Hope Falls: Hearts Afire (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Julie Prestsater Page A

Mountain Meadows B&B, hoping she’d be coming out soon. He’d been sitting on the porch for a little over fifteen minutes trying to catch his running partner before she headed out to the lodge. Now that he could barely feel his toes, he was starting to think his plan was flawed.
    The door flung open and out rushed Katie. She didn’t even notice him, she just passed right by him and headed down the steps like she was on a mission.
    “Good morning!” Casey called out to her.
    She stopped suddenly and whipped around, a smile shining brightly on her face. “What are you doing here?”
    Casey rushed down the steps toward her and handed her an insulated mug of hot chocolate. “I thought we could use a change of pace this morning.”
    She took the cup from him and brought it to her lips. He knew they were just friends, but he was a guy and given any reason to draw his attention to her mouth made his pants tighten in the crotch area. She had pouty, bow-shaped lips. Completely and utterly kissable. Well, if they weren’t just friends.
    “Ooo, hot chocolate. This is yummy.” She took another sip. “Thank you.”
    “I wasn’t sure how you took your coffee, so I thought hot cocoa was a safe bet.”
    “You can never go wrong with chocolate.” She fluttered her brows at him. “So what did you have in mind?”
    Casey couldn’t control the smile on his face. Her easy going, happy-go-lucky spirit was contagious. “Have you been to the river yet?” She shook her head. “I didn’t think so. I thought we could take the trail there.” They both started walking toward his truck. “It’s not something I’d run along, but we’ll get a good workout with the terrain. It’s also a smidge warmer than going up to the lodge.”
    “Warmer? Sounds fantastic. The weather has definitely gotten colder.”
    He opened the door for her, but before she could get inside, he ruffled her hair. “Yes, it has,” he said. “You should wear a beanie this early in the morning. Your ears are going to freeze and fall off.”
    She jumped up and got settled. “That’s why I was running late. I couldn’t find it.”
    Casey shook his head with a chuckle. She’d lose her brain if it wasn’t sealed inside her skull. He laughed again and closed her door.
    On the way to the river bank, he asked her about her writing, like he usually did. He listened as she gave him the update, often using terminology he didn’t quite understand. She spoke in abbreviations or acronyms. His stepmom had filled him in on some of the lingo. He now knew the meaning of HEA, WIP, and HFN. Yes, he’d called in the reinforcements. When he found out that Katie was a romance author, he knew exactly who to go to. When he was growing up, his stepmom always had books with half naked men on the covers all over the house—on the coffee table, her nightstand, in the kitchen, laundry room. She always seemed to be reading one, and he always knew when she was near the end. The tears in her eyes and the tissues in her hands were a dead giveaway. He’d yet to read one, but his dad told him that if reading a love story made his wife happy then he’d gladly buy her a library full of them. Happy wife, happy life—yada, yada, yada. He’d heard that mantra more than once.
    He was starting to understand it though. Katie was only his friend and he enjoyed seeing her happy. Like now, she sat across from him on the bench of his truck, sipping hot cocoa and talking about how she just wanted her characters to shut up and screw already but they weren’t there yet. Her cheeks were a dark shade of pink as she laughed about it, smacking her thigh and giggling in her seat.
    “Don’t you ever just feel like that?” she asked, breathlessly.
    The question made him choke on his own sip of hot chocolate. Her cheeks were flushed and her chest was rising rapidly up and down with each breath. She looked hot as hell, and he wasn’t talking about the temperature. What exactly was she asking? Did he