Our Now and Forever (Ardent Springs #2)

by Terri Osburn

  ALSO BY TERRI OSBURN

  Ardent Springs novels

  His First and Last

  Anchor Island novels

  Meant to Be

  Up to the Challenge

  Home to Stay

  More to Give

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2015 Terri Osburn

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle

  www.apub.com

  Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake Romance are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

  ISBN-13: 9781503949515

  ISBN-10: 1503949516

  Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa

  For my Moxie Sisters.

  Thank you for understanding that the whining and freak-outs are part of my process.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  “You’re a hard woman to find,” Caleb McGraw said with the soft drawl of a Louisiana native.

  Snow Cameron looked up into the face she’d been avoiding for nearly eighteen months and swallowed hard. The moment of reckoning had come.

  Glancing around to gauge their audience, Snow was relieved to see few customers present, and none of those even seemed to notice the handsome stranger in their midst. At least not yet. She evoked every ounce of control she had to remain calm, hoping the panic shooting up her spine didn’t show on her face.

  Caleb McGraw, his jawline made for marble, and his eyes the shade of a clear blue sky, was the perfect combination of Greek god and good ol’ boy. She’d like to say his eyes were the first thing she’d noticed when she’d almost tripped over him at a New Year’s Eve party nearly two years ago, but his shoulders had been the first draw. Perfect for holding onto during . . .

  Sex is what got you into this mess, young lady. Do not go there.

  “Well,” she said, “my name is over the door. What are you doing here?” she asked, which may have been the most idiotic question ever, but Snow couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  Except maybe, How did you find me? Or, Why didn’t you love me?

  Though Snow had spent endless hours contemplating exactly what she’d do were this unwelcome reunion to occur, she hadn’t expected both fear and joy to light through her system like lightning slicing through an ancient oak. The fear was no surprise, but the joy was so unexpected she was forced to grip the edges of the cash register on the counter in front of her to keep her balance. Thankful to have the counter between them, she waited for his answer with growing dread.

  Crossing his arms, Caleb smirked. “I’d think that was obvious.”

  Snow studied his face, struggling to read his thoughts. Neither anger nor pleasure showed in his features. Though he loomed above her—six feet three inches of solid muscle, as she knew all too well—his stance didn’t feel threatening. If she’d spent as much time learning his mind as she’d devoted to studying his body, maybe interpreting his expression wouldn’t be so difficult.

  With shaking fingers, Snow swiped a wayward curl off her forehead and was reminded that she was wearing a hat. A very pointy hat, along with a tight black dress, red and white striped knee socks, and platform Mary Janes.

  Why did he have to find me on Halloween? she thought.

  The downtown vendors of Ardent Springs held a trick-or-treating event for area children every year, which would start in less than an hour. Snow had donned the witch costume to show her town spirit, as there were still several locals who never let her forget that she was a newcomer, regardless of being a resident for more than a year now.

  From her left, Snow spotted Lorelei Pratchett hustling toward them from the back of the store, looking intent on learning the identity of the man staring at Snow with unblinking blue eyes.

  “I’m really busy right now,” she said, hoping Caleb would agree to continue this conversation at a later time, preferably in private. Not that she wanted to be alone with him, but if anyone learned exactly who he was . . .

  “Who do we have here?” Lorelei asked once she reached the end of the counter.

  “Nobody,” Snow said, at the same time Caleb introduced himself.

  “Caleb McGraw,” he offered, repeating his name for a second time, as Snow had spoken over him the first. “I’m here to see Snow.”

  Giving her friend a you-lucky-girl look, Lorelei said, “You two know each other?”

  “It’s been a while,” Snow answered, determined to keep the details slight.

  “Seventeen months, three weeks, and four days,” Caleb said, shocking Snow into silence.

  He’d kept track down to the day. Had he been looking for her all that time? She knew he’d eventually seek her out, as they had business that would someday need to be resolved, but since she’d mattered so little to him, Snow assumed there’d be no rush.

  Unless . . .

  “If you don’t mind,” she said to Lorelei as she rounded the counter, “Caleb and I need to discuss something. Could you watch the register for a few minutes?”

  Lorelei’s brows shot up, but she didn’t ask any more questions. “Happy to.” Making a shooing motion, she added, “You two take all the time you need.”

  “Follow me,” Snow said to Caleb, then hurried through the store to the back room. Once inside, she spun and asked, “What do you want?”

  “You know the answer to that,” he said, pinning her to the spot with an unrelenting glare.

  “No, actually, I don’t.” She had a guess, and the thought made her nauseated. Another unexpected reaction.

  Instead of pulling out the divorce papers she assumed he’d want her to sign, he said, “You left.” Two words that felt like a one-two punch.

  “Yes,” she said, her voice weak. There was no reason to deny the truth.

  “Why?”

  Tapping into unknown depths of bravado, Snow answered. “Mistakes were made. I didn’t see any reason to keep making them.”

  “After all this time, you think that’s a good enough answer?” He straightened up off the wall with his words.

  What did he want from her? Some tearful explanation of how he’d hurt her? A philosophical discussion about the negative effects of making spontaneous, emotional decisions and why there’s a reason the brain should have more sway than the libido?

  Snow had some pr
ide left. Even if she was having this conversation looking like she belonged behind a cauldron, minus the green skin. There was only so far she was willing to go for town acceptance, and goopy green makeup went beyond that.

  “I have a business to run here, and trick-or-treating kids will be arriving soon.” He didn’t need to know the fun didn’t start for another forty minutes. “If you have more to say, you’ll have to come back at closing time when I’m free.”

  “When is that?” he asked.

  She’d hoped her lack of cooperation would result in him storming out and never coming back. The idea of having a second round set up a pounding in her temples.

  She considered lying, but something told her to stick with the truth. “Seven.”

  “I’ll be here at six forty-five.” With a nod, he strolled back into the store as if they’d done little more than chat about the weather. Caleb should have been fighting mad. He should have been making demands and refusing to be tossed into the street after eighteen months of nothing.

  If he had ever loved her, he’d be doing all of those things. His lack of feeling wasn’t a revelation, but having the reality confirmed so clearly felt as if the betrayal had happened all over again.

  Worried that Lorelei might stop him on his way through the store, Snow hastened to catch up and intercept any further interrogation. Though she’d been back in her small Tennessee hometown for less than six months, Lorelei Pratchett had regained the local tendency to grill strangers who dared step inside the Ardent Springs city limits.

  As Caleb approached the exit, Lorelei paused her straightening of a perfectly organized china display to ask, “So how long will you be with us?”

  Cutting his blue eyes toward Snow, he said, “That depends on my wife.”

  Another subtle nod and Caleb exited the store, leaving bells jingling in his wake and a gaping Lorelei shocked speechless for what Snow guessed to be the first time in her life.

  “Did he say—”

  Snow held up her palm to cut off the question, and dropped into the yellow brocade chair behind her.

  Stepping up beside her, Lorelei leaned down and whispered, “Vegas?”

  Snow’s head jerked up. “How do you know about Vegas?”

  “You pretty much gave yourself away earlier this month, at the Ruby festival,” said Lorelei. “Spencer and I were talking about setting a wedding date, and you vehemently preached against the evils of getting married in Las Vegas.”

  Pulling off her hat and twisting the wire-trimmed brim in her hands, Snow asked, “Was I that obvious?” At Lorelei’s nod of affirmation, she sighed. “Then, yes. That’s Vegas.”

  Caleb watched the entrance to Snow’s Curiosity Shop from the driver’s seat of his Jeep parked less than half a block away just in case she tried to make a run for it. Again. Her unexpected departure eighteen months before had been a blow to his ego, and he’d be damned if he’d take that hit a second time. Not after it had taken him so long to find her.

  Tapping the steering wheel, he recalled restoring the ’85 Wrangler with Uncle Frazier, the man who’d been more of a father to Caleb than his own had ever been. Rebuilding a drive shaft might be easier than saving his marriage. At least cars came with manuals. He didn’t even know why his wife had run, let alone what needed fixing.

  The morning he’d woken to find her gone, only two months into what he thought would be a long and happy marriage, he’d looked all over the house, interrogated the cook and gardeners, even Snow’s parents, who’d arrived the day before for a meet-the-family weekend, but no one knew where she’d gone.

  Later in the morning, his mother-in-law had found a note written in Snow’s fluid handwriting and left on the older woman’s suitcase. It read, Don’t worry. I’ll be in touch.

  At the time, Caleb couldn’t decide what had angered him more—that she’d left a note for her mother and not him, or that Snow had included so little information. Where the hell had she gone? Or better yet, why had she felt the need to go anywhere at all?

  His parents had been quick to point out how another impetuous decision had blown up in their son’s face. One more thing, per Jackson McGraw, Caleb had failed to stick with, as if his wife’s leaving had been his own doing.

  Vivien McGraw had patted Caleb’s arm, tittering that this was all for the best and now he could go about finding the right girl, making the sudden abandonment by his wife sound like little more than losing a button off his shirt.

  Caleb didn’t want a new girl. He’d found the right girl, and now he had to freaking find her again.

  Dammit.

  The fact that there was merit in his parents’ reactions only heightened his anger and embarrassment. Yes, Caleb had a history of diving into endeavors like college majors and careers with little forethought. But marrying Snow had not been a rebellious whim, and finding himself divorced at twenty-eight was not the same as changing his major from communications to economics.

  This was his life, and if it took every penny in his sizable trust fund, Caleb was going to save his marriage and prove his parents wrong.

  Before leaving for the airport the morning of her disappearance, Snow’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Cameron, had seemed embarrassed and repeatedly apologized for their daughter’s behavior. They’d answered all his questions about where she might have gone, but in the end, they didn’t know any more than he did. They’d agreed that Nashville was the best place to look. That’s where he and Snow had met, and the only place she’d ever lived other than where she’d grown up in Alabama.

  The fact that Caleb didn’t know enough about his new bride to know her geographic history served as one more nick in his already battered ego.

  Since that day, Caleb had made six trips to the Tennessee capital and nothing had turned up until today, when he’d stumbled across a flier posted to a music store bulletin board. The event advertised had been held in early October, which meant if the little store on Twelfth Avenue had been more diligent about clearing their board, Caleb might never have found Snow at all.

  The slip of paper listed several festival sponsors, including Snow’s Curiosity Shop. The odds were slim, but Caleb had been chasing shadows for so long that any lead had felt worth exploring at that point.

  And here she was. The moment his watch clicked to 6:44 p.m., Caleb crossed the street with added determination. This time, he wasn’t leaving without answers. And better ones than, Mistakes were made. What did that even mean?

  So they hadn’t known each other long before getting hitched in Vegas. They had plenty of time to get to know each other after the wedding. They had ’til death did they part, for crying out loud. All married couples went through a kind of transition period. Not that he’d been married before, but he’d seen enough to know that two months wasn’t nearly enough time to settle into a lifetime commitment.

  Chimes sounded overhead as Caleb once again crossed the threshold of Snow’s shop. He hadn’t taken two steps in when a skeleton wearing nothing but a purple top hat warned him to beware of the enchanting witch. The motion-activated doorman was more accurate than he knew, but Caleb wasn’t about to be warned off now.

  Not only was he not leaving this town without answers, he was also not leaving without his wife.

  Chapter 2

  Snow had never wanted to lock a door as much as she did at 6:44 that Halloween night. The only thing that prevented it, other than the fact the store was technically still open, was the knowledge that Caleb would not give up so easily. She had no illusions that he loved her or had come to take her home, but he wanted answers.

  And Caleb was used to getting what he wanted. In fact, there was a good chance that Snow’s removing herself from his life had been the first time anyone had dared take away something that, in his mind, belonged to him. Unfortunately, this was an aspect of her husband’s personality Snow hadn’t uncovered until after they were married.<
br />
  By the time she’d met Caleb that fateful New Year’s Eve nearly two years ago, Snow had eaten enough cup-of-soup dinners to send her sodium levels soaring, and she hadn’t been anywhere beyond Alabama and Tennessee in her whole life. So when her doting boyfriend of two months offered an all-expenses-paid weekend at the Bellagio, she’d jumped at the chance to have a true adventure.

  Snow knew the nuptials had not been premeditated, as no one could fake that kind of shock when they’d both opened their eyes that bright January morning sprawled naked across a heart-shaped bed, sporting matching ten-dollar wedding bands. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t blame him for fogging her brain with incredible sex and an endless supply of smooth Southern charm.

  The tinkle of bells over the front door brought Snow back to the present. She stepped away from the counter, pressing her body against the craggy brick wall behind her. The only other person in the store was Lorelei, who was taking longer than usual to sweep up, something she’d never bothered to do before. Snow was grateful for her friend’s delay tactics. If she’d had to wait for Caleb by herself, she might have snuck out the back door and made a run for it.

  Except she would never abandon the business she’d built from nothing. Not after working so hard to make something for herself. Growing up in a family in which money was tight and ambition nearly nonexistent, owning her own business had never entered Snow’s mind as a real possibility. If she hadn’t been mostly cut off from her naysaying parents for the last year and a half, she’d likely never even have given the store a shot.

  Though she missed her family desperately, and made occasional trips to Nashville to ship birthday and holiday presents from a random post office, Snow didn’t miss their negativity. She’d found the freedom to become her own person a heady experience. In truth, her defiant move to Nashville to chase the dream of becoming a singing sensation had been little more than a ruse to avoid being stuck in a meaningless life.