THE RAIN WAS POURING, which was appropriate given her frame of mind, but it sucked out loud because her little Audi wasn't built for ranch roads that were washed out from the torrential rain. The sky hadn't just opened up, but it was currently doing what Dev called 'raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock.'

When her wheel jerked out of her hand and she hit the ditch, she only groaned. After all, things like this happened, and as long as she didn't do any major damage to her car, her dad could more than likely take care of any damage. Nope, what set her to cussing was that there was no signal on her phone. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. And the damn rain wasn't showing any sign of letting up, so for the time being, she was stuck like Chuck.

She had sat there for a good twenty minutes until she saw headlights in her rearview mirror, but she couldn't make out the person or form an idea of who the truck belonged to because her windows were fogged up from lack of air ventilation. But she figured it was her dad since he would know where she was going and that she was in her car. She didn't even think about it when she opened her door and hopped out into the pouring rain. And then she froze as her whole world came to a screeching stop.

It can’t be.

But it is.

There he is. Cole La Barron up close and in person.

As her heart seized in her chest, she wondered vaguely if she was too young to have a heart attack because that is certainly what it felt like as she stood there watching him make his way toward her. His steps didn't falter, and his gaze didn't waver from her as he came closer and closer. She still hadn't taken a breath and couldn't even feel the rain falling anymore as he drew to a stop in front of her. She noticed that the rain was bouncing off his cowboy hat and that he had dark circles under his eyes. And there was certainly more of him than there had been before, but she couldn't tell if she still had legs or if she was drawing in a breath, so surreal was the situation. Finally, he stopped in front of her, and they stared at one another for the first time in years, neither speaking for long moments until he broke their silence. “Christ, Baby Girl, you are soaked. What the hell are you doing out here in that death trap of a car in this weather? It's stuck until this shit clears up, at the earliest. Get in my truck and let’s get you to the house and warmed up.”

Suddenly, she freaked out and started yelling, “Cole, I am not going back to your damn house! Just... just go the hell away, crawl back into whatever hole you left, and leave me alone! I’ll sit here until the rain slows and call a wrecker.”

Her yelling rubbed him the wrong way, and he snapped, “The hell you will. You’re done. You aren’t running off and hiding anymore, and you sure as FUCK are not sitting here in this storm by yourself. I ain’t telling you again, Court. Get. Your. Ass. In. The. Truck.”

Standing there in cut-off shorts, her boots getting more and more flooded by the second and her tee now stuck to her in a way that left nothing to the imagination—not that he needed it since he knew every inch of her body—she knew her bra was visible as her chest heaved. And she knew she looked like a drowned rat, her blonde hair straggly and soaked, yet all Courtney could feel was panic. She couldn’t be alone with him. She didn’t want to see him.

She closed her eyes as her heart squeezed. God, why couldn’t this all be a dream?

I would have happily lived the rest of my life never laying eyes on him again. All I was supposed to do was leave the envelope and move on with my life. This isn’t some fairy tale where I run into him and we live happily ever after. This is life, and he was supposed to be anywhere but here.

Opening her eyes, she knew she didn’t have a choice. They couldn’t stand out here in this storm. The whip of the wind and the lashing rain matched the way she felt inside, and she could only imagine he felt the same. With a sigh of resignation, she nodded, and the fight drained out of her.

“Ok, alright," he sighed. "Let’s get you back to the house and go from there.” Cole walked around her and held open the door, so she could climb into the warm cab. She could feel the temperature of her body slowly rising, but her heart and her soul felt frozen, coated in ice and brittle, on the verge of shattering if she so much as trembled. Cole climbed into the truck and rubbed his hands together, blowing into them a couple of times before holding them up to the vent and letting the heat warm him. “Ba—”

“Cole? Can you please, please not call me that? I’m sorry. I just can’t handle it.”

Cole's posture dropped, and his shoulders were set in the same defeat as hers. “Sure, Court.” Whatever else he was going to say, he dropped it and put the truck into gear. They made the rest of the trip down the road to his house in silence, and it wasn't until he pulled into the drive that he asked, "Can I ask what brought you out this way in this weather? I didn't even know you were in town."

"I, uh, well, I didn't know you were in town either. I was coming by to drop some stuff off before I take off again. Mama reminded me that she still had some of your things."

The air in the cab of the truck went electric when he asked carefully, "Some of my things?" He put the truck in park and killed the engine. "What kind of things does your mama have of mine, Courtney?"

Suddenly, she was hesitant to tell him. She couldn't see a graceful way to have this conversation and still stay at his house until the weather calmed. Hoping that he would go with it, at least temporarily, she said instead, "Cole, do you happen to have a cell phone on you? Mine didn't have any service, and anyway, I forgot it in the car and need to give Dad a call to let him know about my car."

"Got a house phone inside with service, Court, but that doesn't answer my question. What stuff of mine does your mama have?"

"Well, she doesn't have it anymore. I have it. And, uh, well, let’s go inside so I can give my folks a call, and then we can talk, yeah?"

Cole laughed bitterly. "Yeah, Courtney, let's go inside and fucking talk." He got out of the truck and slammed the door. Before he had a chance to cross to her side, she hurried out of the cab as well and slammed her door behind her. Now, she found that she was angry and no longer had any desire whatsoever to tread carefully. Therefore, she proceeded to lose her ever-loving mind when she met him at the front of the truck. Neither seemed to notice or care about the rain as she ranted, "Alright, asshole, you wanna know what it is? Your fucking ring and your stupid, stupid house key. There's no point in me having either when the promises they were made with are LIES and you are married to someone ELSE." When she yanked the envelope out of her shorts, it was damp and water-damaged. She stomped through the mud and slammed it against his chest. "So, take your empty promises and all of your lies and do me one last favor and let me use your PHONE!"

He crumpled the envelope in his fist and practically growled at her, "I divorced the bitch a long time ago, Courtney."

"Oh great! Awesome. Then, by all means, let me line up so I can finally get my turn. And a divorce? That wouldn't have been necessary if you hadn't slept with her, COLE. I was supposed to be the mother of your children. ME, not her. Not anyone else. Me. I was supposed to love you every day of your life and give you babies and help you run this"—she threw a hand wide to encompass the ranch they stood on—"ranch, but you threw that and me away. You were supposed to love me every day of your life, but only one of us actually did that, right? And it sure as FUCK wasn't you."

His face was ravaged, and he looked shattered as tears mixed with the rain and Courtney's voice broke as she screamed at him. He could see up close the damage he had caused, and it was instinctual when he grabbed her arm and yanked her inside. When Courtney screeched those three earth-shattering words, he lost his grip on control and was desperate to do anything he could to disprove the words she screeched. "I. HATE. YOU."

The intensity of their passion took them both by surprise, and before they realized it, they were tearing clothes off one another. It was Cole who pulled back first, and as if she were in a dream reality, one where she had no clue about their past, she heard herself saying to him, "Cole La Barron, I swear to heaven above that if you stop now, I really will kill you!"

He laughed softly, and even though he knew there would be a battle and explanations to be made as well as years and years to make up for, for the first time in almost a decade, he had some hope.

He should have taken the time to explain everything to her. He should have stayed on alert. He should have done anything other than what he did, because that carelessness almost cost a woman her life and changed everyone else’s lives from that moment forward. Dozing off, the woman he loved naked in his arms, he didn't consider the repercussions. He didn't notice that her eyes never closed, that tears silently tracked down her cheeks. He should have. But instead, he fell asleep feeling peace for the first time in years.