He had a constant mental war about his soon-to-be ex. Whether he loved her or hated her, he couldn’t decide. It seemed like she had the same problem. Sometimes she didn’t want him around, but when he left, she followed.
Luckily Clem had a new project to occupy his time. His friend Damon Perry, who was also the owner of The Blackwood Saloon, had set up a gym in a space at the town hall. It was the first and would probably be the only one in the small town named after Clem’s family.
The enterprise had been Damon’s brilliant idea. He’d been a pro football player and was something of a small-town hero here in Blackwood and wanted to create a place where the community could gather for healthy endeavors.
Clem wanted to help, though helpful was the last thing he was as he sat on a weight bench drinking a cup of coffee and plucking an imaginary daisy that always ended with, he loves her.
He could have hit the ceiling when another one of his sisters, Jennifer, and his estranged wife Kaitlin waltzed in dressed in spandex that should have been against the law. Filled with lust and frustration, Clem tried to remember the last time Kaitlin wore anything like that for him. Now that she was on the way to being single, did she have to look so hot? If he closed his eyes, he could almost feel his hands brush over her lush curves. He let out a low growl and sipped his coffee.
Their relationship, for all its confusion and miscommunication over the last two years, was always on-track in one department. Clem had never lost his physical attraction for Kaitlin. There was something incredibly powerful that transpired between them. The arced sexual energy they tossed back and forth was as powerful as a lightning storm. She was open about feeling the same way, but it confused him when she expressed how unfulfilled she was. In his mind, he filled her just fine.
After fifteen years, their smooth and seemingly happy relationship had hit a wall of discontent that Clem couldn’t wrap his head around. He didn’t get it. They had everything. Money. A beautiful home. Cars. Vacations. Right now, the one thing they didn’t have was each other.
Most frustrating was that Kaitlin left him and now she’d chased him to Blackwood from their home in Aspen.
He watched her walk in and take a look around the gym. Her eyes lighted on him several times and when they did, there was heat in them.
His body remembered the last time they’d fallen in bed together in what he thought was make-up passion, only for her to waffle about her commitment to their marriage.
As much as he wished he was happily married, the way he’d thought he would always be, Clem was done with Kaitlin’s back and forth. He had to draw the line, but as he laid eyes on her again, his heart ached for what could have been. He wanted it all back. The good. The bad. The hot sex. It aggravated him to no end that he’d get one stop closer and fall two steps back.
While he worked hard at accepting the demise of his relationship, she had to show up looking so damn good that it made his balls ache.
He sighed in resignation. The awful truth was that he missed her. Loved her and wanted her back.
He shook his head and counted to ten while his way-too-handsome gym partner smiled from ear to ear.
“Ladies,” greeted Damon, oozing too much charm.
“Hi,” Jennifer nearly purred. “We’re here to work out.”
“What else would you be doing in a gym?” snapped Clem. “We don’t serve tea or sell shoes.”
Kaitlin faltered between a smile and a frown. “Can you show us how to work the equipment?”
He set his coffee on the ground and grabbed a dumbbell he’d been doing curls with. “You go like this,” he said sharply, rigorously pumping the weight.
Kaitlin walked over and touched his bulging bicep with her fingers.
“Ooh,” she said. “The gym had been kind to you.”
“What are you wearing?” Clem asked Kaitlin with two full helpings of irritation and a spoonful of desire.
“Clothes,” she snapped back.
Fortunately, Jennifer and Damon didn’t catch that Clem had just been an ass, but Kaitlin did. She always saw him at his worst. Her face crumpled as though he’d told her she was ugly.
He could have kicked himself, but he couldn’t stop. He continued his lecture.
“You’re lucky Kevin isn’t here. He’d arrest both of you for indecent exposure.”
“I’d say what is exposed is pretty decent,” joked Damon, suddenly listening.
“Don’t encourage them.” Clem curled the weight until strain etched his features.
“What do you want to do?” Damon asked as if scolding a child. “Discourage them? Come on, you two, let’s all get along.”
Clem was in agony. The last thing he needed was to be seeing the woman he used to sleep with strut around with her amazing body clad in an outfit that might as well be a second skin. What was she thinking?
He watched her interaction with Damon to see if her intent was to impress him. All the while, he reminded himself that she had her own life to live. He got that. It was clear, standing so near to her in the gym, that Blackwood was way too small a town for the both of them. He couldn’t bear witness to her moving on from the marriage.
He liked Damon, but if his ex-wife had designs on the ex-pro baller, Clem couldn’t stick around and watch it. He was selfishly relieved when his sister Jennifer flirted with Damon and he reciprocated.
The second he figured out that they had a thing going, he immediately decided they looked fabulous together. He would jump through hoops to support that blooming relationship.
Jennifer, at 5’8”, was not the tallest of the Blackwood women, whose average height approached six feet.
Damon had to be near 6’3” and a massive wall of muscles. His tawny skin resembled the Blackwoods, but he wasn’t related.
Jennifer looked like she could take a walk down a runway, and Damon wasn’t too far from magazine worthy himself. With the sparks flying between them, they were definitely on their way to being an item, if they weren’t already.
Much to his relief, Clem had been jealous for nothing.
When he checked out Kaitlin again, she was touring the equipment that the small gym offered. She lifted a lighter dumbbell than the one he’d used, but it was still heavy for her size.
Clem thought her form could use a correction. He knew he should leave it alone because he was agitated, but staring at her in Spandex pulled him closer.
Kaitlin was in such great shape that people ridiculously assumed she came by her figure naturally, which was not the case. He knew she’d worked at it her whole life. While the smart thing to do would be to leave her alone, he wasn’t always so smart. Besides, she wasn’t used to free weights and she could genuinely get injured.
“You’re going to hurt yourself, baby.” His voice softened with the use of an endearment she always loved.
“Show me, then.” Kaitlin handed him the dumbbell.
He expected her to be upset that he’d butted in, but she seemed amenable to his instruction. He set it down and selected a lighter weight.
“Here.” He wrapped his arms around her then moved her arm, loaded with the weight, up and down. “Like this.”
They watched themselves in the wall-to-wall mirror. Kaitlin’s eyes met his in their reflection.
Clem felt himself transform. His gaze grew dark and focused as she smiled at him with silly, mock adoration. From the moment they’d first met till now, Clem thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He was certain that would always remain the case. He wouldn’t care if Kaitlin was fat, skinny, bald or gray. She would always make his heart race with her presence.
He loved holding her in his arms. The fact that she had moved out and their marriage was failing was even more painful. Instead of being grateful that she let him put his arms around her, he snapped at her again.
“Look, if you aren’t going to be serious—”
“Oh, I’m completely serious,” she said with an ear-to-ear grin. “What’s this do?” She put do
wn the free weight and moved away from him toward the lat pulldown.
“That’s loaded up for Damon and me. Let me adjust it for you.”
Kaitlin was goofing around. She used her body weight to pull down the bar. It was too heavy for her and she released it. It all happened so fast. The bar snapped back wildly and headed for her face. She got winged just a bit but missed the full force. A little nick bled on her cheek.
Clem raged. “What the hell were you thinking?”
Everyone was stunned by his thunderous voice.
Tears glistened in Kaitlin’s beautifully made-up eyes.
Clem just now noticed her hair and makeup was not what a person wore if she was serious about working out. She looked more like she was trying to attract attention. His.
Finally, she spoke. “That’s a good question,” she said quietly. “What was I thinking?”
Clem was sure his yelling hurt her worse than her near-miss with the equipment. Her cut dribbled and a blue ring developed around the tiny wound. He felt like an idiot.
It was time for a softer approach. “Let’s look at the cut on your face.” He leaned forward and thumbed the tiny spot of blood from her cheek.
“I’m fine,” she said, brushing him away.
“We have a first aid kit.”
“I’m sure it’s not that bad.” She looked at herself in the mirror on the wall. She appeared surprised.
He stooped down to catch her gaze, which she averted so she didn’t have to look at him. He regarded her with a sincere expression, filled with sorrow and regret.
“Hey,” he coaxed gently. “I’m sorry I’ve made you mad, sorry I hurt your feelings, but we should look at that. It’s starting to bruise.”
“He’s right, you did get hit in the face,” affirmed Damon. “Do you have a headache or any of that?”
“No,” she said cutting her eyes away from them. “But I have a pain somewhere else.” She glared back at Clem.
Damon laughed but gave her a look of sympathy.
Kaitlin turned to Jennifer. “I’m going to wait in the car.”
“Did you bring a coat?” asked Clem.
“I’m not cold,” she said with a sternness that would make a nun blanche.
“I’m just trying to be nice.”
“I’m not interested, okay, Clem? It’s a little too little and a lot too late. Just leave me alone.”
Even in the horrible moment, Clem had to laugh at Kaitlin’s stubbornness.
“Baby, it’s October in Colorado. You can hate me if you want, but I’d hate to see you hate yourself when you’re shivering and freezing that fine ass off in my sister’s car.”
He went over to the peg where his hoodie hung. She shivered at the door but let him put the jacket around her.
“Jennifer, I’m driving her home.” The serious tone of his voice left no room for argument.
“Okay, she’s at my place,” his sister said. “My new place. Our new place. We’re roomies.”
Clem turned to Jennifer, slack-jawed.
She threw up her hands like he was making a big deal over her announcement. “I found a place. Decided to put down some roots here.” She looked at Damon. “At least for a while.”
Clem turned to Kaitlin. “You aren’t living in Aspen and just visiting?”
“No.” She pointed to Jennifer. “I’m living with her.” She lifted her head in defiance but Clem knew his wife well enough to know she was on the verge of tears. They were collecting in the corners of her eyes.
“Okay,” he said with heaviness in his heart. “I’ll take you to Jennifer’s.” It nearly broke him to know she would be so close and yet so damn far away.
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About the Author
International bestselling author of more than thirty novels, Kelly Collins writes with the intention of keeping the love alive. Always a romantic, she blends real-life events with her vivid imagination to create characters and stories that lovers of contemporary romance, new adult, and romantic suspense will return to again and again.
Kelly lives in Colorado at the base of the Rocky Mountains with her husband of twenty-seven years, their two dogs, and a bird that hates her. She has three amazing children, whom she loves to pieces.
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Imagine That: A Small Town Big Love Novel Page 18