Chapter 1

chapter

one

The man was everywhere.

There was no escaping him.

When Ellie Summers signed up for a yoga class at the local gym, he was there, lifting weights, his biceps straining against his t-shirt, sweat plastering his dark blond hair to his forehead. Every time she looked over at him, he was glancing her way. She tried to ignore it, focus on her breathing, but it was difficult with the constant feeling of his eyes on her.

When she offered to babysit a friend's seven-year-old daughter, there he was at the park, pushing his eight-year-old niece on the swing. He was so cute with both of the girls, laughing and joking, making them giggle with his funny faces and tickle attacks. Ellie's heart ached to watch him. There was something terribly endearing about a grown man who wasn't afraid to be silly with children. It stirred something inside her, a gut wrenching feeling of longing that she instantly quashed down.

When she went to the flower shop to get a bouquet to liven up her small, dated rental house, he was there buying flowers for his mom.

The man bought flowers for his mom every week.

He made it so hard to hate him.

But she did.

She hated Callum Holden.

Hated everything he stood for.

And no amount of muscle-flexing, flower-buying, child-doting charm could change that fact.

When Ellie went to the bookstore to escape into the worlds of romance novels, she found him there, perusing through detective thrillers. He even had the audacity to suggest she'd like a particular mystery series. She thanked him curtly and walked away without another word, leaving Cal standing there with a kicked-puppy expression on his handsome face.

She would not feel bad for hurting his feelings.

When she took a cooking class in the next town over to expand her culinary skills, Cal was there, too, with his younger brother, fumbling with a whisk and creating a mess of flour and egg. He apologized for his clumsiness with an easy smile, and she gritted her teeth, hating his casual charm.

She would not be charmed by him again.

He was an aggravating constant in her life, an open wound that wouldn't heal. Steam Valley, California was a small town, but come on. He had to be following her. There was no way they just kept accidentally bumping into each other.

"Maybe I should get a restraining order," she'd mused out loud after running into him yet again at the coffee shop.

Alexis just rolled her eyes and blew across the top of her steaming coffee. "I think you two should just kiss and make up already. It's been over a year."

Ellie scowled at her sister. "How can you suggest that after what he did?"

"Because if anyone holds it against him, it should be me. But I don't. He was just doing his job, Elle, and he's a good guy. I like him. More than that, I like him for you. Maybe you should give him another chance."

"No." Ellie's response was crisp, her tone final. "He chose his path, and I chose mine. They don't cross. Not anymore."

"They seem to be crossing a lot."

"Whose side are you on?"

"Yours. Always yours." Alexis held up both hands in surrender and her engagement ring sparked in the light. "But you need to at least make peace with Cal. This town is not like Chicago. You can't expect to never see him again, especially since you two have the same circle of friends. Avoiding him just isn't feasible."

"I can try."

Alexis sighed. "You're stubborn as an ox, you know that?"

But that night at the grocery store, Cal again appeared behind her in line, holding a basket filled with healthy greens and a dozen organic eggs. She wanted to hate him for that too—for his presumptuous perfection. But instead, she found herself inexplicably moved by his quiet patience as an elderly woman fumbled with her change in front of them.

Why did he have to be so... good?

And why had someone so good decided on a profession where he defended the worst of the worst?

Every day, Callum Holden wore his smile and charm as easily as his suits, heading into courtrooms to stand beside criminals and fight for their freedom. Murderers, rapists, drug dealers—he defended them all with a passion that seemed to burn brighter with each increasingly vile client.

"Everyone deserves a fair trial," he'd told her.

Everyone... including the man who had tried to kill her sister. Alexis had survived, thankfully, but that didn't change the fact that Jaxon Thorne had intended to murder her. He'd slit her throat and left her for dead, and only the quick response from her former SEAL fiancé and the men of Redwood Coast Rescue had saved her life.

And yet Cal thought that monster deserved a good defense, taking him on as a client without even a second thought for how Ellie would feel about it. Or how it would kill their budding relationship.

He'd cared more about defending a murderer than her or her sister.

And for that, she would never forgive him.

Every time Ellie saw him, she was reminded of the courtroom, of Cal standing beside Jaxon with that same easy smile, arguing for leniency for a man who made monsters look like angels.

Every time she saw him, she was reminded of the lies, the twisted truths he spun so easily, in his attempt to paint Jaxon as a victim. She could still hear his smooth voice, arguing that Jaxon had been under the influence of drugs and untreated PTSD and wasn't in his right mind when he'd committed his crimes.

Which, okay, maybe that was true, but none of it justified what the man had done to Alexis.

When she tried to explain her fury to Cal over coffee one chilly afternoon, he'd simply looked at her with those piercing blue eyes of his, the faintest hint of regret marring his handsome features.

"I'm sorry," he'd said quietly. "But if I don't defend him, who will?"

She'd stared into his eyes, stunned. The warmth she once felt toward him faded into a cold and bitter fury. She remembered leaving him there, alone at the table, his hand outstretched in a meaningless gesture of peace.

And then there were the times when he wasn't even there—the times she found herself sitting in the coffee shop across from his law firm, watching through the big glass window as he paced back and forth in his office, talking on his phone or going through case files. She hated how she would still find herself drawn to the sight of him, how a part of her ached at the sight of his troubled brow. She hated that her heart would still flutter when his eyes met hers through the glass – a split second before he looked away, quick as lightning. But most of all, she hated how she'd catch herself wishing things were different. That they had taken a different direction, that he had made a different choice.

One evening, as the sunset painted the California sky in hues of orange and purple, Ellie took her puppy for a walk in the park. Puzzle was a ball of energy, a floppy one-year-old Golden Retriever with a sunshine temperament and a sock fetish.

As Puzzle bounded through the park, Ellie watched him with a mix of affection and worry. He was prone to being a tad too friendly with strangers and a little too curious about everything. His boisterous enthusiasm for life reminded her of someone she used to know. Someone who had brought that kind of unbridled joy into her life at one of her darkest moments.

Dammit.

She shook her head, trying to rid Cal from her thoughts.

Suddenly, Puzzle bolted across the park, his leash flying out of her hand.

"Oh, no. Puppy! Wait! Come back!"

But Puzzle was off like a shot, his yapping echoing around the park. She chased after him, but the pup was fast, and she wasn't exactly in top shape. He zoomed past a group of picnickers, causing screams and laughs as he snatched a sandwich with a wag of his tail.

"Puzzle!" She yelled again, running after him. He darted between trees and raced across the open fields, oblivious to his owner's panicked calls. Finally, he slowed near the edge of the river and sniffed something on the ground.

Ellie sighed in relief as she jogged over. But just as she was about to reach him, Puzzle picked up speed again to chase after a passing squirrel. "Puzzle! No! Bad dog!"

And then, from her periphery, she saw a man launch at her runaway puppy. A strong pair of arms wrapped around Puzzle's middle, lifting him off the ground before he could terrorize another group of picnickers or, even worse, dive into the river.

Ellie came to a stop, her breath rasping in her chest as she watched the man wrestle with her squirming puppy and finally get him under control.

When the man turned around, her heart dropped into her stomach. There, holding Puzzle against his chest as if he weighed nothing at all, was Cal. His hair was mussed from the chase and his white dress shirt had a muddy paw print on it, but he was grinning at her as if he had just won the lottery.

"Evening, Ellie." His voice was rich and warm like honey and seemed to vibrate through her whole body. Puzzle tried to lick his face and he laughed. "New friend?"

She grabbed the dog's leash. "He doesn't have any manners yet."

He chuckled, a deep, low sound that seemed to echo around them. "Let me guess, he was Zak's idea?"

She flushed. She still couldn't believe she'd let Zak Hendricks—the leader of Redwood Coast Rescue's tactical K9 team—talk her into fostering the puppy. She'd been feeling isolated and alone, her friends mostly all married or engaged, and Alexis blissfully nesting with her fiancé Shane. Fostering the future search and rescue dog seemed like a good way to fight off the loneliness. At least it gave her a warm body to come home to that wouldn't break her heart.

"I'm just fostering him." Ellie offered him a tight smile and extended her hand to take Puzzle from him. But Cal didn't release the pup immediately. Instead, he rubbed his hand vigorously on the dog's belly, making Puzzle squirm with delight.

The sight tugged at her heart. Despite everything that had happened between them, she couldn't deny that Cal looked ridiculously adorable with Puzzle in his arms. Her normally hyperactive dog was snuggling against his chest as if he belonged there.

"He likes you."

Cal shrugged, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "What can I say? I'm a likable guy."

She scoffed. "I don't like you."

His smile faltered for a moment, but he recovered quickly with another grin. "Well, you obviously have poor taste because dogs are great judges of character." As if to prove his point, Puzzle gave him a big, slobbery kiss. He laughed and dodged another lick. "You do realize that if Zak gave him to you, he's yours. There's no fostering at the Rescue."

Yes, she was aware. Zak had the uncanny ability to pair people with their perfect dog, but she still wasn't convinced Puzzle was the right dog for her. "Thanks for catching him."

"My pleasure." As he handed the puppy back to her, their fingers brushed and a spark of something ignited between them. It happened every time their skin touched, a chemistry that was impossible to deny. But Ellie quickly pulled away, holding Puzzle close to her chest.

An uncomfortable silence fell over them, broken only by Puzzle's excited panting and the distant laughter from the picnickers by the river.

"Well," she said finally and set Puzzle down, making sure to keep a firm grip on his leash this time. "Good night."

"Ellie..." Cal caught her hand before she could turn away. "Can we talk?"

She stared at his hand on hers, the heat of his touch seeping into her skin. She missed this – the contact, the connection – and that thought scared her. It was a dangerous thing to miss someone who could hurt you so much.

She looked up at him, her heart thundering in her chest. "There's nothing more to say."

"But there is. So much more," he insisted, and a twisted part of her took pleasure in seeing him beg.

Pulling her hand away from his grasp, she stepped back, creating a physical distance to match the emotional one between them. She was all too aware of the curious onlookers, their stares on her back as they speculated about the high-profile lawyer and the woman with the runaway puppy. There was nothing more this town loved than a bit of juicy gossip and she wasn't about to give them a scene to whisper about over beers at The Mad Dog.

"I need to get Puzzle home now." She keep her voice and face neutral. Puzzle wagged his tail and gave her a look of pure puppy love, oblivious to the tension crackling in the air. "Thank you again for catching him."

Cal looked as if he wanted to say more, but in the end, he didn't. He let out a slow sigh before nodding. His eyes held a mixture of regret and something else— hope? Longing? Ellie couldn't decipher it, but she knew better than to try.

She turned away, clutching Puzzle's leash so tightly that her nails dug into her palm.

"You'll forgive me one day," he called. "You might even love me again."

She stopped in her tracks but didn't turn around. The words, so softly spoken, were charged with a raw desperation. He was right about one thing—she might forgive him someday.

But love him again?

Ha.

Fat chance.

She looked down at Puzzle, who was now tugging at his leash, eager to continue their walk as if that was an option after his little run across the park. "I can't tell who is more delusionally optimistic. You or the puppy."

As she walked away, she heard Cal's soft laugh. "Me. Definitely me."