Page 13 of The Chance

The man was just toogood to be true. And… she just didn’t want to be alone. That was what she was telling herself. Aubrey hadn’t spent more than half a dozen nights alone since she had argued for custody of her sister and won. Not that it had been a big argument.

No one had wanted an almost sixteen-year-old with mobility issues and regular therapy appointments. Aubrey had always been there. Before every appointment, she’d meet her sister in the parking lot. No one could get rid of her.

Some had tried. She’d never understood why that particular social worker had had it in for her and Ayla. They hadn’t even met him until he was messing with their lives. They’d gotten lucky to get a sympathetic judge who’d actually listened to what she and Ayla wanted right after that. She would always remember that.

“Just… friends. Nothing more. The rumors of how I get around are already bad enough—until I figure out how to stop them and who is behind them indisputably, I’m not going to give them any ammunition. I have some soda. And Ayla has cheesepopcorn in the cabinet. I was considering ordering a pizza, but it’s too late now. But… there might be one in the freezer.”

“There’s a new Rowland Bowles movie on streaming now.Gretta.I don’t think it’s too scary.” He shot her the grin that had every nursing assistant, tech, and CNA in the hospital drooling. “But if it is, I’ll keep you safe. No matter what.”

“I think I’ll be just fine.” Aubrey grabbed the snacks. Her sister loved junk food. Aubrey tried to keep her stocked with healthier options. “Ayla keeps the remote there on the end table.”

Just like that, a man settled down on her couch. As if that was exactly where he belonged.

Yes, the world had completely gone mad. Aubrey was sure of it.

She would sendhim little glances occasionally. Glances that just about drove Guthrie wild. But the last thing he wanted to do was frighten her off.

He suspected that was exactly what he would do if he moved too quickly.

She was as skittish as one of Chantal’s rabbits. He’d tried to pet a little buff-colored rabbit last time he was there to help Chad with the Fields’s ranching chores. Chad’s father was in his eighties—Chad and Chantal had both been later-in-life surprises—and he didn’t do much around the ranch now. Guthrie and his brothers had bought most of the Fields’s land in the last five years, as well.

Aubrey reminded him of that pale little rabbit. Delicate, beautiful, and very, very, very skittish. He was going to have to go very slowly with her. And the last thing he wanted to do wascause her any more problems at the hospital. Not if he could help it. He had heard a few rumors, but… he’d convinced her to tell him the full extent of what was happening as they’d waited for the frozen pizza to bake. It had floored him, the things people were saying about this wonderful, phenomenal woman.

And it pissed him off.

He—and his handy sidekick, future-brother-in-law-or-else Chad—had a mission now. Guthrie wasn’t going to stop until he found the answers. And fixed it. Aubrey didn’t deserve this at all.

Guthrie didn’t watch much of the movie, at least not with his full attention. He stayed there on his end of her floral couch and plotted exactly how to seduce the woman he wanted. Without being an asshole who hurt her. That was the last thing he wanted to do at all. When the movie ended, he looked over. Aubrey was slumped practically over the arm of the couch, her hair almost shielding her face.

Guthrie just studied her for a long moment or two.

The woman was beyond beautiful. No one could ever deny that.

He didn’t think he’d ever seen her so still. Aubrey was almost always moving, doing something. She looked younger when she slept. Less tense. He didn’t actually know how old she was, he realized.

Except she’d said… sixteen and twenty-two. She was six years older than her sister. Who was around the same age as Greer, who was not quite twenty-four.

Well. Aubrey was far younger than he’d thought.

Why hadn’t he ever realized how anxious she actually was?

Because he’d taken one look at her and immediately ended up on the defensive. This woman had gotten under his skin faster than any other woman on the planet.

And that had scared him. Because of what it meant.

Guthrie had a lot to think about where Dr. Aubrey Fisher was concerned. He couldn’t sit there in the chair and stare at the woman forever.

He stood, grabbed a hand-knit throw off the chair, and draped it over her. Then, like the gentleman his mother had raised him to be, he resisted the urge to curl himself around her.

He moved to the recliner that was far too small, and a bit too pink, for a man his size. There was a second blanket right there. Guthrie settled in.

He wasn’t going anywhere.

He was going to do his damnedest to be there for her, the way he suspected far too many people hadn’t been before.

She and Ayla didn’t have to be alone now.

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