Page 4 of Fall at Once

He was older than me—eight years, to be exact. He had been married and divorced, and, for that matter, he already had kids, too. Clearly, he was an advanced adult, while I still felt like I was stuck somewhere in the beginning phase thanks to Ross and my delusional determination to make it work with a commitment-phobic man like him who was too scared to build a future with me.

From what I knew about him from Gigi, Cole Sutter was intense, intimidating, and—based on my scientific guest room window observation—hot as hell. If or when I moved on to a new relationship, I needed to find a man who was his opposite.

Someone safe and nerdy. Someone who didn’t require a regular workout schedule and the ability to toss a person over their very broad and defined shoulder to haul them to safety as a job requirement. Not to say nerds couldn’t be hot. I’d met plenty of sexy nerds in my day. In fact, Ross had been one. But somehow, guys like Cole were different. I figured having a life-or-death jobcould do that to a person.

A horn honked behind me, and I jumped in my seat.

Crap, he was here. I could feel my cheeks get hot as I watched him slow down and ease onto the side of the highway.

Hello, Cole. I hope you’re ready to get awkward.

After one more peek at myself in the rearview mirror, I opened the door and stepped out, waving my hands over my head as he pulled to a stop behind me and opened the door of his truck.

He was wearing a flannel, and boy, did he fill it out to perfection. I bit my lip to stop the drool from forming as he got out and rolled up the sleeves of the dark blue plaid shirt. His biceps strained at the material as his hands worked the fabric up his muscular forearms.

His legs filled out his jeans very nicely, and the big boots on his feet ate up the ground between them as he approached me. His hair was thick and looked as black as ink in the early evening light. And his eyes, which, if I recall correctly, were as blue as the sky, were selfishly hidden behind aviator sunglasses. Pity.

I had given up on men, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t still enjoy the view. My stomach dipped and swirled as I took him in. And I knew, based on the butterflies and my shaking hands, that I would absolutely make a stammering, schoolgirl fool of myself once I opened my mouth to speak to him.

A small, friendly smile tilted up one side of his lips.

Wow, he was still as sexy as ever. And let us not forget, he was now just as single as I was and standingright there.

My body was reacting as if I’d gotten an extra order ofhormones along with my fries and Diet Coke at that McDonald’s I stopped at on the way up here. Physical attraction like this, albeit one-sided, was something else. I inhaled a deep, shaky breath.

“You got this,” I muttered. “He’s just a man.”

He was probably used to women throwing themselves at him, and I refused to be one of them.

Chapter 2

Cole

Itook the last sip of my coffee and stopped behind an ancient pink VW Bug, grinning to myself when I saw a curvy little brunette step out and start waving manically over her head.

Then she turned to face my truck, and I bit my lip.

Damn it.

It wasMadison—the cute one and the one I knew the least. I’d been hoping it wouldn’t be her. All the Winslow women were beautiful in their own right, but there was something so different, so fascinating about Madison.

My across-the-street neighbor, named Gigi, had three granddaughters: a lovely trio named Riley, Abigail, and Madison Winslow. But she’d neglected to tell me which one I would be rescuing from the side of the highway when she texted me.

I grew up across the street from Gigi. Her granddaughters spent a lot of time at her place throughout the years, on holidays and school breaks. Sometimes, my brothers and I would play out in the yard with the oldest two—they were closer to our age. Madi was always the little one on the porch, with Gigi watching us as we played together.

With a shake of my head to clear it, I waved back.

It didn’t matter if it was the cute one since I was most definitely too old for her anyway. Eight years was a lot. At least it would have been back when I was twenty-eight and she was twenty—not that I knew her very well back then. But maybe it didn’t mean as much now that we were both in our thirties.

But on the plus side, at least it wasn’t the one who started flirting with me the second she found out the ink on my divorce papers had dried; that had been Abigail, the middle. I’d let her down gently. But honestly, her flirting had seemed kind of impersonal anyway, and she was unbothered by the rejection. It was as if I was just single and available and placed in a convenient spot at Bookers Pub for her to talk to, and it was no big deal. It had been a relief, but that didn’t mean I wanted to drive her to Cozy Creek to test that theory.

With a shrug and a grin, I stepped out, and slammed my truck door.

Like always, the air was crisp and clean up here. I inhaled deeply and stretched my arms overhead, letting the knot of tension that had built up between my shoulder blades dissipate along with my exhaled breath. I was beyond tired, bone weary,and ready for bed.

I had spent the night assisting on a warehouse fire the next town over. As the chief of the Cozy Creek Fire Brigade, I often helped our neighboring departments if they were understaffed. My entire crew did.

Sleep was the only thing on my mind. My eyes were desperate to close. All I had planned for the rest of the day was to pick up my kids from my ex-wife, grab a pizza, and crash early.

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