Fuck Holden. He didn’t deserve the courtesy of a mature breakup.
And fuck that beautiful stranger and his mesmerizing stare.
Cole
Mesmerizing. Sweet Jesus, that woman knocked me for a loop, and then some. Right before her bulldog attacked.
Been a long time since anyone had gotten the jump on me. Too bad that silver-eyed angel hadn’t stuck around to watch me wipe the floor with her boyfriend.
The guy was all brawn and bravado. No brain. The type I was all too familiar with. A runaway train with faulty brakes. Only way to stop that path of destruction was by way of decommission. A few jabs for warm-up, then one strike to that square jaw, and the hot-head had dropped like a fly.
Even unconscious, the guy looked angry. Made no sense, that matchup. She was sunshine, and he was gloomier than the fall drizzle outside.
Not my problem, I reminded myself.
The police were called. An ambulance, too.
Witnesses confirmed my story. I’d been jumped and acting solely in self-defense. I wouldn’t press charges. Not worth my time.
The kicker? The woman had disappeared. I didn’t get a chance to make sure she was okay, and that bothered me more than losing thirty minutes of my morning.
Ellis waited outside, arms crossed over his massive chest, hip against my Roadster. “How is it you manage to destroy a cafe, but don’t get a speck of dust on your silk shirt?”
“Thanks for your help, asshole.” I bumped his arm as I passed.
“You had it handled. Besides”—he tapped on the door—“someone had to guard your shiny new car.”
I’d recently ditched my gas-guzzler for electric and, damn, she was a beauty. Quick, too. God bless Elon Musk. Ellis, two sizes too large for the vegan leather seat, never wasted a chance to be seen standing next to, or sitting inside, my sporty black Tesla. Always with the window down. Always with a cheesy grin on his face. Didn’t take much to keep my friend happy and, damn, I liked him happy.
I made my way to the driver’s side and told him over the roof, “Some over-juiced pretty boy didn’t like me looking at his girl.”
“What girl? And why the hell were you looking?”
“God’s honest?” I settled into the driver’s seat, waited for Ellis to tuck in. “I don’t fucking know.”
I knew. Didn’t like what had come over me. A strange sense of kismet, an unexplainable familiarity, an unholy attraction.
“Spell it out for me.” The skin between his thick brows wrinkled.
I merged into traffic. “I was minding my own business, waiting for our coffee, and I heard her voice. She sounded like Cadence.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. God, I missed my sister. “That’s what made me look. And, damn, the woman was beautiful. Had this aura. She glowed. Stopped me dead.” I refrained from waxing poetic about her silky blond hair, her pink, full lips, or eyes the color of cold steel.
“Aura?” Ellis laughed. “C’mon man. That’s bullshit, and you know it.”
“Yeah, I fucking know. Doesn’t change the fact it happened. Swear to Christ, when she looked at me, my brain short-circuited.”
“You’re lucky her boyfriend didn’t make a meal outta your skinny ass.”
Ellis stood an inch taller than me, had me by a good fifty pounds, but where I was turkey breast, my friend was more prime rib, and he never let an opportunity slip to remind me he was bigger, despite the fact he’d never taken me down on the mat.
Our trip to the gym passed in silence. Ellis only zipped his lips when he had something epic to say, a think before you speak kind of guy, so I parked, cut the engine, and said, “Spit it out, bud,” then made myself comfortable, settling into the seat and buckling down for an earful.
After a deep rise and fall of his chest, he blurted, “I’m worried about you.”
“Okay.” So was I, but that was between me and my weathered spirit.
“Seriously. What’s up? You’ve been off lately. You’re always on edge. You spend all your free time at the gym. And what was that scuffle really about this morning?”
“He attacked me,” I reminded him. “And you know damn well why I’m at the gym.”
Holden rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know. You’re on a mission. Noble, yes, but nobody gets the jump on you unless you wanna fight.”
Fuck. True. First glance I’d known that, if provoked, the guy at the coffee shop would react, and maybe I’d needed the release. But that wasn’t what’d made me look in the first place. That woman’s presence had drawn me in. Siren enchanting the sailor. Seeing her sitting next to that Mike O’Hearn wannabe had summoned my primal urges.
“Not sure what came over me. It was crazy like I knew her, but on a whole different level. God.” I scratched my aching temple. “This is hard to explain. There was a connection. Just…something. That ever happen to you?”
The left side of his mouth twitched. He tried and failed to hide his grin. “Yeah, when I met Darlene.”
Darlene, the woman who’d broken his heart more than once before skipping town with Eva, his one-eyed Yorkie.
“So you get it?”
“No, dipshit.” He flicked the side of my head. “I don’t get it.”
“But you just said—”
His thick finger jabbed my chest, silencing me. “Not the same.”
“How’s it different?”
With a huff, he jerked the door handle and dropped one foot to the asphalt, then paused. “When I met Darlene, I was single.” Before closing the door, he turned and asked, “And where the hell is my coffee?”
Natalie
“So, how’d he take it?” Mom asked over her shoulder, working the buttons on the Keurig. She wore her favorite cardigan, the violet highlighting her ice-blue eyes.
I slammed my handbag down next to a stack of mail on the dining table. “I didn’t get a chance to do the deed.” I huffed, then plopped my rear onto a stool at the kitchen island.
Mom slid a fresh
