Free Curves and the Cowboy (BBW Romance - Coldwater Springs 1) by Jenn Roseton

“ Sarah Grant is
coming home.”
    Chase McCord felt as if
he’d just been punched in the gut. “What?”
    The old-timer sitting on
the next bar stool chuckled. “Thought you might be interested
to hear that, boy.”
    Thirty was hardly a boy.
Chase guessed it seemed that way if you were seventy.
    Sarah Grant. The name
conjured up long dark hair, large brown eyes and the sweetest mouth
he’d never kissed. And a curvy, lush figure that made him hard
- every time. Her image had flashed into his mind over the years at
inconvenient times - even on the occasional date. It had gotten so
bad that he didn’t bother to date any more. What was the point
when the only woman he wanted was Sarah?
    “ Why is she coming
back?”
    “ Lost her job in
the city and got one here teaching school.”
    Chase let out the breath
he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. There was no man
involved. If she’d come home to get married, he was sure his
neighbor on the next barstool would know about it. He was done
waiting for her. He was done fantasizing about her.
    It was time to claim her.
    ###
    Sarah sat down in the
booth and glanced around the diner. It looked exactly the same.
Dark vinyl flooring, blue walls, leatherette booths and Formica
tables. A thirty year old country song played softly in the
background while customers ordered at the counter and then found a
table. It was hard to believe she’d been away for six years
and nothing had changed in Coldwater Springs.
    At eighteen, she had left
home and gone to college in Laramie, two hundred miles away. She’d
always wanted to be a teacher, and once she’d graduated
college, she’d found a job teaching elementary school there.
She thought it might have been easier that way.
    It wasn’t.
    Now, with the economic
downturn, she’d lost her job and considered herself lucky to
get one back here in her hometown.
    There was only one
problem. Chase McCord.
    She’d had a crush
on him forever, but she didn’t think he’d ever noticed
her at all. That was one of the reasons she’d decided to go to
college so far away. She didn’t want to spend any more time
hopelessly mooning over him. She had to get on with her life.
    Although…she often
wondered why he had never noticed her. Was it because he was six
years older than her, so he thought of her as just a kid? Or was it
because of her curves? She knew a lot of guys preferred thin women
and she’d often wondered if Chase was one of them.
    But she would never
forget the time he’d just won the bull riding event at the
local rodeo. As he received his prize, their eyes had met. He'd
made a step toward her and for a second she'd thought he would come
over to her. But then he’d become surrounded by rodeo groupies
and the moment had been lost. Two days later, she had left for
college.
    However hard she had
tried over the years, she just couldn’t forget him.
    She’d dated in
college - she’d even had a serious boyfriend, but it had
fizzled out once they’d graduated and gone their separate ways.
Peter had been great for her ego, though. At least one guy liked
her curvy figure.
    And now she had returned
home to teach elementary school. She had moved in with her parents
temporarily - heck, it wasn’t as if she had a wild sex life and
needed privacy - while she settled into her new job and found a place
to rent.
    “ Here you go, hon.”
    Sarah glanced up as the
waitress set down her coffee and slice of cherry pie. “Thanks,
Betty.” She smiled at the woman who had worked at the diner
for as long as she could remember . Apart from a few more gray
strands in her hair, the matronly waitress looked just the same.
    “ You enjoy it, hon.
It’s good to see you back in town.”
    “ It’s good to
be back.” She realized she meant it. She’d missed her
family while she’d been away , only coming home at
Christmas and on the occasional holiday weekend. Now she was home
for good, and she was going to enjoy every single minute of it.
Except