I thought I remembered how beautiful she is, but I was wrong. Her eyes have lost a little of the luster I remember, and her face is blotchy—probably because of me. But she’s still the prettiest woman I’ve ever seen, and all I want to do is hug the hell out of her.

To tell her it will be all right.

To tell her the truth.

And to tell her that I love her.

“What are you doing here?” she asks as soon as she’s able to talk again.

I shift from foot to foot. “Did Kirk call you?”

“Yeah, but what’s that . . . have to do . . . oh shit.” Her eyes go wide. “Don’t tell me . . .”

I walk toward her but stop a few feet away. It’s far enough that I can’t quite reach out and touch her—for the good of both of us.

“We have a lot to talk about,” I say gently.

“Do we?”

Her jaw sets. But the truth is buried in her eyes. She’s hanging on by a thread. She wants to run into my arms as badly as I need her to. But the pride and dignity that I love about her so much keep her from it—and I respect that. Tremendously.

Make me work for it, Palmer.

“I have a lot of things to tell you, but I want to go at your pace,” I say.

“Maybe this isn’t the right time for me. I’m at work.”

“And I cleared that with your boss.”

Her eyes widen. “So you are the buyer? You bought Skoolie’s?” She gasps. “Why would you do that, Cole? Why?”

I reach for her hand, but she pulls it away.

“You’re the one that said that if this place fell, it would hurt the community,” I say.

“I did, but that’s a bullshit answer.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “Is this some kind of game for you?”

Hardly, my love.

“Why, Cole?” she asks again.

I take a deep breath. “I know you have no clue, but I have a lot of money. Like, a mind-numbing amount of money, and it bothers me to some degree that I’m ridiculously wealthy from playing baseball. It seems wrong, and I have guilt about it. So I’ve been thinking I need to do something positive with it. I’ll never spend it all anyway.”

She blinks once. Twice. Three times.

“Skoolie’s wasn’t cheap, but it’s a hell of an investment—not just for me and my plans, but for the town of Bloomfield that I’ve come to really appreciate.”

“But how are you going to run Skoolie’s from San Diego?”

“I’m not.”

Emotions crash together in her eyes like a hurricane threatening the coast. It’s a push and pull that’s fun to watch but must be terrible to endure.