Page 10

I paused and braced against the frame of the shack-turned-cabin that held every tender memory I’d once cherished above all else. Tears welled within my eyes. He’d absolutely shredded my heart and ripped my soul to pieces. Love was something for fools and young teenagers.

We were past that.Iwas past that. Especially now, after losing another love. A different kind of love than I’d felt with Ford, but a love all the same. The indent line had long since faded on my ring finger, but I still thought about it every so often. I’d stayed for her, for my parents, and forhim, but I’d also finally become a doctor because of him, even if I’d stayed in this town. And now, my parents needed my help if we were ever going tomanage to keep the restaurant. Whether it was a good or bad thing that I wasn’t exactly…busy at the clinic these days wasn’t something I had time to focus on.

Those beautiful, different-colored eyes weren’t something I could afford a second thought about right now. But damn, I’d missed them. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed them until he showed back up. The intensity with which he’d always looked at me. No matter how little he’d talked, no matter how…rather muscular and large he’d grown, his eyes hadn’t changed. Maybe they were a little sharper, deeper, held a little more wisdom and pain than before, but they were still the perfect imperfection I’d so deeply fallen for before.

Hazel in one eye, a deep brown in the other, had been the picture I’d drifted off to last night.

Shaking my head, I snapped my own eyes open and shoved off the wall. No. I wouldn’t let him weasel his way back in so easily. In the end, our families were still rivals, maybe now more than ever. Plus, he’d left me here alone, forcing me to face the reality that I was never getting out of this damn little town.

A town that had once been a safe haven now held nothing but worries and danger. Danger for everyone in my family, and yes, even for his. Though I bet now they were all celebrating and tonight was going to be his homecoming feast that drew everyone at the music festival, only subjecting my parents’ restaurant to even more debt.

Yes. I couldn’t give in because I didn’t deserve another chance at love. I hated him. Ihadto hate him, because if I even let myself have a moment to care about him, I might just slip up and give in. I might just share withhim everything I’d kept hidden for fifteen years. I might just slip up and land safely in his arms, where I’d dreamt of being for the—

Stop it, Colette.

Glancing at my watch, I rolled my eyes. Forty-five minutes. Damn. I’d been standing here wrapped up in thoughts for fifteen fucking minutes. He had been here for less than twenty-four hours, and I was already sucked back into his ability to trap me in everything that was him.

I was acting like a strung-out, crazy, love-sick puppy. Which I wasn’t. It had been fifteen years, and he had destroyed me.

I was a badass doctor who had built my own life, with my own new friends, with a new love. This cabin was my own place, and I spent most of my time here after losing him, just as I had after losing Ford. It just didn’t have room for a bed, so technically I still lived with my parents.

Rolling my eyesagain, all of that was just a sore excuse to try and convince myself that I was doing fine and not drowning in my own debt from medical school, I pushed open the door to walk inside.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up at the shadowed shape of some disheveled hulk lying sprawled out on the couch. Adrenaline seeped through my skin as I clawed for the nearest available thing I could use for a weapon.

My fingers wrapped around the hilt of a broom handle, and I gently eased the door closed with my toe. It latched with the faintesttick. Creeping steadily forward, my heart raced in my chest as if an alligator snapped its teeth around my stomach.

A random massive man was sleeping in my cabin. This place was my one sanctuary, somewhere that no one else alive knew about except forFord and me. Yet, some random dude was sleeping on my couch. O’Connor must’ve found this place and sent one of his men to attack me the moment I arrived here with my guard down.

The world spun around me as the enormous frame bathed in shadows shifted. The man groaned, and rumpled blankets slid down from his shoulders. He faced the back of the couch, exposing the entire right side of his body to me as his arms shifted beneath the quilt. I crept closer and raised the broom handle above my head.

Squinting through the dark, I continued to sneak forward as silently as I could. My movements were from memory, as hardly any light managed to claw its way through the curtains drawn over the windows. With tall trees surrounding the cabin, even being this close to the person on the couch, I could barely make out any identifying features. Yet, since his earlier movements as I’d crept forward, he hadn’t shifted. Maybe it wasn’t some guy sent to attack me? Wouldn’t he have been waiting and alert, not sleeping on the couch?

I solidified my resolve. Even if it weren’t some guy sent here by O’Connor, I wouldn’t be caught with my guard down. Not today, bitch.

The moment I was around the coffee table, I swung. Hard. Slamming the broom handle, with a grunt, against the side of this random man. Pulling the weapon back, ready to swing again, my eyes widened at the sound of a click and the swoosh of blankets dropping to the floor.

With the broom lofted above my head, I stared at the muzzle of a handgun with a blurry figure lying on his back now behind it. Frozen in place, a frog lodged in my throat as I squinted through the darkness at the weapon holding me completely still.

A fucking gun.

Sweat beaded on my forehead. Death waited at the finger that rested steadily beside the trigger. There was not an ounce of wavering movement in whoever was holding the weapon. Held so resolutely, it was as if the cold metal was crafted perfectly for him and had spent years there. I swallowed stiffly, choking down the rising fear that pumped through my veins.

“Shit,” the man suddenly said, and I recognized the voice, even though it was slightly deeper and raspier than normal. My gaze focused on the shadowed face of Ford.

Relief flooded my figure, and I lowered the broom as Ford dropped his hand back to his side and sat up on the couch. I took several steps back as another click sounded, and I assumed he flicked the safety back on the gun.

Wait, Ford had a gun? Where the hell did he get a gun? The one kid in the entire town that had avoided violence at all costs, now pointed a weapon at me as a grown ass adult. I tipped my head slightly as my eyes finally adjusted to the dim lighting, and continued to back up as the tension shifted in my muscles to curiosity and confusion.

He scanned the room, wild and crazed like he was searching for something, as he stood up, and then slowly, he tucked the gun into the back of the waistband of his compression boxers as a calm settled over his stiff frame. His hands slapped across his bare chest—

BARE FUCKING CHEST?

My eyes widened as I realized this man had been shirtlessandin only boxers the entire time.

“Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you weren’t dressed,” I muttered.

He collapsed to the ground and grabbed some crumpled clothes from the floor beneath the quilt that had fallen as I spun around to give him some privacy.