My One and Only (Ardent Springs Book 3) by Terri Osburn Read Free Book Online

building and drop her at the bus station? Looking out for people was in his DNA, and Cooper wasn’t about to change who he was. Not even for Haleigh Rae Mitchner.
    Lost in his own mental pep talk, Cooper barely heard the knock on his front door over the Jason Aldean tune blaring from his speakers. Dropping the thirty-pounders at his feet, he cut the radio on his way to the front door.
    “Who the—” he said as he swung the door open to find the last person he expected. “Haleigh Rae?” Cooper’s gut hit the floor as she stared at him with an expression most women reserved for desserts and shoes. Her mouth moved, but nothing came out while brown eyes ogled his bare chest.
    “Are you lost?” he asked, proud of himself for not begging her to come in. Though if she kept looking at him like that he’d be tempted to invite her upstairs for a different kind of workout.
    “No. Um . . . You’re wet,” she finally managed. “And shirtless.”
    “I’m working out and I was hot.”
    “Yes. Yes, you are.” The woman looked ready to jump his bones. “I mean, of course you are. Were,” she quickly corrected. “You were obviously working out. And I’m sorry to disturb you, but this will only take a minute.”
    She hadn’t wanted to talk earlier, so why should he want to talk now?
    “It’s already late and I still need a shower. Maybe some other time.”
    “Please,” she pressed. “Give me two minutes. That’s all I’m asking.”
    Against his better judgment, Cooper granted the request. “Fine,” he said, stepping aside for her to pass.
    She looked relieved but nervous as she fidgeted at the end of his couch. Cooper resisted the urge to clean up. He shouldn’t care what Haleigh thought of his place.
    Cooper closed the door and said, “Your two minutes starts now.”
    “Right.” Her eyes dropped to the floor as she rubbed the back of her neck. Shifting from foot to foot, she surprised him by asking, “Could you put on a shirt?”
    “A shirt?” He had to dirty another shirt for a two-minute conversation?
    “It’s just . . .” She waved a finger in front of him. “That’s a lot of . . . And your shorts are riding kind of . . .” This conversation was going to take more than two minutes if she couldn’t finish a sentence. “Please just put on a shirt.”
    Haleigh was clearly uncomfortable, and not because his looks offended her. The temptation to test her restraint tickled at the back of his brain. Dismiss him all she wanted, but Haleigh Rae was not immune to good old Cooper. At least not his body.
    “You don’t look like you want me to put on a shirt,” he said, stepping closer.
    “No woman in her right mind would want you to put on a shirt,” she argued, stepping back. “I’m asking you to do it anyway.”
    The compliment made him generous. “All right. I’ll be right back.” When he returned wearing a plain gray tee, he said, “Better?”
    “A bit, yes.” Haleigh took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “Now. I’m here because I owe you an apology.”
    Not what he expected. “An apology for what?”
    “For a lot of things, but most of all for taking advantage of you thirteen years ago. And for insulting you earlier tonight. You didn’t deserve that.”
    He latched onto the first part. “You took advantage of me?”
    “Yes,” Haleigh said. “I’m a crappy person, and my track record goes back pretty far. I doubt I can find the boy I made fun of for flunking first grade, or the transfer student I said horrible things to in third, but I have to start somewhere.”
    This had to be a joke. “Hal, you are not a crappy person.”
    “But I am,” she argued. “I never should have dumped my problems on you that night at the prom. And I definitely shouldn’t have taken your money.”
    “Where is this coming from?” he asked. “You didn’t dump anything, and I didn’t give you a choice about the money. What were you going to do, get it from your mom? I’d have