Squeezing my eyes shut, I rolled over onto my side and forthe first time in years, I cried myself to sleep.
The following morning, I stood directly in front ofmy coffee maker, bleary-eyed and impatient as I waited for pure happiness tostop percolating.All I’d managed to do so far was scoop up my hair and toss itup in a messy twist, but already, shorter strands were either slipping free orsticking out in every direction.
In other words, I looked like a hot mess, but I reallydidn’t care as I poured the steaming coffee into a cup halfway full of sugar,and I still stood there, taking my first drink, my second, and my third as thecool tile seeped through my bare feet.
I’d overslept.
Well, sleeping past eight a.m.nowadays was sleeping in.Itwas close to nine before I dragged myself out of bed.It wasn’t that big of adeal.The only thing I had planned later in the day was to meet up with JillianLima for dinner.
Jillian and I met each other at a book signing in the city.She was almost ten years younger than me, but the age difference had quicklyevaporated.Jillian was a hard cookie to crack.She was almost debilitatingshy, but love of books crosses all barriers.We bonded over our favoriteauthors and themes, and once she discovered what I did for a living, shestarted to open up.
For the last year, we met every Saturday night to discussbooks over dinner.Sometimes we’d grab a movie or head to the bookstore, and Iwas going to miss her.In the spring, she would be transferring to a college inWest Virginia.I still didn’t know why she was doing that.That was a littlenugget of info I couldn’t wiggle out of her.
I’d just topped off my cup of coffee when the doorbell rang,surprising me.I wasn’t expecting anyone.Leaving the cup on the counter, Ipadded across the floor and peered out the front window, but since there werealways cars I didn’t recognize parked out front, that made no difference.Rolling my eyes, I reached for the door handle, cursing the fact that therewasn’t a peephole in the door.
My jaw unhinged on a sharp inhale, and the ability to formcomprehensive thoughts fled.
Colton Anders, in all his blue-eyed babe glory, stood on mystoop.“Good morning, Abby.”
Chapter 4
I was beyond responding.
He stood there with a medium-size pink box in one hand andthe other shoved in the pocket of his trousers.The five-o’clock shadow washeavier, giving him a rough edge that my sleep-fogged mind found incrediblysexy.
Okay.I would find that sexy anytime.
Any.Time.
He was dressed as he was the night before, and I had thedistinct impression he hadn’t been to bed yet, which really wasn’t fair,because how could he lookthisgood without sleeping?
One side of his lips curled up, revealing the left-sideddimple.“Can I…come in?I brought crepes with me.”
I blinked.
“You like crepes, right?You have to like them,” he added,grinning.“Everyone loves crepes and these are the shit.They are rolled incinnamon and brown sugar.”
“I…I thoroughly enjoy them.”My ass also thoroughly enjoyedthem.Moving back, I stepped aside.“How do you know where I live?”
Colton stepped in,his chin dipped down.I wasn’t a small lady, coming in at five foot eight, butstanding next to him, I felt small, delicate even, and that was an odd feeling.“It was on your statement.I probably should’ve called first, but I was on myway home from the station and your house was on the way.So was the bakery.”
I didn’t know what to say as I closed the door behind him,but my heart was pounding in my chest and my stomach was wiggling in a weirdway, sort of like the way I’d seen described a thousand times.Butterflies.Butmore powerful.Like large birds of prey or pterodactyls.“You live nearby?”
His grin spread.“I live over on Plymouth Road.”
That was nowhere near my house.The butterflies increased.“Oh.In the apartments over there?”
He nodded.“Did I wake you?”
“No.I…” That was about when I realized that I was wearingnothing but a pair of sleep shorts and an old shirt that pretty much hidnothing.I didn’t even need to look down to know that my nipples were mostlikely noticeable.And my thighs?Oh, dear God.
My hair.
“I smell coffee though,” he said, glancing toward thekitchen.“So I’m guessing not?”
He spoke as if he hadn’t noticed I had some major headlightsand chub rub going on, but then again, why would someone like Colton evennotice that in the first place?My attention flipped to the stairway.A hugepart of me wanted to rush upstairs and throw a Snuggie on.Or at least a bra.
I really needed to put a bra on.
