At Last by Jill Shalvis

than a few feet in front of himself but he carefully searched the clearing.
    Empty of any mysterious intruders.
    But someone had been here, he could see the footsteps in the morning dew. He checked out his truck, but everything seemed the same, with the exception of the flashlight he’d left on his rear fender. That was gone.
    “Find anything?”
    Matt turned to Amy. She stood with her back to the tent, a Swiss Army Knife in hand, ready for action. Her hair was wild, her wrist bandaged, her stance making it clear that she was ready to rumble. She was still in his sweatshirt, and he’d never seen anything so sexy. Probably she could wear a potato sack and he’d think shelooked sexy. Probably he needed to also get a grip. “Nice job on the waiting thing,” he said.
    “I don’t do the waiting thing.”
    Right. She could take care of herself. Message received loud and clear—except that it was his nature to do the taking care of, though really he should be over that by now. It’d been that exact characteristic that so completely detonated his life back in Chicago.
    Which is why he was here. He needed to remember that. He was here for the quiet mountain life. It suited him. He liked being on his own, liked it a lot, and didn’t plan to change that status anytime soon.
    And yet here he was, wanting Amy. Unable to stop himself, he lifted a hand, cupping her face, running the pad of his thumb along her lower lip. She might look damn tough and on top of her world, but she sure was soft to the touch.
    And he wanted to eat her up for breakfast. It’d be off the charts, he had no doubt.
    But she took a step back. Okay, he’d expected that. Hell, he’d expected that last night, and he moved to his truck, grabbing his last Dr. Pepper—grateful their thief hadn’t stolen that, too. He cracked it open and offered it to Amy first.
    She went brows up. “Dr. Pepper for breakfast?”
    “Breakfast of champions.”
    She took a sip, then studied him, looking amused. “What are you going to do if I drink it all?”
    “Cry.”
    She laughed and lightened the tension considerably. Then he fell a little bit in love when she handed him back the rest of the soda.
    “Not exactly what I’d have chosen for breakfast,” she said.
    Yeah. Him either.
    They left shortly after that. Amy had to get to work, and she knew that Matt did, too. He would have taken her to the diamond rocks first but it was too foggy.
    Plus then there was the real reason she’d passed on his offer. She wanted to be alone when she went and searched for her grandparents’ initials.
    And her hope…
    An hour later, Matt had dropped her at her car, and she’d driven home. She took the longest shower known to man, not getting out until she ran out of hot water. When she’d dried off, she swiped the mist from the mirror and stared at herself. “You
kissed
him?”
    Her reflection nodded, you ’ho.
    Amy had no idea what she’d been thinking at all. Actually, she
hadn’t
been thinking, that was the problem. She’d been
feeling
. Far too much.
    At least there’d been no witnesses, she told herself. Well, except for their mysterious guest. With Amy’s luck, that mysterious guest had been Lucille, and Amy and Matt would end up on Facebook as engaged, or something equally horrifying. Wouldn’t that just make Mallory happy.
    But would it make you happy?
    The errant thought appalled her. She didn’t need a man complicating her life, and she didn’t need one to be happy either. Her life was complicated enough, thank you very much. She was very busy following her grandma’s footsteps to find… well, she wasn’t sure exactly, but hopefully she’d find herself.
    Except
, said a small voice,
if you really were interested in finding yourself, you’d have let Matt take you to the rocks
.
    And really, what was she so afraid of? That she’d get to the end of Rose’s journey and Amy’s life would still be… meaningless? Because she didn’t need a journey to feel that