by Sarah Hegger
Walk On By
#3 PASSING THROUGH
Sarah Hegger
Dedication
To Debbie and Emily,
because it’s about damn time I dedicated a book to you girls.
For all the love and all the family feels, this one’s for you.
Acknowledgments
This book stumbled into publication as we were moving out of our house in Colorado, USA, and making the trip back to our new house in Ottawa, Canada.
There were times—I tell you—times when this looked like it wasn’t happening. But here the book is and here she stands, and I love her.
And she stands thanks, as always, to Penny Barber and Renee Rocco.
And also thanks to my bestie, Chris Kennedy. Nobody gets my weird quite like your weird does.
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 Sarah Hegger
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
Format and cover design by: Renee Rocco
First Electronic Edition: July 2019
ISBN-13: 978-1-7329331-7-0
ISBN: 978-1-7329331-8-7
Praise for Sarah Hegger
Positively Pippa
“This is the type of romance that makes readers fall in love not just with characters, but with authors as well.”
—Kirkus Review (Starred Review)
“What begins as a simple second-chance romance quickly transforms into a beautiful, frank examination of love, family dynamics, and following one’s dreams. Hegger’s unflinching, candid portrayal of interpersonal and generational communication elevates the story to the sublime. Shunning clichés and contrived circumstances, she uses realistic, relatable situations to create a world that readers will want to visit time and again.”
—Publisher’s Weekly, Starred Review
“Hegger’s utterly delightful first Ghost Falls contemporary is what other romance novels want to grow up to be.”
—Publisher’s Weekly, Best Books of 2017
“The very talented Hegger kicks off an enjoyable new series set in the small Utah town of Ghost Falls. This charming and fun-filled book has everything from passion and humor to betrayal and revenge.”
—Jill M Smith, RT Books Reviews 2017 / Contemporary Love and Laughter Nominee
Becoming Bella
“Hegger excels at depicting familial relationships and friendships of all kinds, including purely platonic friendships between women and men. Tears, laughter, and a dollop of suspense make a memorable story that readers will want to revisit time and again.”
—Publisher’s Weekly, Starred Review
“…you have a terrific new romance that Hegger fans are going to love. Don’t miss out!” Jill M. Smith
—RT Book Reviews
Nobody’s Fool
“Hegger offers a breath of fresh air in the romance genre.”
—Terri Dukes, RT Book Reviews
Nobody’s Princess
“Hegger continues to live up to her rapidly growing reputation for breathing fresh air into the romance genre.”
—Terri Dukes, RT Book Reviews
“I have read the entire Willow Park Series. I have loved each of the books … Nobody’s Princess is my favorite of all time.”
—Harlequin Junkie, Top Pick
Contents
Walk On By
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Copyright
Praise for Sarah Hegger
Contents
Walk On By
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Epilogue
Sarah Hegger
Tick to Ride
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Books by Sarah Hegger
Walk On By
Sarah Hegger
SarahHegger.com
Chapter One
Some things never change. Unfortunately, the Bugling Elk in Twin Elks, Colorado, was one of them. Gabe had traveled as far as his passport could take him, lived away from Twin Elks for over fifteen years, and he could say, with certainly, that it remained one of the ugliest bars he’d even been in.
“Gabe Crowe. And still pretty.” Maddison Watts, the Elk’s owner and barkeeper, leaned her elbows on the counter. “Beer?”
“Whatever’s cold and on tap.” The beer there was always good and cold.
A white spangled Elvis suit with yellow armpit stains still watched over the bar. Elvis bobbleheads, allegedly the largest collection in the state, were right where they’d been when he last saw them, stacked up next to the singing carp, which he’d lay money still did an eerie version of Take Me to the River. A couple more pairs of panties might decorate the elk head hanging over the women’s bathroom, but Gabe didn’t want to get any closer to check it out.
The characters in the bar hadn’t changed any either.
Ronnie Falkirk, well into her eighties and still working dispatch for Gabe’s brother Ben, sidled up next to him. “Well, well, well.” She waggled her shocking copper-colored head and eyed him with a sharp brown gaze nearly buried beneath layers of blue goo. “Look who’s back in town.”
“Hey, Ronnie.” Gabe expected no less. He’d gotten out of Twin Elks for college and came back as rarely as he could get away with. “You look good.”
“No, I don’t. I’m older than dirt.” Ronnie cackled and winked at him. “Your mom sure must be glad to have you back.”
Guilt double-tapped him, and Gabe hid his wince behind a sip of beer. “Yup.”
“She missed you.” Ronnie layered more guilt on. “Missed all her boys, really. Other than Ben. Of course, he didn’t go anywhere.” She whistled and wheezed out a laugh. “Got himself a nice little family now, Ben has.”
“Yup.” Gabe had returned for Ben’s wedding a few weeks back. At the time, he had every intention of getting back to Australia as soon as he could. Funny how life laughed when you were making plans.
Ronnie motioned Maddison over and placed her order for a pitcher of margaritas
. “Girls and I still have our regular book club meeting.”
Gabe followed her gaze to the far corner.
The group of seven or so octogenarians waved and hollered at him.
Maddison motioned his empty glass. “Get you another one, Gabe?”
“Sure.” He had nothing else to do. Ma had bustled off to one of her meetings and Ben was tucked up with Poppy and her kids.
He liked Poppy, and after Ben’s disastrous first marriage to Tara, Gabe was happy for him. Ben loved Twin Elks and had come back from his tours of duty and settled into being police chief.
Gabe didn’t feel the same. Not even a little bit. Of course, Ben got on his high horse about being the only brother doing his part by Ma. Yeah, Gabe felt like shit about that. Not shit enough, however, to stick around.
The only reason he was still there was that, at this precise moment, his options were somewhat curtailed.
“Whelp!” Ronnie gathered up her pitcher. “See you around, Gabe.” She stopped and waggled her painted-on eyebrows. “While you’re in town, you should drop in on that nice young lady veterinarian we got now.”
“Will do.” He tapped the bar to get Maddison’s attention. “Wanna add a Jack shooter to that beer?” He got the feeling he was going to need it.
“You got it, handsome.” Maddison grinned at him.
Maddison had served him his first legal drink with a grin like that one. Like her father before her, Maddison was a Twin Elks fixture. He bet the local teens still tried to convince her they were twenty-one and fool her with their fake IDs.
Good luck with that in a town like Twin Elks where Maddison had probably attended their baptisms.
A few people he didn’t recognize were playing darts in the far corner. Not that he was likely to know everyone anymore, but Ben had been having trouble with locals and newcomers recently. After an incident with Finn Williams a while back, things had died down.
“They okay?” He asked Maddison as she pulled a draft.
Maddison glanced at the group. “Oh, yeah. Mostly that lot are looking for some action.” She waggled her eyebrows. “If you know what I mean.”
“In Twin Elks?” The singles scene was deader than three-day-old roadkill. It wasn’t even nine a.m., and the Elk was the only place open.
Maddison shook her head. “Go figure! They keep talking about this thing on that Facebook and stuff.”
It was an indication of his level of boredom that he asked, “What thing?”
“Well, would you look what the cat dragged in?” Hank Styles clapped him on the shoulder. “Gabe Crowe, right back here in Twin Elks.”
“Hey, Hank.” Gabe shook Hank’s hand. It looked like Hank had shrunk.
“Woo hee!” Frank shook his grizzled head. “Dot must be tickled pink to you have you back.”
“Yup.” He wasn’t staying in Twin Elks, but he didn’t feel like that conversation was one he wanted to have. People in Twin Elks didn’t get why anyone would want to live anywhere else.
Hank cackled and nudged him. “You clapped eyes on that pretty new lady veterinarian we got here?” He nudged Gabe again. “Wanna find yourself a sick creature and make her acquaintance. If you know what I mean?”
Gabe very much did know what Hank meant and reached for his Jack shooter. It burned the back of his throat and hit his stomach like an anvil.
Damn! He’d forgotten how rough that first one was.
Hank leaned in on a waft of cherry pipe tobacco and jerked his head at the dart players. “Wanna get your feet under the table before that lot do. Competition for the fillies is getting mighty stiff hereabouts.” Hank cackled and nudged him. “Mighty stiff. Get it. ”
Gabe managed a wan smile.
“Well, well, well. Look who’s back in town.” A curvy blonde with big blue eyes took Hank’s place beside him. Her mouth, almost too big for her face, broadened into a smile that promised naughty things. “And drinking already.”
And, hello to you too. It took Gabe a moment to place her, and then he grinned. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Kelly Ashford.” He let his gaze deliberately linger from her booted feet, over the tight fit of her jeans, up to the way she filled her flannel shirt very nicely and back to her pretty face. “And looking as tasty as ever.”
“Shuddup, Gabe.” Kelly nudged his shoulder. “You had trouble even remembering my name.”
Busted, and he didn’t even try to fake it. “It’s been a long time, and we only shared a couple of classes together.”
“We shared every class, Gabriel Crowe. Every single one.” She raised a brow at him. “I even sat next to you for most of those.”
The ball busting, Gabe remembered, and a whole lot more about Kelly. “As I recall, you only cared about Vince Greerly back then, so how would you even know if I sat next to you?”
“You were hot.” Kelly shrugged and then chuckled. “Shame how you’ve let yourself go.”
He might have taken offense if the look in her eyes hadn’t said an entirely different thing. A tingle of awareness tiptoed up his spine.
An answering spark lit her blue eyes.
Kelly had always made him laugh back in school, and the way he had always noticed her sexy curves was all coming back to him. Unlike a lot of stick-insect women, Kelly was built to be explored and savored. She looked soft and silky in all the right places.
Kelly cocked her head, sending a fall of blond curls tumbling down her arm. Even her hair looked ready for a man’s hands to get tangled in it. Kelly Ashton screamed forties sex siren and damned if Gabe didn’t like it.
“Are you ogling me?” She raised a brow.
“Yeah.” Gabe didn’t bother to hide it. “Vince was a lucky guy.”
Her smile faded. “Pity Vince didn’t think so.”
“I sense a story.” Gabe didn’t want to be alone anymore, so he patted the barstool next to him. Time with Kelly Ashford was just what he needed. “Tell doctor Gabe all about it.”
“You’re a veterinarian.” Kelly perched her sweetly rounded ass on the barstool anyway and motioned Maddison. “I’ll have what he’s having, and he’s buying.” Her smile was pure evil. “Speaking of veterinarians.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard.” He gave her a hard stare. “Apparently she and I should get acquainted.”
“You totally should.” Kelly kept her face straight, but her blue eyes laughed at him. “Then the two of you can make sweet, animal love to each other.”
More good memories bloomed, specifically how much he’d liked sharing a desk with Kelly. “There’s nothing sweet about animal love, Kelly.” Sexual awareness entered the two feet separating them and swirled with possibilities. Not that either of them had to act on those possibilities, but a little hot flirting might make the walk to the Elk worthwhile. “Animal love is dirty, hard and nasty.”
“I hear it’s also quick.” Kelly pulled a face. “Kind of over before it’s worth it.”
Holding her gaze, he shook his head slowly. “Nah, that’s only because you haven’t been doing it with the right animals.”
“Gabe Crowe.” Kelly fanned herself with her hand. “Look at you, turning the heat up on a girl.”
“Is it working?”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “I’ll let you know.”
Gabe picked up his new shot of Jack. “In the meantime, why don’t we drink?”
“That’s a great idea.” Kelly downed her shooter without a flinch. “I actually came in here for a burger, but this is a way better idea.”
“A burger?” Gabe barely suppressed his shudder. “From here?”
“Times have changed.” Kelly gave him a serious face. “Maddison hired a new cook a couple of years back. We don’t know much about him, but he makes one helluva burger.”
Ma had made him dinner, but Gabe always seemed to have room for something else. Fortunately
, he had the metabolism to allow for that. “Wanna have dinner with me?”
“Are you planning to put out?” Kelly giggled.
Gabe couldn’t resist smiling. “I’ll let you know.”
Kelly ordered their burgers before turning back to him. “You know what? Why don’t we get our burgers to go and take a drive?”
“Lookout Point?” Some things you never forgot no matter how long you’d been away.
Kelly grinned. “You got it.”
Despite the flirting, being with Kelly was comfortable and Gabe nodded. They waited for their burgers and then took them to Kelly’s SUV.
It took about ten minutes to get to Lookout Point, plus another five for the quick stop they made for a six-pack of beer along the way.
Lookout Point was not much more than a path beside the main road leading out of Twin Elks. Over time, cars stopping there had made a small parking place.
In the daylight, it was the perfect place to see the rows of orange boulders rising out of the brush and sharing the same diagonal.
At night, it was a great place to stargaze as coyotes chuckled and bitched at each other.
Gabe waited until they were comfortable. “So, no Vince and Kelly and tiny little Vinces and Kellys.”
“Nope.” Her face grew serious and she stared out the windshield. “Vince and I managed to screw that up after our senior year.”
“No.” At Twin Elks High, Vince and Kelly had been the couple who would make it, the high school sweethearts who would beat the odds and stay together forever.
Kelly took a big bite of her burger and chewed and swallowed before she answered, “We got into some stupid fight. Actually, on prom night. I had my panties in a wad and wouldn’t let Vince make it up to me.” She waved a hand. “One thing led to another; three weeks later Vince hooks up with Chelsea Finster.”
“Was she the one with the braces and the huge rack?”
“Yup.” Kelly took another bite of her burger. “She still has the huge rack, by the way. The braces are gone, however. She also had Vince until earlier this year.”
Gabe found it hard to believe. “Vince chose Chelsea over you?”
He took a bite of his burger. Kelly was right. Whoever was in Maddison’s kitchen knew their way around some beef and a bun.