Page 61 of Coach's Temptation

She sighs, tipping her head back against the rooftop.

“At this rate, I’ll be leaving my shit laying around your house until Christmas.”

I take a slow sip of my drink and think about Mike the Contractor's message earlier today. Work has started and he says they're making good progress. Turns out, removing soggy dry wall isn't as difficult as regular dry wall.

"Have you stopped by recently?"

Her brows furrow as she turns to me. “No. Why would I?”

I shrug, casual. Too casual. “I dunno. Just to see.”

I just lift the mug to my lips and let her stew on it.

For a second, I think she’s going to press me, but then she lets it go, exhaling as her gaze drifts back to the stars.

“Ahhh… I used to do this all the time when I was little,” she says quietly. “Stargazing.”

I glance over. “Yeah?”

She nods. “My grandmother used to take me out into the mountains, just the two of us. We’d find the darkest, quietest spot, bundle up in sleeping bags, and stare at the sky for hours.” She smiles at the memory. “We never had a real plan. She just knew I liked to be anywhere that wasn’t home.”

"Why didn't you like being home?" I ask, keeping my voice low to match the intimacy of the moment.

Natalie's fingers tighten around her mug. She takes a long drink.

"Every night was the same. Dad would come home late from work. Mom would passive-aggressively mention how the food was cold. He'd make some comment about how maybe she should've waited. Then they'd spend the rest of dinner arguing about the most mundane things. The grocery list, the temperature in the house, whether the grass needed cutting."

I shift closer, drawn in by the quiet pain in her voice.

"The worst part wasn't the fighting. It was watching two people who clearly didn't love each other anymore just... exist in the same space."

She shakes her head and I reach across to grip her thigh, squeezing as if it might ease the pain in her voice.

"Mom stayed because she didn't want to be alone. Dad stayed because divorce was too much hassle. They both just... settled."

The word 'settled' comes out bitter, like poison on her tongue.

"As I grew up, my grandmother's place became my escape. She'd let me stay over whenever I wanted." Natalie's voice catches. "She was the only one who saw how much their marriage affected me. The only one who understood why I read all those romance novels. Why I wanted a different life, a different kind of marriage."

She blows a breath out up at the stars.

"I promised myself I'd never end up like them. I'd rather be alone than trapped in a loveless marriage."

The quiet strength in her voice guts me.

She grew up watching two people tolerate each other, and instead of making her jaded and hateful towards love, it made her want it more.

I tighten my arm around her, pulling her in, letting her settle against my side. “You deserve the fairytale life you used to read about, Natalie.”

She stills. Just for a second.

Then—softly, quietly—she exhales, her body melting into mine as I wrap my arm around her shoulders and pull her closer.

And fuck me if I don’t want to be the one to give that fairytale to her.

Chapter Fifteen

Hunter

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