Wrong Size (Gentle Giants #5)

Her ex used her competence against her. Bear apologizes to barstools. She's done dating careful men.
Sara Packer is a third-degree judo black belt who could drop most men without thinking about it. She didn't drop Connor. She knew what he was doing and let him keep doing it anyway, because stopping him would've meant being the person who hurt someone. She's been very careful about who she lets close since.

The man at the bar bumps a barstool on his way to the counter. He catches it. Steadies it. Apologizes to it.

She sets down her drink.

Bear Cole has broken refrigerators, truck beds, and one relationship by being a size that doesn't belong in ordinary rooms. He moves through everything—bars, job sites, his own apartment—with the slow care of someone who doesn't trust himself around breakable things. He sits down next to Sara and they talk for an hour and she thinks, for the first time in three years: I want to see what that looks like when he stops.

Her ex shows up at the dojo on a Wednesday. Bear happens to be in the doorway with a box of resistance bands.

Connor leaves.

Bear doesn't say anything about it. He doesn't ask.

Friday she cooks dinner. By Friday night he's carrying her to the bedroom, turning sideways to get them both through the door. She asked him to stop being careful. He listened.

There's a crack in her headboard now. She's keeping it.