Page 2 of Cody (Maine Silver Foxes)

A lina

The distinctive sound of gravel crunching beneath the tires of an approaching vehicle warned me that someone was driving up behind me.

I straightened and turned around to see a large, single-cab truck pulling over to the side of the road.

I wasn’t an expert on vehicles, but I could tell that this one was new and expensive and probably had a custom paint job.

My gaze locked onto the man who was sitting behind the wheel as he turned the truck off.

From what I could make out, he fit the large truck, because he was big, with a mop of deep brown hair on top of his head.

It wasn’t until he got out that I saw that the sides of his head were shaved and there was a sprinkle of grey in his beard.

I guessed his age to be somewhere around mine, in his mid-forties.

The second thing I noticed was that the man wasn’t just built big, he was tall.

Way taller than my five-foot-six, and the closer he got to me, the smaller I felt.

I had to look a long way up. My ex was tall, but even this man would tower over him.

I hid my sudden nervousness behind a smile.

I didn’t recognize him as anyone I’d known growing up in Coldwater.

I wasn’t really scared of the man. But I was instantly and insanely attracted to him.

That kind of thing didn’t happen to me often.

I stepped back to put a little distance between us when I bumped up against my forgotten car.

I gasped at the bruising contact and hoped that I didn’t appear like a frightened virgin expecting to be ravished by him.

I’ve always been told that my expressions give away whatever I’m feeling.

With that thought in mind, I took a deep breath and straightened my back, which only made it look as if I was thrusting my breasts out to him.

I groaned internally when his gaze, which had already checked me out once, dropped again.

Shit!

The interest in his gaze was obvious, and I watched a slow and sexy smirk spread across his rugged face. “Car trouble?”

Oh, lord! His voice had the kind of deep, raspy timbre that instantly made me think of hot, sweaty nights filled with rough sex.

A lot of it. I was suddenly tingling in places that had been neglected for way too long.

I felt my cheeks burn, and I glanced toward the ground between us for a minute to pull myself together.

“Ma’am?”

Ma’am? Did he just ma’am me? My eyes flew back up to see the full-blown amusement swimming in his.

He couldn’t know what I was thinking! Could he?

I chewed the inside of my mouth, fighting the urge to ask what he found so funny.

He looked like the kind of man who wasn’t afraid to speak his mind and wouldn’t hold back when he did.

From the look of him, I guessed that he’d just gotten off work.

He looked a little dirty and rough in old jeans, muddy boots, and a flannel shirt that fit over his muscular frame, revealing how robust he was.

He was handsome in a rugged, man-of-experience sort of way.

Like he’d already lived a lifetime or more.

He had a strong, masculine face, from what I could see of it.

A square jaw, a straight nose, and sun lines that fanned out from the corners of his dark, brown eyes.

His lips were smooth, the bottom one fuller than the top.

Realizing that he was still waiting for my response, I finally said, “Flat tire.”

The man tilted his head and glanced around me at the tires on the driver’s side.

I smiled. “Front passenger,” I explained.

He nodded and stepped closer to me. “Got a spare? I’ll change it for you.” When he reached the back of my car he glanced down into my trunk before turning his gaze back on me with a question in his eyes. “Looks like you’re moving.”

He glanced down at the boxes and other junk that was crammed in my trunk, and I nodded.

“Yeah. Sorry.” I reached for the nearest box.

“I’m gonna have to take some of these out before we can get to the spare.

” I struggled with the box and knew instantly that it had to be the one that was filled with my cookbook collection.

I’d told my brother not to put them all in the same box when he’d helped me pack, but as usual, he hadn’t listened to me. “I’m actually moving back,” I huffed.

“Here, let me.” He took the box from me as if it weighed nothing and set it on the ground.

“Thank you.” I returned his smile. “I’m Alina, by the way.” I held out my hand.

“Cody.” His huge hand engulfed mine for a brief shake. It was warm and calloused, and I felt a charge like static electricity zip through me. His eyes widened slightly as if he’d felt it too. “Welcome back to Clearwater. How long were you gone?” He reached for another box.

“Ten years. My brother, Dan, moved to San Diego for a job, but he got into a bad car accident a year into it. I went there to help him while he recovered and, well, met someone and decided to stay.” I was telling him way more than I needed to.

Cody’s eyes were heavy with amusement when they flickered to me briefly as he set another box on the ground. “I trained at Camp Pendleton.”

“Small world,” I laughed, removing a small box marked “Toiletries.” “We could have run into each other and not even known it.” I would never have forgotten running into a man like him.

He paused before reaching for another box, his gaze fixed on me in an appreciative way that I recognized. “No, ma’am.” The quality of his tone seemed warm and intimate. “You’re a beautiful woman. I wouldn’t forget running into you.”

Oh, my... I caught my breath at the unexpected compliment. A warm flush spread over my body, coupled with a pleasant tingle that I hadn’t felt in a long while. My initial thoughts about Cody had been spot on. He wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. There was something sexy about that.

“What made you decide to come back?”

“A breakup,” I admitted. “And my mother’s failing health.”

Cody remained silent after that, and I watched as he pulled out the spare tire and the tools to change it with.

Once he had everything in place, I watched him work while admiring the strength and movement of his hands and arms. He’d rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, and he had about the sexiest arms I’d ever seen.

Every strain intensified the definition of his muscles, and I couldn’t take my eyes off the thick, blue veins running down the length.

As the silence grew uncomfortable, I felt like I needed to say something. “Are you still in the military?”

“No, ma’am. I retired after twenty years.” This time when he said “ma’am” I didn’t take offense. It had nothing to do with my age and everything to do with respect and was probably a product of his military training. Some habits were hard to break.

He didn’t look up as he worked. “So, you retired and moved back home? How do you spend your time now?” I was being nosey, but I couldn’t help myself.

Cody shook his head. “I’m not from around here.

A friend of mine retired at the same time and talked a bunch of us into moving here.

” He snorted and glanced up at me with a crooked grin.

“We were going to spend our days fishing and hunting, but there’s only so much time you can spend doing either one, and the boredom in between hunting seasons got to us fast. We spend our free time cutting down trees for King’s logging company and doing a little construction now and again. ”

He pulled the flat tire away from the rim and examined it. “Here’s your problem. You picked up a nail from somewhere. Take it into Charlie’s. He’ll repair it for you.” He rolled it toward the rear of the car.

“I can’t believe Charlie is still around.”

“Yup. His son helps run the garage now.”

“That’s one of the things I’ve always loved about Coldwater,” I said, giving Cody a smile when our gazes briefly met. “Small-town living and family-owned businesses that are handed down from generation to generation.”

Cody added with a humorous chuckle, “And everybody knows everyone.”

“And their business,” I followed up.

It was true. Coldwater was a small town with small-town troubles—or benefits, depending on how you looked at them.

Cody finished changing the tire and put the tools back where they belonged. Then we loaded the trunk back up with my boxes, which held all of my worldly belongings. We worked quietly side-by-side until we’d finished, and then he shut the trunk and turned toward me.

“Guess that’s it.” He ran his hand across the bottom of his whiskered jaw, and I got the impression that he was considering something.

A quick glance at his ring finger revealed that it was bare, and for a second, I got my hopes up that he was going to ask me out. “Guess so.”

“Guess this is goodbye then.”

I nodded. I didn’t want to say goodbye. I didn’t know why but I felt there was more we should be saying to each other, like exchanging last names and phone numbers.

But if Cody was interested in me, wouldn’t he make the first move?

He didn’t strike me as the kind of man who doubted his actions or his effect on women.

I hadn’t been out of a relationship long enough to have gained the confidence to make the first move.

I’d been with Eddie for ten years, most of which had been good years, but we’d still managed to grow apart.

I was afraid of making a fool of myself or of getting rejected.

Besides, I didn’t even know if Cody was married or had a girlfriend.

Not wearing a ring didn’t mean anything.

Two people being attracted to each other didn’t always lead anywhere either.

Realizing that for whatever reason this was goodbye, I said in a lighthearted tone, “Thank you for your help, Cody.” I moved toward my driver’s side door. “It was nice meeting you.” I opened the door and turned back to him. “You never know, maybe we’ll run into each other again.”

“Maybe we will.”

I closed my door and started the ignition with mild disappointment. I could have sworn he was attracted to me. Maybe I’d imagined it.

Maybe I was just horny. It had been a while.