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“Ma’am, it’s okay, you’re safe. I’m Detective Caden Barrett, Sweetbriar PD. I’m here to help. An ambulance is on the way.”
“Cade?” With a shaking hand, she pushed the thick mass of waves from her face. Gorgeous baby-blue eyes met mine before she burst into tears and fell into my arms. “Oh, thank goodness it’s you.”
“Charlotte.” Shocked was not the right word for how it felt to be holding her again. A jolt of electricity lit me up inside and I gasped, ruffling her hair with my breath. I inhaled deeply, her sweetly familiar floral scent filling my nostrils, and before I could think too hard about it, I pulled her close, tugging her tight against my chest. That same heady rush of sensation shot through my body at the feel of her soft curves finally beneath my hands again. “Are you hurt?” Goosebumps traveled over my flesh as she wrapped her arms around me and pressed herself even closer. Trembling fingers drifted into the hair at the nape of my neck, and I shivered at her touch.
“No. I’m okay, I think. Just shaken up. I wasn’t going that fast when I hit our tree, but the airbag went off.” I swallowed hard, trying to steel myself against the rush of memories that currently threatened my good sense. I didn’t want to let her go but I had no reason to keep her close.
Soft hands went to my shoulders, pushing me away as she stepped back to lean against the side of the Range Rover. Visible just over her shoulder, the heart I’d carved into the bark when we had first bought this place taunted me. I should have carved an X through it after she left. Or chopped the damn thing down.
“This isn’t your car. Where’s your Jeep? Why were you driving so fast?” I questioned her. “Was that Subaru following you?” I peppered her with questions about the crash to avoid talking to her about anything real.
Why, after all this time, have you come back to Sweetbriar?
Why did you leave me?
She avoided my eyes as she answered. “No, uh, I mean, I have no idea. Maybe it was road rage? Or they probably thought I was somebody else—”
Blaring sirens filled the air as the fire department’s ambulance pulled up next to us, followed by a squad car and a firetruck. Frustrated, I turned to find my younger brother, Levi, stepping out of the driver’s side of the ambulance followed by his partner. “Charlotte? Is that you?” His smile was huge as he approached us. “Are you okay? Hey, Cade.” I nodded hello to Levi and scowled as Matt, a fellow Sweetbriar PD officer, approached. My moment with Charlotte was obviously over.
Matt called out with a smile, “Yo, Cade, go home and get some sleep. We got it from here.”
“Fine. Great. Thanks. Charlotte?” My heart ached as I watched her trembling in the cold. She was as beautiful as ever: freckles on her nose, full pink lips, curves for days, and that same delicate vulnerability that had always hit me straight in the middle of my damn chest every time her eyes had caught mine. Why I wanted to be the one to help her, I did not fully understand, not when she’d so thoroughly smashed my heart beneath her shoe when she walked out of my life over a decade ago.
She looked away. All she said was a meek, “Thank you, Cade.”
Levi draped a blanket over her shoulders and led her to the ambulance. She was in good hands with him. I turned my back and headed for my SUV. Ofcoursethat’s all she had to say. I was lucky she’d spoken to me at all, seeing as how we’d been divorced for so long. Not to mention the fact that she had married and divorced someone else during our time apart.
On a giant exhale, I jumped into my car, started it, and drove through the gate adjacent to the Ponderosa pine currently getting way more attention from her busted Range Rover than she’d just given me.
I had known Charlotte was back. You can’t live in a town as small as this one and not know all the comings and goings, especially in my line of work. But we’d made an art of avoidance over the last decade; this was only the second time I’d had any contact with her since our divorce. It wasn’t easy given both our families were longtime Sweetbriar residents and had known each other for years, but fortunately, everyone was still civil with one another.
Charlotte and I had gone from preschool through graduation together and I had known her brothers almost as well as I knew my own siblings. Her family owned an auto body and mechanic shop right outside of town and I was probably the only person in in the area who didn’t bring my vehicles to their place. In fact, I hadn’t seen any of her family in years except in passing.
After trudging through the snow in my driveway, I made it to my porch. I could see the roof of the coffee shop owned by my older sister, Violet, from here. I should have stopped and grabbed breakfast from her. The thought of cold pizza now turned my stomach, and Netflix? Forget about it. I was too keyed up to relax and I had no one to chill with.
Heaving out a sigh, I unlocked my door and went inside. After kicking off my boots, I headed for the kitchen. My feet slowed over the tile as I approached the island in the center. Palms to my head, I turned in a slow circle. “Damn it,” I growled to the empty room, slamming my eyes shut as images of me and Charlotte together burned in the back of my mind. Fucking hell, there was no way I could sleep now, and I had lost my appetite.
I didn’t have time for this.
For her or the memories I had worked so hard over the years to banish from my mind.
Or for anything that didn’t involve my path toward taking over as chief of police from my father when he retired, which, given the way my mother was pushing him, would be sooner than later.
Why did she have to come back when I’d finally gotten over her? I stalked to my bathroom, tearing my clothes off on the way. A hot shower was what I needed, then I’d go to bedwithoutremembering all the nights I’d spent buried inside of her sweet little body, the vows we’d taken, the promises we’d made, the dreams we had shared... And I couldn’t forget the plans—years’ worth of plans—for our future, dead and buried, gone with the stroke of a pen.
The hot spray of water did nothing to calm me down. I turned it to cold, shivering beneath the icy blast as I hurried to wash this entire day away. Trying to scrub thoughts of her out of my mind was useless when I could still feel the soft press of her body against mine.
After slipping into my robe, I cranked up the heater, bypassing my bedroom to fall back on my couch with a plop. I stared at my reflection in the TV screen, my remote sitting beneath it across the room. There were some days when nothing went my way, and apparently this was one of them. On every level. I was well and good into a pity party for one when I punched a throw pillow, then fell to my side. I had just drifted off when pounding on my door woke me up.
“Damn. Seriously?”
“Yo, Cade! Let me in.” It was Levi. If he didn’t have food or coffee, he would not be invited inside.
Throwing open the door, I greeted him with a grouchy, “What?”
He waved a lavender bag in my face and pushed his way inside. “I brought breakfast from Violet. And a smoothie. You’re welcome, sunshine.” His knowing smirk was infuriating, but I’d let it go until after I ate. I headed to my room to dress.
His feet were on my coffee table and he was already stuffing his face when I made it back to the living room. Apparently, I had company to entertain.
