A Little Secret About Love

by Karice Bolton

  Who was she kidding?

  He was most definitely still there.

  She let out a grunt and headed toward her car, her head spinning with ways to get him out of her house.

  She’d had such a good day, like so many others since moving to Silver Ridge, that she’d forgotten what it felt like to drive home, feeling reluctant about what the evening had in store for her. It was insane how having Dom show up in her life made her world frazzled again, but she was determined not to let this become a thing.

  There was no thing, and she certainly wasn’t going to fall for his tricks.

  When she pulled into her driveway, she saw all the lights blazing in her home and knew that Dom was most definitely inside. She debated about turning around and driving over to Autumn’s, but Dom was the kind of person who would take over her house. She had no doubt about that, and then she’d be the one who’d have to go to all the trouble to get him evicted.

  Nope. She was going to march into her home and lay down the law. Those two giant suitcases weren’t only for four days. The more she thought about it, she found herself squeezing the steering wheel as if she were trying to get juice out of a turnip and took a deep breath.

  “Don’t let him get to you,” she said aloud.

  With those words of encouragement to herself, she swung open the car door and jumped out of her car, ready to tackle the problem at hand.

  By the time she went inside, she was ready to throw him out on his ear, but what she found in front of her made her stop in her tracks.

  Dom was standing in the living room with nothing more than a towel barely clutching his waist, his hair, wet from a recent shower, hung around his face, and the kitchen was an absolute catastrophe. He’d completely made himself at home.

  Dina tossed her purse onto the couch and shook her head. “Oh, no, you don’t.”

  He walked over and gave her a big bear hug, the smell of alcohol still swirling around her.

  “Knock it off, you jerk.” She pounded on his chest and started to take a step back just as she heard another man clear his throat behind them.

  “Am I interrupting something?” Sam asked, just as Dina spun around to see him standing in the foyer.

  She’d been so shocked by seeing Dom in her house that she’d forgotten to close the door.

  “Not in the slightest,” she assured him, but Sam’s brow arched.

  “Just reliving some old times.” A sardonic smile spread along Dom’s thin lips, and Dina shook her head. But she did notice her clothes were all wet from where he grabbed her and thought that probably didn’t look so great, considering her history.

  “I got worried because I’d been trying your cell all day,” Sam continued, ignoring Dom’s comment.

  “There’s nothing to worry about. She’s been with me all day.” Dom’s brows furrowed, and she swore she saw him attempt to move what feeble pecs he had.

  “Not even.” Dina shook her head. “I’ve been at the shop all day, but I must have forgotten to turn my phone back on since last night.”

  Sam’s expression hardened, and he gave a quick nod. “I’ll let you two be. Like I said, I only wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  Dina completely ignored Dom, rushing past him to get to Sam, and reached for his hand.

  “Thank you. I’m sure this looks a little off, but there’s absolutely nothing going on.”

  “Not my place if it were.” Sam smiled at her, giving her a hard time.

  “Where is Catrina when we need her?” Dina laughed, shaking her head.

  “Are you going to be okay?” Sam asked.

  “Why wouldn’t she be?” Dom’s voice rose as if he were forty feet away.

  Dina spun around and folded her arms across her chest. “Because I have an unwanted houseguest.”

  “You heard her, buddy,” Dom said, winking and pointing at the door.

  Dina’s cheeks reddened as she turned around to face Sam. “I’m absolutely mortified that I said yes, not once…but three times. I don’t know where my brain was at.”

  “Caught up in the moment, I’m sure.” Sam chuckled, glancing over her shoulder at Dom. “So, where are you planning on staying for the night, Dom?”

  “Right through that door.” Dom pointed down the hall, and Dina rolled her eyes.

  “Well, I just got word that there’s room at the lodge so why don’t you throw some clothes on, and I’ll walk you back to the lobby. The room’s on me.” Sam glanced at Dina, who looked extremely grateful, but she was also being generous considering this had to do with Sam canceling the reservation in the first place.

  “I don’t need your cha-ri-tee,” Dom said in a huff, staring at Dina.

  She honestly had never seen Dom this drunk for this long. She bit her lip, hoping she wouldn’t start laughing as Sam stared at the hopeless case in front of them.

  It was going to take a bit of finesse to get him out of here, but he was willing to play along if that was what it took.

  “Don’t you want to know how he knows there’s room at the inn, so to speak?” Dina questioned, realizing Dom still hadn’t connected the dots about Sam.

  “I really could care less.” Dom walked into the kitchen, his towel moving lower with each step and Dina just shook her head.

  If Sam ever wanted to walk back into Dina’s life after seeing whom she’d been connected with, she’d be surprised.

  While Dom was pouring himself another drink, Sam wandered down the hall to Dina’s bedroom where he stayed for a few minutes before wheeling out Dom’s suitcases.

  “Hey, Dom.” He tossed a pair of sweats and a shirt over to him. “Put these on, and I’ll buy you a drink at the lodge.”

  For some reason, the pull of free alcohol was all it took for Dom to become compliant as he quickly pulled the sweats on—thankfully—underneath his towel and slipped on the t-shirt.

  Dina watched Sam wheel the suitcases out of her house with Dom on his tail, and before she had a chance to even thank Sam, the door had been closed behind them both, and all she could do was collapse on the couch.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Needless to say, Dom didn’t get the ski instructor position, but he did get a free taxi ride to the airport after hotel staff found him butt naked near the ice dispenser on his hotel room floor. It had been two weeks since he’d been escorted off the property, and the image she’d conjured up in her mind still made Dina chuckle.

  Of course, Sam had to deliver the news personally the morning it happened, and thankfully, she hadn’t heard from her ex since, except for one lone text that would make her laugh for years to come.

  Now she was sitting in her workroom, going over her schedule with Anton. The moment she met him, she knew she had to hire him. Anton was mature, responsible, kind, and conscientious. He also didn’t hold back his opinion, which was extremely refreshing.

  “You look tired,” Anton told her as he poured them each a cup of coffee.

  “I feel really tired. I’m starting to think I caught walking pneumonia or something.” She smiled and took a sip. “Since I opened the shop and all the orders started flooding in, I just haven’t quite recovered from the move, or all the work it took to get this place ready or… I’m not even sure.”

  “Hopefully having me here will help a little,” Anton said, taking a seat in front of the veil he’d been working on.

  “You’ve helped more than you know,” she assured him, glancing at her website.

  She was now officially booked until Valentine’s Day, and she saw no signs of things slowing down.

  “So is your girlfriend coming up to Silver Ridge for the holidays?” Dina couldn’t believe it was already mid-October. The first snow was bound to hit the mountains soon, and she still hadn’t taken up Sam on another ski lesson, and it wasn’t that he hadn’t tried.

  She simply didn’t have the time, and she also knew a full season of snow bunnies was on the horizon, and she really didn’t feel like being a fill-in until they arrived.
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br />   “Trina will be here for Thanksgiving, and then I’ll be going to her parents’ house for Christmas.”

  “That’ll be fun.”

  “I hope so.” He smiled. “I don’t think her dad really likes me.”

  What there wasn’t to like about Anton blew Dina away. He was a charming, respectful, and a really cute and driven twenty-something.

  “Dad’s are wired not to like anyone their daughter brings home. That’s the rule.”

  Except in her case. Her parents loved Dom, and after seeing him again recently, it really made her question their sanity. But there were a lot of things in her life that made her question her parents’ sanity.

  “I’m sure you’re right.” Anton nodded, his focus staying on the beadwork in front of him.

  He was working on an online order that had to be shipped out by the end of the week.

  “So what about you?” Anton asked.

  “What about me what?”

  “You and Sam?”

  Dina laughed and shook her head, suddenly feeling like she was on a game show and about to answer the question wrong.

  The problem was she wasn’t even certain she knew what the question was.

  “He’s just a friend.” She cleared her throat and swore she needed to stop doing that when she got nervous. “And my parents rarely care who I’m dating.”

  “So he’s just a friend, but the nudist was your fiancé?” Anton laughed, and she couldn’t help herself and joined in.

  The kid had a good point.

  “There’s a reason I moved to Silver Ridge.”

  Anton’s gaze met hers and his smile only grew.

  “And what’s that? Most designers don’t flee to the most remote part of the planet to open up shop.”

  “First of all, Silver Ridge isn’t that remote. I mean, it might take a little work to get here, but I’m worth it, aren’t I?”

  He chuckled and nodded.

  “But I loved the peace and tranquility, and as Mr. Nudist recently demonstrated, I was lacking that back in Los Angeles. It felt like a circus down there. Besides, I read an article about finding love and loving yourself, and it all came together for me. If I’m meant to fall in love, it will happen no matter where I move. Mr. Right will fall through the door.”

  “Where’d you read that article?” Anton’s brows furrowed. “That’s about as unrealistic as a man falling from the sky for you.”

  Anton was too smart for his own good.

  “Just some blog I follow.” She shrugged.

  “What’s it called?”

  “Emilia’s Love Pursuit,” Dina mumbled the words quickly.

  “You’re kidding.” He rolled his eyes. “My girlfriend follows that one.”

  “Ha! So I’m not alone.”

  Anton shook his head. “Definitely not. She treats it like the Bible.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but so far her advice has been spot on in so many instances.” Dina sighed and wondered if things would be different had she waited thirty days to sleep with Sam. Would there be a greater possibility to have a relationship? Probably not.

  “So is your family coming up for Thanksgiving?” Anton asked and Dina internally cringed. “I bet they want to see your new town.”

  Dina laughed nervously and shook her head. “We don’t really have that kind of relationship.”

  “What do you mean? Your family doesn’t do holidays?” Anton’s brows furrowed.

  “Oh, we celebrate them…Just not necessarily together.” Dina bit her lip and took in a deep breath. “I’m kind of the black sheep of the family.”

  “Does that bother you?”

  “Not so much lately.” Dina shrugged. “I mean it would be nice if they were interested, especially when I see them absorbed in my siblings’ lives, but I have low expectations and that helps.”

  “Ouch.” Anton let out a sigh. “Was there anything that kind of caused the split?”

  “Not that I know of. I had a tiny wild streak in school, but it was nothing more than sneaking out with friends. I think my mom and I just don’t click, and that somehow wore off on my dad.”

  “Curious.”

  “But enough about that.” Dina smiled at her new hire. “I’ll wind up with a therapy bill from you.”

  Anton laughed and continued hand sewing beadwork onto the veil as her thoughts traveled back to Sam. He’d been nothing but gracious, only teasing her about her fiancé now and again over the last couple of weeks. He also hadn’t pressed her to drop what she was doing and spend all her time with him.

  Although, if she were to read into that, it meant he really wasn’t that interested, which was fine because it had all been planned as a one-time thing in her brain anyway.

  She glanced at Anton and wondered how he could be so settled at a young age. She was still confusing herself in her mid-thirties, and she wasn’t quite sure how to stop doing that. Part of the problem was that she wasn’t quite being honest with herself.

  It was extremely difficult to treat Sam North as a one-night stand, especially because he kept popping up with coffees, flowers, and chocolates, and furthermore, she was deeply attracted to every single thing about him.

  When Dominique showed back up in her life again, she realized she’d been used to dating menboys. They disguised themselves as men, but were nothing but boys.

  Comparing Sam North to a manboy was literally impossible. There were absolutely no similarities between a real man and the other. When she’d first met Dom, they were both young. He was in his mid-twenties and so was she.

  He’d take her out drinking and dancing and up to the mountains, and she just got all caught up in living his life. But the thing was he was like every other party boy that surrounded them, so she didn’t know better. One year led to two years, which led to three and so on. She equated love with having a good time, but there was no real depth. He was nice to her, always included her in everything, and made her feel important.

  In hindsight, he was purely securing his summer and fall residence.

  The problem was that she grew up and he never did. Glancing at Anton and how studious he seemed made her realize that Dom never would grow up. He was only capable of so much and that wasn’t much.

  “You okay over there?” Anton muttered, still not looking up from his project. “I feel like the Sam question threw you over the edge.”

  “You’re a little too astute for your own good,” she teased, walking over to him.

  As she leaned over to look at his beautiful work, her head spun a little and she reached for the table.

  “You okay?” he asked, noticing she wasn’t completely herself.

  “Yeah. Totally fine.” She nodded, straightening back up and taking a sip of her coffee.

  “Really looks like it.” His brow arched. “You don’t have any appointments today and I’ve got this handled. Why don’t you head home and rest? I can call you if anything comes up.”

  She studied her new intern for a few seconds and realized he was probably right. She didn’t have to keep feeling like she had to handle the world. She had a little help…okay a lot of help now that he was here.

  “You know what?” She polished off her coffee and set the mug down. “I think you’re right. You’ve got the place handled, and it’s a rare day there aren’t any consults so…”

  “Yes. Go. I promise I’ll call you if there’s anything that comes up.”

  She gave his shoulder a quick squeeze and nodded. “Sounds good.”

  Dina started out the door and stopped, turning around. “I’m really glad to have you onboard.”

  “I’m happy to be here.” He smiled and switched his iTunes on. “But I think I might listen to something a little different than Vivaldi, if you don’t mind.”

  “Go for it,” she hummed as she made her way through the shop and out the door.

  The thought of going home mid-afternoon literally made her want to skip to her car. It wasn’t that she didn’t love what she d
id, but she was absolutely exhausted and loved the idea of sleep more.

  When she pulled into her driveway the comfort of home wrapped around her. She loved her little place and loved it even more with the knowledge that Dom wouldn’t be back this winter.

  As she wandered up to her front door, she noticed a little package on her welcome mat and bent over to pick it up. It was lightweight with no return address.

  Dina hurried inside and ripped the box open to reveal a beautiful cashmere scarf, glove, and hat set in a soft baby blue. Her birthday wasn’t for a few more months so she had no idea why this arrived on her doorstep or from who until a tiny little message card fell from the scarf that she’d hung around her neck.

  I wanted you to have something warm for the winter. Something tells me you didn’t bring many of these from California. ~Sam

  Dina’s heart immediately swelled as she sat, wrapped in cashmere, on the couch. She eyed the message over and over again. There certainly wasn’t anything to read into it. It was straight to the point, without frills, and completely Sam. He didn’t want me to freeze to death so he solved a problem.

  Kicking off her shoes, she let out an exhausted sigh and stretched out on the couch, feeling the quietness of her home overtake her. As she pushed her head deeper into the couch pillows, she realized there hadn’t been one day since she arrived in town that she let herself just sink into the couch. She’d either been setting up shop or unpacking at her house.

  Gosh, it had been how long since she—

  Wait. It had been how long since she’d been here? It had been how long since she slept with Sam North?

  And it had been how long since she’d had her period? Panic struck her system like a lightning bolt as she shot upright from the couch, desperately pulling her phone out of her purse to stare at her little phone app.

  The longer it took for her now-trembling fingers to find the right app to open, the more her nerves became a frazzled mess. They’d been careful. She was just overreacting. If she was late, it was only because she’d been so stressed and exhausted and…