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Chapter One

Gage McGraw took a pull fro bottle down on the bar He spun the brown glass on the counter and watched the alcohol swish inside

Christ, he was nervous So nervous he was fucking fidgeting

He was a New Yorker, so the small-town bar he was in shouldn’t have affected him He’d been in Beaufort, North Carolina a handful of tie, but the area was built on a wide variety of outdoor activities Between the ocean, forest, and vast terrain, tourists flocked to this haven of adventure yearly Which, unfortunately, ot lost

That here he came in as a lead member of the Search & Rescue team He traveled the country a lot, usually on missions to track, find, and recover It hat he did best; what he loved After getting shrapnel in the leg and being honorably discharged froo, it was also the only job he could do that allowed hiht him

The local S&R tea into the ot lost, but at least this year the boot cae had arrived, there hadn’t been any immediate S&Rs to perfor the next feeeks training new S&R recruits

Which here tonight’s waiting game at the bar came in A little free ti he’d been obsessing over since an S&R last month had nearly cost him his life

He’d been out searching for a lost climber in thebroken, the person barely hanging on So Gage had put on his harness, climbed down the rocky wall, told the cliht there—

And the harness that’d been holding hi hopelessly into the rock as he plummeted down the side of the da to stop his fall but the hard ground far below

It was stupid, du above him

It’d hit him then—the reality of hisinjured or dying went hand in hand with rescuing people froerous situations But this had been more He didn’t have anyone permanent in his life—ould his team have told if he hadn’t walked away? Who would care? He didn’t have a fairlfriend If he’d died, no one would have missed him

He was here to change that

He’d come back into town and to this bar with a plan that would take longer than a weekend to carry out Dah He could use a little stress relief

Small town or not, Honey’s was always busy The restaurant and bar here the whole town see out There was a sense of co around the pool tables, fried food, and good ine what it’d be like to set down some roots here Have a place and a person to come home to

“Vodka cranberry please,” a sultry voice said to the bartender Gage glanced to his left, where a tall blonde shimmied her way in and placed her hands on the counter

The woliers on the bar and leaned forward, waiting to be served

She was lithe and lean, with curves in all the right places Her short denim skirt barely covered her ass Her tank top was simple and black The thin straps would take little er to break Two seconds was all he’d need to have those high, round breasts bared for his mouth—

“Never seen a woman before, city boy?” she asked

Shit—he was staring Gage hid his flush with a smile and recovered quickly

“I’ve seen plenty of worabbed his beer and faced her “Which is why I knohen to appreciate an exceptionally fine one”