by Lauren Wood
“Yeah let’s get out of here. We have some work to do back at the house that needs to get done.”
Scott was happy to hear that and he insisted that he sit in the middle in the truck. I ignored his sister to make him think it was all a fluke and he finally started to relax. The last thing I wanted to do was to fight with Scott. We’d never fought in all of these years and it wasn’t going to start now. I knew better.
The ride back I was silent and listened to the two siblings talk. The first bit was about their dad and how he was doing. Scott worried that there was something wrong and their mom had called her back to be there, but she assured him that it wasn’t the case.
“No, I just had to get out of there for a little while. My grades are good enough that I didn’t have to stay the last two weeks, so I left. I just wanted to get back home and I don’t know, chill I guess. It doesn’t have anything to do with dad.”
Scott seemed relieved and I was relieved as well. The man was a good role model to me and I knew that I needed to visit more. I owed it to Ted, but when I saw him how he was now, I didn’t know what to say and I froze. I told myself that it was worst to do that.
“So what happened?”
She didn’t want to talk about it, but Scott kept pushing the subject and made her.
“I broke up with my boyfriend and it got messy. I don’t want to talk about it Scott.”
“Was that the professor you’ve been dating?”
I snuck a look over at her and our eyes met for a moment. She didn’t want me to know about that, but I had to wonder why I’d never heard it before. Most likely I had heard Scott railing on about her, but I hadn’t cared. I was feeling so damn foolish now for not caring. Look at her. What an idiot I was back then to have been so aloof with her. I’d made her cry and now I was the one regretting it more than ever.
“Yes, it was him.”
She bit out the words and I just focused on the road like I wasn’t even there to hear it all.
“Well I told you that you shouldn’t be with some old guy. He’s almost as old as me and Carl. You’re too young for guys our age.”
I didn’t have to look at Scott to know that he’d said it like that for a reason. He had seen me checking his sister out and he wanted to make sure that I knew it wasn’t okay to do so. He was putting his foot down, drawing the line in the sand and it was as transparent as if he had actually done either one literally.
“You’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’ve learned my lesson on older guys Scott.”
Chapter 4
Melanie
I could have hit my brother. I really could have. I don’t know what he was thinking bringing all that up in front of Carl. He didn’t know what the big deal was, but I couldn’t believe that he had said those things about Dustin. I didn’t want Carl to know that I was dating a professor. He’d told me long ago that I should date people my own age. I never had.
My face was red and I just look out the window at the ever changing countryside and I was happy to be back where everything was familiar. This was the same scene that I’d run past many times before and it was unsettling now to see some of the changes taking place since my last visit.
“Did they sell the market?”
“Yeah, it’s going to be one of those chain supermarkets soon. They finally sold out.”
“I’m going to miss that place. I remember working there every summer when I was in boarding school. It was a really nice place to go, so different than everything else. Never did find another place when I was in San Diego that was anywhere near like it.”
It was usually all local vendors and lots of them that would gather together every weekend and sell locally made goods. It was a great time for me and I hated to see the sales sign on the front that told the world that it was sold. Every time I came home, something else had changed and I still didn’t like it.
“Do you know what Lily is going to do?”
“I don’t know. I think she is going to retire. She talked about getting the old Johnson Mill and trying to make something of it, but I don’t think she is going to, not if there is more competition coming in that she can’t compete with.”
It was sad to hear the old woman was calling it a day. I promised myself that I was going to go and see her while I was here. She was always so nice and I’d really enjoyed working for her. I’d learned a lot of new things from Lily.
The house came into view and a feeling of anxiety and happiness came over me. This place will always be my home, but everything was so unclear. Coming home was always a mix of emotions and seeing Carl right off the bat, if at all was not something I’d prepared myself for. I’d embarrassed myself with him, but I’d learned from my mistakes and I told myself that I was never going to do that again.
I grabbed my bag and was out of the truck before anyone could say anything else. Mom was on the porch waiting for me, always somehow knowing when I was home. She hugged me and I don’t know why, but it was times like this when a girl needed her mother. A bad break up was one of those occasions and this one had been a doozy.
I looked back to see Carl watching me with a new interest and curiosity in his eyes and my brother looking at his friend differently as well. I hadn’t expected my time at home to be so eventful.
Focusing my attention on mom, I went inside and smelled the familiar smells of the house I’d grew up in as a child. It always did take me back to a different time. Everything was so much easier back then and it was hard for me to believe it. I knew that I wanted to be back at home. This was where I was supposed to be.
***
“So tell me what happened, Melanie? I know that you were together for a while.”
I hadn’t wanted to tell her, but mom had a way about her and I wanted to tell someone. I was dying to really and it was impossible for me to think of anything else to say but the truth.
“He cheated on me and made a fool out of me basically.”
It was all I could get out before I started crying a little bit. It was the truth and now that it was said out loud, it made me feel even worse. All of the time that I’d tried to keep it in the last week was killing me. Everyone on campus knew about it because Dustin hadn’t seemed to care that he was humiliating me.
“Come now, Melanie. It can’t be as bad as you have made it out to be in your head.”
It was and when I started to tell her who he cheated on me with, she could see why I was so upset.
“Amber?”
I shook my head and I angrily pushed the tear from my eye. “Yea, Amber.”
“But you’ve been friends for…”
I agreed because I knew what she was going to say. We’d been friends, best friends since boarding school and my parents had met her several times. We were so close that she’d stayed the second and third year all summer with me because her own family was on shaky grounds. I’d tried everything to fully understand what happened, but I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. I would have never thought that Amber would do something like that to me, but she had. He had too.
It was the betrayal and public humiliation of it all that really bothered me. It still did and I guess that’s why I was back home, licking my wounds before I emerged once more to start again. Right now I didn’t want to even try getting over it. I wanted to feel bad that two people I loved had hurt me so much.
“I know. I don’t know what happened. Maybe they are in love and maybe the love that me and Dustin had was never real. I don’t know and it hurts to think about it sometimes.”
“You know that you’re perfect Melanie and it’s not you.”
I liked to think that it was true, but I really wasn’t sure. What I was sure of was the fact that I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. I was tired of feeling so bad about it all and I just wanted to forget it all. Dustin and Amber could have each other and I tried to reason that it was better that I found out this way, but that was a hard feeling to actually have.
“I think I’m
going to go over to Lily’s later, see how she is doing. I passed the market and I can’t believe she sold it.”
Mom was sidetracked with her own thoughts. “Yeah, things have been changing around here. Make sure you see your father before you go. I told him you were coming and he’s been up for a while waiting for you.”
“Okay, but don’t say anything about Dustin please. I don’t want him to think that anything is wrong. I hate when he worries. He needs to spend all of his energy on getting well.”
She smiled in a sad way and agreed. “I won’t say a word. I don’t think he liked Dustin when he met him on campus anyways.”
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MOUNTAIN MAN’S BEAUTY - SNEAK PEAK
PREVIEWS
A MOUNTAIN MAN ROMANCE
MOUNTAIN MAN’S BEAUTY
Ayla:
My mountain man saved me.
Now all I can think about is him.
It’s cold outside and it drives me to his bed.
He warms me up in more ways than one.
A stranger has never been so tempting before.
Now I can’t get him out of my mind.
Bill:
I found her in a desperate position.
She was so damn hot,
Far more beautiful than what I was used to in this rugged place.
I had moved to Alaska to get away from it all.
But something pulled me to Ayla.
I needed her and I couldn’t resist her innocence.
or her lips.
After one night she was mine.
I had claimed her and I was never letting her go.
I wasn’t going to let anything stand in our way, nothing.
***
Chapter 1
Ayla
I was on an adventure, or that is what I told myself anyways. This wasn’t the kind of adventure that I had really planned for, but it was the kind of adventure that I had read about in books. This adventure was one done out of desperation and opportunity that sort of fell into my lap and I was left to navigate it on my own.
I was freshly divorced from a bad marriage and when my great aunt Angie died and left me a plot of land far to the north of where I lived in Seattle, I was quick to jump on it. But now I was wondering if I had made the right decision after all. It was June and all I could see was snow all around me. This didn’t seem like the start that I’d envisioned for myself.
It didn’t seem to be the start of an adventure, but more of a start to a nightmare that I hadn’t seen coming. The snow was everywhere and so bright that it hurt my eyes when I was driving. I knew that I was going to have to figure this out. I had sold my house and most of my belongings to make the trip into the unknown wild part of the country. I was starting to wonder if I had just plain lost my mind and this was what I got for leaving Washington. I had never seen so much snow and such a desolate place in my life. Bad part was I still had a ways to go before I was at my destination, though I wasn’t really sure how far. A mile up here seemed like ten.
Looking around me, I felt the nerves go higher as the road started to get a little worse for wear. I had gotten new tires on the old VW van that I was driving up in and the only reason that I was getting so nervous was because I wasn’t used to this weather.
Checking the GPS, it told me that I only had a few more miles to go, but I saw nothing in the wide open white space around me and that made me a little worried about everything. How was I going to live in a place like this? I had read all that I could about Alaska and I thought I was prepared as best as I could be, but I was wrong. Nothing could prepare me for this, no matter how much I had read. The book didn’t tell me that I was going to get this sinking feeling when I got there and I was going to wonder what the hell I was doing. That’s all I could think of now. What the hell was I thinking when I agreed to this? Why didn’t I just sell the land and the small cabin that was so remote and go on about my life? Had I really had to go so far to get away from it all, to get away from Dennis?
I was a woman of extremes and quick decisions. This was one of those times that I had done a little of both and I wasn’t sure how it was all going to turn out. I’m afraid that this time around, I had made a bad decision that was going to haunt me unless I turned around right now. Even as I thought it though, I knew that I had nothing and no reason to go back.
I never did listen to the smart side of my conscious. A person would think that I would have learned from the same streak that had me married after 6 weeks of courting, but they would be wrong. I obviously never learned my lesson.
Paying far too much attention to the little box that was stuck to my windshield, telling me where to turn, I ran off the road a little bit and overcorrected too much. The tires spun and before I knew what was happening, I was in a snow bank and quickly realized that I couldn’t get out of it. I cursed at my bad luck of my driving skills, not sure which one was worse and sat in the van for several moments, trying to figure out what it was that I was going to do now. I was screwed and it was getting late and it was getting cold. It was the beginning of summer in the rest of the world, but here is just felt like the middle of winter and I was never going to be able to get warm again.
Going to the back, I got on another coat and tried to find my boots. I was bent over, rummaging through a suitcase when I heard a loud knock at the van door and the sound startled me so much that I was unable to stop myself from jumping.
“Miss, can I help you?”
I didn’t know who the rough, gravelly voice was that was asking, but I did need help. I went back to the driver’s side and sat in the seat, opening the door in a rush. I had only socks on and I couldn’t find my shoes that I had just taken off in the dark. It had gotten dark so quickly and it was scary to me how fast it had all happened.
“Um, yes please. I think I am stuck. Do you have a way to pull me out?”
He said that he didn’t and I couldn’t see much about him from the heavy coat and the hood that cast his whole face in shadows. I knew that I must look a wreck, but when I saw what he was driving, I kind of sighed to myself. I may get some help, but this van wasn’t going anywhere tonight. The snow mobile was probably more practical, but not with what I was wearing. I had on leggings, no shoes and a very large coat that made it hard to maneuver.
“No, no way to pull this van out tonight, but I can give you a ride to wherever it is that you are going. I would suggest you get dressed a little warmer though and maybe get some shoes on.”
I could hear mirth in his voice and I wasn’t honestly feeling very happy about his pleasure in what was going on. I tried not to be rude, he was trying to make light of the situation and that was nice of him in a way, but at the same time, I felt like I was at the end of my rope. There was a big part of me that wanted to say something smart, but I was afraid that he would be offended and leave. So I told him that I was in the process of finding my boots so that I could get out and start walking.
“You don’t want to walk around here at this time of night miss. I will give you a ride home and then we can figure out a way to get your van out in the morning. I have a truck that will do it, but not tonight.”
“Thank you Sir. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come along. I haven’t seen a car in a long time.’
“Well you are on the main thoroughfare, so you are lucky you hadn’t turned off yet. Where are you going?”
I didn’t know the address, but I squinted at the GPS and pushed a couple of buttons to give him the address.
“You’re going to Angie’s old place?”
Angie was my aunt and I felt a little better that he knew who she was. It made it all seem a little less scary that I was going to be riding into the cold, winter night with a complete stranger.
“Yeah sh
e’s my aunt. Well she was my aunt. I got her cabin in her will, so I’m up here to make a go of it.”
“Oh, well I hate to be the one to tell you this, but I doubt you’re going to be able to stay there tonight. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to the cabin to get it ready for winter.”
“It’s June though. I figured that I would have time.”
He looked at me dubiously and I tried to ignore the look as I made my way to the back again and tried to find some boots. I knew that I had brought a pair, but after a few minutes of searching, I gave up and slid my tennis shoes back on. They were just going to have to do.
“That is what you are wearing?”
“Well it’s all that I can find at the moment and I don’t want to keep you waiting.”
“I don’t mind.”
But I did, so I told him that I was fine and that we should get going.
“Okay, suit yourself.”
He had that tinkling sound to his voice and told me to hold on tight when I got on the snowmobile. As I got out of the van to go to him, I was overwhelmed with how much he towered over me and it was hard to deny how it made me feel. I felt like I was a child next to him and he was just so big. It was more than I was willing to think about, though when he got in behind me and wrapped his arms around me to steer the snowmobile, I was almost instantly warmer. He had opened his jacket so that I could tuck into it and it made a big difference. I was thankful for it and when I leaned back against his chest, I was surprised how hard it was against me. There was something about this man that was hard to deny and I wished now that I had been able to see his face. When we started to go though, it became impossible because I had to keep my head down. The cold air and snow whipped at my face and I wanted to burrow into his shirt and jacket even more.