Page 109 of The One Who Never Left: Colter

“So, is being a mom really the reason you don’t date or is it something else?”

She looked down at her hands. “I’m terrified something good won’t last. It usually doesn’t.” Her voice thinned. “Lynlee is enough for me, but maybe she’s too much for a man.”

“Maybe she’s exactly the right amount.”

Sutton didn’t answer, but her throat worked and her eyes went bright in the candlelight—like hope hurt more than fear.

He could see her shuttering again—pulling control back around herself like armor. Sutton didn’t want sympathy or to be rescued. She didn’t want anyone close enough to leave a dent. So, he gave her the one thing she responded to—honesty.

“You know, one night doesn’t erase compatibility,” he said and that got her eyes back on his. “Your body already chose me.”

Her lips parted—half scandal, half memory—and hell if that didn’t send heat through his chest. But Sutton recovered fast.

She crossed her arms, voice cool as water over stone. “Sex does not equal a relationship, Colter. And I’m not rewriting my life because of chemistry. That’s not strategy—that’s biology playing tricks.”

He let her say it. Let her own the moment. But the pulse jumping at her throat said chemistry wasn’t her enemy—it was her truth.

She went quiet again—a different kind of quiet. Not defensive or wounded, more like she was thinking.

Finally, Sutton drew in a breath and tucked her hair behind her ear, the way she did when she was about to admit something she hated admitting. “I need a favor.”

Now they were talking. Favors were his specialty. “Name it.”

“When you asked about helping with Lynlee’s birthday party, I said no.”

He remembered how she’d shut that door before he’d even been able to stick his foot in the opening.

She was self-sufficient to a fault.

“But, my daughter has a very active mouth. She told her entire class she was having a pony party. And now the teacher knows, and the parents know, and the kids?” Sutton sighed. “And I really don’t want her embarrassed in her first month living here.”

“Done. She can have the pony.”

Sutton blinked, caught off guard by the speed of that answer.

“And,” Colter added, already on a roll. “You can have the entire ranch if you want it. Pool party, horseback rides, barn picnic—whatever makes her feel like a princess.”

Her eyes widened. “That’s too much.”

“No,” he said simply. “It’s just right.”

“Colter—”

“I’d have done it for Irma,” he cut in.

That actually made Sutton laugh—one soft disbelieving sound. “Irma doesn’t have kids.”

He rested his elbows on the table and leaned in so she could see the truth in his eyes. “But you do and I want to help make her day special. Not complicated or disappointing, but special like all kids’ parties should be.”

Something in her expression cracked.

“Please,” he said, voice gentler than he expected. “Let me do this.”

Sutton studied him—eyes narrowing, lips pressing together, mind calculating risk versus gratitude. Then, blunt as a blade, she asked, “Is this for Lynlee or for me?”

“Can’t it be both?”

CHAPTER 41