Where Would I Be Without You - By CJ Hawk Page 0,109

shattered in a heartbeat as I opened that office door to see him and his secretary's vertical tango. That thought made me realize that the last thing I needed was a man. I needed hope, myself Hope, to pull up from the muck and the mess and move on. I planned to do this without a man.

Nope. I did not need a man to rescue me, like my mother didn’t need a man to help with her life. I knew there were times my mother was lonely and longed for male companionship. However, she did an incredible job raising me. We did everything together and this not telling her what happened was killing me. The quicker I got my act together, the prouder she would be of me. Besides, I was young and had plenty of time for men and serious dating later. My first and only objective was getting over the pain about Hugh and my father while figuring out my next step in my career.

By the time, I turned to the produce, I saw Colton again and smiled. I looked down and away. He was sexy as hell, and each time I saw him; I felt more attracted and vulnerable by the minute. I quickly grabbed two apples and a small bag of carrots and worked my way to the checkout lanes. With two ahead and one woman behind, I pulled out my credit card and damned myself. In my rush, I grabbed my corporate card. At this moment, I hoped like hell it would work and that for once, human resources was not on the ball and had already cancelled it.

Then as my groceries rung up and a total appeared on the register, I handed over my card and held my breath. Just as I had not hoped for, it was declined. A bead of perspiration felt itself upon my upper lip, and I bit into my lower lip. I let out a breath of air to explain, but before I could offer to jog back and grab the right card, a large tanned hand held out a platinum card in front of me and spoke in that all too solid voice that attracted me to him.

“I got it Sam. Miss Hope here must have grabbed an old credit card. Miss Hope is a good friend of Julies and will be staying at Julies home while she works on a book she is writing.” His voice and demeanor, just now made up for the foolish way he acted last night. I couldn't help but feel saved by him like a hero. I didn't want that. I didn't want that at all. Somehow, though, I was very grateful and realized at a time like now, a helping hand from a friend wasn't such a bad thing after all. My thoughts weren't thinking friend; they were thinking sultry again. I could do nothing to stop them but stand there and smile.

I let out a whoosh of air, and I could have reached up and kissed the man, but then I was sure I wouldn’t have stopped at a peck. He was setting the town gossip for women around me with a base story of why I moved to Hope Springs Falls. So maybe, a little help from a man didn’t make me weak, maybe it just made me smart.

I waited outside for Colton to pay for his groceries and wanted to thank him. The man had a way with the local women, and even the cashier Sam seemed to respect him as if he was the local mayor. He had been in there yakking it up for twenty minutes, and I could have jogged to the rental by now but wanted to thank him and repay him. Maybe I did just want to spend a few more minutes in his presence. Testing myself as to what it was about him that made things stir up my insides. Questioning my abilities to do things on my own and the longing I had for those strong arms to hold me. Perhaps washing away all the mess, I just went through. Maybe, just maybe, a rebound man who lasted six months could be written into my plan.

Colton strolled out of the store like a man who just won his first bull ride. His smile was a mile wide, and his eyes held a mischievous look to them. The blues of his eyes shown just under the brim of the straw cowboy hat