Free Fall Into You by Roni Loren Page B

and that’s why he’d left last
     night. She sniffed.
Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Charli
. She’d known exactly why he’d turned away. And it wasn’t because of another woman.
     The way he’d reacted hadn’t left much room for interpretation. It was simple. He was
     appalled by the thought of kissing her.
    It was like high school and college all over again. She was the girl who was okay
     to fool around with on the sly for a fun night here or there, but not the girl guys
     actually wanted to date. She was a buddy fuck. Always had been and seemed always would
     be. She scanned the area for a somewhat safe place to sit and spotted a simple wooden
     bench beneath one of the large oaks at the edge of his yard. It was shrouded in the
     shadows and close enough to probably get the signal she’d come for in the first place,
     but far enough that Grant wouldn’t see her if he happened to step outside. She headed
     over, parked on the bench, and pulled out her tablet.
    The signal wasn’t perfect, but it was there. She cued up her station’s Internet feed
     and selected the most recent show. Most of today’s scores she’d already heard, so
     she skimmed through that and made it to the part she’d been both looking for and dreading.
     The nightly anchors invited Stormy to sit at the desk with them and introduced her.
     Jack, head anchor, smiled an all-teeth smile at Stormy while he asked her questions
     and surreptitiously checked out her too-low-cut top. If he’d been a cartoon character,
     his tongue would’ve rolled out of his mouth and smacked the desk. And evenworse were the Internet messages from viewers below the video. No one, of course,
     commented on whether or not Stormy had sports knowledge or experience. It was all
     talk of how hot the new sideline reporter was.
    Charli’s dinner churned in her stomach, and she clicked the off button. Well, apparently
     they’d nailed their target market. The market that had no interest in her. But before
     she could fall back into that lovely dark place of feeling sorry for herself, the
     front door of the cabin opened and Grant stepped out. She instinctively shrunk backward,
     making sure she stayed cloaked in the shadows of the oak. The last thing she needed
     was Grant finding her out here and adding creepy stalker to her list of attributes
     along with girl who throws herself at men whilst drunk.
    He glanced around the yard, but not with intent, then shut the door behind him. He
     was still fully dressed in what she was beginning to think was his uniform—plaid shirt
     and worn jeans, but he’d taken his hat off, revealing that dark wavy hair of his beneath.
     Her fingers flexed, remembering what it felt like between her fingers, wondering how
     that shadow of a beard would feel against her skin.
    Stop it.
Even knowing he had no interest in her, she couldn’t stop herself from the fantasies.
     It was as if his presence scrambled the signals in her brain—making her think things
     she never thought, want things she’d never considered. But after the humiliation of
     last night, she’d needed to get herself together and show him that she wasn’t some
     desperate woman trying to get his attention. He couldn’t know that he had any power
     over her. Not if they were going to exist together these next few weeks. They would
     need to agree to forget what happened last night and move on. Delete that episode
     altogether.
    Just not tonight. She wasn’t ready for that conversation quite yet.
    She held her breath, though at this distance there was no way he’d be able to hear
     her breathe, and watched. She expected him tohead to his truck, but instead he turned at the far corner of the house and walked
     away from her and toward the resort. Apparently, he was going to work, but what would
     a resort need the owner for this late at night? Wouldn’t everyone be settling in or
     sleeping by now?
    Once he was far enough away, she let her lungs empty and tucked her