Page 1 of Branded
One
Smitty
I’d found her.
One look, and I’d known.
Quiet where I was loud. Smart when I wasn’t.
Pretty…well, I’d never been and would never be considered pretty.
She was walking down the halls of the practice facility, earbuds in, eyes on the tablet in front of her, totally oblivious to anything except what she was concentrating on.
Certainly, she was oblivious that she was…mine.
But I’d known.
Just like Pru had said.
I’d seen the slender column of her throat, the narrow shoulders, and long, long legs, and my heart had kicked.
Hard.
Hard enough that even a big brute like me had paid attention.
Stopped me dead in my tracks, sweat dripping down my spine, my temples, my beard.
And she?
She’d walked by without noticing me. Me. A man of my size didn’t get missed. Everyone knew that I was there. Because if my size didn’t get their attention, then certainly my voice would.
But…I hadn’t spoken when she’d walked by.
Because of that heart kicking, and I’d also had some lung squeezing action happening. Which meant that any hope of talking to her—her!—had disappeared.
I’d been reduced to emitting nothing more than a quiet sort of gurgling sound, and that had, luckily, been missed by her because of the earbuds she’d been wearing.
And now, still sweating, I was following her.
Trying to think of something charming and witty that would get her to realize that I was hers, and then we’d have our happy ending, and everything would be fucking cool.
Like Pru and Marcel.
Like Hazel and Oliver and their new baby.
Like Luc and Lexi.
She’d paused outside an office—empty, I knew. Or maybe not empty any longer, I realized, seeing the new nameplate attached to the wall.
Kailey Henderson.
One piece of the puzzle solved.
Next, convincing her that she was my soul mate.
I walked up behind her, stood close as she pushed open the office door, caught the wooden panel before it shut. She didn’t seem to notice that it didn’t close, that I’d followed her inside.
Earbuds. Dangerous.
