“Thanks.” He kept staring at her and it felt as though she weren’t wearing anything at all. “I’ll be right back.”
Scarlett nodded.
He turned his back toward her and she exhaled, taking in those wide, freckled shoulders of the very off-limits man disappearing behind the door again. The towel clung to the curve of his ass, showing off tight muscles she wanted to bite.
Bite.
Where was that coming from?
“Pull yourself together, girl,” she muttered to herself.
Scarlett was the kind of girl who fell in love easy. It didn’t even have to be encouraged, sometimes it just happened. Which had gotten her into trouble. She shivered at the thoughts of her ex, the reason she was not dating or even entertaining the idea of a relationship right now. She’d promised herself three years to work on her, to focus on the business and what she wanted out of life. There was a year left, and she’d done so well. Sure, a lot of girls her age were getting married, focused on the future, but she needed time.
She padded around the corner into the kitchen and grabbed two mason jar glasses, then retrieved the pitcher of sweet tea. Maybe that would help cool her down. Her parched throat needed something wet and cold to counteract the heat simmering low in her belly.
A guy like that had to have a girlfriend, fiancé or wife in the picture. It made sense. So ultimately she would be safe.
“Thanks,” he said right behind her.
Scarlett gasped and whirled, sloshing tea on her toes.
“Sorry,” she yelped and grabbed for the roll of paper towels.
“No, no. Let me.” He took the towels from her and bent, swiping the wood plank floors then her toes with a gentle touch.
Who are you?
If he was the photographer maybe she could bend her rules a little. Would it be so bad to flirt a little? She’d never been the hook-up type, but maybe she could learn. Her cousin Benji could probably teach lessons.
Yes, because her cousins would be around and any romantic interest, they knew about was doomed. Garth especially would run off anything male that looked at her with any sort of interest.
“There.” He glanced up and smiled, his damp hair falling forward over his brow.
Sweet Jesus, he smiled and she could hear angels.
“I’m sorry, not to be rude, but you have me at a disadvantage. Who are you?” She couldn’t take this torture anymore. She should take a step back, put distance between them, but she was rooted to the spot.
“I’m Cole.” He straightened, standing so close she could smell the soap on his skin and the flecks of darker blues and greens in his eyes.
“Cole?” She didn’t know that name, but she wanted to.
“Cole Odell?”
Odell.
Shit.
The Odell wedding.
He was a groom.
And she’d...
Oh—oh, fiddlesticks.
Her throat closed up and heat raced up her neck.
Of course he was AK’s fiancé. She always had a knack for finding the most gorgeous men, and Cole was right up there.
“You’re Anne-Kelly’s fiancé. It’s so nice to meet you. I’d offer to shake your hand but I’m still messy.” Scarlett held up her hands, took a step back and screwed on her work smile even while a part of her withered. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of you guys.”
Cole glanced away, and it was as though the world dimmed a bit. A silly part of her wanted to do whatever it took to make him smile again.
“The wedding is off,” he said.
Those four words hit her in the stomach one after the other.
The wedding?
Was off?
Scarlett might be a tad bit jealous of Anne-Kelly’s ability to find and hook handsome men, but the last thing Scarlett would wish on her was a break-up, especially one that had been headed for a wedding. She opened and closed her mouth, not sure what to say.
In the handful of years they’d operated The Love Barn, they’d never had a wedding canceled so close to the nuptials. They were just a few weeks out.
“That was actually what I came up to talk to someone about.” Cole braced his hand on the island and faced her, all business now. This gaze was sober, serious, and a bit stormy. “I wasn’t privy to the booking details and seeing as how there isn’t going to be a wedding, I was hoping to recoup some of the money.”
Scarlett blinked at him. She wanted to know what had happened, how it had gone wrong, if AK was okay, if he was okay. But she couldn’t ask those questions. At least she couldn’t ask him. She and AK might not be close, but they’d grown up around each other. If it were her, sitting here Scarlett would be a shoulder. They knew each other well enough she’d ask.
“Your name was on the emails Anne copied me on.” He glanced back at her.
Scarlett mentally did the math.
It was currently September nineteenth.
His wedding was scheduled for October twenty-eight.
Oh crap.
Her heart fell to the floor.
They had a no refund policy two months out and there was barely six weeks to go. Two weeks past the cut off. But October was still the height of fall wedding season. Perhaps she could work out something or find someone interested in that date?
This must be so hard on him. Her. Both of them.
“I can’t say off the top of my head what we can do. I’d have to talk to my cousins.” She gripped the edge of the counter. He had to be going through a lot right now. She didn’t want to crush his hope.
Cole nodded, but his inner light had dimmed. His shoulders slumped.
Scarlett knew what it was like to be headed toward a wedding, then have it all yanked away. Granted, her boyfriend at the time had been a lying, thieving, manipulative asshole, but her love was blind. Losing him had hurt, physically, emotionally, mentally. He was why she was focusing on herself.
“Okay, well, thanks. Sorry about...”
“Want some tea?” She nudged the cup toward him.
“Thanks.”
Cole didn’t seem like the awful kind of person, and she was fully aware of who Anne-Kelly was and how she could be. It made coming to a few conclusions about Cole easier. He wasn’t a bad guy, he’d just had the misfortune of falling for the woman who had a habit of leaving men without warning.
“I’m sorry I didn’t know. AK never said anything.” She gripped her cup with both hands.
“Yeah, well, she didn’t say a lot to anyone.” He lifted the jar to his lips and took a long drink.
Scarlett and Anne-Kelly had been a few years apart in school, but living in a place as small as Ransom they’d known each other. AK hadn’t dated many guys at their school. No, she dated guys from the next town over, going through one every other week it seemed. That hadn’t changed as she got older. Scarlett had heard on more than a few occasions about AK’s latest boyfriend and where her wandering feet had taken her.
Every now and then she’d bring one home, and Lord have mercy, they were always a looker. Scarlett had been quite surprised when she turned up with her mother to reserve the barn for a fall wedding.
Cole put the jar back on the island and stared at it. “I should have called before, I just...”
“No. No, it’s fine. I’m sure you two have been going through a lot.”
He snorted and glanced at her. His hurt shone through.
Scarlett resisted the urge to hug him. Barely.
She loved love. Starting The Love Barn and helping to organize weddings, it made her happy. Thrilled, even, to be part of so many romances taking the next step. Her own love life was nowhere near as good. She never wanted to see a couple fail.
“What—you don’t have to tell me—but, what happened?” She shouldn’t ask. It wasn’t her place and yet, was anyone listening to him? Why did he have that look in his eyes?
“I...don’t honestly know.” He shook his head. “I went to work, came home and there was a letter on the dining table tell
ing me she couldn’t get married, she wasn’t in love with me and she’s sorry.”
Scarlett stared, grappling with the events as he laid them out. What was worse, she wasn’t entirely surprised. Anne-Kelly had always been flaky. Scarlett and her cousins were shocked that she was actually getting married.
“Wow.”
“Yeah. We were scheduled to turn in the keys to the apartment the next day and everything we owned had just been picked up to deliver down here. Talk about shitty timing.”
“Wait—you were moving here?”
“Yup.” He nodded. “I’m set to begin work in October, but hoping I can start early.”
Scarlett soaked up the details.
Cole had been left, weeks before his wedding, stuck moving to the small town his runaway bride came from with a job already lined up?
That was cold, even for Anne-Kelly.
“Oh, Cole. I am so sorry,” Scarlett said. And this was only the beginning. How soon until everyone else knew, too? “Well, what are you going to do?”
“Settle in, I guess.” He shrugged.
“Really?”
“I don’t have any other option. I sank a lot of money into this wedding. Anne hasn’t been working steadily, so it fell mostly on me. I can’t afford to break the lease or move somewhere else. I’ve got a good job lined up.” He shrugged. “I’ll make do.”
Scarlett wanted to hug him. She wanted to squeeze him tight because she knew what it was like to have loved and been left. That was the story of her life, her love was never enough.
Was there anything she could do?
She glanced at the clock.
Garth and Benji wouldn’t be back for another hour. She didn’t want Cole there when she broached the topic of giving him a refund. While she loved what they did, this gig had more or less fallen in their lap and the guys treated it like a business, not a matter of the heart.
“Do you have a list of vendors booked for the wedding?” she asked.
“Uh, yeah. I went back through the emails and bank account.” He patted his pockets. “These aren’t my clothes. One second.”
He cracked another of those bright smiles and the tension in her chest eased. She wanted to help him. This was a shitty spot to land in with no support system or friends.
Cole ducked into the bathroom and retrieved his phone.
“Glad I splurged for the hefty duty case, huh?” He wiped off the phone screen and set it on the counter.
“Have you told your family? Does AK’s family know?” Scarlett leaned in to look at his list.
“I haven’t spoken to her family, but I’m guessing they do. No one showed up with a welcome home Anne sign or anything.”
“And your family?”
“Weren’t coming, anyway.” He turned the phone toward her. “Do you know these people?” he asked.
Scarlett took the phone and studied the contacts.
She knew all of them.
“These are all pretty close.” She glanced out the front windows. “Where’s your car?”
“I just have a bike right now.”
“A bike? Where is it?” She hadn’t seen a motorcycle.
“Oh.” He squinted out front. “It’s lying on its side in the grass. It’s a decent four speed, nothing fancy.”
“Wait—you have a bicycle? Not a motorcycle?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged.
“You moved to Texas, the land of no public transportation, with no car?” She stared at him.
Cole sighed then glanced away. There was something he hadn’t wanted to tell her.
“Anne took the car.”
“She—what?” Scarlett gaped at the man.
“And my dog.”
She had no response to that, just shock.
He’d been abandoned by his fiancé and forced to move to another state. His car and dog were gone. He’d spent a lot of money on a wedding that wasn’t going to happen. And he wasn’t angry and raging at the person responsible.
He was an angel. A damn fucking angel and she wanted to help him. There wasn’t a world where the way he’d been treated was right, and she wanted to fix this. Help him, and she knew how.
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.” Scarlett tucked a bit of hair up into her bun. “I am going to shower real quick. After that, you and I are going to make the rounds, see what we can do about getting you refunds. If you need a car, I know where we could go, too.”
“You don’t have to—”
Scarlett shook her head and his voice trailed off. “AK should have treated you better than this. I don’t know what your story is, but no one deserves to be up and left like that. It’s not right.”
She’d only begun to make wedding plans when her ex left her. It wasn’t the same thing, but she felt his pain as though it were her own. She’d been broken up with enough that she understood him. She’d had Garth and Benji to help her pick up the broken pieces of her heart, but Cole had no one. She’d felt that pain too many times to let someone go through it alone.
Want to read more? Pick up a copy October 2018.
Book List
Aegis Group
Dangerous Attraction
Dangerous in Training
Dangerous Games
Dangerous Attraction
Dangerous Protector
Dangerous Heat (coming 2018)
Aegis Group Alpha Team
Dangerous in Love
Dangerous in Action
Dangerous in Transit
Dangerous in Motion
Dangerous in Charge
Aegis Group Lepta Team
Dangerously Taken
Dangerously Involved
Dangerously Deceived
Dangerously Broken
Dangerously Entwined
Gone Geek
Beauty and the Geek
Mr. Purr-fect and the Geek
The Jock and the Geek
The Gamer and the Geek
The Adorkable Girl and the Geek
Twisted Royals
Alpha Prince
Her Prince
Bad Boy Prince
Noble Prince
Tarnished Heroes
Spy Games
Assassin Games (2018)
Traitor Games (2018)
Texas SWAT
Fighting Redemption (2018)
Stolen Redemption (2018)
Hot Rides
Drive
Shift
Chase
Bayou Bound
Picture Her Bound
Duty Bound
Bound Memories
Bound & Tamed
Other BDSM Titles
Committed
Bound with Pearls
Collar Me in Paris
Festive Seduction
Electric Engagement
So Inked
Under His Skin
The Harder He Falls
His Marriage Bargain
Fighting His Desire
Standalone Titles
Falling for His Best Friend
Dream Vacation (free read)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
It can never be said that NYT & USA Today Bestselling author Sidney Bristol has had a ‘normal’ life. She is a recovering roller derby queen, former missionary, and tattoo addict. She grew up in a motor-home on the US highways (with an occasional jaunt into Canada and Mexico), traveling the rodeo circuit with her parents. Sidney has lived abroad in both Russia and Thailand, working with children and teenagers. She now lives in Texas where she splits her time between a job she loves, writing, reading and fostering cats.
COPYRIGHT © 2018 BY Sidney Bristol.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted
by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
Inked Press/Sidney Bristol
www.sidneybristol.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
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Ordering Information:
Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the “Special Sales Department” at the address above.
Stolen Redemption / Sidney Bristol.—1st ed.
Stolen Redemption (Texas SWAT, #2) Page 29
