Ellery Mountain 3 - The Carpenter and the Actor Read Free Page B

into the conversation and didn’t take long to realise that everyone was looking at him.
“I’m not into red hair,” he said.
“He’s coming into Ellery for a meeting with the doc next week, something about maybe moving here for a job. Tell him, Max.”
“He’s a nice guy,” Max said dutifully.
“Everything.” Finn prodded his boyfriend in his side and Kieran hated the matchmaking gleam in his friend’s eye.
“Spare me the details. Just because you and Dan are ridiculously loved up doesn’t mean I have to be.”
“You’re the last one,” Daniel pointed out. Kieran threw him a dirty look and narrowed his eyes.
“Well, you go out with Tall, Red-haired and Available then.”
“I said we’d all catch up for a beer or a coffee,” Finn summarised. “Then you can meet him. He has these gorgeous emerald eyes and freckles. He’s kind of sexy.” Max coughed pointedly and Finn leaned into him with a grin. “I meant Kieran would find him sexy.”
“Okay, coffee is good.” What was wrong with him? The chances of meeting a gay man in Ellery outside of his friends and their partners were slim to none. He should be jumping at the chance of meeting this paramedic who sounded, like the kind of guy he might be interested in—one that had a job and was breathing.
“Great,” Finn enthused. He changed the subject to something that Kieran tuned out of. There was nothing like enthusiasm in him, and he put it down to being tired. He’d been up late three nights in a row finishing off his latest project. Add in the early mornings at the cabin and he was screwed.
Yawning widely, he slid down in the chair a little more and laid his head back against the support. The sound of friends speaking around him was a nice background to let him think. He hadn’t recognised Jason. Hell, he didn’t know anything about Jason, apart from the fact that Jason had definitely checked him out when he was fixing the heating. What if the tall, gorgeous actor liked his men short with blond hair and a mouth that was often seconds in front of his brain?
Probably not.
Chapter Three
    Jason climbed the last hundred feet or so with belaboured breathing and a cramp in his side. He hadn’t realised just how out of condition he was. He ate right and used the gym to keep his muscles in shape, but actual fitness was sadly lacking. Finally at the top, he collapsed on the grass and leant back against a stone. Pulling a bottle of water out of his rucksack, he settled in for a morning of admiring the view from the very top of Ellery Peak and out to the Smokys beyond. He could make out the road as it wound its way up the mountain. Every so often the sun would glint on the metal of the three cars left in the small parking area at the end of the road, one of which was his rental Ford—nothing too flashy or expensive, or that screamed ‘actor on a break’. The view was stunning—breathtaking actually. He wished he’d brought a camera up with him just to try to capture the majesty of this beautiful mountain range. Instead, he decided his cell would at least get him a photo he could send to his mom and dad.
    Moving the phone around, he finally settled on the peaks framing each side and the view down to the river at the base of the valley between. After clicking for the image, he was pleased that it gave at least some idea of what he was seeing to his parents.
    “You’d have loved it here,” he murmured. Then he caught himself. Only weird people sat in isolation under an early morning sun at the top of a mountain and started a conversation with their dead brother. He was right, though—Ben would have loved it here. He’d always been the energetic hiking type, always the thrill seeker, looking for the ultimate natural high. The Pagani Zonda had just been the next way to get faster.
    “Two hundred miles an hour, Jase.”
“It’s a gorgeous car.”
“It’s stunning. You want to go for a spin?”
“Where are you going to take it that means you can get