One Perfect Night

More than one of them had bought a gift for his girlfriend or wife. Just that alone would have been enough to make it a great first day. But her friends had gone one step further and told their friends about her store. And, of course, Mia had spent half the day on Twitter and Facebook letting everyone on the planet know about the new store they simply had to check out.
    She’d barely had a chance to think about Noah all day. Or to wonder if Rafe had made any progress in finding him. Or to daydream about how right it had felt when his arms were around her and she was—
    Colbie had to laugh at herself as she grabbed her purse and shut off the lights. Mia was waiting for her at the swanky new cocktail bar down the street to celebrate, so instead of cleaning up now, she’d come back early the next morning to restock.
    Stepping out the back door of her store into the damp, cold Seattle night, she took a deep breath. She loved the Pacific Northwest, and even when a steady stream of cloudy days had her praying for slivers of blue sky, she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
    There were red and pink hearts plastered to every store front in honor of Valentine’s Day. Last year she’d spent it with Rob at an overpriced restaurant with food that had been far too rich for her taste. Of course, her ex had loved it because it was the hottest place in town. If only she’d had the confidence then that she had now, she would never have wasted her time with him.
    Quitting her job had been a risk. Opening up the store had been a risk. Both of those had paid off in spades. Asking Rafe to find Noah was a risk too, but if things kept going this well, Colbie was starting to feel pretty good about her odds....

    * * *

    Noah Bryant loosened his tie and settled into one of the chairs in the cocktail lounge to wait for Rafe. Surprised when he’d texted about meeting up tonight, Noah hadn’t been able to reach his friend all day to find out what was up, but hoping it was good news about Colbie, he’d immediately agreed.
    Noah’d had a busy week at the Maverick Group’s Seattle office, with a big deal he’d been working on for months finally closing. Still, he couldn’t shake his discontent. Because he couldn’t stop thinking about Colbie...and wondering if he was ever going to see her again.
    If it turned out that Rafe hadn’t found Colbie yet, Noah was finally going to do what he should have done a week ago: he was going to call every goddamned number in Lake Tahoe, no matter how long it took to find her. And then he was going to do a hell of a lot better job of convincing her to give him a chance than he’d done last week.
    So many things about her had resonated with him in those first few minutes they’d spent together. The jolt of pure physical attraction. The fact that she was his exact ideal of what a woman should look and feel and smell like. And, most of all, that Colbie was the kind of person who tried to help a little child she thought was in trouble, even when helping someone else meant she was going to get herself into more trouble. She was the kind of woman who went tumbling down a mountain in a stranger’s arms and was far more concerned about making sure she hadn’t hurt him than she was for her own bruises.
    Noah’s parents were in a good, loving relationship. Baggage and commitment issues weren’t the reason he hadn’t yet married and started a family. He simply hadn’t found the right woman yet.
    But in only a handful of minutes in Lake Tahoe, hadn’t he known that he was looking at a woman he could fall in love with? Hadn’t his soul recognized his mate…even as his intellect had tried to get him to look at things rationally?
    His phone buzzed with an incoming text. He saw Rafe’s name and figured he was just checking in about being late. But that wasn’t what the message said.
    I found her.
    Hallelujah! Noah wanted to cheer and pump his fist in the air.
    Where is she?
    Rafe’s answer came a beat later.
    In the bar.
    Noah blinked at the words once, twice, three times before believing them. At which point he stood up so fast he knocked his drink over. But he didn’t stop to right it, not when he was too busy scanning every face in the room to care about the beer dripping onto his shoes.
    And then he saw her. She was standing at the bar with a friend. A friend who was pointing straight at him.
    My God, he thought, just as he had on the mountaintop in Lake Tahoe, she really is the most