The First Love Cookie Club by Lori Wilde Page A

figured out what was going on.
    This town had a way of latching on to romantic legends and milking them for all they were worth,and Sarah interrupting his wedding to Crystal was one of those stories they loved to pass around.
What if Sarah really was his soul mate?
He could just hear the ladies of the First Love Cookie Club posing that question.
    He turned off Ruby Street and motored past the Twilight Cemetery where all his Walker ancestors were buried, including his mother and father. Gone way too young, both of them. His mother had died fourteen years ago at age thirty-eight. His father had followed six years later at forty-four. His folks too had gotten swept up in the sweetheart lore that permeated the town. In all honesty, the fanciful legends had been cooked up by the town’s ancestors as nothing more than a publicity ploy to attract tourists to Twilight, but somehow people forgot about that and bought into it.
    Here was the secret Travis had told know no one. The romantic myths scared him. His parents had been madly in love. They’d both believed they were soul mates, each other’s one true love. He slowed to a stop at the traffic light, remembering his parents together, before his mother’s asthma stole the best of her. They’d been so wrapped up in each other it often felt like he was the odd one out.
    Then after his mother died, his father had crumpled. He’d stopped talking care of himself, stopped taking care of Travis, stopped caring about anything. He’d withdrawn into himself, withdrawn from life and finally … Travis had tried to get through to his dad but it had been like talking to a stone wall. Ultimately his strong love for his wife and his inability to cope without her had cost Chuck Walker his life.
    Travis saw the pain his father had gone through after his mother’s death, witnessed firsthand how grief could completely wipe a man out, and when he’d buried his father, he’d made up his mind he was never going to fall that recklessly in love.

C HAPTER F IVE
    Sarah had walked around the bar twice and was just getting ready to make good her escape when Travis walked in.
    Gone was the Santa suit, and in its place he wore a starched button-down shirt and pressed chinos that in their neatness only served to call attention to his rugged, big-framed body and sharp, angular facial features. He hadn’t seen her yet, hidden as she was in the shadows.
    He was even more handsome now than he’d been nine years ago. His thick dark hair needed a good trim, but the unruly locks softened his steely jaw. His eyes were his standout feature, fathomless gray that seemed to stare straight into you. He shook hands with people, clapped men on the shoulders, lowered his head to whisper something to the women who laughed at whatever he had to say. Every single one of them.
    The guy was a charmer. Always had been, always would be.
    It startled her to realize she was breathing toofast and she’d tightened her left hand into a fist. Irritation that she couldn’t explain, didn’t even want to admit, had her draining the last of her drink and setting the empty glass down on the bar.
    “Want another?” asked the bartender.
    Her head was already a little cloudy. “No thanks.”
    She turned away from the bar, looking for another avenue of escape. If she left through the front door, she’d have to go right by Travis. And if she slipped out the back exit, she’d be giving him all kinds of power over her behavior. Sarah lifted her head, shot a quick glance toward the front door again, and
bam!
    His gaze smashed into hers, eyes glittering with the promise of an indecent proposal. The corner of his mouth lifted impudently and his eyebrows rose. His gaze trailed over her with indolent slowness, causing her body to heat up.
    Ah, damn, he was coming over.
    She took a deep breath, bracing herself for the sensual onslaught that was Travis Walker. She was aware of every loose-limbed step he took, attuned to the magnetic aura