by Jessie Evans
“You’re going to be fine,” he finally said, wrapping her foot in both of his hands and squeezing gently. “Your skin color is looking better and circulation seems to be returning to normal. How does it feel?”
“F-fine.” She cleared her throat, willing her body to stop burning for this man who was absolutely off limits.
She had to see Colt around town for the rest of her life. She was back in Lover’s Leap to stay and she didn’t want the wrong kind of guy to ruin her hometown the way Clarence had ruined Chicago. She didn’t want any buildings she couldn’t walk past without blushing or ghosts of lovers past haunting her footsteps.
With that firmly in mind, she withdrew her foot from Colton’s lap and angled her body away from his. “It was nice of you to be concerned, but I know how to take care of myself, Colt. If I had needed to go to the hospital, I would have gone. I’m not a little girl anymore.”
“I know,” he said, his deep voice sending a shiver across her skin. “But I would rather be safe than sorry. I’m a worrier.”
She snorted softly. “Since when?”
“Big dumb men can change, too, you know,” he said, making her blush all over again. “Good thing, too, since the big dumb ones are the ones who need changing the most.”
“Is that right?” She crossed her arms, trying to firm up her defenses against his charm. “So you’re a worrier now. Why’s that?”
He shrugged. “I’ve seen how easy it is to lose the things that matter. How life can be golden one minute and then the next you’re going through hell and wishing you’d been thankful for heaven when you had it.”
His honesty was surprising. And touching.
“I’m sorry,” she said, awkwardly, reaching over to pat his hand.
His lips curved. “For what? You didn’t do anything wrong. Except go outside dressed inappropriately for the weather.”
“Inappropriately for life is more like it,” she said, rolling her eyes. “My suitcases got lost on the way here from Chicago. So I’ve been wearing Kelly’s old clothes and trying not to leave the house too often.”
His smile faded. “I’m sorry about your sister. I should have called. Or at least made sure I was at the funeral.”
She waved him off. “We hadn’t talked in years, Colt. And we didn’t have a funeral. Kelly didn’t want one. She just wanted her ashes scattered in the garden out back and some flowers planted.” She swallowed past the lump rising in her throat. “This was where she was happiest and she didn’t want to leave.”
“What about you?” he asked. “Here to stay or just for a visit?”
“To stay,” she said, cocking her head. “Didn’t Daisy tell you? She’s been helping me find people to fix up the house.”
“I don’t think she said anything, but I’ve been a little distracted,” he said, running a hand through his dark brown hair. It was longer than in the pictures she’d seen of him after he’d joined the military, shaggy around the edges in a way that made her want to whip out her scissors and give him a trim, just to feel the silky strands slipping through her fingers. “Between three days a week at the firehouse, working to get back on active duty, and helping out with the festival setup, I’ve barely had time to squeeze in my workout every morning.”
“So you’re going back into the army?” She frowned, wondering why that news disappointed her.
“The marines.” He scoffed, playing up his offense as he gestured down at his admittedly impeccable physique. “Seriously, Phoebes, like I’d waste all this on the army?”
“Wasn’t Blake in the army?” She lifted a wry brow.
He winked and her belly flipped again. “Yeah, but my oldest brother is serious and boring and not a fan of going fast. Flying fighter jets wasn’t for him.”
“But you like going fast,” she said, her voice husky.
“I love going fast.” He leaned in, bracing his thick arms on his knees, bringing his face closer to hers. “As fast as they’ll let me go.”
Their gazes met and held and an electric shock of awareness crackled between them. At that moment, as Phoebe saw the hunger she felt reflected so clearly in Colt’s blue eyes, a thousand different “fast” thoughts zipped through her brain.
Like how quickly she could get her lips on Colt’s and her body pressed tight against him. Or how quickly she could assure him that she was ready for a fling—sure, she’d never had one before, but it suddenly seemed past time to embrace her no-strings-attached side.
The last thing she was worried about was how quickly she could get him out of her kitchen.
But apparently she and Colt weren’t of the same mind.
“Speaking of fast,” he said, practically bolting out of his chair. “I’d better get moving if I’m going to have time to shower before I have to be back downtown. The bleachers for the race aren’t going to set up themselves.”
Phoebe stood, tailing him through the kitchen. But by the time she stepped into the foyer, he was already reaching for the door. “See you later, Phoebes. Take care of yourself.”
“Okay, will—” The door slammed and Colton’s heavy footfalls thudded on the porch steps as he hurried away.
“Do,” she finished, leaning against the doorway with a sigh, her body humming with disappointment.
But it was probably for the best. Even if Colton was on his way out of Lover’s Leap, she didn’t like keeping secrets from Daisy. And if she and Colton had done any naked wrestling, she would have been forced to keep it a secret from her best friend. She didn’t want any awkwardness between them and she certainly didn’t want Daisy’s pity.
Daisy had never said anything about it, but she was aware that Phoebe had crushed on her unrepentantly womanizing older brother for the better part of her adolescence. When Phoebe was younger, she hadn’t been able to hide the way she lit up when Colton came into a room or the sadness that filled her when she saw him around town with another girl.
And then another girl. And another.
But Phoebe wasn’t a starry-eyed romantic anymore. Four years in Chicago dating career-obsessed assholes more concerned with how she looked on their arm at parties than her dreams, aspirations, or personality had soured her on the search for Mr. Right. She wasn’t ready to dive back into the dating game again, but a white-hot fling with a man who could make her belly flip with a look sounded like a lot of fun. More importantly, it sounded like the type of thing a woman who was embracing life and all its wild, unexpected wonder would do. It sounded like the kind of thing Kelly—who had never held love or lust at a distance—would have done.
But a fling, especially a white-hot one, required two interested parties. Phoebe would have sworn she wasn’t the only one feeling the attraction in that charged moment in the kitchen, but apparently, she’d been wrong.
She supposed she should be grateful that she’d escaped the situation with her dignity intact and hadn’t embarrassed herself further, but she wasn’t a shy, anxious girl anymore. She was a woman who, like Colt, had learned how quickly the precious things in life could be snatched away. Now, she would rather reach for the beautiful, blissful gifts life had to offer and suffer embarrassment when her reach fell short than sit on her hands too afraid to make a move.
As she drifted back into the kitchen to put the kettle on, Phoebe made a silent promise to herself to keep her eyes and ears open. If she and Colt were alone together again before he left Lover’s Leap and he looked at her with that simmer-y look in his eyes, she might just reach first and worry about the consequences later.
Chapter 4
Colton
By the time Colton jogged the two miles back to his house at the edge of town, took a lukewarm shower, and made a stiff pot of coffee, he had his body under control.
His thoughts, however, were a different story.
As he stood on his glassed-in porch, staring out at the snowy mountains surrounding his cabin, he wasn’t thinking of the gorgeous view or the chances of getting some skiing in before the festival start
ed. He was thinking of Phoebe’s melted-chocolate eyes and the way her lips had parted as she leaned into him, issuing a silent invitation to take what he wanted.
Everything he wanted, no strings attached.
Colton had been with enough women to know the difference between a look and a look. Between a woman who was longing for romance and a woman who just wanted to come so hard it felt like the world was ending in a ball of fire.
He closed his eyes with a soft groan, fighting to keep images of Phoebe’s curvy legs wrapped around his waist from his mind. If he didn’t get a handle on his thoughts, he was going to be rock hard and aching again, the way he had been for half the run back to his house.
And there would be no relief except in the company of his own hand.
The day he’d learned about the initiative to allow amputee marines to return to active duty, he had sworn off dating and devoted every spare moment to getting himself in the best shape of his life. He was focused on getting his future back on track, and he was determined not to get sucked any deeper into the Lover’s Leap town drama.
Feeling any further obligation to the community or his family—or God forbid, falling for a local girl who would want to settle down and make babies—would be the best way to ruin his second chance and he wasn’t going to let that happen. He was going to prove to his commanding officers that they never should have forced him out of the service. He was going to show them that he had the ability to fight, train, and lead the way he used to—even if he would be grounded until prosthetic technology caught up with the demands of F-18 fighter pilots—and nothing was going to stand in his way.
Colton opened his eyes, determination banishing the arousal curling low in his body. The sight of the rocky pinnacle reaching toward the sky in the distance helped.
These days, Lover’s Leap was a tourist destination for rock climbers and cliff campers, but a hundred and fifty years ago, it had been the location of a double suicide. Dolly Hunt and her lover, Sal Newman—a female fur trapper who had been living as a man until her secret was found out—leapt to their deaths after Dolly’s brothers tried to kill Sal during a bar brawl. Dolly left behind a note saying she would rather die with Sal than live in a world that didn’t allow her to love the only person who had ever touched her heart. There was a plaque with her suicide letter inscribed on it at the summit of the peak, placed there by a group committed to preserving LGBT history.
Love made people do dangerous, deadly things. Love made crazy decisions seem sane and by the time you emerged from the fog it was too late.
Too late to step back from the edge of the cliff or to stop the long, ugly fall.
Colton had seen what love had done to his older brothers. One was broken, one was limping through life pretending he wasn’t bleeding from a wound that would never heal, and one was trapped in a loveless marriage with a girl he’d gotten knocked up right out of high school.
A lot of people could only learn life lessons the hard way, but Colton was capable of learning from his brothers’ mistakes. Ever since the night he went on his first date with Hilary Smythe sophomore year of high school, he had kept his heart safely under lock and key. He was a generous lover and a good friend, but he wasn’t Prince Charming or the answer to any woman’s romantic dreams.
But he sensed it wouldn’t be easy to hold Phoebe at a distance. He already loved her—not in that way, obviously. But love is love and, therefore, unpredictable and a force that should be handled with care.
“Or not handled at all.” Colton slugged down the last of his coffee and turned away from the window, newly committed to living like a monk until the day he left Lover’s Leap.
The commitment lasted throughout the morning as he helped set up the bleachers for the Frozen Dead Dude parade and coffin race and continued through a lunch shared with his cousin Seth. As he moved about his morning, he deliberately kept his gaze from wandering toward the red and blue Victorian at the end of the street and his mind from drifting to thoughts of unreasonably soft thighs or unexpectedly sexy granny panties.
He had nearly forgotten that Phoebe Page was back in town and emitting a “take me hard and fast” vibe when he swung into his sister’s hardware store to see Phoebe standing on top of the checkout counter, helping Daisy fetch an old-fashioned coffin from storage up in the rafters.
He froze just inside the door, stomach flipping as he laid eyes on her again. In those blindingly pink pants, furry knee-high black boots, and kitten sweater, Phoebe shouldn’t have made his heart race, but she did. One look at her and his pulse was thudding hard and other parts of him—parts that should remain quiet and well-behaved in the presence of his little sister, no matter who else might be around—thickened inside his jeans.
Cursing his own weakness, Colton was turning to leave when the coffin Daisy and Phoebe were shifting around suddenly fell into their arms. Daisy caught her side easily, but Phoebe fumbled with the wider, more awkward shape of hers.
She staggered to the left, struggling to get a better grip, heedless of the fact that she was about to fall off of the counter. Colt had just enough time to sprint across the room and reach out his arms before Phoebe tumbled into them.
She landed with a soft “oof” overshadowed by the clatter of the coffin sliding out of Daisy’s grip and falling to the floor.
“Oh my God, are you okay?” Daisy asked, laughing. “That was way heavier than I remembered.”
“You should have waited for me to get here and help you,” Colton said, scowling at his sister as his arms tightened around Phoebe. “One or both of you could have been hurt.”
Daisy chuckled again before jumping off the counter, her dark brown ponytail bouncing as she moved.
“I fail to see what’s funny about that.” Colton turned his scowl from his sister to the woman in his arms. “And you clearly need to keep your feet on the ground before you do yourself permanent damage.”
Phoebe smiled up at him, seemingly amused by his concern. “I wouldn’t have died from a three-foot fall off of the checkout counter. I think you need to relax and stop worrying so much.”
“Amen,” Daisy said, grabbing one side of the coffin. “You’ve had a stick up your butt for months, Colt. Put Phoebe down, pull the stick out, and pick up the other end of the coffin. I’ve got a workstation set up in the back. Phoebe’s going to do the sanding so we can start the painting after I close up.”
Phoebe glanced up at him through her long, dark lashes as he set her back on her feet. “I didn’t know you were part of the race team until I got here today. I hope I won’t cramp your style.”
“Of course you won’t,” Daisy said. “You’ll be perfect. I bet we’ll be even faster this year. You’ll certainly be easier to push during your lap than Dylan. It almost makes me glad he couldn’t get leave for the holidays this year though I’m going to miss his duck kebabs on Christmas day.”
“I thought you were going to ask Blake to fill in.” Colton grabbed the middle of the coffin, lifting it out of Daisy’s hands and up above his head before starting toward the back room.
“Show off,” Daisy grumbled behind him. “I did ask him, but Blake said no. He’s got too much to do at the ranch to take off for the race.”
Colton grunted. “He’s allergic to fun. That’s his problem.”
“Takes one to know one,” Daisy shot back. “I can’t believe you’ve got time in your busy schedule for pushing a coffin down the street with your silly little sister.”
Colt pushed through the swinging doors to the storage room, the girls close behind him, and set the coffin down on a pair of sawhorses. “I’ve got a week off from the firehouse and a man can only train so much.” He turned back, wiping his hands on his jeans, doing his best not to make eye contact with Phoebe.
His sister was like a bloodhound when it came to romance. If he exhibited even the slightest bit of inappropriate interest in Phoebe, Daisy would be all over him like white on rice.
“But you still want to work out w
ith me tomorrow, right?” he continued. “I’ve got the keys to the weight room at the community center so we can go in even though it’s closed to the public until after the New Year.”
“Hell, yes, I want to work out,” Daisy said, clapping her hands together as she jogged in place. “I’m ready to get buff and destroy the competition. We’re going to win it all this year, C, I can feel it. Now that you’ve got your bionic leg, we’ll be unstoppable.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Phoebe frown and realized that she didn’t know yet. His stomach knotted, dreading the pity that would fill her eyes, but he forced a smile as he turned to her and tugged his jeans up above his ankle on the left side.
“I wear this one for work since it’s made of Kevlar and can withstand high heat.” He knocked on the metal, which echoed lightly beneath his knuckles. “But I have a special prosthetic for running. It was pricey as hell but worth it.”
He glanced back up at Phoebe, expecting her to be checking out his leg, but instead, she was studying his face. When their eyes met, there was sadness in her expression, but admiration, too.
“You don’t let anything slow you down, do you?” she said, a smile curving her full lips.
He shook his head. “Not if I can help it.”
Sparks were flickering between them again, but thankfully Daisy seemed too distracted to notice.
“I’m sorry, Colt.” His sister wrapped an arm around his waist and gave him a tight hug. “I forgot Phoebe didn’t know. I mean, I told her about the crash when it happened, but we didn’t get into all of the—”
“It’s no big deal.” He returned the embrace, knowing Daisy hadn’t meant any harm. “No secrets in a small town. We all know that.”
She hip-checked him before moving away. “Which is why you’re so hot to get out of here and leave me alone with all the other grouchy men in this family. I swear you’re going to send me into a depression when you leave.”