Page 1 of The Moment He Saw Her

Chapter1

“I had to choose a career that has me up at the ass crack of dawn,” Ryder Duke muttered as he got out of his car. He wasn’t a morning person but had learned to be. But some days were harder than others—this being one of them. If he’d continued drifting and still been clueless as to his next move, he could be in bed.

His hometown was in the grip of winter, and this morning was a cold one. Around him, Lyntacky was coming awake as the sun rose behind the snowcapped mountains. He stopped to look at the sight, marveling as he did every morning over the awesome display nature put on.

Shutting the driver’s side door, Ryder didn’t bother locking it. Anyone stupid enough to steal from a Duke deserved the trouble they’d end up in.

“Morning!”

That overly enthusiastic greeting came from Bart and June Matilda as they disappeared off into the distance at a brisk walk, both wearing those headband things that girls seemed to favor along with fur-lined boots at the first sign of winter.

“Morning!” he yelled.You crazy idiots.

Squinting down the main street of Lyntacky, he watched a white car appear and then crawl toward him making a clunking noise, which couldn’t be good.

Nudging up the brim of his ball cap, Ryder saw it stutter twice and then stop fifty yards up the road from where he stood. He thought about just unlocking the front door and getting inside his cafe because it was freezing. He hadn’t even had his morning coffee yet despite the house he’d bought being only a five-minute drive away. But he’d been raised better than that, and if it were someone he cared about in that vehicle, he’d want them to receive help. Ryder walked to the car and tapped on the window. The plates told him it was a rental.

A face looked up at him, but he couldn’t make out much. The sun hadn’t risen fully, and her window was misted up. He tapped it again and then made a lowering movement with his hand.

It moved two inches.

“You okay?” Ryder asked.

“What do you want?”

“To help you,” he said with far more patience than he felt.

“Why?”

“Because I watched your car limp down the street and stop,” Ryder snapped, not feeling his usual accommodating self right then because of the cold and lack of caffeine.

“My car just stopped,” she said.

“That happens when it’s out of fuel or?—”

“I know when a car needs fuel!”

He only just bit back the sigh. “Do you need help or not?” Ryder said. She said something that was muffled.

“Lower the window,” he said with more force than necessary because talking through a two-inch gap was pissing him off. It moved a few more inches. “Are you from a big city?”

“What?” Her voice was low and husky.

“Usually big-city people don’t trust easy.”

“Women don’t trust easy,” she shot back.

“With good reason, but I don’t want to hurt you,” Ryder said through his teeth. “Look. I will help you if you need it. If you don’t, then I’m going into my cafe.” He pointed to it. When she said nothing, he added, “Come in there if you need help, to warm up, or coffee because I’m not standing out here any longer. I need to start baking.”

Ryder stomped away, pulled out his keys, and unlocked the front door of the Swing Through Cafe. Walking in, he flicked on lights and turned on the heating to warm the place. Looking around him, he felt the usual pride.Mine.

His sister, Zoe, an interior designer, had bullied him to go with timid white, which was, by anyone else’s standards, cream, with a feature wall of dark rustic wood paneling. Artwork was dotted about the place that he’d picked, and Zoe approved. There was a wide polished wood counter, on which his coffee machine sat, and a few cabinets he stocked with food daily. Tables had comfortable chairs pushed up to them. Chairs, his mother said, were important for people in Lyntacky, as they had a large elderly population. Some of them had bad joints, and good chairs were a requirement, apparently, for comfort.

After switching on the coffee machine—Meadow would be here soon and want her weird latte with coconut milk and no caffeine—he tied an apron around his waist and started work, putting whoever the suspicious woman in that car was from his head. He’d done all he could. She wasn’t his problem.

An hour later, he had most of his prep done and things in the oven, so he headed out of the kitchen to make his first coffee. The door opened just as he was pouring in the steamed milk.

His first glimpse of her was hunched shoulders and a pale face as she entered, closing the door behind her. Her eyes then did a sweep of the cafe before settling on him. One hand tugged the black hat from her head, which told Ryder she’d been raised by someone who told her to take it off inside.

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