Worth The Chance (Blue Falls #1) Read online

  “Look, I know you’re busy but the council is pushing for this being that the building is right on Main Street. Summer is coming and they want it done sooner rather than later. Construction is unattractive and when tourists see things that are unattractive, they don’t want to spend money. So please, just talk with her, find out exactly what she wants and pull some kind of realistic time frame out of your ass and go from there. It’s a space for kids, kids are small so it can’t be that big.”

  “Fine, but you owe me.”

  “Um, what do you call this?” She holds up the pan of mildly burnt scrambled eggs.

  “Something I could have done myself.” I replied.

  “Pfffft, alright but whatever you want is going to have to wait. I’m a very busy woman with important shit to do.”

  We ate our breakfast and caught up on the last week. There may have been more than a couple years between us but Kate and I had always been close. Our Sunday morning routine had been in place ever since I’d first moved out of our parent’s house. She’d bring groceries, knowing I was too busy to do it myself, make a hardly edible breakfast and provide me with loud, curse filled conversation for at least two hours. Nothing deterred Kate, not even the one Sunday when I’d had overnight company. She’d taken one look at the woman following me into the kitchen and without missing a beat asked her if she preferred cash or cheque. She then continued on making her lumpy pancakes as if the woman hadn’t stormed out of the house red faced, calling Kate a long list of less than flattering names. That was the last time I’d brought a woman back here. From then on out, we took it to her place. It wasn’t as if I’d had a long line of women filtering in and out but I was no stranger to a one night stand and I had no problem indulging with a willing woman. I’d never lied and I never made promises I wasn’t prepared to keep. I had yet to meet someone who gave me the desire to settle down permanently, so it was casual hook ups for the time being and it suited me just fine.

  Kate left in her usual fashion, abruptly and with a full sink of dirty dishes left behind. I finished my coffee and sorted through the week’s mail while checking my messages. I was expecting a call back from my mechanic but was surprised by a shy feminine voice instead.

  “Hello, my name is Lily Jensen, I run the library in town. I got your number from Kate and I would like to speak to you about an addition I’d like to have built. If you could call me back I would greatly appreciate it, thanks, have a good day!”

  I listened to the message again. I’d heard around town about the young woman that had taken Trudy’s position at the library. No one seemed to know too much about her, she hadn’t been here long and from what I heard, mostly kept to herself. Permanent locals were all well-known but the town also brought in plenty of travellers throughout the year. Some people came just to work during peak seasons and went on their way after a month or two. New faces didn’t often prompt gossip like they would have years ago. Blue Falls was small, but with the company being so busy and lots of our jobs being along the outskirts of town it wasn’t a surprise that I’d never laid eyes on Lily Jensen. I played the message once more. Her sweet sounding voice had me making plans to stop by the library this week to discuss this project in person.

  Chapter 3

  Lily

  “Miss Lily, when are you going to let me take you out on a proper date?”

  I smiled brightly at the hopeful look on Harold’s face “I don’t think Mrs. Thomas would appreciate that Harold, although you flatter me with your very lovely offer.”

  “Well you can’t blame a guy for trying, I don’t know what I would do without you here to help me with this infernal thing” he says gesturing to the computer behind him.

  When I had first started working with Trudy, I was surprised the library didn’t have any public computers. Trudy said a few people had asked in the past but she didn’t see the need so she never bothered pursuing their requests. I was beginning to think Trudy ran a pretty tight ship. I brought it up at the first town council meeting I attended and was able to get the funds to buy three which had proved to be a great decision. Not only were some of the local students coming in to take advantage of them but some of the older folks like Harold, who wanted to keep in touch with their technologically inclined grandchildren had come in several times to learn all about email and Facebook.

  “How about instead of a date, you stop by Olive’s on your way here next time and bring me one of her delicious cinnamon scones?”

  “Now that, I would be happy to do sweet girl.”

  I gave Harold a final wave and locked up behind him. I was halfway through the bin of returned books when a knock at the door startled me. Despite feeling safe most days, I couldn’t shake that bit of fear that had me convinced that any knock or bump in the night could be my past coming back for me. I glanced up towards the door to find a man standing on the other side. I cautiously made my way over and flipped the lock. As I pulled it open I released the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding and took in the sight before me. He was easily over six feet tall. My brain did a quick intake as I allowed my eyes to travel from his boot clad feet, past a broad chest and muscular arms all the way up to a pair of the bluest eyes I had ever seen. Dark, thick hair accompanied by a couple days’ worth of scruff and a curious smile looked back at me. It had been so long since I even thought about men in general that I was taken completely off guard by my reaction to the one standing in front of me. The one who was looking at me expectedly. Giving my head a shake I barely managed to squeak out a murmur.

  “Are you Miss Jensen?” the deep tone of his voice sent a shiver down my spine.

  “Um yes, I’m Lily.” I allowed his large hand to encase mine and was momentarily captivated by the warmth of his touch when recognition dawned on me.

  “I’m Cole Stone, you phoned the other day about an addition..?”

  “Oh you’re Kate’s brother, yes, please come in. I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting you to come by in person.” I barely contained a sigh as he brushed past me and I continued to ramble “Really, I know you’re probably very busy, you could have just phoned me when you had time, you didn’t have to come all the way down here and...”

  “Miss Jensen.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Its fine, I was in town anyways and I had the time to come by, so I did.”

  “Lily. Please call me Lily.” I needed to hear him say my name. “Why don’t I show you what I had in mind then?”

  “Lead the way. Lily.”

  Oh no.

  *

  I spent the next hour showing Cole the space I had planned on expanding and gave him a good description of what the space would be used for. Blue Falls was home to many young families and although Trudy used to run a story hour once a week, I felt that running a program like that on a daily basis would be popular and beneficial. A designated space where the kids could listen to a story and participate by asking questions would be ideal, hence the small expansion. I was nervous to share my idea with the town council but I found that the longer I was away from my old life, the more my confidence was breaking through and the less I heard that familiar voice telling me that I was nothing.

  Cole listened patiently while I used far too many words to explain my plan. Seriously, what was wrong with me? I needed to get it together before he decided I was some babbling train wreck. I didn’t see a ring but there was no way a man this good looking wasn’t married and I’m pretty sure my nervous ranting and barely contained lust was the epitome of obvious.

  “Anyways, so that’s what I had in mind, if you think it’s possible?”

  He gave me a thoughtful look before responding.

  “It’s definitely possible, I’ll need about a week to get things in order and we can pick a day to begin tearing down the one wall. Why don’t I come by later this week and we can go from there?”

  “Yes, that sounds great, I’m sorry I’ve kept you.” Again with the rambling. “Your wife is probably expecting you and I’ve
got some things to finish up anyways, I’m sure you’re hungry...”

  “Lily?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m not married.”

  After we said our goodbyes, I leaned back against the closed door and realized that I couldn’t decide what scared me more. The fact that I would be seeing more of Cole Stone in the nearby future or the fact that I was relieved he wasn’t married.

  Chapter 4

  Cole

  Nothing could have prepared me for the first time I laid eyes on Lily Jensen. It had been three days since we began building onto the library and over a week since I first met her. I couldn’t get her sweet voice and deep brown eyes out of my head. The way she blushed when I told her I wasn’t married filled me with satisfaction. Maybe she felt this connection too. That first meeting alone had told me several things about our new librarian. One being that although she was beautiful, I could tell by the way she looked down and spoke quickly and quietly that she didn’t like to draw attention to herself. Two, that when she spoke about her job and her ideas for the new children’s room, her whole face lit up and her voice became firm and sure, telling me that somewhere in there was a passionate woman despite her occasional uncertainty. And three, there was no way in hell I’d ever be able to tell that woman no. It’s true that we were beyond busy at the time but the expansion wasn’t too big and wouldn’t take as many men as I originally thought, so I’d given her a time frame and a cost to pass along to the town council. We’d only be able to work at the library on days that I could spare the men so it would take longer than usual, but it would get done. She was so pleased when I told her that I found myself wanting to do whatever it took to make her smile like that more often. I’d never been so instantly attracted to a woman before, but something about Lily had me wound tight since that first day.

  I passed the responsibilities of the hotel job off to my foreman for the day and headed to the library. I pulled in just as Lily was unlocking the front door and propping the open sign out on the front step. Casually dressed in jeans and a tight fitting shirt, I took stock of her natural beauty. She had her dark brown hair pulled up messily on top of her head and I could tell even from here that she didn’t have on a stitch of makeup. On her feet were the same red converse sneakers I noticed the first time we met. By the way I was responding to her you’d think the woman was out there in nothing but her underwear. I’d never thought casual could be so damn sexy before. She seemed lost in thought and if possible appeared even more beautiful. Of course I had a physical interest in her, based on how many cold showers I’d taken since we met but there was something more to her that I wanted to explore. I took a minute to gain control over the throbbing in my cock before I got out of the truck and made my way to the front steps.

  “Good morning Lily”

  “Oh! Cole, you scared me. I’m sorry, I didn’t even hear you pull up.”

  She flashed me a bright smile complete with matching dimples on either side that damn near killed me. Not being able to stop myself, I tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

  “You really need to stop doing that.”

  “Oh? Doing what?” she whispered.

  “Saying you’re sorry.”

  “I’m sor –“ she laughed quietly. “I suppose you’re right, old habits die hard I guess.”

  There was a sadness in her eyes as she said it that made me want to press but it was gone as quickly as it came. She let me in and made her way to her desk. The sway of her hips had me wondering how her curves would feel against me. Of course that led to a whole other train of thought like what would it take to make her scream my name and would those brown eyes darken with need if I touched her just right. A slight cough brought me out of my mental porn and I found her looking over at me gesturing to the coffee pot in her hand.

  “Sure, black thanks.” I watched as she added sugar to hers and enough milk to almost completely drown out the coffee altogether.

  “I think adding that much milk to a cup of coffee no longer makes it coffee.” I said with a smirk.

  “Well it’s how I like it, and if it offends you so much then perhaps you should take your coffee outside.” She snapped back. I was momentarily stunned by her response when I realized she was flushed with embarrassment.

  “Easy Lily, I didn’t mean anything by it.”

  “No, I’m sorry, I know that. I… didn’t get enough sleep last night, I should really hide from civilization today.”

  “Oh I think civilization needs you today, but I’ll get out of your way and head out back. Have a nice day Lily.”

  “Thanks, you too.” I was just about out the door when she spoke again, so quietly that I almost didn’t hear.

  “I’m sorry Cole.” she said.

  *

  I didn’t see Lily for the rest of the day but our exchange this morning weighed heavy on my mind. I knew there was more to her then she let on. I also knew that I’d be taking cold showers and jerking off like a teenager every night if I didn’t release some of this tension. Something told me that Lily wasn’t the one night stand type and oddly enough, I didn’t mind. I’d never had the urge to get to know a woman on a level that wasn’t purely physical and although I was bordering on desperate to know Lily physically, I wanted to spend time with her as well and figure out if this connection between us was the real deal.

  My crew was packing up and heading home as I made my way back inside. I figured I’d find Lily at her desk getting ready to close for the day. I rounded the corner and was greeted by a much more pleasant sight. A shapely backside bent over a large box and the top of a bright pink thong peeking out of a pair of snug jeans had my mouth going dry. This woman had no idea what she was doing to me. “Let me take you to dinner tonight.” The words were out of my mouth before I even realized it.

  She stood up slowly and turned to face me. “Oh, um, well that’s really nice of you to offer but you don’t have to.”

  “I know I don’t have to, I want to.”

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “Why not Lily?”

  She shifted her weight and looked at me, her brown eyes filled with uncertainty. “Thank you Cole, really, but I’m going to have to pass for tonight.”

  “You can pass for tonight but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop asking. Have a good night Lily, lock up behind me.”

  I turned and left while accepting the fact that I would be enduring yet another cold shower that night and a release from my own hand all the while thinking of a woman in a sexy pink thong.

  Chapter 5

  Lily

  Nine days. Nine invitations including dinner, coffee, a high school football game and a Sunday morning hike. Cole Stone was nothing if not persistent. I found my resolve beginning to crumble, and was surprised with myself that his stubbornness wasn’t the least bit frightening. It was clear that Cole was a man who was used to hearing the word “yes” but he came by it honestly. His invitation to spend time together outside of the library was borderline demanding yet it didn’t fill me with the dread I had grown accustomed to in the past. The truth was, I’d always found it to be a turn on when a man knew what he wanted and wasn’t the least bit hesitant to make it known. It was actually a trait in Kevin that had first caught my eye. It was hard not to compare the two men. I knew logically, that just because they might share a similar trait, it didn’t mean they were the same and I wanted so badly to explore these feelings of mine and embrace the possibility of it all. I’d come to look forward to the days that Cole would stop in. We’d quietly share a cup of coffee, make small talk, he’d ask me out and I’d come up with some lame excuse before he’d make his way out to the rest of his crew. He occupied my thoughts every night when I laid in bed alone, tossing and turning, wishing I could settle my never ending thoughts. He’d been the sole star of several very graphic dreams that ended with me waking up needy and unfulfilled. I wasn’t a virgin, but I’d only been with two other men besides Kevin and I had never
felt this kind of need for someone before. I was beginning to think that it was time for me to find the woman I was before I became a used up version of myself. I’d attended a few group meetings for victims of domestic violence in the last place I had briefly lived. I knew that I would likely carry the scars from my past for many years to come but I had also learned that moving on and accepting that my life was different now was important. I couldn’t live in fear for the rest of my life. I wanted to be different. I wanted to feel a man’s, specifically Cole’s, hands on me and not be afraid. I wanted to feel pleasure again and most of all I wanted to feel wanted. I wondered if Cole would be stopping in today and if he really meant what he said when he told me he wouldn’t stop asking.

  *

  The morning dragged on. I rearranged some of the displays, emptied the return bin and was mindlessly washing the front windows when I realized it was already noon and Cole had yet to make an appearance. Maybe he was already out back and figured he was wasting his time with me. The thought made my stomach churn. I knew that if I really wanted to change the direction of my life that it was up to me to take a step. I wasn’t sure if I could muster the courage to phone him, so I decided a text would be the way to go. Baby steps. At least this way if he turns me down I can endure the embarrassment without having to actually speak. My hands shook slightly.

  Me: Cole, its Lily.

  Cole: Hey Lily, is everything alright? I’m at the hotel today but I can stop by if you need something.

  I decided right to the point was the way to go.

  Me: Ask me again Cole.

  I waited for what I swear was the longest five minutes of my life until my phone chimed his response.