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  her concierge service and had more business than she knew what to do with.

  She’d spent time with Kenna and the other Kincaids. She’d settled into Jacob’s cabin, feeling warm and safe and deeply attached to the place, unlike anywhere else she’d ever lived.

  That was all Jacob.

  He wasn’t there, but she could feel his presence, and she thought about him a lot. Thought about what it would be like when he returned home.

  And here he was, leaner than he’d been, tanned from long days in the sun, hair once again military short, eyes dark and filled with things that caught her breath.

  “You’re a sight for sore eyes,” he said.

  “You too. Jacob—” She broke off, nervous. He seemed content to wait for her to gather herself. He was excellent at that. God, she’d missed him. “Just so you know,” she murmured, her heart pounding hard. “I did as you suggested. I made myself at home.” She trailed off as…victory? satisfaction?…flickered across his face. Maybe both, but what caught her by the heart and wouldn’t let go was the intensity of his eyes and a smile that warmed her to the bone.

  “You’ve made another choice,” he said.

  “Yeah,” she breathed. “I’m home.”

  He stood and strode straight for her, leaning over her to kiss her long and deep, one hand sliding up her spine to cradle the back of her head.

  She gripped him tight, her fingers running up his arms, bared thanks to his T-shirt. His skin was chilled. “You’re cold,” she said. “Come in here. Let me warm you,” she whispered, and lifted the covers in invitation.

  Holding her gaze, he stripped and climbed into the bed, pulling her into the circle of his arms. A low, rough, heartfelt groan escaped him as he pulled her naked body to him. “We’re both home now,” he said.

  Epilogue

  Six months later

  Sophie had never been so happy and so miserably sick at the same time. Currently she was kneeling on the floor in the bar’s bathroom, trying to decide if she was done. She hadn’t had any alcohol, but upon reflection, the second order of hot wings might’ve been a serious error in judgment.

  Kenna was helping to hold her hair back. “Honey, you should’ve canceled tonight if you were sick.”

  “I’m not.” Pretty sure she was over this latest bout, she sat back and eyed the diamond wedding band on her finger. Jacob had put it there two months ago, on a weeklong vacay in Hawaii, where they’d stood together and exchanged vows. It still gave her a thrill to see the ring. “I’m okay now.”

  “You’re not,” Kenna said. She brought Sophie some dampened paper towels while simultaneously speaking into her cell phone. “Sophie’s sick,” she said. “Yeah, she’s thrown up, like, four times.”

  “Three,” Sophie corrected weakly, “and are you really tattling on me?” She rinsed her mouth in the sink. “What are we, twelve?”

  Ten minutes later Jacob came barging through the women’s bathroom door looking very much like a warrior soldier ready to kick ass, making another woman squeak and rush out.

  Jacob didn’t even glance at her. All he had eyes for was Sophie. He dropped to his knees next to her where she was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall. He pulled her in, hugging her tight, and Sophie found herself laughing and crying at the same time as she clutched at him.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded incredulously.

  “I didn’t know until this morning, I was going to tell you later tonight, after I warmed you up to the idea…”

  “Babe…” He stroked her hair from her damp forehead. “Why would you need to warm me up to the idea of having a baby?”

  “You don’t remember?” she asked on a low laugh. “Last week at the ball game, the woman next to us had a two-year-old who kept having a temper tantrum. And you said, ‘Let’s never do that.’”

  “I meant because she had him dressed up in a mini Raiders uniform. No kid of mine is going to wear anything other than a Broncos jersey.”

  Kenna dropped to her knees next to them. “Okay, someone needs to tell me right here, right now…We’re having a baby?”

  Sophie felt her eyes fill again at the look on Jacob’s face—pure, radiant joy.

  “Yeah,” he said, leaning in, pressing his forehead to Sophie’s, his own eyes suspiciously misty too. “We’re having a baby.”

  “That’s why you wouldn’t drink!” Kenna grinned. “Even when I said vodka was made from potatoes and potatoes are a vegetable, which practically makes vodka a salad.”

  Sophie smiled. “No alcohol for eight more months.”

  “We’re having a baby,” Kenna repeated in marvel, a wide grin on her usually taciturn face.

  “Well, I don’t know much about the ‘we’ part,” Sophie said wryly. “Seems to me most of the work is going to be mine.”

  “I’ll be right there with you,” Jacob vowed, voice deep and rich with the promise. “You won’t ever be alone in this.”

  Her heart nearly burst it was so full. Him. His family. A baby…It was all so much more than she could’ve ever hoped for. “You might feel differently when the pregnancy hormones kick in,” she warned.

  He cupped her face. “I fell hard for you, Soph, and I haven’t gotten up since. Never will. We’re in this together, heart and soul.”

  She couldn’t think of anything she’d ever wanted more.

  The hottest property in Cedar Ridge is Aidan Kincaid—firefighter, rescue worker, and heartbreaker. But when the love of his life returns, it’s up to him to convince her to give Cedar Ridge—and this bad boy—a second chance…

  Please see the next page

  for a preview of

  Second Chance Summer

  Chapter 1

  After fighting a brush fire at the base of Cedar Ridge for ten straight hours, Aidan Kincaid had only three things on his mind: sex, pizza, and beer. Given the way the day had gone, he’d gladly take them in any order he could get them.

  Not in the cards.

  He and the rest of his fire crew had finally managed to get back to the station. They’d been there just long enough to load their plates when the alarm went off again.

  “What the hell!”

  “Gonna break the damn bell and shove it up someone’s—”

  “This is bullshit…”

  Whoever said no one could outswear a sailor had never lived in a firehouse. Ignoring the grumbling around him, Aidan pushed his plate away and met his partner Mitch’s gaze.

  “Gotta be a full moon bringing out the crazy,” Mitch said.

  “Maybe the crazy just follows you,” Aidan suggested.

  In turn, Mitch suggested Aidan was number one. With his middle finger.

  They’d been playing this game since first grade, when Mitch had stolen Aidan’s lunch and Aidan had popped him in the nose for it. As punishment they’d had to pick up and haul trash for the janitor for two weeks.

  The two of them had become best friends and had spent the next decade being as wild and crazy as possible.

  Eventually they’d grown up and found responsibility, going through the fire academy and now working as Colorado Wildland Firefighters for their bread and butter, volunteering on the local search-and-rescue team as needed. And here in Cedar Ridge they were needed a lot. Lost hikers, overzealous hunters, clueless novice rafters—you name it, they’d been called to save it.

  Tonight’s fire call came in as a possible suicide jumper off the courthouse, which at five stories high was the tallest building in town.

  As they pulled up, they could see a woman had climbed out a window on the fifth floor. She stood on a ledge that couldn’t have been more than a foot wide, wearing nothing but her bra and panties.

  “Well, at least Nicky left her Victoria’s Secrets on this time,” Mitch noted.

  Nicky was a bit of a regular.

  And Mitch was right. The last time Nicky had gotten upset was after finding the town councilman she’d been sleeping with going at it on his desk with his assista