It was nearing the end of September and Julian had been working at the supply store for a full four weeks. The past two had been absolute torture.

  Considering that Julian worked with Marit, he knew he had numerous chances to run into her but she avoided him as much as possible. Part of him wanted to hunt her down and plead with her to forgive him, but he knew he had to be patient. It was incredibly difficult for him. Damn near impossible.

  “Hey.” A voice called out. When Julian turned he caught sight of Andrea in the doorway of the shop office.

  “Hey.” He greeted in return. Going back to his papers he continued to fill them out so the woman who had come to retrieve them was able to take them to the store for filing. Marit had begun to send someone to collect the papers so that he wouldn’t have cause to come in and see her.

  She was smart. Maddening, but smart.

  “Coming to darts tonight? The boys have been bragging about it that they are finally going to win.” Andrea propped herself up on the desk right beside Julian, watching him work.

  Dressed in her tight jeans and sneakers, the girl could still give a man a heart attack. Julian merely shook his head and sat back. “Should I?”

  The two shared a long look, both of them knowing what he was really asking. Andrea nodded. “Yeah. Marit’s ready to crack. She misses you.”

  “Does she?” He tried to make it sound nonchalant but there was a note of hope in his voice. It had been a long time since he had gotten excited over a woman.

  Andrea nodded. “Yep.”

  “Then I’ll be there.” Julian slashed his name over the last of the papers and handed them over to Andrea.

  She stood to leave but stopped and turned around. “Keep it a little toned down big boy. You don’t want to put her in shock or anything. Simple jeans and shirt. No cologne, but you know…” She motioned to her face with a slight sneer, “clean it up a bit.”

  If Julian wouldn’t have been so clueless on how to go about getting under Marit’s paranoid radar he would’ve told Andrea he knew how to get a woman. But as it was he had freaked this one out, and he could use the help. “Got it.”

  Flashing a parting smile, Andrea left and an hour later Julian was at home preparing to go out and hopefully put the wheels in motion for courting Marit properly. Checking himself over in the bathroom mirror, he wiped down his muscular torso and double checked the length of his beard.

  It was just right. Just enough to be noticed, but not too long to fill in the skin of his face. Just for good measure he put on a bit of moisturizer to soften the whiskers just in case he was able to sweet talk Marit into that dance she had promised him. Slipping a dark blue shirt over his head and running a quick brush through his hair, he left it ungelled and a little wild.

  Not too much, he reminded himself before stepping out of the bathroom and heading to the front door. Snatching up his keys he shut off the inside lights and flicked on the porch light. Then he locked up and headed to his truck to make his way to the bar. He was a little early seeing as how it was 6:30 and the game didn’t start until eight.

  Andrea had said they always showed up early to eat, so he was hoping to be there before them, almost making it impossible for Marit to ignore him.

  He just hoped it would work. But he’d find out soon enough.

  **

  She wasn’t a fool, but part of her had been hoping that she would never have to face Julian after her stupid fight with him. She knew she had been wrong, no.

  She had been terrified.

  Terrified because here she had a man standing up for her and it frightened her to think what that meant. The looks, the teasing, the easy touches and laughter, all of it. She had analyzed all of it over the course of two weeks and when she thought about it logically, she had to assume that Julian liked her.

  When she looked at it with her crazy mind, it was pretty hard to deduce otherwise that he liked her. Marit didn’t like it. Not one bit.

  She was a thirty year old woman with a fairly healthy life if one considered living with their mother and being super co-dependent on their cousins' health. Ok, so to any normal rational person not living in Howard county she looked like a freak, but for their little part of the world it was pretty normal. All of her cousins who weren’t married still lived at home. And the ones who were married now had a small parcel of land their parents had given them and built their houses.

  Trinity lived in town, but her parents had bought her one of the old antique houses that originated from the establishment of the town. Her husband Lance, who was in construction had fixed it up beautifully and now it was the pride of Tanner Creek instead of the eyesore it had once been.

  Jenson had been given a small part on one of the farm lands where a house had once stood but had been destroyed by a tornado back in the 50’s. Everyone had pitched in to build him a beautiful farm house over the course of six months and now he lived happily with his wife, Deidre, who was about to give the family their first grandchild in the new year to come.

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  It was just how things worked, kids stayed at home and worked and then when they got married they moved out. She had thought about getting an apartment in town, but she loved her house and she was there more than her mom was. For her it was her house and her mother was just renting the space. She had never loved the house, and still to this day complained about it’s old house squeaks and noises. But Marit loved it and she would sooner up and die than see anyone else take her house.

  And right now all she wanted to do was drive back to that house and hole up in it and never come out again.

  “He’s here.” SHe murmured to her cousin, staring out of the passenger window at the shiny black truck that belonged to Julian. Everyone knew everyone by their vehicle, so she had learned early on which truck was his.

  Andrea watched her cousin nearly hyperventilate in the passenger seat and sighed. “Girl, you need to relax. And you know you need to apologize.”

  Looking at her cousin, Marit frowned. Yes she did need to apologize but she certainly didn’t want to acknowledge why. She wanted to stay in denial. “Andrea, a man like that does not date.”

  SMACK

  “OW!” Rearing back and holding her arm, Marit stared down the seething brunette ready to lash out at her again.

  “Say it! Just say it! I swear to god I will punch you in the face.” Andrea gritted out through her teeth. She had heard her Aunt Mabel fighting with her Daddy earlier that day about Marit and if she heard one more person say that there was something wrong with her cousin she was going to knock them out.

  Marit sighed. “Andrea.”

  “No. Don’t you Andrea me!” Turning fully in her seat as if to emphasize the point she was about to make even more, a blood red nail jutted out at Marit. “You are a catch, Marit. And so what if you aren’t a size 2.”

  “Not even a size ten.” The woman groaned, flinching when her cousin made a gesture as if to slap her.

  Andrea almost did too, but she held it back. “Who cares! Some men like a woman with a little extra. You have a beautiful shape, amazing breasts!” Andrea had always been a breast woman even if she wasn’t a lesbian, and her cousin had a great rack. All of them actually did. Hers were slightly larger than average for her size, but Marit’s were impressive.

  Not too big, not too small, they looked just right and sat up at attention with the desired cleavage look every woman aimed to show off. Unlike hers that had a few poc marks from when she hit puberty and her acne ran amok. But then she didn’t give a damn because she knew she was hot.

  She just wished Marit would see the fact that she was too, just in her own way.

  Marit blushed at her cousin's assessment of her breasts and had to smack away the hands reaching for her. “Look at those things. All perky and jiggly.” Andrea growled playfully, giving one breast a good squeeze.

  “Stop that you weirdo!” Marit finally landed a hard enough smack to get her cousin away from her, though the compliment did give her a bit of a boost.

  She was wearing a shirt she would have never picked out for herself and wasn’t even sure why she had it. It had probably been a gift.

  It was a black cold shoulder top with sleeves that went to her elbow. The fabric was loose and flowy, with a low neckline and a strip across her collarbone that drew a person’s eye down to the uncovered breasts on display. Andrea had done her hair so it was straight and sleek instead of up in its classic pony tail.

  Thankfully Andrea hadn’t changed up her look too much and let her wear her ankle cut jeans and ballet flats. She would never admit it, but she never thought she’d like to wear tighter pants, but they were comfortable and she could admit that she had decent legs.

  Growing serious, Andrea took Marit’s hand and kissed the top of it. “Look, just go in there and apologize. Start out as friends.”

  Marit nodded, completely flabbergasted with herself that she was even entertaining the notion of possibly being more with Julian. Sure she had thought about it, what woman in their right mind wouldn’t.

  Those lips… those hands! That body. Good God that man was celibacy’s worst nightmare. And there was a reason that baby blue eyes had such a reputation. He met the stereotype beautifully. Sinful, naughty eyes that promised more pleasure than a girl could possibly stand.

  He was every one of her romance novel hero’s come to life. Yet she still didn’t think he could be interested in her even when her personal preference of romance novels usually focused on a larger woman with a handsome man. Where that man showed that woman just how beautiful she really was and that in his eyes she was perfect.

  Marit knew that was just a fairy tale, and for her to ever have a shot at being with anyone she had better start thinking better of herself. “Ok.” She acknowledged both Andrea’s words and her own steeled will to get out of the car and go into the bar.

  Andrea nodded and together the two walked into the bar. The doorman stopped them both before they could get very far. Tall, dark and handsome, Owen Nowles, star of the high school football team, had graduated with Marit. That boy had a smile that was nothing but trouble.

  “Hey Andrea… looking good.” Dark and intense, his brown eyes roamed her tightly packed body, but she paid him no mind.

  “As always.” Andrea replied offhandedly, scouring the room for Julian. “There he is.” She waved and the man waved back.

  “I.D.” Owen asked, holding his hand out to Marit while simultaneously still staring at her cousin’s behind.

  Andrea turned and slapped the overgrown man upside the head. “Boy, you graduated with her. Stop staring at my ass and do your job.”

  Turning, Owen flicked his gaze over Marit and then did a double take, his patented smirk coming back out of hiding as his gaze lit up in interest. “Marit. Sorry about that. Damn you’re looking good tonight.”

  “She knows.” Andrea scoffed, grabbing her cousin’s hand and dragging her off toward the table Julian currently occupied on her own.

  While Marit followed she turned to look back at Owen who was still watching her and blushed darkly when he winked in her direction. “Did he?”

  “Hit on you? Yeah. It’s the boobs, I told you.” They stopped at the table and Andrea turned and grabbed her chest, hoisting her breasts up closer to her chin. “Perky and jiggly. Perfect for motorboating.” She teased, leaning down to do just that before Marit smacked her head and shoved her hands away.

  Looking over at Julian she blushed even more and nodded to him in greeting.

  Julian on the other hand wasn’t sure if he should be annoyed at Andrea’s handling of the woman or grateful. He had never seen Marin dolled up, and with her makeup and hair done, she looked gorgeous. The shirt didn’t hurt matters, and now all he could do was stare at her ample chest that Andrea had drawn attention to. Damnit.

  Fighting to look away and up into her hazel eyes, Julian nodded his greeting to Andrea and then turned back to Marit. “Hey Marit.” His eyes were soft as he greeted her.

  Marit instantly felt guilty for everything with the way Julian was looking at her and before she could ask him to step away so she could give him her well rehearsed speech, she blurted out, “I’m sorry.”

  Andrea’s gaze widened and looking back and forth between the two, she stepped away while saying, “I’ll go put in an order. Marit, the usual?”

  Marit nodded and felt her face heat up, almost burning her from the inside out. When Andrea was a good distance away, she finally looked up at Julian.

  Standing, Julian motioned for Marit to have a seat and only reclaimed his spot when she was settled. “It’s ok.”

  “Do you like me?” She blurted out again, this time inwardly groaning at how the calm collected her had gone into hiding. He’s going to say no…

  “Yes.” Julian responded just as bluntly as Marit had asked her question. When she turned her gaze up at him, he smirked at her pretty red cheeks.

  “As a friend?” Marit squeaked out, and Julian had the strongest urge to lean across the table and kiss her. And not in a friendly way. Usually she was so very sure of herself, but in this moment Marit seemed to fade away into the fear of what she was positive he would say.

  Eyes steady and intent, he shook his head, then stated with deafening clarity, “No.”

  Silence took up the air around them and while the woman Julian had come to ache for attempted to find a flaw with his response, in the end, it wasn’t possible. There had been no pause or waiver in his tone for her to pick apart, only certainty.

  And that was when a whole other fear sunk its claws into Marit’s unsteady resolve…

  The realization that she had Julian Hollis’ formidable attention focused solely on her.