Falling Fast, Contemporary Romance (Last Frontier Lodge Novels Book 4) by J.H. Croix Read Free Book Online

words. She worked with Charlie twice a week. As a speech therapist, she dealt with a wide range of challenges with children. Charlie struggled with phonation and pitch, so his words were often difficult to understand. Charlie was a joy to work with because he was diligent and he tried so hard. As many children with communication difficulties did, he’d initially been referred to her after a few meltdowns in his pre-school class. She’d quickly deduced he was getting frustrated because no one understood what he was trying to communicate. At younger ages, speech problems weren’t as obvious at first because children learned at different speeds. She was always pleased when a child landed with her early because her chances for progress were much greater.
    Charlie’s brown hair gleamed under the bright lights in her small classroom. His index finger moved to the last word on the list. After he successfully sounded it out, he looked up with an expectant smile.
    “Great job, Charlie!” she said with a quick clap of her hands. “You did so well, you don’t have to go through them again.”
    Charlie lifted his hand for a high five, a habit they’d developed during her time with him. “Am I all done today?”
    “All done!” She glanced at the clock. “You’ve got a few minutes before the bell. Want to play a game of Uno?”
    “Yeah!”
    Charlie stood up and raced over to the cabinet where she kept an assortment of games. He knew precisely where Uno was because it was his favorite game. He was back at the table in seconds. She waited while he carefully dealt the cards. One area where Charlie didn’t lack any skill was in pragmatic communication, or rather social communication. His words might not always be clear, but he was outgoing and friendly with just about anyone. He chattered on about his friends, his dog, and his favorite teacher.
    When the bell rang, he carefully stacked the cards and handed them to her. “I’ll see you next week, Ms. Sanders.”
    “You sure will. Bye, Charlie!” she called out when he reached the door.
    He waved and was gone in a flash. She stepped to the door and closed it. Elementary schools were pure cacophony when children were switching classes. She could hardly hear herself think, so she usually kept her door closed. She sat down at her desk with a sigh. She quickly checked her email and took care of her notes from the morning students. Only then did her mind wander to Cam.
    Her brain had taken a backseat to desire when she was standing beside him last night. She chuckled to herself. So often she had wished for an off switch for her mind to silence the internal chatter. She hadn’t meant for her brain to turn off altogether so she did something crazy like tell Cam she wanted to kiss him and then go and do it. What the hell were you thinking? Well, that’s the problem. You weren’t thinking. Maybe not, but that kiss was worth every second. “Oh my God,” she said aloud to herself. She flushed straight through just thinking about that kiss. It was the kiss to beat all kisses. She’d tried to convince herself last night, after the madness of the moment, that it would get Cam out of her system. But she knew damn well she was kidding herself. Every spare minute when she wasn’t focused on something, her mind and body went right to Cam. He was like a magnet. Her hope that he’d be a brief infatuation was fading. Though his presence in her orbit was still fairly new, she wasn’t dumb. She knew the attraction she felt for him was more than just passing.
    She put her face in her hands and groaned. Somehow, she needed to wrest control of herself again. She ran her hands through her hair and sat back in her chair. While her mind could run wild thinking about Cam, she was short on ideas about how to get a handle on herself.
    Later that afternoon, she resisted the urge to drive up to the lodge for dinner and drove home instead. She lived in a small house on a bluff by Kachemak Bay. The