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

beaten it out of Stapleton, but you wouldn’t let me.”
    “He outweighed you by fifty pounds.”
    “Ever heard of a tire iron? It’s a great equalizer.”
    “Are you crazy?” she squawked. “You could have jeopardized his football scholarship.”
    “Please,” Cooper said. “That dipshit drank himself out of school in the first year. He never played in a game, and now he’s selling cars in Chattanooga.”
    Haleigh looked less appalled. “Really? I knew he hadn’t become the next great quarterback, but I never bothered to find out what actually happened to him.”
    “You dodged a bullet,” he said. “You never told Abby about that summer, did you?”
    Haleigh shook her head. “She’d been talking about being a mom since sophomore year. She’d also warned me about David, and I hadn’t listened. I was stupid and weak and I couldn’t bring myself to confess. She’d have been so disappointed in me. As the years went on I committed enough other sins that keeping this one to myself got easier.”
    Knowing his sister and the bond that she and Haleigh had, Cooper said, “You weren’t stupid, you were young. We all were. But she’d have been there for you.”
    “I know. But I don’t want to talk about the past anymore.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I shouldn’t have been so mean to you today. Something else was bothering me, and I took it out on you.”
    Cooper nearly asked what that something was, but forced himself to stay out of her business. That didn’t mean if the circumstance happened again, he’d let her go a second time.
    “Okay then,” he said with a nod. “Apology accepted.”

    Haleigh wasn’t sure she’d heard right. “Really?” she asked. “Just like that?”
    “Sure,” he said. “Just like that. I’m getting a beer. You want one?”
    Cooper really was a breed all his own. Few men would so readily forgive, and though he’d flashed a hint of temper that had surprised her, in the end, the good guy won out. Haleigh once again lamented her poor taste in men. Whatever girl ended up with Cooper Ridgeway was going to be a very lucky woman.
    “I’d better not,” she said, loading up her go-to refusal line. “I’m not a fan of alcohol.” Which couldn’t be more true. Being addicted to the stuff didn’t mean she liked it. Quite the opposite, in fact. “And I’ve bothered you long enough anyway.”
    “You don’t have to go,” Cooper said. “I was just being a dick about the two-minute thing.”
    Haleigh shook her head. “You couldn’t be a dick if you tried, Cooper. Trust me. I’m an expert on the breed.”
    “So what’s that about anyway?” he asked as he loomed above her, practically blocking the light from the lamp behind him.
    She still couldn’t believe he was so . . . big. His shoulders seemed to go on forever, and that had definitely been a solid six-pack that had greeted her at the door. She’d never been one to melt at the sight of a hot body, but then she’d rarely encountered a body like Cooper’s. Odd to think that she’d occasionally slept one wall away from him during their high school days, but back then he hadn’t looked anything like the man standing before her now.
    “I don’t know,” she said. And she really didn’t. David had been the first in a long line of guys who’d fallen squarely into the bad boyfriend category. “If I dig deep enough, I’m sure it has to do with like attracting like.”
    Cooper strolled into an adjoining room that Haleigh assumed to be the kitchen, giving her a prime shot of his killer ass. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked over his shoulder before returning with a sweating longneck and a bottle of water that he passed her way. “If you’re going back to that crappy person thing, I’m calling bullshit.”
    “Do you know why I became a doctor?” she asked him.
    “Nope,” he said, taking a draw off his beer. The action drew attention to his full lips pressed against the mouth of the