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She turned her head quickly so he wouldn’t know she’d been staring, but the heel of her shoe caught in a crack in the pavement, jerking her off balance. Her arms shot out to her sides, wheeling crazily. A car was speeding toward her and she was going down fast.
And the next, thing she knew, a pair of strong arms scooped her right off her feet
* * *
The car slammed its brakes and skidded sideways as Jim himself half shoved, half carried the woman out of harm’s way. He’d glimpsed her from a distance... and now he figured it was a good thing she was so stunningly beautiful, because he hadn’t been able to tear his eyes away. Which was why he’d seen disaster about to strike. He was holding her with one arm under her legs, one supporting her back. Despite her height, she wasn’t heavy, which was good because he had to keep moving to avoid the chain-reaction disaster unfolding around them.
The skidding car hit a lamppost and tipped it over. The lamppost hit the craft store’s outdoor holiday display, bringing tangles of Christmas lights and tinsel down with it. A puppy tugged his leash from his owner’s hand, raced into the mess and emerged with a length of silver garland in his teeth, growling and shaking it for all he was worth. People ran every which way. Displays and decorations were scattered over the sidewalk, and they tripped people, who fell down, tripping other people.
Jim saw it all in a single sweeping glance. And then he lowered his head to meet the eyes of the woman who was staring up at him and couldn’t look anywhere else. He saw huge green eyes, wide-set and round.
“Jimmy Corona,” she whispered.
He smiled at the breathless way she’d said his name and tried to place her face. It was familiar and yet not quite.
“Are you okay?” he asked, not wanting to admit he didn’t know who she was. That tended to offend women. She wasn’t one of the girls he’d dated in high school—or at least he didn’t think so. He’d studied all those faces closely, memorized the names. He had six solid potentials he intended to visit before he left town.
She blinked at him. “Uh... yeah. I... I’m fine.”
He set her carefully on her feet, and she stood facing him, close. Very close. Something stirred in his belly. Then she seemed to realize that her arms were still locked around his neck. She lowered them, though it was the last thing in the world he wanted her to do just then.
It was about that time recognition hit him—well, not specific recognition but better than none at all. He had the genus and species down, if not the name. “You’re one of the Brand girls, aren’t you?” he asked. As he spoke, he put a hand on the middle of her back to guide her the rest of the way across the street, away from the chaos she’d caused, back toward where he’d left the truck parked with Tyler safe and sound in the passenger seat and Colby keeping an eye on him.
He’d heard one of the Brand sisters had made it big as a model. No wonder her looks had taken his breath away like that. This had to be the one. She was tall, had legs up to her neck, and that kind of confident walk—or at least she had until she’d lost her footing in the road. “Edie, right?” he asked, recalling the model’s name.
“No. I’m Kara.”
They stepped up onto the sidewalk, and as they did he turned to look at her. “Kara?”No way, he thought as the name wormed its way into the crevices of his mind and wrenched open the pathways to musty old memories. Kara Brand. The name brought to mind a skinny girl who was taller than everyone and tended to slouch. The girl who kept her eyes downcast and shuffled her feet when she walked. The girl who used to let her untrimmed hair fall into a thick mass of nondescript brown that always looked messy. Who always seemed to be in a terrible hurry and was constantly tripping, falling, colliding with innocent bystanders. Who had, up until the tenth grade, worn thick tortoiseshell glasses so big he’d wondered if she meant to hide behind them. And her clothes had always been big, too. She had been a walking disaster. Klutzy Kara. No grace, confidence, social skill or self-esteem.
No way was this beautiful creature the shy and awkward wallflower he remembered from Big Falls High.
“Kara Brand?” he repeated.
“You probably wouldn’t remember me.” She smoothed her blouse. It was silky and wine-colored and brought out the vivid green of her eyes. “I was a year behind you in high school, but I—”
“I remember you. I just... don’t remember you likethis.”He let his gaze slide down to her feet and up again, but then smacked himself upside the head with an unspokenKnock it off, caveman.
She almost looked as if she wished he didn’t remember her at all. But there were other memories crowding into his mind now. Memories that made the gears in his brain start grinding and his pulse race a little faster. As he recalled, Kara Brand had been known as something of a pushover, mostly because she’d had the biggest, softest heart in the entire high school. He wondered if that had changed as drastically as the rest of her had. If not, then she was a real possibility.
He handed her the soft sided briefcase she’d dropped in the street. Several papers were sticking out the top. A couple of them fluttered to the sidewalk. He bent down to pick one up, taking a look at it as he did because he needed to look at something besides her. Man, he could barely take his eyes off her. The transformation was astounding.
“Brand-Name Day Care? That’s cute.” He handed it to her. “Sorry. I wasn’t trying to snoop.”
“It’s okay.”
God, she seemed uneasy. The cop in him wondered why. “So where is this day-care center of yours?”
“It’s, um... nowhere. Not yet. I just applied for a loan to get started.”
“You have a place in mind?”
She licked her lips, averted her eyes and shook her head. “What brings you back to town, Jimmy?”
“Wanted to show my boy where I grew up.”
“Your... you have a son?”
He nodded. “You want to meet him?”
