“Thank you,” I offered, stretching out my hand and inviting him to come and sit with me.
“What are you thanking me for?” he asked, confused, as he dropped down onto the bench beside me, his fingers laced with mine and his thigh pressed up against me.
“Giving me the time and space. I just needed a minute,” I confessed.
“You okay?”
Cole’s voice wavered and I saw how worried he was. How it was even possible for this man to mean so much to me in such a short time, I’d never know, but I wasn’t about to question it. Cole was the best man I’d ever met. He wore his heart on his sleeve, he was kind, compassionate, understanding, and even when he didn’t agree he gave me the space to figure it out for myself.
“I am now,” I assured him, resting my head on his shoulder.
For a few moments, we sat together in silence. I knew Cole had questions, if I was him I would, but I appreciated him letting me talk about it when I was ready.
From somewhere overhead a bird swooped down, landing on the creek with a flutter.
“I’m not going back,” I declared, sitting up, needing to gauge his reaction.
“Okay.”
“Ben offered me my job back. A different job, but I told him I’m not interested. I don’t want to go back. I don’t want that life,” I explained.
“Okay.”
“I’m not the same person I was when I came to Wattle Creek. I don’t know how, but I just feel different here. Almost like for the first time I can take off my mask, stop running, and just breathe. Just be who I am and people will accept me. Flaws and all.”
“Of course they will, Grace. People love you,” Cole assured, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and hugging me against him.
When he pressed his lips to my temple my insides squirmed. I knew I didn’t want to go back to the chaotic life the city offered, and I definitely wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Cole, but it wasn’t enough. I knew it wasn’t. I wanted more.
Cole mumbled something I didn’t quite catch.
“Pardon?”
“Nothing,” he murmured, unwinding himself from around me.
“No, Cole. Not nothing. You said something and I want to know what it was,” I told him.
Cole stood and walked to the edge of the creek. The man had an ass you could bounce quarters off.
“Doesn't matter,” he brushed off again.
Nope. This wasn’t about to happen. If we had any chance of turning whatever this was into something more, we had to be honest about it.
I walked over to him and stepped in front. With my hands on his hips, I gazed up at him. My heart already knew what my head wasn’t ready to admit. Cole was it for me. He was fun, funny, hot, and he got me. He didn’t judge and let me figure things out without pushing. But it was more than that. It was the way he looked at me. The man held my heart in the palm of his hand and for the first time in a long time, I felt like I’d found a safe pair of hands to hold it.
“Talk to me. What’s got you thinking so hard?” I pushed.
“You.” He shrugged, rubbing his hands up and down my arms.
I took a breath. “What’d I do?”
“Grace Louise Hamilton …”
“Uh oh. You full named me. This must be bad,” I joked, but Cole wasn’t laughing.
“You upended my life. I was content with the way things were, then you tripped into my life in your denim cutoffs and that sweet smile and changed everything,” Cole started, and part of me felt like I should apologize.
“Now I’m raising a poddy calf called Daisy and building a chicken coop. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I look forward to coming home each night knowing you’re there. I get excited about sitting on my porch each evening talking toyou about your day. Grace, you changed my everything,” Cole admitted, pulling me in for a hug and crushing me against him.
