A Firefighter in Her Stocking

Jude wanted to take back those wrong words, but couldn’t.

Not with how happy his mistake had made Sarah, but hell if he relished the prospect of seeing his cousin after all this time.

* * *

“You look absolutely stunning.”

Sarah smiled at Jude’s cousin Penny. “That’s because you’re comparing me to the pale, terrified woman who climbed into your helicopter.”

Penny laughed. “You were stunning that night, too, but there’s something different about you tonight.”

Yeah, there was. Jude had introduced her to what all the fuss was about. The ahhhh of why people had sex, why sex sold things, why sex made the world go round and round and round.

He’d made her world go round and round.

She understood why Brandy had begged for more. Understood the constant flow of women in and out of Jude’s apartment. When a man was that superb at giving pleasure, who cared if he was just using you?

Only not once had Jude made her feel that way.

Was she delusional?

Could a man like Jude fall for a woman like her?

He hadn’t said he loved her, but when he looked at her...

Good grief, she was delusional.

Or something far worse. In love.

She lifted her gaze to Penny’s and, unable to hide her surprise, her thoughts, Penny’s eyes widened with realization, then a big grin cut across her beautiful face.

“Maybe we’ll be celebrating another engagement soon.”

Embarrassed that she’d revealed so much to Jude’s cousin, Sarah shook her head in quick denial. “Jude isn’t a settling-down kind of man.”

Penny studied her. “But you’d like him to be?”

Sarah took a deep breath. “My guess is that every woman who has experienced your cousin’s attention wants him to be the settling-down kind. He’s a great man.”

Penny nodded. “Until I saw him with you, I didn’t think he’d ever be the settling-down kind either. He’s had this restlessness about him. When he called to ask about showing you the city, that restlessness wasn’t there. Something else was.”

Don’t let this go to your head, Sarah. Don’t read too much into what Penny is saying. Just don’t.

“What?” she whispered, knowing her heart was on her sleeve.

“Excitement. Hope.” Penny shrugged. “Anticipation? You tell me. Whatever it is, it looks good on him.”

Sarah glanced at where Jude talked with his father, an older version of Jude. “I’ve yet to find anything that doesn’t look good on him.”

Penny laughed. “You have it bad.”

Sarah didn’t bother to deny it. Why bother? She did have it bad.

“Lucky for you that he’s just as smitten. Congrats.”

Sarah knew it was way too early in her and Jude’s relationship for anyone to be issuing congrats, but Penny’s words fueled hope. Whatever was between them, she was different from any other woman he’d been with.

He’d shown her she was and she believed him.