A Surprising Fact About Love: Small Town Romance (Silver Ridge Series Book 4)

by Karice Bolton

  Austin’s eyes locked on hers, and he felt the chemistry he’d felt the first time he’d laid eyes on her. If he was going to be honest with anyone he’d met in his life thus far, she was going to be the one.

  “I’m miserable.” He sat back in his chair and smiled.

  “Miserable?” Her brows rose in surprise.

  “Miserable,” he repeated. “I’ve got a lot that makes me happy on the surface, but you can only hide behind fancy cars and good food for so long. Here it goes . . .” He let out a breath. “The moment I met you, I realized something.”

  “And what was that?”

  “I’m lonely.”

  “I thought you were busy.” She narrowed her eyes. “I’m busy, therefore I’m not lonely.”

  “I’m busy, and I’m lonely.” He grinned. “And I have you to thank for that observation.”

  “Me? Why me?” she asked, polishing off her last bite of food.

  “When I met you, I instantly knew what I was missing in my life.” He couldn’t believe he was revealing this to her, and the silence that sat between them indicated that she couldn’t believe it either.

  She let out a slow breath and brought her eyes back to his. “You know, I was planning on sleeping with you anyway. You don’t have to just say these things.”

  Of all the things she could have said, that wasn’t what he was expecting.

  Austin shook his head and laughed. “Wow. Okay, so I know where I stand, but . . .”

  Her right brow arched, and she stirred her mixed drink with the swizzle stick.

  “But I was serious. No sweet talk here.”

  He saw her push down a swallow and wondered what made her more uncomfortable, his honesty or the possibility that she might be feeling the same thing too?

  “Well, if I were completely honest—”

  “I’d say at this point, it’s the only way to be,” he interrupted, laughing. “Because I’m dying over here.”

  She chuckled. “Well, I keep myself busy to avoid loneliness, but I’m not sure another person is what can cure that.”

  “Have you ever tried?” he asked, genuinely curious.

  She shook her head. “Never. Have you?”

  Austin let out a sigh. “Once.”

  A look of surprise darted through her gaze. “Really?”

  “Yep.” He nodded and took a sip of ale. “I was in my early twenties and thought I’d found love. Was sure of it.” He shrugged. “Maybe I had, I don’t know, but she broke my heart.”

  “How?”

  “I’d met her in college. She had a bit of a jealous streak, and since I played hockey in college, she was less than impressed when I went out of town.”

  “Which was probably all the time.”

  “Exactly.” He nodded. “Anyway, I was head-over-heels for her. I’d do anything for her, but I couldn’t understand why she thought I was always cheating on her. I never did. I would never do that to someone.”

  Ashley nodded, looking completely intrigued. “Me neither. But I suppose one would need to be in a serious relationship to even contemplate it.”

  “True.” Austin laughed. “And it sounds like you’ve done a better job of avoiding that than even me.”

  She giggled, and the sound nearly undid every part of Austin. Ashley had no idea what kind of power she held over Austin. “Well, I try, but continue.”

  “This wasn’t in the day of social media and cell phones, so she had to rely on her friends and friends of friends of friends to relay what it was I doing on the road, which was literally nothing except playing hockey. Anyway, when we were together, it was like heaven. We laughed, shared dreams, goals, and fantasies of what the future would hold for us both. I mean, I knew I’d eventually come to Silver Ridge and run it with my brothers, but I still had dreams. Other dreams.”

  He saw something in Ashley’s gaze switch, as if all the walls she’d been trying so hard to keep up had finally started to crumble, partially, at least.

  “Well, what happened?”

  “Like I said, when we were together, it was great. When we weren’t, my life became a virtual hell. She’d have messages sent through teammates, she’d send flowers with creepy notes to the motels we’d stay at. It was extremely bizarre, but I fell for it for years. It was just this cycle of good times and awful times.”

  “That does seem to be how it happens.” Ashley nodded.

  “And I was young. Now, I wouldn’t put up with that for ten seconds.”

  Ashley laughed and ran her finger along her turtleneck, which made Austin chuckle. “I wouldn’t either.”

  “I was foolish enough to ask her to marry me, and I truly did see a future with her. I thought I’d have my first kid before I was thirty, maybe even two or three, and I’d be happy.”

  “So instead, she broke your heart, and you vowed never to trust women again?” Ashley asked, narrowing her eyes on Austin.

  “Almost.” He laughed. “She broke off the engagement, and I let her. I didn’t go after her. I didn’t try to woo her back. I just let her go, and I often wonder if I made a mistake. Maybe, we would have grown up more together, and when I stopped playing hockey, she’d mellow out and I’d learn to ignore the jealousy.”

  “Could have been.” Ashley nodded. “Or you two just weren’t compatible, but your hormones wouldn’t let you see that.”

  Austin chuckled. “I guess there is that option too.”

  Ashley’s eyes locked on Austin’s, and his entire body longed to hold her and make love to her. There wasn’t anything logical about his desire to have her. He supposed there never was. Sure, he’d slept with a lot of beautiful women.

  Finding them was fairly easy in his position, which didn’t make him proud, just realistic. But with Ashley, there was something different he was experiencing. He was enjoying the chase, the discovery, and the end result didn’t need to be rushed.

  Ashley parted her lips to say something, but she closed them quickly. He couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to kiss her, feel the softness of her lips against his, but more importantly, he wanted to know what she was about to say.

  “What?” he asked, smiling.

  “Nothing. It’s silly.”

  “I’m sure it’s not.”

  She squirmed in her chair a little bit, and Austin couldn’t help but think how cute that was. Ashley was confident in so many ways. She was sure of herself, she didn’t see a need to compete with other women, and yet, there were these small moments when he could see a glimmer of insecurity or something he couldn’t quite gauge.

  Like now.

  “What makes a man know he wants to marry a woman? You know, spend the rest of his life with one person?” Her eyes steadied on his, and he saw a quizzical expression running through her gaze.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Surely, you know. You asked a woman to marry you.”

  “In my early twenties.” He smiled. “What made me want to ask her then wouldn’t cut it now.”

  “Okay, so tell me what would make you want to settle down now?” She chuckled. “I mean, we’ve both confessed to being lonely, cynical old people—”

  Austin held up his hand and laughed. “Whoa. I never said I was the cynical one, and I’m positive I never said either of us is old, but it’s good to hear what you really think of me.”

  Ashley laughed, and Austin loved the way she made him feel. Their conversation went in so many different directions, and each was so fascinating.

  Yet, she was still never the one revealing much.

  “Think about it.” Ashley tapped her finger to the table as if she were on to something. “You’ve got a bit of a reputation for not wanting to settle down, right?”

  “I guess that could be the case.” He laughed.

  “And you don’t have a problem finding women to make you unlonely.”

  “I don’t think that’s a word,” he teased. “But no. I guess there is no shortage of women. However, they have nothing to do with l
oneliness.”

  “Sure, they do.” She waved her hands as if to dismiss that portion of the conversation. “But we’ll save that topic for later.”

  “Do we have to?” he joked. She smiled, and he loved every second.

  “Seriously, you haven’t wanted to think about dating or anything until when . . .”

  “You.” He watched her eyes light up but for the wrong reason.

  “Precisely. Because you know I’m leaving town in three weeks.”

  “So, what are you saying? I only like you because you’re impossible to get?”

  “Not impossible to get. I can assure you of that.” She winked. “But impossible to keep.”

  “Is that a challenge?” he asked.

  “It’s a fact.” A cute little smirk fell across her expression, and he loved it.

  Austin knew where she was headed with this, and he knew precisely what he was going to have to do to prove her wrong.

  “So, you think I’ll just sleep with you, and after the three weeks are over, we’ll go our separate ways?”

  A wicked grin spread across her features. “Guaranteed.”

  “Is that so?” Austin had never met a woman like Ashley Malone because he knew for a fact that no other woman remotely like her existed.

  She was feisty, kind, sweet, and honest.

  “Well, you know . . .” His grin deepened. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion.”

  Ashley’s phone buzzed, and she pulled it out of her jacket and stared at it.

  “Everything okay?”

  “I don’t know if this is a ploy from the Finns to get me to stay here or . . .” Her eyes flashed to mine, and she blushed. “If the pass really is closed.”

  Austin glanced outside and saw the snow coming down hard and knew it really was quite the possibility, which of course, would throw his plan into chaos. It’s one thing to send Ashley Malone back down the mountain without sleeping with her, but it was quite another when she would be staying steps away at the resort.

  He let out a low growl and shook his head as he tapped on his phone to bring the pass update.

  “Believe it or not, Sylia didn’t devise a secret romantic plan. The pass really is closed for avalanche control. They don’t expect to open it until tomorrow morning at nine.”

  “Is that so?” she nearly purred, and it took everything Austin had and then some to resist spending the night with Ashley Malone.

  But he knew there was a lot more on the line than Ashley knew.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Ashley didn’t know what snapped, what had changed so suddenly, but the next thing she knew, she’d been dropped off at a beautiful hotel room with a peck on her cheek by Austin, an empty bed, and not even a dream of something more to fill her night.

  Maybe she’d come on too strong or not strong enough. She thought she’d gauged things right, but she clearly didn’t, or she wouldn’t be sitting in front of Sylia, wondering what went wrong.

  “Did Austin do a good job of changing your mind about leaving?” Sylia asked, wiggling her brows.

  Peter had taken the kids sledding down the street, and Sylia insisted on hearing all the details of their date.

  Ashley laughed and shook her head. “We had a great time, but we didn’t sleep together, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

  Sylia pretended to be aghast but chuckled. “I would never ask.”

  “Of course not.” Ashley grinned and took a sip of her water. “We had a great time. He showed me how to stay upright for more than five minutes on skates. We had drinks and dinner, and it was a lovely evening.”

  “But you spent the night.”

  “Because, as you pointed out, the pass was closed.” Ashley’s grin grew. “But Austin was gracious enough to let me stay at the resort free of charge.”

  “Well, I hope he at least threw in a suite.” Sylia rolled her eyes. “Maybe the reason he’s still single is that he doesn’t know how to close the deal.”

  “Oh, from what I’ve heard, he knows how to close ‘em. It’s just that . . .” Ashley debated how much to reveal to Sylia. She wasn’t technically her boss any longer, even though she was staying at their home, but she still wanted to keep it professional. Although that ship probably sailed when Peter and Sylia bought her a ticket to a speed-dating event. “It’s just that for some reason, he just shut down. I thought we were headed there. I even thought I made it pretty clear that I’d happily sleep with him.”

  Sylia eyes widened. She lived for this stuff, and the real-life soap opera was happening in her home, and she loved every second of it.

  “Then what happened?” Sylia asked.

  “I don’t know. Dinner ended, he took me to the front desk, brought me to my room, pecked me on the cheek, and that was it.”

  Ashley wasn’t going to tell Sylia how by the time they’d gotten to the hotel room, her entire body was on fire with need, or how she literally imagined herself on top of him and making the best of her last few weeks in Washington. No, she was going to keep that part to herself.

  She was certain Austin had been leading her on the entire way to the room. He’d caress her back, lean in and whisper close to her ear, and touch her softly in places that made her body crave so much more. Granted, those places weren’t anything over the top, but all he had to do was touch her arm or have his lips accidentally graze her neck for her to be nearly on the floor.

  Maybe he sensed the desperation and backed off. Although, she didn’t think she came off as desperate.

  “Well, have you heard from him since?” Sylia asked.

  “Yeah. That’s the weird part. He wanted to know what I was doing tonight. Wanted to take me out to pizza here in Cherry Hill.”

  “At Frank’s Pizza? I love that place.”

  Ashley laughed. “I’ll be sure to bring you a piece.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate that.” Sylia glanced at the clock and sighed. “I should get some things done before Peter and the kids return. How are you doing with packing?”

  “It’s moments like these when I realize how few things I have.” Ashley attempted to laugh, but the thought made her kind of sad. It never had before. She’d always loved that she’d never settled at one place too long to collect junk and never had to sort through much to pick up and leave.

  But this time was different. It was becoming more and more apparent what it felt like to not have roots down. There really was no home. Sure, home was where the heart was, but she was beginning to get concerned whether she had one.

  “Well, you need any help at all, and I’ll be sure to send Peter.” Sylia wrinkled her nose and stood from her chair before sighing. “Duty calls.”

  “Have fun.” Ashley stared out the window and thought about trudging through the snow to check on the lettuce inside the greenhouse. She also debated about whether to cancel on Austin.

  She let out a disgruntled sigh, hopped up from the chair, and bundled up before making her way through the snow into her happy place.

  Ashley had always loved gardening, but when she found out the Finns had a greenhouse they never used, she was in heaven. She immediately began growing vegetables and flowers for the family and considered it a huge perk of living here. Unfortunately, the next house she was going to didn’t have a greenhouse, but they did have a pool and a tennis court. Considering she burned like a lobster and tripped over her own feet whenever it came to swinging at things, she’d probably get a lot of reading done in her off-hours.

  Ashley pulled on the door to the greenhouse, and the damp warmth immediately hit her. She smelled the tomato plants and spotted her butter lettuce and romaine in the corner. She’d packed quite a bit into the space, but once she’d learned about hydroponic growing, her growing ability really changed.

  As she grabbed a pair of scissors to snip some of the lettuce, her phone buzzed. Glancing at the screen, she had to laugh.

  Couldn’t stop thinking about you and came to Cherry Hill early. You free or need help packing?


  What to do about Austin North? He was definitely sending her mixed signals. She’d been certain they’d been on the right track for a one-night stand. Something she was strongly opposed to until she spent time with the man, the myth, and the legend. There was a pull to Austin that called out sex to her in every imaginable way, and in turn, she thought she was dropping hints that she’d be game to spend a night with him.

  Then nothing.

  But a pizza offer.

  She let out a sigh and tapped her foot as she stared at her tomatoes. She thought it was quite an accomplishment to have several full tomato-producing bushes in the middle of winter, and it was. It also took a lot of electricity and wonderful people like the Finns who didn’t care about paying the bills, but back to Austin North. She set her scissors down and typed quickly.

  Where are you?

  It only took him an instant to reply.

  Out front.

  She wrote back.

  At the Finns’?

  He typed back a smiley face.

  I take that as a yes?

  A knock on the greenhouse door startled Ashley and she spun around to see a very sexy Austin North standing on the other side. She smiled and opened the door, and he quickly stepped inside and shut the door behind him.

  “It’s cold out there.” He blew into his hands.

  “I’m surprised you don’t have gloves.” She turned to harvest more lettuce and smiled to herself. Maybe things didn’t go as upside down as she thought, or maybe he merely sees Ashley as a friend.

  “I didn’t expect you to be outside in the middle of winter.” He took a step forward, and she could feel him next to her. It was as if she were keenly aware of every single movement and thought from Austin, which was precisely the issue. She thought he was interested, but she’d never seen someone leave a hotel room quite so quickly.

  Not that she’d ever been in that situation in the first place.

  “I pretty much garden all year round.” She smiled proudly.

  “That’s not easy to do in the mountains.” He grinned and took a pear tomato off the nearest plant and popped it into his mouth. “And they taste amazing.”