she had back in her kitchen when that cow had wandered in.

Only this time it wasn’t a cute animal with eyes on her.

It was a man, up ahead and to the left, in the rocks on the side of one of the rugged hills.

He was bloody, mangled, and pointing right at her.

He wanted Carly.

Chapter Ten

Wade sat atop his horse and stared at the back of Carly’s house.

Beside him, on his own mount, was Sam. The two of them had ridden over to Carly’s property about thirty minutes before, looked around, and then got back in their saddles to talk things over.

“Felt kinda creepy looking in her windows like that,” Wade noted. “But I’m worried about her.”

“I don’t begrudge you for what you did,” Sam replied. “I’d be worried about her, too.” The older man took his eyes off the house and looked at his boss. “Mighty awful what they did to her back in town, if you ask me. And that’s one of the reasons I try to never go into cities. A man has all he needs out here in God’s country.”

Even under the grim circumstances, a faint smile touched the corners of Wade’s mouth. He wouldn’t exactly call Valley Spring a city. But to hear Sam talk about it, it might as well have been Manhattan or Boston.

Now, looking at the house again, Sam said, “I ain’t one to get into a man’s business. You know that. So, if I’m oversteppin’, tell me. But I’ve noticed enough to know you’re one of them fellers who like ladies like Carly is. I don’t know all the terminology and such.”

Wade nodded. “She’s a Little. I’m what you call a Daddy.”

It felt strange saying it, but Sam was the one who’d broached the subject. Anyway, when Wade found Carly and brought her back to the ranch to live happily ever after, Sam would figure things out soon enough. There was no reason to hide it now.

“No judgement here. You ask me, though—and you didn’t, so this is unsolicited but free advice—the universe sorta brought you two together. It ain’t every day a man like you meets a woman like her. What are the odds, right?”

Wade nodded. “Right.”

“Well then, what you need to do is find her. But I ain’t telling you something you don’t already know.”

“Where do I start?”

Silence followed while the two kept their eyes on the house, as if Carly might open the back door any moment and step out, waving at them.

Finally, Sam said, “A person will usually tell you a lot if you just listen. Think back about the conversations you had. Did she mention any place she loved or would like to go? She’s hurting. So, she’d go somewhere familiar or somewhere that brought her comfort.”

It hit Wade.

“Sam, you’re a genius!”