Chapter 1

Susan Pierce tripped on the next to the bottom court house step and fell headlong into a broad, muscular chest. Susan and the chest fell to the sidewalk in a tangle of arms and legs. She lost the paper crumpled in her hand but she really didn't care. She knew what it said all too well.

Susan could have blamed the tears that she was trying to hold back for the fall. She could have blamed the sunlight in her eyes or the gusting wind that was blowing or a million other things but she didn't. She had been a klutz all her life and at the ripe old age of 34 she really should start getting used to it. Most people have an awkward stage after they get their teen growth spurt because their brain hasn't learned to coordinate all the different sized body parts. Susan never grew out of that stage.

Susan's growth spurt didn't come until the beginning of her junior year in high school. Up until then she had been the laughing stock of the rest of her class. She was the little girl that never grew up and the girls in her class never let her forget it. Susan was constantly humiliated in the showers after gym because she had to walk in naked with her little girl body among all those round asses and bouncing boobs. Susan had looked like a ten year old right up until her junior year and her growth spurt didn't really do that much for her. She went from 4' 10" to 5' 0' even. Her boobs went from board flat to B cups. Her hips went from no shape to round but she still a tiny little thing. Her weight jumped from 85 to 100 pounds and that was on a good day. She was always small boned but after she sprouted her dad complemented her and said that at least she was well proportioned. He scoffed at the girls with the big jugs as he described them and said he would much rather be with a girl with small boobs and could think than a girl with big boobs that could offer nothing else. Her dad said her brains would carry her farther than a body would. Susan figured her dad was obligated to say things like that.

The teasing shifted from her little girl body to her clumsiness after her growth spurt. Susan could walk down a hall alone with nothing in the way and trip on her own feet. No one wanted her on their team during gym because she could take out half of her own team, and she had on more than one occasion.

There was only one time that Susan had used her reputation as a klutz to her advantage. The senior prom was a big deal in the little town of 10000 and no one was going to let it go to waste. The photographer was set up with his big camera to take the official pictures of the prom goers under an arch made of fake palm fronds. There were at least a dozen people, parents and students, taking pictures so the flashing lights were almost continuous. Susan and her date, Danny Rangel, were waiting to have their picture taken. They were right behind Nancy Grayson and her date, one of the football jocks. Nancy had been one of the more vicious teasers throughout high school. She was one of the in-crowd and Susan was her favorite target. Nancy had been wearing a frilly pink outfit with a full, flowing skirt that reached the floor. It was a pretty dress and it should have been. The rumor was that her dad had spent over $1000 to have it designed and tailored for his little girl from one of the fancy Scottsdale dress shops. Susan suspected that Nancy was the one responsible for that rumor. Susan took a short step forward just before Nancy and her date moved forward to take their place under the arched palm fronds. Susan's foot came down on the back of Nancy's skirt. Nancy stumbled as she tried to move forward and the skirt ripped lose and came off. The high and mighty Nancy Grayson was standing there in her frilly pink top and white panties that looked like they belonged on an old woman. The flashing lights of the cameras seemed to redouble at that moment and dozens of pictures of Nancy Grayson floated around town for the rest of the school year. There was the one of her just looking startled and her date looking down at the bare legs of his date. He was grinning. Susan's favorite was the one of Nancy trying to cover her crotch with the hand that had been holding her date's hand. It looked like she was pushing his hand between her legs. Susan still got a laugh out of the scene but it didn't make up for all the humiliation from the teasing she received before she developed or the teasing she received after she sprouted for her clumsiness.

The worst had been at her senior graduation but it really wasn't Susan's fault. She was wearing that long robe they make you wear for graduation and she had to climb the three steps to the little platform to be presented her diploma. Susan stumbled on the top step and fell against Mr. Crandall, the district superintendent and knocked him off the platform. He broke his wrist and leg in the fall and had to be taken away in an ambulance. Mr. Blankenship, the High School Principal had to take over and the whole graduation was delayed by over half an hour while they waited for the ambulance to take Mr. Crandall away. Susan still cringed at the way Mr. Blankenship had tried to keep his distance while handing the diploma to her. He had actually bent forward to hand her the document and shook her hand with his arm fully extended. The wary expression on the man's face became all to familiar over the years. Fifteen years later and people still pointed her out when she walked down the street. Even her daughters had asked her about how much of a klutz she had been in school. Apparently, Susan was a school legend. She couldn't lie because they knew she hadn't really changed that much and was still a klutz. She did tell her daughters that the prom thing had been kind of on purpose and she even showed them the pictures she kept of the incident. After all, they were dealing with Nancy Grayson's daughter, Sara Johnson, and their description of how the girl acted reminded Susan very much of her mother.

And now here she was. Susan was sprawled on top of a broad, muscular chest on the side walk in front of the court house. She had just been evicted from the dumpy little trailer they had been living in. The paper that had disappeared with a gust of wind in the collision was the official, court certified eviction notice. She had lost her job as a bookkeeper two months before just because she had accidently spilled coffee on the computer that had all the company records. Susan was pretty sure that she could have talked them out of firing her if it had just been the lost data. It was the fire the incident caused that shut down the furniture store during tax return season that was the final straw. It wasn't much of a job but it paid enough to make ends meet when her salary was combined with the infrequent child support payments that she received. It wasn't much of a place to live either but it was all she could afford and now she had seven days to find someplace else to live for her and two teen daughters.

"Are you OK?" a deep male voice rumbled the question.

Susan could feel the vibration of the words against the whole front of her body. The vibrations felt good and seemed to emphasize all the problems that she was having. She couldn't help it. She really tried but she couldn't stop herself from bursting out in tears.

Bill Miller wasn't a small man. He stood 6'4" and he weighed close to 250 pounds, none of it fat. Bill was 39 years old and half owner of a small construction company. His brother Jack was the other half of the company but, since Jack was married and had kids, Bill was the onsite project manager for their jobs by default. Jack took care of the bids, supplies, and all the back office details from the Phoenix office that Bill hated. The thought of a nine to five desk job gave Bill cold sweats. The Phoenix office consisted of a little office trailer on the construction lot adjacent to Jack's house. Their parents had left the property to both of them so technically Bill was half owner of it all but he considered it Jack's house. Jack had won a bid on a construction project in Show Low, AZ and Bill was here to get it started. He was looking forward to the job because it would last through the whole summer. Summer in the Arizona White Mountains at 70 to 80 degrees was certainly nicer than the 110+ heat of Phoenix. Unfortunately, all the paperwork for the permits had to be presented in person which is what Bill was trying to do when he was knocked down. He watched forlornly as the 25 pages needed for local licenses and permits swirled in the wind like large snowflakes and disappeared down the street.

He looked down his nose at an unruly mop of brown curls against his chest about two inches below his chin. He could tell it was a girl or a woman because of the hard twin pressures poking against his stomach just below his sternum. It was probably a girl because she was so light. She didn't weigh much of anything. Her weight was almost negligible with her lying on top of him like that. She must have hit him pretty hard to have knocked him down. Some very big guys had tried to take him down on construction sites and none had been successful yet. For this little thing coming out of nowhere to flatten him was surprising. She must have been moving fast.

"Are you OK?" Bill asked as he looked down at the brown curls. He noticed how good the curls smelled, like the fresh smell in the woods. He noticed how good the slight body felt against him and regretted breaking up with his girl friend a few months before. Well, not really regretted it. After all, he had caught her with two guys behind the place she worked serving drinks. He did regret not having her services for the last few months though. And now, this girl laying on him felt good but he ignored the good feeling. He didn't mess with kids and it had to be just a little girl.

Bill's words must have triggered something because the girl suddenly burst into tears. Bill hated a girl crying worse that just about anything. He would do anything to stop her from crying. Bill tentatively patted the girl on the back with his big hand and it almost covered her whole back. She kept crying and her hands gripped his shirt. Bill wondered what to do next.

"Ah, honey, ah, are you OK?" Bill asked again.

The girl cried even harder but responded by shaking her head no.

"OK," Bill thought to himself. "She's hurt." Aloud he asked, "Where are you hurt honey?"

The girl shook her head again and continued crying. Bill didn't know what to do. He was afraid to move because if she were really hurt bad then his movement could hurt her more.

It took a little longer but after a minute the girl sniffled, "I, I, I'm OK." She sniffed again. "I'm not hurt."

"Well, can I sit up then?" Bill asked. "People might think it is kind of strange with us lying on the sidewalk like this."

"They won't think I'm any stranger than they already do," the girl cried piteously. "But you can sit up."

She didn't move so after a moment Bill just sat up. It wasn't an effort sitting up because she was so light but she continued to cling to his chest and cry. He looked around for some help but, though a few people glanced at them curiously, no one paid them any particular attention. One woman shook her head in disgust and kept walking.