Page 15 of Against All Odds

Jack was more like me, upgrading and uplifting his life. Heath was alreadyup.

The last time a guy like him asked me out, he’d doneso to make a sex tape. Okay, so I’d been a teenager then, just like that asshole. I was a grown-up now, and so was Heath. I doubted he was going to be filming sex tapes to make fun of me. The world didn’t work that way when you were adulting.

I met Heath’s gaze, and I wondered what he saw. Did he seemeas I saw myself, the girl who’d clawed her way out of Woody Creek, who’d built a life with her bare hands? Or did he see Sable Nees, the quiet woman I’d constructed to fit into Jack’s world so he wouldn’t discard me?

“It’s just a date, Sable.” His eyes twinkled. Hell, yeah, they did,withamusement. Or was it arrogance?

I’d never had good luck with men; my kind never did. From my drunk father to the men my mother fucked for drugs to foster fathers who tried to slide their hands where they didn’t belong—Jack had been the first decent man I’d been with. Sure, he was dominating and controlling, but hewas,for all practical purposes, the kind ofnormalthat I’d desperately wanted. When Jack had asked me out after we met at a bank event, I’d decided to be everything he wanted so I could pretend I wasn’t stuck in the trailer park, always choosing men who were bad for me.

I’d been hiding my whole life. Donning a new mask for Jack had been easy—the easiest thing in the world so I could be safe, live in a nice house, continue to have my respectable job—wash that Woody Creek taint away.

After all that, he’d left me anyway. He’d discarded me for a younger and fertile woman. No matter how Icarried myself or faked that I wasfine, I wasn’t. Jack’s betrayal hadn’t caused any new wounds but had opened all the old ones. I was once again the girl people whispered about and pointed fingers at.

When did you finally grow the fuck up? When did that stuff stop affecting you? According to Hillary, it never happened—she was married to her high school sweetheart, and sometimes, she felt that she’d never gotten past anything. The only saving grace was that they didn’t live in their hometown of Boulder; she joked that she’d be breaking out her pompoms, and her husband would try to fit his potbelly into his old QB uniform.

“What constitutes a date these days?” I asked, pretending nonchalantly. “I haven’t dated in a decade.”

Girls like me didn’t date boys like Heath.

But you’re not a girl, and he’s not a boy, Sable. You’re a woman, and this is a man.

“Sable, it will just be two people spending time together to get to know one another.”

“That sounds like something people did in the good ol’ days.” I wanted to lighten the mood so that I wouldn’t feel quite so discombobulated. Seeing Jack around town with a heavily pregnant Molly was like a knife through the heart—not because I loved Jack, I didn’t, not anymore, but because I was once again where I’d hoped I wouldn’t be,alonewithout anyone who gave a damn about me.

“I’m an old-fashioned guy.”

I felt chained to him, his voice, his demeanor, his charisma, until I broke free and cleared my throat. “Ithought you were here to unpack glasses, not flirt with me.”

“Can’t I do both?” he asked, his panty-melting smirk back in full force.

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t help smiling.

He leaned forward, his face close to mine. “We don’t have to do the traditional dinner and movie.”

“So, what would we do?” I wanted to kiss him, I realized. That mouth of his looked delicious, and it had been a while since I’d had anything tasty. The last man I’d slept with had been Jack, and that was millions of emotions and days ago.

“I haven’t dated in a long while, either. Actually, you’re the first woman I’ve asked out since I moved to Aspen.”

“You’ve been here…a year!”

“I’m aware.” He ran a finger over my hand that was holding a wine glass. I almost dropped the fragile thing. “Do you know, when I saw you for the first time, I thought you looked like Bambi? In fact, in my head, I call you Bambi.”

I busted out laughing.

“So, what do you say, Bambi?” he cajoled.

“You’re persistent, I’ll give you that.”

“And charming,” he added.

“Debatable.”

“But you’ll say yes?” he pressed, his grin widening.

I thought about it. I thought about how I’d spent years stuck in a life that didn’t fit me, how I’dpromised myself that I’d start saying yes to the things that scared me.

“We’re closed on Mondays.”

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