Chapter One
“Perfect, a flat tire. No, really, this is just what I needed, Universe, a show of just how stupid this entire idea was.” Karlie kicked the quickly deflating tire, just for good measure. Her luck had gone completely downhill since her moronic decision to travel home at the last minute for her little sister’s wedding. What kind of person tormented themself by attending the wedding of the only man that she ever loved, and her little sister?
Karlie opened the trunk to her aging Civic and groaned. All her crap needed to be moved to get to the spare tire. “Please be there, please be there,” she chanted, hoping that the spare wasn’t taken out by her loser ex when he borrowed her car last month and forgot to return it for a week. She was done with men. Done! This time, she meant it. She seemed to only attract losers since Jake had dumped her for her sister. Her five years younger, prettier, nicer, and skinnier sister. She’d given Jake seven years of her life. She loved him, and she knew that one day she would be Mrs. Jake Ashbrook, but now that name would be Jenna’s.
Jake had told her that he was bored, that he and Jenna hadn’t meant to fall into bed together. That sex with her sister was an accident, but life-changing in a way that he couldn’t ignore. Karlie was sure it had nothing to do with Jenna’s new boob job that transformed her from looking like a 12-year-old boy into a full D-cupped Jessica Rabbit. Yeah, her sister’s new boobs were life-changing all right. Her sister’s life had changed for the better, while her life had gone down the toilet.
After she found them in bed together, Karlie knew she couldn’t stay in Alabama. She had to leave their little town and her family and friends and just go. She needed to be somewhere that no one knew of her heartbreak. No one pitied her for her sister’s betrayal or her scummy ex’s decisions. She had moved on, and the last eight months had been hard. She had to learn not to rely on her family. She didn’t call home unless she absolutely had to check in, usually every other week, just to keep her parents happy. Her call home last night had led to her hastily packing her suitcase and gassing up her prehistoric car to drive from Georgia to Alabama. Her mom could persuade a saint to confess to sin. Her latest guilt-laden rant about how her only sister was getting married and that Karlie needed to grow up and act like a 25-year-old instead of a five-year-old had just about sent her over the edge.
“She’s getting married to my ex-boyfriend, Mother,” Karlie hissed when her mom accused her of not having a heart. “That would make Jenna the heartless one! They slept with each other while Jake and I were still together.” Karlie knew that she was shouting at a wall. Her mom had already made up her mind that Jenna deserved to be married to Jake.
“She’s pregnant,” her mom confessed. Karlie hung up the phone and cried to sleep that night. The next morning, she was up by6 a.m., showered and packed with her car keys in hand, ready to leave. She sat for hours in her car arguing out loud with herself about why she shouldn’t go. In the end, she was determined to be the bigger person about the whole situation. And it didn’t help that her mom had made her feel guilty. Jenna was her only sister, and she was going to have a baby, a niece or nephew. Karlie wanted to be part of that baby’s life. Eight months would be long enough for her to hide in Atlanta. She needed to go home to Madison, even if it was just for a weekend, and face her family. That included Jenna and Jake. She could deal with the pity in people’s stares and whispers behind her back for three days, and then she could just jump back into her car and head back to her new life in Atlanta. As a planner, this seemed like a good one to her.
“Thank God,” she squealed as she twirled around with the tire iron in hand. “My asshole ex didn’t take the spare.” But the two hundred dollars in cash that she kept hidden with the spare was nowhere to be seen. Troy, her ex-boyfriend from Georgia, could have the cash and just stay the hell away from her. She was done with him and all other men. She grabbed the spare and lifted it out of the car, which was no small feat. Guess her eight-month absence from working out had taken its toll. But what was the point? If a guy was going to look past her over a few extra pounds, then he wasn’t her guy. No guy was her guy, and who needed one anyway?
Well, maybe a guy would be helpful at this particular moment, but luckily, her father had made sure that he taught his daughters to be independent. Tire Changing 101 was one of her father’s first Saturday classes he’d taught them in his “you don’t need a man,” school of life.
Blowing out a hot breath, she tried to remember what to do first. She needed to get her tire changed before the sun went down. It was starting to get a little chilly already. May was lovely in Alabama with warm days and cooler nights. Her shorts and T-shirt would do for now, but in a few hours, she would need her sweatshirt again. “Okay, now I need the jack. Son of a Bitch!” No jack. “That fucktard took my jack.”
She threw down the tire iron, swearing and stomping her feet on the asphalt. The tire iron hit the road and bounced back, hitting Karlie on her shin. She exploded with curses, hopping around, holding her throbbing shin as a black Ford pickup pulled up behind her car. Her luck really couldn’t be this bad.
Drew Jackson jumped down from the driver’s seat with a shit-eating grin on his face. Yes, her luck really could be this bad. She wanted to hide, run, get back into her car, and drive straight back to Georgia. She picked up the assailing tire iron and looked straight into those beautiful green eyes of his—big mistake. His smile grew even bigger and more beautiful—huge mistake. She looked down at her hand that was holding the tire iron, realizing that she looked like a crazy person standing on the side of the road, cursing, and hopping around on one foot.
“Um, hi,” she squeaked.
“Hi.” His voice was just as sexy as his eyes, all gravelly and deep. He just made her want to melt into a puddle, right there on the road. “Need some help?” he asked, moving a little closer to her.
The sun was directly behind him, and she had to shield her eyes with her free hand to inspect his face. She’d forgotten how tall he was. At 5’5," she felt like nothing standing next to his 6’2” frame. She’d also forgotten how broad his shoulders were and how good he could make an old black T-shirt and a pair of Levi’s look.She glanced down at the road again, trying to ignore her bruised shin.
“Help?” she said. “Why would I need help?”
He reached out and touched her hand that held the tire iron. “To, um, change a tire maybe?”
“Oh yeah, no,” she said, trying to get free of his grip, “I can change a tire on my own, thanks.” She took a step back because God help her, if he touched her again, she might lose the ability to speak at all. He was smiling again and took a step closer to her, eliminating the comfortable distance she thought she’d given herself.
“Changing your tire might be a little easier with a jack, don’t ya think? I don’t see one around. Why don’t you let me give you a hand, and then we can both head to your sister’s rehearsal dinner and get there before it’s over.”
“How’d you know about my sister’s rehearsal dinner?” Karlie squinted back up at him, trying to decide if she would believe what he would say, even before he said it. Yeah—she had trust issues, but anyone in her shoes would. “I mean, how did you know that I would be heading to the rehearsal dinner?” Geeze, she sounded as if she was accusing him of something instead of asking a question.
“Easy,” he said as he brushed a lock of her short blond hair behind her ear.
Her knees buckled until she got a hold of herself and locked them. He must have noticed because his arms were around her waist so fast that she dropped the tire iron again, this time on his foot. He didn’t even flinch. “Steel-toe boots,” he whispered, staring at her mouth. She could feel the heat in his stare, and ifshe wasn’t mistaken, his desire. But that was impossible, right?
“What?” She tried to back out of his grip. Unfortunately, there was nowhere to go. She retreated into her car’s back bumper and smacked her head on the open trunk lid. “Fuck.”
“Language,” he teased.
“Sorry, it’s just not my day. I should have stayed home like I planned. Now I’m here, on the side of the road with a flat tire, and in the arms of a man I didn’t think even knew my damn name eight months ago.”
He tightened his hold around her middle. “Oh, honey, I knew your name,” he drawled. “You like to cuss more than any woman I’ve known.”
“Well, you don’t know me, now do you, Drew?” She was done standing on the side of the road. Done being held by this man who smelled like heaven and was close enough to kiss. Her eyes fixed on his mouth, and he seemed to notice. His body stiffened.
“You shouldn’t look at me like that,” he rasped.
“Like how?” Karlie asked.
“Like you want me to kiss you. Because right now, darlin,' I want to do just that.”
