CHAPTER ONE
IT WAS HER.
Her hair was longer and her body a bit curvier, but the wide smile on her full lips was the same, as was the sparkle in her bright green gaze.
Not for a single second did Dr. Trace Stevens doubt the perky little blonde nurse’s identity. How could he? No woman had ever caused such an intense sexual reaction in him as Chrissie Tomberlain.
Trace’s lips curved.
This weekend had definitely just taken a turn for the better. A big turn. Four years ago she’d made his last weekend in the States unforgettable. He still had a few weeks before leaving again, but he welcomed the distraction.
Chrissie had been the best distraction he’d ever known.
So much so that even now, from time to time, he’d awaken drenched in sweat, with an ache in his gut that hadn’t been satisfied in years.
Four years, to be exact.
Ironic to run into her because more than once he’d considered looking her up, seeing if she was single, seeing if she’d be interested in spending time with him while he was home.
Then again, this event was where they’d met, so maybe not so ironic. Still, this weekend was exactly what he needed in so many ways.
A few weeks from now, he’d go back to doing what he was meant to do in life. There were places in the world that needed him a lot more than he was needed in Atlanta, Georgia, even if his friends and family thought otherwise.
* * *
Chrissie Tomberlain hadn’t spent a night away from her three-year-old son since he’d been born. So why had she let her best friend convince her that staying away from him for a whole weekend would be a good idea?
Okay, Savannah was right that Chrissie never did anything but work and take care of Joss. But there wasn’t anything she’d rather do than spend time with her son, so she hadn’t seen it as a problem. Spending time with Joss was a blessing she cherished each and every time she looked into his precious face, heard his sweet voice, felt his little hands pat her cheek.
Prior to Joss’s birth, she had enjoyed volunteering at various charity fund-raisers around her hometown of Chattanooga. She’d done so at the huge children’s cancer prevention event in Atlanta several times in the past.
But not since she’d gotten pregnant with Joss.
At the event.
By a man she hadn’t seen since.
Until now.
Trace Stevens hadn’t changed much from four years ago.
He was still sexy as hell and made her body do crazy, previously unexperienced things.
Made her mind go back to the night of passion of four years ago that had led to her becoming a single mother by a man she’d just met.
A man who had no idea he’d fathered a son.
Her son. Her sweet, wonderful Joss.
She swallowed the lump in her throat and prepared herself for what she hadn’t really thought would ever happen.
She wasn’t supposed to see Trace again.
He wasn’t supposed to be here.
Yet, if she was honest with herself, wouldn’t she admit that from the moment she’d gotten into her car in Chattanooga she’d had a nervous energy inside, wondering “what if’ the entire two-hour drive?
What if Trace was there?
What if their paths really did cross again?
What if he still lit her body on fire with a mere glance, something no one else had ever done before or since?
There he was, standing in a tent not so unlike the one they’d met in four years ago. For all she knew it might be the exact same one if Children’s Cancer Prevention Organization owned their commercial tents, rather than rented them.
A big sexy gri
n climbed up Trace’s face as his gaze collided with hers and recognition hit.
He remembered her.
Of course he remembered her.