Her Unexpected Hero

by Kyra Jacobs

  “No, but I thought you should know so you can look yours over.”

  “Thanks a lot.” Cole headed for his door but paused when he realized Smith was following.

  “I don’t really care what you do in that shop of yours,” Smith said in a low voice. “Or what you’ve gotten yourself into in the past. But this shop is all I have. If you’re mixed up in some kind of trouble, well, you’d best be taking it elsewhere.”

  With that, the man turned and shuffled back into the Frame Gallery, the door snicking shut behind him. After a moment, Cole shook off his surprise and turned toward his own place. It was going to take more than tripped alarms and scowling shop owners to keep him from his dreams. Robberies, however, would be tougher to overcome.

  “Nice talk, Smith,” he muttered under his breath. “Let’s not do it again any time soon.”

  …

  Maddie climbed the steps to her apartment Monday night, looking forward to a long, hot soak in the tub. Her place might be the size of a postage stamp, and far from glamorous, but in the tub she could close her eyes and pretend she was anywhere. Tonight, her imagined destination would probably also harbor one too-sexy-for-his-own-good southern boy, who’d consumed her thoughts most of the day as it was.

  But when she drew near the landing and spied a pair of familiar cowboy boots perched on the second to top step, daydreaming took a back seat to worry. And maybe a bit of embarrassment, over being caught thinking about him.

  “Cole? What are you doing here?”

  A half grin, but still he did not rise. “Guess I lost my way.”

  Worry rattled her again. Something was bothering him, something pretty big for him to be sitting here, waiting for her. She decided to play dumb, let him talk when he was good and ready.

  “Well, can you lose it a little to the left? I’d like to get inside and out of these shoes.”

  His right brow twitched as he shifted on the step, his gaze following her as she brushed by. Maddie felt her cheeks warm. Ha, as if I had a chance. The very thought of her, Cole, and clothes coming off, though, had her all sorts of flustered. She fumbled with her key not once but twice, then struggled to put enough weight behind her usual door-shouldering maneuver.

  “Here, let me get that for you.”

  Cole rose and came to stand beside her, his tall, lean frame easing into what little space was left. She squeezed against the outer wall, trying to give him room, and savored the scent of his cologne. Lord, he smelled good. All sandalwood and man.

  You should be thinking of Tyson, whispered her conscience.

  You should shut the hell up, she mentally whispered back.

  With a grunt and twist, the door was opened all too soon. Maddie offered him a smile and led the way inside, flipping the light switch as she wondered what they’d talk about tonight. One of his new students? A story from his past? Maybe a confession about what really happened the night of his eighteenth birthday?

  The door clicked shut behind her. Maddie tossed her purse into its usual spot on the counter and turned to ask how his day was. The light flicked off and suddenly Cole was there, standing less than an arm’s length away, hiding in the shadows cast by the room’s tiny nightlight. Oh yeah, something was definitely wrong.

  “You want to talk about it?” she whispered, reaching out to brush a thumb across his cheek. Even in the dark she could see the dark circles under his eyes.

  Cole leaned into her touch and raised a hand to cover hers. “Not really.”

  “Long day?”

  He snorted. “More like long life.”

  “So I’ve heard.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You did, did you?”

  She nodded, brushing her thumb across his cheek again.

  “Whatever they told you…it wasn’t true.”

  “You calling your grandfather a liar?” She grinned.

  “My grandfather? When did you…?” Understanding dawned on his face. “Last night. The brisket.”

  Maddie shrugged. “We had a few minutes to kill. He cares a great deal for you, you know.”

  “And you?”

  “I guess Tom and I have gotten along well enough in the past.”

  Cole chuckled and moved his hand from over hers to the small of her back. “I mean do you care a great deal about me, too?”

  Crap. Apparently it was confessional night at the Frye house. As much as she wanted to change the subject, or throw out a snarky comment to distract him, she couldn’t. She wouldn’t. Instead, she met his gaze and nodded.

  “Even knowing what you do about me? About my past?”

  “You were innocent, Cole. Trying to do the right thing. It just…”

  “Backfired.”

  “Horribly,” she added with a grimace.

  But rather than be bothered by her added commentary, a look of relief settled over his features. Cole drew her close and placed a cheek to the crown of her head. Maddie wrapped her arms around him, savoring his warmth.

  “It’s been so long since anyone has looked at me without judgment in their eyes,” he whispered. “I don’t want to lose your friendship, Maddie.”

  Friendship. Though it shouldn’t have, his comment stung, confirming her earlier suspicion. Coworkers? Yes. Friends? Absolutely. Lovers? Not in the cards. But she’d just have to learn to be okay with that, because she’d grown far too fond of him to want to lose what they did have together.

  “You won’t.”

  He drew back, his gaze searching hers. For what, exactly, she didn’t know. She was here, wasn’t she?

  Cole’s gaze shifted to her lips.

  Friends, she reminded herself. Don’t let your imagination run wild.

  His hand snaked into her hair, freed after her shift of its usual messy bun, to gently cup the nape of her neck. Okay, so this wasn’t something she’d done with other male friends. Maybe it was a Texas thing?

  “I’ve fallen for you, Maddie.” His lips lowered to within a whisper of hers. “Coaching be damned, I want you all to myself.”

  Maddie stood there in utter shock. Had she heard him right, or was this all some grand illusion?

  “Really?”

  “Mmm-hmm.” He pressed a soft kiss to her lips, to her cheek, to the hollow beneath her ear.

  “But I’m—”

  “Don’t.” He drew back, his face unusually serious. “Whatever it is you were going to say, it’s a lie, all a lie you keep telling yourself. You’re not too fat, too thin, too short, too tall. You’re not too intimidating, too confident, too curvy. You are 100 percent real in a world full of imposters and fakes, and I think that makes you absolutely perfect.”

  “But…you haven’t seen all of me.”

  A crooked smile stretched his perfect lips. “We can remedy that, you know.”

  “What, now? Tonight?”

  She stepped away to collect her thoughts and looked to her bedroom door. Had she made the bed this morning? Picked up the dirty clothes off the floor?

  Shaved her legs?

  “Unless, of course, you don’t want to.” His words said he understood, but his tone was thick with desire.

  The same desire she’d been fighting since he’d stepped foot into her kitchen.

  “I do. Of course I do, it’s just…” She wrung her hands, grateful for the dark. Darn, a little notice before springing this on her would have been nice. Time to mentally prepare.

  “You’re nervous.”

  “Well, duh.” A nervous laugh escaped her.

  “Then how about we take it slow for now? Go with the flow?”

  He took her hand and pulled Maddie into his arms. His velvet voice greeted her ears as Cole began quietly singing a Journey song she’d admitted to being one of her favorites the last night they’d worked together, and the two began swaying to their own private dance. She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

  Oh yeah, she’d take this over some stuffy gala any day.

  His hands slid to her hips, and a shiver rattled throu
gh her. They felt…good there. Right. Her mind began to race, thinking of other places those skilled hands would feel. Even as those thoughts filled her mind, the doubts and insecurities of her past tried to claw their way to the forefront.

  No. That was then, this was now. Cole had fallen for her. Her! And he’d just called her absolutely perfect. If that wasn’t a confidence builder, what was? If a guy like Cole said he wanted her, then it was high time she learned to listen and let go of her past.

  “I’ve always loved your voice,” Maddie said as the song came to a close.

  “You do?”

  “Mmm-hmm. Could listen to it all night long.”

  Cole bent to press a kiss to the hollow beneath her ear. “All night long, huh?”

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Maybe that, um, remedy of yours is something I’d like to learn more about.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  He pulled back to study her for long moment, his big, blue eyes heavy-lidded with desire. She dug deep for her bravado and slipped out of his grasp, angling for the kitchen. “Uh huh.”

  “Um, Maddie? If memory serves, the bedroom is that way.”

  “You’re right.” She plucked her cell phone from her purse and sent a quick message to Kayla, asking her to cover breakfast in the morning. Everything was prepped and ready to go, nothing but pastries and cereal planned, anyway. Message sent, she returned to Cole. “And now we won’t have to rush what happens in there nearly as much.”

  “I rather like the sound of that.”

  He pulled her close and sealed his approval with a kiss. And another. And another. He really was the best kisser she’d ever met. She would have gladly stood there all night, making out in her dining room, if she hadn’t already spent the past few hours on her feet.

  “Cole?”

  “Hmm?” he asked, his lips softly gliding over her own.

  “I really would like to get out of these shoes now.”

  He chuckled, the sound warming her far more than any heater could in this lonely old apartment.

  “Right. How about you lead the way, and I’ll help you with that.”

  Maddie liked the sound of that. Yes, she was scared out of her mind—it’d been forever and a day since anyone had seen her naked, let alone touched her. But this was Cole, the sweetest, most caring man she knew. She had no doubt in anything they did together he’d treat her like royalty, bedroom adventures included.

  That thought kept her from making a run for it. Instead, she intertwined her fingers with his and led the way toward her bedroom.

  “I’d love it if you would.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  A creak and dip in the bed woke Cole before sunrise the next morning, followed by the brush of soft lips to his forehead. Maddie’s sweet perfume filled his senses, and he worked to pry his eyes open. She sat beside him on the bed, dressed in her usual chef outfit and looking far more awake than him.

  “I thought you said someone was covering the morning shift?” he asked.

  “Me, too,” she said. “Unfortunately, my backup has been throwing up half the night. Can’t have germs like that in my kitchen.”

  “I say let ’em eat cold cereal or something. I’d make it worth your while.” He raised one brow, though struggling to stay awake.

  “Even then, someone’s got to set it all out.” She laughed softly. “Besides, you’ll be asleep before I walk out the door.”

  “Not if you ditch those clothes and climb back in bed with me.”

  “You know I can’t,” she whispered, cupping his cheek. “Besides, if I didn’t come into work, Ruby would probably send someone over to check on me. And then we’d probably both get fired. I’d hate for that to happen.”

  He sighed and lay back against the pillow, letting his eyelids drift shut. “You might be onto something there.”

  “Stay as long as you like, I’ve got a fresh pot of coffee set to brew in another hour or two.”

  “Thanks.”

  “No, thank you. For…everything.”

  And thank you for making last night the best of my life.

  That’s what he wanted to say, anyway, but the words got stuck in his throat. Instead all he could manage was a whispered, “Anytime, Maddie.”

  Her lips brushed against his, light as a feather, then warmed a trail up to his ear. “You know I’m going to hold you to that, right?”

  “I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.”

  “Me, too.” She drew back. “Hey, Cole?”

  He cracked one eye back open at the hesitation in her voice. “Yeah?”

  “You…don’t need to call your grandpa or anything, do you?”

  “No I left him a note, saying where I’d be.”

  “Oh, great. Reverend Granville’s gonna love that.”

  Cole grinned and slid his hand around her waist, trying to resist the temptation to pull her back on top of him. “Nah, I said you were scared of the dark and asked me to come over for protection.”

  “You mean come over with protection.”

  At that, he laughed. “Good thing I stocked up, huh?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Pink tinted her cheeks. She looked amazing this morning, her usual stoic facade absent, replaced with a soft, happy glow. Would the others notice at work today, her waltzing in and acting like she was still on cloud nine? Would she confess to their night of loving making, that he’d done all he could to kiss away any doubts she’d had of her wonderful curves and the affect they’d had on him from day one?

  Did he really care?

  Nope, not a bit.

  “I’ll be sure to restock before tonight.”

  “What’s tonight?”

  “When I come back over for an encore performance.” She chuckled and he curled his body around hers. “What, you don’t really think my grandfather will believe I cured you of your fear of the dark in just one night, do you?”

  “I think I’d better go and hope your grandfather doesn’t think too much about any of it.”

  She pressed one last kiss to his forehead, muttering something about “surely going to hell,” then pecked him a quick kiss on the cheek. Cole puckered up, and she planted one last kiss on his lips as well. Then she was gone, off to save the world one pancake at a time. He rolled back over and let sleep pull him under once more, succumbing to dreams about beautiful towns with autumn leaves, Maddie snuggled beside him on a park bench in the sunshine, them sitting together watching happy, smiling passersby.

  Unfortunately, the dream quickly faded, replaced by one far gloomier and eerily like the reality he’d been living the past few days. He awoke disoriented and unsettled, trying to brush it off. Because he’d lived too much of that for too long. Until last night, that is. Last night had easily been the best of his life. And not just because of what he and Maddie had done, but because there, in her arms, nothing else seemed to matter. Not his future, not the past, only the there and now.

  It’d been incredibly freeing.

  Memories of their night together filled his mind, and Cole gave up on going back to sleep this time. He rolled out of bed with a smile, downed a quick cup of coffee while watching Fido ram his fish lips into the side of his bowl—seriously, man, what was up that?—and then headed home to shower and change.

  By the time he headed toward his shop, a bright orange sun was lifting off from the horizon. It was like an omen, a sign that today was a day full of possibilities. He strode around the last corner between home and his shop, looking forward to seeing Maddie at work later but trying to think through how to act around her without being too obvious about the step they’d taken together last night, and drew to an abrupt stop. Up ahead sat his storefront, its glass frontage covered in large, blood red letters. A message, no doubt, intended for him:

  Go back to Texas, Jailbird.

  …

  Maddie glared at the noonday news Tuesday, ready to take on the town. Or at least that nosey Amber Jensen, Channel 10’s obnoxious field correspondent. Someo
ne had called in about Cole’s shop being defaced, and instead of criticizing the vandals, prissy Amber had strutted up to Cole—on a ladder, sponge in one hand and bucket of soapy water in the other—and demanded to know why he was bringing such chaos to “our quiet town.”

  “You want chaos, woman?” Maddie muttered. “I’ll show you chaos.”

  Ruby looked up from her napkin-folding at the end of the bar in surprise. “What’s that, dear?”

  The dining room was empty of all but staff today, the inn’s fall occupancy rates beginning to taper off and their current guests early eaters. Otherwise, she never would have turned on the flat screen television Brent had installed this summer behind the bar. Good for the sports fans, he’d said. Or for putting arrogant twit news reporters on display. Maddie shot the television another dirty look as Miles emerged from the hallway leading back to his office.

  “Can I have the afternoon off, Ruby? I need to have words with that stuck-up news reporter on Channel 10.”

  Miles took a seat next to his grandmother. “What’s your beef with Amber?”

  “My beef,” said Maddie, “is that she’s harassing Cole, who is clearly the victim here.”

  “Victim? What are you talking about?”

  “Someone vandalized Cole’s shop again this morning,” said Ruby. “Wrote a despicable message in big bold letters for the whole town to see.”

  “Oh, wow. Poor kid can’t catch a break.” Miles shook his head.

  Maddie pointed to the dark television. “Not with the town treating him like yesterday’s garbage. Seriously, how can these people live with themselves?”

  “People shun what they don’t understand, dear. It’s no different here than many other towns across the country.”

  “But it’s not right, Ruby. Here he is, trying to make a decent living, to teach people music, for crying out loud, and we’re shunning him like he’s some crazy former psychopath.”

  Miles reached for a ham sandwich from the tray Maddie’d left on the counter with a shrug. “Maybe he is.”

  “Maybe you should take that back.”

  “Madelyn Frye.” It wasn’t unusual for Ruby to call her by her given name. But when she threw in a last name as well, anyone close to the Mastersons knew a lecture was sure to follow. “I’ll not have threats of violence here in my inn. Miles, you will apologize to Maddie for your snide remark.”