One Hundred Reasons

by Kelly Collins

  She lifted her shoulders in an it’s-not-a-big-deal gesture. “He owes me for saving him.”

  “And he agreed?” He walked her to the next shop so they were out of sight. If she got his father out of the house and working, he didn’t want to interrupt the progress.

  A sly smile lifted her plump pink lips. Lips he wanted to kiss again but was too afraid of where that might lead.

  “He didn’t have much choice. I walked over after you left this morning.” She looked up at him with green eyes, destined to squeeze his heart and groin.

  “He could have . . .” Cannon shuddered at the thought of his father hitting Sage again. He knew he would never hit a woman intentionally, but the booze clouded his judgment. “I should have been there, just in case. That was risky.”

  She placed her hand on his chest, and his heart rate kicked into overdrive. “Some risks are worth taking.” She peeked around the brick pillar that divided the shops to watch his dad again. “Besides, you seemed to be avoiding me after that kiss.”

  “About that. It was . . .” What should he tell her? It was the best kiss of his life? That he wanted to spend the rest of the day with her on his lap and his lips pressed to her delicious mouth?

  “I get it. You don’t like my kisses.”

  “That’s bull, and you know it. You felt how much I liked your kisses.” He tugged her back to stand in front of him. His hands came up to cup her cheeks. “I loved your kisses, but I think you can do better than me.”

  She laughed. “If you’re talking about career aspirations, portfolios, and stuff like that, then I have done better than you. To be honest, better isn’t always better. Sometimes the value of a good kiss is priceless when it makes your heart sing.” She walked her fingers up his chest until her index finger rested on his lower lip. “You, Cannon Bishop, make my heart sing.” She let her hand fall and pushed against his chest. Before she turned to walk away, she said, “I have to dose your dad before his shakes take over.”

  He didn’t let her take but another step before he turned her around and covered her mouth with his. Her lips were warm, her mouth hot and getting hotter with each second they touched. She opened, and his tongue sought and found hers. He knew it was over for him. No kiss had ever made his heart sing—until now.

  Like teenagers, they made out for endless minutes, tucked into the alcove of the bait and tackle store. When Sage pulled away, they were breathless. “I really have to go, or your dad will be in a bad way. How about dinner tonight? My place, six o’clock. You bring the wine. I’ll microwave something.”

  “Are you going to try to woo me with your culinary skills?”

  “No, but I’ll try not to kill you with my warming up skills. I’ll woo you with my kisses.” She turned her tiny body around and strutted through the door of the bakery.

  Cannon stood on the sidewalk, smiling like a fool. It had been a long time since he felt light and carefree, but seeing his father doing something other than drink or sleep changed things. Or maybe it was the kiss. He loved and hated the idea that a kiss could have so much influence. Then he reminded himself it wasn’t just any kiss. It was the right kiss.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Back at the clinic, Doc walked out of the back room with a half-eaten apple in his hand. Sage’s stomach was full of carrot cake muffins and coffee.

  Old man Tucker was up front with Sage, getting a bottle of Tums.

  “You know, old man,” Doc said. “If you stopped drinking all that moonshine you make, you wouldn’t have an ulcer.” Doc tossed his apple core into a nearby trashcan and pulled a prescription pad from his pocket. He scribbled something on it before he handed the slip to Tucker.

  “Without my ’shine, I’d be mean and crotchety like you, and I’d still have an ulcer. Got it from being married for fifty years to the same damn woman.”

  Tucker reminded Sage of a lumberjack with his soiled jeans, plaid shirt, and a beard that reached the center of his chest. He tucked the prescription into his pocket and snagged the bottle of Tums from her hand before he walked out.

  “He didn’t pay for that.” Sage opened the door, ready to pursue.

  “Let him be.” Doc went to the sign and flipped the switch to off, killing the flashing red light. “Not all things require money.”

  “Don’t tell me you make him come into the clinic and work.” She glanced around for Otis, who had taken up a spot staring out the window.

  “Nope, he’s not an RN like you, but his skills are still important.”

  “You don’t drink his moonshine, do you?”

  “No, but I stay warm all year with the wood he chops and delivers. I got a woodstove upstairs that has a big appetite.” Doc walked to the rear of the store and leaned against the counter. “Sometimes the barter system works better. Bobby Williams fixes my car. Maisey and her son feed me. Abby Garrett raises bees and keeps me in honey and soap. And you . . . you have your tradable talents, too.” He lowered his head for a second, then raised it with a big smile that pulled at the whiskers on his face. “It would seem that Cannon is bartering for kisses. What are you getting out of it?”

  The heat of embarrassment rose to her cheeks. “Were you spying on me?”

  Doc dismissed her with a wave of his hand. “Nope, you were on a deserted sidewalk in the middle of town. Hard to miss you sucking face with that boy.”

  “I’m not bartering anything for kisses.” She bristled at the thought of trading something for Cannon’s kisses. “Those kisses are free.”

  “Best kind. Now tell me what you need. I may be able to barter for more clinic hours.”

  “I still owe you for the bird.”

  “True. I’ll see you Wednesday. By the way, how is the bird?”

  “I think its wing is getting better.” She’d fed it that morning and allowed it fresh air. For a moment, she thought it would fly away. It ruffled its feathers. Even hopped up to the edge of the shoebox but ultimately settled back into the soft towel. “You sold yourself short. Veterinarian is another cap you could wear.”

  “Don’t be spreading rumors. I don’t want the Dawsons calling me to foal their horses. The last thing I need is to have my arm elbow-deep in a horse’s ass.”

  “If you’re birthing their horses, you’d be doing it wrong. Baby horses don’t come out of their mom’s ass.” Sage picked up a few candy bars and set them on the counter. “Since I’m staying a bit longer than expected, can you tell me where to transfer my prescription?” She was almost out of her birth control pills, and if things got any hotter with Cannon, she’d need a refill.

  “What do you need?” He bagged up her treats and slid them across the counter.

  Once again, her cheeks heated. “None of your business.”

  He opened a drawer under the register and pulled out a box of birth control pills. “By your blush, I imagine it’s something like this. Any of these your brand?”

  She didn’t know how he’d deduced birth control from a blush. “You’re impossible.” She rummaged through the packages. “Where do you get these?”

  “They send me samples every month.”

  She found the exact type she took and held them up. “Maybe you should be giving these to Louise.”

  Doc snatched them from her hand and put them into the bag. “Why do you think I get all these samples? I’ve been trying to get her to take them off my hands for years, but she says she’ll have babies until Bobby’s peter falls off or her uterus drops to the ground.”

  “Looks like you’re right. The Williamses might populate Aspen Cove on their own.”

  He raised his bushy brows. “Of course, you could have a few pups and give Louise a run for her money.”

  “On that note, I’m going home.” Sage walked out with a laugh on her lips and a warm spot in her heart for Doc Parker and a certain sexy bartender who was showing up that night for frozen lasagna and kisses.

  “I’ve got to go in a minute. He’s going to be here soon,” Sage told her sister.
>
  “So now that you’re dating someone, does that mean you’re staying?”

  Sage didn’t know what her budding relationship with Cannon meant. As for staying, she hadn’t decided one way or the other.

  “We’re not dating, and I’m not committing to anything at this point. I’m keeping my options open.” Sage had been in town for a week, and a lot had happened, but she wasn’t ready to sever her ties to Denver. “Any calls from human resources?”

  “No. There aren’t any positions open except your old one.”

  Sage released a sigh. “All right. I guess I’ll hang around here for a while longer.” Three days ago, hanging around Aspen Cove felt like a sentence handed down for a crime, but with Doc and Katie and Cannon, it had turned into something different. “You keep telling me to stay. You don’t want me to come back?” There was a tiny part of Sage that wondered if her sister wanted the space between them that Aspen Cove provided.

  “No. You can come back tomorrow if you want, but I don’t think what you’re looking for is in the basement of my house.”

  Sage centered the flower arrangement she’d taken from the newlyweds’ room on the kitchen table. “How do you know what I’m looking for if I don’t?”

  Her sister gave her a growl. Sage was sure it was accompanied by an eyeroll that she couldn’t see but could picture in her mind. “It’s what you’ve always been looking for—a purpose.”

  There were some things people said that passed right through without another thought, but Lydia’s words resonated with Sage. She’d always wanted to be wanted. Needed to be needed. Loved to be loved.

  A soft knock sounded at the door. “Got to go.”

  “Love you, sis. Have fun.”

  Sage looked at herself in the mirror by the door. Only a faint yellow bruise remained under her right eye. The left was completely healed. She pinched her cheeks to give them a little color.

  She had agonized over what to wear. A dress seemed like she was trying too hard. Sweat pants yelled, “Not trying at all.” She settled on a pair of khaki pants and a pink sweater.

  When the second knock came, she opened the door. In front of her stood Cannon, holding a bottle of wine and wearing a smile.

  “I didn’t think you were going to answer.”

  Sage stepped aside and let him in. Otis lifted his head from his chair to see who was there and went back to his nap.

  “I was on the phone with my sister.”

  “How is she?” He handed her the bottle of wine.

  Sage wasn’t sure what to do. She had been out of the dating game for years. Did she rise up on tiptoes to kiss him? Did she press her body into his for a hug? She opted for neither and led him into the kitchen, where the microwave heated their dinner.

  “Busy as usual.” She set the bottle on the table and handed the corkscrew to him. “Can you open it?”

  He went to work on the cork while she removed their dinner from the microwave.

  “Does she miss you?”

  That was a good question. There was no doubt that Lydia missed her, but she wasn’t selfish that way. They’d taken care of each other since they were kids. Lydia had Sage’s interests at heart, and for some reason, Lydia felt like Sage’s best interests were in Aspen Cove.

  “Yes, but she wants me to stay.”

  The cork popped from the bottle, and Cannon set it and the bottle on the table. “She does?” Surprise suffused his tone.

  “She says I sound happy, and maybe I’ve found my purpose.” She put the plastic container of pasta on the table.

  “Have you?”

  She rose onto her toes and tilted her head back. “I don’t know. Kiss me again, and I’ll decide.”

  “That’s a lot of pressure,” he said. “A lot riding on the quality of one kiss.”

  Sage gripped the collar of his button-down shirt and pulled him to her. “Give it your best shot.”

  His lips touched hers with tenderness at first. It was a gentle kiss where their lips brushed back and forth. When one of his hands weaved through her curls and the other pressed against her back, she moaned into his mouth and deepened the kiss.

  Moments later, their bodies shifted and he lifted her to sit on the counter. Up there, their height difference diminished. She thought about her sister and the quickie with Adam she’d described on the counter. At the time it didn’t sound appealing, but with Cannon pressed between her thighs, his hands wrapped around her back, and his lips fused to hers, she had to reconsider the value of a counter and a handsome man.

  It had been a long time since she explored a body in passion. Her fingers ran from the waistband of his pants up the rivers and valleys of his abs and chest before they reached around to touch the expanse of his back and finally came to rest on the curve of his firm ass.

  His hand followed a similar path with her, skimming her stomach and floating along the edge of her breasts until he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest.

  They broke apart to breathe.

  “What is it about you?” He stepped back and licked his lips.

  She watched the path of his tongue as it circled his lips. One look into his hazel eyes showed that the color had changed. The blue in them was gone, and a deep green took over. It was a lustful, greedy look that screamed for more.

  Sage hopped off the counter and stalked toward him. “What is it about you?”

  Neither of them answered the question, only dove together for another kiss.

  When his stomach growled, she pulled away. “Time to feed you something other than my mouth.”

  They sat down in side-by-side chairs looking out to the lake.

  “I’d give up food for your kisses,” he said in a voice too small to match the hulking man he was.

  “I’ll feed you and kiss you more,” she said in a voice larger than her tiny frame portrayed.

  Somewhere between microwave lasagna and wine and kisses, they found each other.

  After dinner, they took the last of the wine to the chairs by the lake and watched Otis frolic in the water.

  “Does Mike live at the bar?”

  “Yes, he likes it there. I brought him home a few times, but he wouldn’t stop meowing at the door.”

  “He likes his home.” She looked up and down the shoreline. “Who are our neighbors?”

  Cannon pulled her seat closer to his. He pointed to the house on the other side of his. “My family owned the two houses next to mine, but I had to sell them for Dad. The one closest to me is now Dalton’s. The one on the other side of him was purchased by a broker for his client. I have no idea who it is. No one has never shown up.”

  “Interesting.” She turned her head to the house that sat about three hundred yards to her left. “And that one?”

  “That belongs to a seasonal family. They show up in May and leave before the first snow. Their last name is Bergh. He’s a hockey coach for some big team. She’s a trophy wife. Nice enough people. Next to them is Frank Arden. He’s a lawyer who works in Silver Springs.”

  Sage had looked at a map of the area after she was introduced to Copper Creek. Silver Springs was over an hour away.

  “That’s a long commute.” She leaned her head on his shoulder and watched the sun disappear into the lake.

  “It’s a family home. The older Ardens passed within a few years of each other. Frank and his sister Sara inherited the house. She went off to school to become a veterinarian. Last I heard, she was living in Tulsa, she comes home every so often. Frank stayed in town and makes the drive. The commute isn’t bad once you get used to it.”

  “I can’t imagine.” Sage never cared for commuting. Her drive home from the hospital in the morning was always a nightmare. The I-25 in rush hour was not her idea of fun.

  Cannon lifted her from her chair and placed her in his lap. “Last week, I couldn’t imagine you sitting in my lap. Days ago, I would have never thought I’d kiss you. This morning, I would have never hoped to see my dad working in the bakery. Y
ou came to Aspen Cove and brought something with you.”

  She leaned her head against his chest. “I brought a three-legged dog and a bad attitude.”

  “Yes, you brought those things, but you also brought hope, and in my experience hope can be dangerous. Then again, maybe Bea knew what she was doing.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  It had been a week of kisses, shared meals, and a mostly sober Ben. Sage settled into her life in Aspen Cove. She had no plan—just a goal of making it through each day and ending it with a smile and a grade-A Cannon Bishop kiss. He knew how to make her toes curl with a touch of his lips.

  Sage’s sister had all but given up asking about her plans to return to Denver. The conversations were now focused on Lydia’s boyfriend, Adam, and how he spent his life at the hospital. Lydia’s twelve-hour shifts made it seem impossible for her to be lonely, but she sounded like a castaway on a deserted island.

  Sage tried to support her sister and downplay the loneliness by saying, “I know he’s taking on more work, but that puts him in a good position to be influential when you’re finished with your residency and looking for a permanent job.”

  Lydia groaned. “I’ll need a job. My savings are on the low end.”

  Residents weren’t paid a full salary. For the last three years, Lydia had been paid the equivalent of a coffee shop manager.

  As an RN, Sage made $20,000 more a year than her sister, but there was less room for pay increases and advancement as a nurse. Lydia’s salary would increase exponentially with experience.

  “I’ve got money, I can help.” Sage was on her last week of paid vacation, but saving was second nature to her. There was no one more deserving to share her nest egg with than Lydia.

  “Are you still working for birth control pills?”

  To say it was a mistake to tell Lydia that Sage had traded shifts at the clinic for birth control was an understatement. Her sister would never let her live it down.

  “It’s different here. I’m not in need of anything.”

  “Liar,” she teased. “You need to get Cannon between the sheets.”