The Firefighter's Family Secret by Shirley Jump

Author:Shirley Jump
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-06-11T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Colton left a little after midnight. As content as Rachel had felt, curled in his arms after some seriously amazing sex, a level of panic began to set in when her mind finally processed the words I’m falling for you.

Because she was falling for him, too, and that thought scared the hell out of her. He wasn’t staying in town—as far as she knew—and she still had a life too full for a relationship. The old familiar fears, the same ones that had made her keep all her other boyfriends at arm’s length, began to creep in. What if she fell for him and made a mistake? Landed in an unhappy marriage, like her parents had?

She’d planned dozens of weddings, watched dozens of couples say I do. And at the end of the year, maybe six out of ten were still as happy as the day they walked down the aisle. She’d seen the giddy, infatuated stage yield to frustration and resentment, and watched those very dreams dissolve for some of the couples she had worked for. It had made her skittish, unwilling to risk her own heart.

Until she met Colton.

And now, in the warm glow of the dark hours after he had left, lying in her bed, with the scent of him still on her sheets and skin, she began to wonder if maybe...just maybe, it was time for her fairy tale, too.

* * *

Colton wound his way through the dark streets of Stone Gap, with Rachel’s building growing more and more distant in his rearview mirror. He should have stayed in her bed, with her in his arms, but after saying he was falling for her, he’d begun to realize how quickly this had all become so cozy and intimate, and that maybe it would be a good idea to apply the brakes.

Okay, so he was a guy and he thought of that after they’d made love.

He’d realized how easy it would be to fall asleep in that bed, to spend a night with her and wake up to her smile—and all the implications that would come with that. Like that he was staying around. That he wanted something permanent here in Stone Gap. When he wasn’t sure what he wanted or where he was going.

A storm was beginning to brew, and lightning crackled in the sky, some bolts so close it bathed the car’s interior in white, but Colton hardly noticed. His mind was back on Rachel. He missed her already, and had started missing her the second he said goodbye.

Half of him wanted to turn around. The other half said it was a good thing he hadn’t stayed.

This town was settling on him, like easing into a comfortable sweater. Tomorrow morning, he decided, he was going to go to Harry Washington and tell him about what had happened in Atlanta. And if Harry still wanted him to be part of the Stone Gap Fire Department, then Colton was going to take the job. Atlanta no longer held the appeal that this tiny town—and one particular woman in this town—did.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.