AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ChapterOne
“Refill?”
Tracy Navarro, the owner of the cafe where he sat, was tall, kind, and so fucking elegant he wanted to see how many kisses it would take to make her let down her hair and go wild with him. Completely unaware of Michael Cutter’s overactive dream life, her full lips were curved up as she held out a stainless steel carafe.
He nodded and lifted his mug with his left hand, keeping his right hand under the table. A glove covered the two fingers that hadn’t been blown off in the detonation that ended his Army career in explosive ordinance disposal, but he still didn’t like waving it around.
“Thanks.” There was a lot more he wanted to say, but he kept it behind his lips, where it belonged.
Aside from his bone-deep desire to indulge in some mutually passionate activities, he wanted to tell her how much he admired her for running her own business.
He’d been in the small town of Hedby, Colorado, for a month now, working at Tower Construction as a foreman on one of their crews. On his third morning in town, he’d found the Busy Bean and decided to splurge on something better than gas station java.
Tracy had been behind the counter and the moment he laid eyes on her welcoming smile, he’d kicked himself for not coming in the moment he drove into town. It would have been two more days of memories he’d be able to keep when he finally moved on.
It also would have been two fewer days of shitty gas station coffee that he was certain was burning a hole in his stomach lining.
He’d only been coming in for a few days before she began picking out mugs for him from the vast collection displayed. Every morning, she would study the selection and choose one she thought would get him to laugh before she filled it with the plain brewed coffee he always ordered, rather than the complicated, fancy espresso drinks that most of her other customers preferred. He’d then load it up with cream and sugar until it was nearly white and so sweet he figured his teeth might give out before his stomach.
This morning, his cup bore the words “Coffee makes you” followed by a smiling poop emoji.
When she handed it to him, his lips had twitched involuntarily and she’d let out a laugh. “Almost got you that time, Cutter. One of these days, I’ll find the cup that makes you smile.”
They often chatted, little bits of conversation about the weather or about things they’d seen. That was how he found out she was an Army brat, an officer’s daughter who’d traveled the world until she left home for college and law school.
He’d traveled, too, but the Army had mostly sent him to violent hellholes and they weren’t good conversation pieces. So he steered the conversation back to her and learned about her marriage to her college sweetheart.
“Eric wasn’t ? isn’t, I guess ? a bad person. We were just a bad fit. I didn’t find out until too late that he isn’t the kind of guy who picks up the slack. Great partner in a law firm, not such a great partner for building a life with a home and a child.”
They’d had that conversation on a rainy morning when it was coming down hard enough to keep most of her customers at home.
“How’d you end up in Hedby?” he asked. The small town northeast of Denver was mostly rural, located in the space where the front range bled into the great plains. To the west, the Rocky Mountains cast a perpetual blue shadow. To the east, there was nothing but vast skies and wheat fields.
The town itself was an anomaly this far away from the city. A small, private university gave it a fresh influx of young people every year, as well as a unique population of academics with broad horizons. The county courthouse also attracted enough professionals and lawyers that Hedby not only survived, but thrived with a restaurant that foodies would happily travel to, a new artisan brewery occupying a historic building, and even a garage that specialized in classic car restoration and had attracted the attention of gearheads around the country.
None of that explained why this lovely woman was standing in front of him holding a coffee pot.
“It’s kind of perfect here. I wanted to stay close enough to Denver that Eric could see Aidan if he wanted to. He hasn’t, but the point is that I did my part. My parents were just south of Denver, as well, so they were close enough to visit on the weekends, but far enough away that I could make the life I wanted.”
“Being a lawyer?”
“For a while. I bought a house with the divorce settlement and worked for a small firm until I’d saved up enough to start my own business. Anything that wasn’t law.” She laughed and he hoarded the sound, the quiet richness of it and the wry twist. “It turns out, I really hated being a lawyer. Nothing I did made anyone truly happy. But coffee? Coffee makes everyone happy.”
She’d left him at his table then to take care of some poor caffeine addict who’d braved the storm for a cup of warmth and he watched her go, her slender hips swaying gently under the bow of her apron.
Cutter wanted to tell Tracy that she was classy and kind, and exactly his kind of fucking gorgeous. He was over six feet and he knew she’d fit him perfectly. He imagined that if he held her close, her head would rest perfectly on his shoulder and he could hold her there while they swayed together.
Some days, it was all he could do not to simply pull her close enough to lay a kiss on her brow, just to show her the tenderness and care that bubbled up like a sweet, sharp fizz in his blood.
Sometimes in his dreams, he let his hands ? even the ruined one ? drift over her lean, subtle curves, caressing and stroking in pure admiration. Sometimes, he reveled in her moans as those same curves turned rosy peach under his palms, bouncing with every slap of his palm while she went wild with need.
Her eyes were dark brown and up close, he could see little flecks of gold. Treasure that only revealed itself if she allowed someone near enough, and if they took the time to truly see.
But none of the things he wanted to say would come. She waited, the carafe hovering but he couldn’t force the words in his heart to come out of his mouth. She blinked, her smile fading a little, and he cursed himself for a coward.
The phone in her apron pocket rang, distracting them both.
Smiling apologetically at Cutter, she checked the caller id and frowned before she answered. “Aidan, what’s up? Is something wrong?”
