XANDER For ten years, I’ve led Ridgeline Station the same way. Do the job. Don’t make it personal. Then Colin Bradford arrives in the middle of a storm. He’s the new medic. Former Navy corpsman.
Calm when everyone else is falling apart. Impossible to intimidate. Our first meeting happens while he’s naked in the communal shower. I should be able to put the whole thing behind me.
He looks me in the eye, takes everything I throw at him, and tells me when I’m wrong. The worst part? He’s usually right. A week later, I find him sitting in my chair, smiling like he belongs there.
I walk in to set him straight. Instead, I notice the freckles across his nose and forget every word. I’m forty-two. I was married to a woman. I’ve never looked at a man this way.
Until Colin Bradford became my storm.
COLIN Everyone warned me about Captain Xander. Grumpy. Stubborn. Married to the job. Nobody mentioned the man underneath.
The one who’d walk into any storm to bring a stranger home, but won’t let anyone do the same for him. At first, I think he’s watching me because he doesn’t trust me.
Then I catch the way his eyes linger. He hasn’t figured out why yet. I have.
