“Sarah Grant is coming home.”
Chase McCord felt as if he’d just been punched in the gut. “What?”
The old-timer sitting on the next bar stool chuckled. “Thought you might be interested to hear that, boy.”
Thirty was hardly a boy. Chase guessed it seemed that way if you were seventy.
Sarah Grant. The name conjured up long dark hair, large brown eyes and the sweetest mouth he’d never kissed. And a curvy, lush figure that made him hard - every time. Her image had flashed into his mind over the years at inconvenient times - even on the occasional date. It had gotten so bad that he didn’t bother to date any more. What was the point when the only woman he wanted was Sarah?
“Why is she coming back?”
“Lost her job in the city and got one here teaching school.”
Chase let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. There was no man involved. If she’d come home to get married, he was sure his neighbor on the next barstool would know about it. He was done waiting for her. He was done fantasizing about her.
It was time to claim her.
###
Sarah sat down in the booth and glanced around the diner. It looked exactly the same. Dark vinyl flooring, blue walls, leatherette booths and Formica tables. A thirty year old country song played softly in the background while customers ordered at the counter and then found a table. It was hard to believe she’d been away for six years and nothing had changed in Coldwater Springs.
At eighteen, she had left home and gone to college in Laramie, two hundred miles away. She’d always wanted to be a teacher, and once she’d graduated college, she’d found a job teaching elementary school there. She thought it might have been easier that way.
It wasn’t.
Now, with the economic downturn, she’d lost her job and considered herself lucky to get one back here in her hometown.
There was only one problem. Chase McCord.
She’d had a crush on him forever, but she didn’t think he’d ever noticed her at all. That was one of the reasons she’d decided to go to college so far away. She didn’t want to spend any more time hopelessly mooning over him. She had to get on with her life.
Although…she often wondered why he had never noticed her. Was it because he was six years older than her, so he thought of her as just a kid? Or was it because of her curves? She knew a lot of guys preferred thin women and she’d often wondered if Chase was one of them.
But she would never forget the time he’d just won the bull riding event at the local rodeo. As he received his prize, their eyes had met. He'd made a step toward her and for a second she'd thought he would come over to her. But then he’d become surrounded by rodeo groupies and the moment had been lost. Two days later, she had left for college.
However hard she had tried over the years, she just couldn’t forget him.
She’d dated in college - she’d even had a serious boyfriend, but it had fizzled out once they’d graduated and gone their separate ways. Peter had been great for her ego, though. At least one guy liked her curvy figure.
And now she had returned home to teach elementary school. She had moved in with her parents temporarily - heck, it wasn’t as if she had a wild sex life and needed privacy - while she settled into her new job and found a place to rent.
“Here you go, hon.”
Sarah glanced up as the waitress set down her coffee and slice of cherry pie. “Thanks, Betty.” She smiled at the woman who had worked at the diner for as long as she could remember. Apart from a few more gray strands in her hair, the matronly waitress looked just the same.
“You enjoy it, hon. It’s good to see you back in town.”
“It’s good to be back.” She realized she meant it. She’d missed her family while she’d been away, only coming home at Christmas and on the occasional holiday weekend. Now she was home for good, and she was going to enjoy every single minute of it. Except for…
Chase McCord.
She was not going to think about him while eating cherry pie. No way. She already spent too much time thinking about him, dreaming about him, as it was.
Sarah dug into the cherry pie, savoring the first mouthful. Nobody made cherry pie like Betty. She closed her eyes, the sweet tartness of the cherries hitting her taste buds in an explosion of flavor. If she came here to eat cherry pie every day for a month, it would be worth putting on a few extra pounds. She sighed. It just wasn’t fair that some girls could eat whatever they wanted and stay as slim as a reed, while she had to watch every mouthful. Although she had come to accept her curves for the most part, too many treats meant the weight crept on.
Halfway through her slice of pie, the bell jingled over the diner door. Sarah looked up and her fork froze on its way to her mouth. A tall, dark haired man strode into the diner.