Hope Falls

by Addison Moore

  “What on God’s green earth did you do last night?” Her eyes round out with what looks like devilish delight.

  A breath gets locked in my throat, and I can’t seem to get the words out. God, I’m not about to fess up to the fact I planted a wet one on Nolan Obnoxious Knight’s perfectly stubbled, yet ridiculously gorgeous face, am I?

  “Absolutely nothing.” I shrug it off as if it were no big deal.

  Nolan leans past me with a smug look of satisfaction. “She kissed me.”

  Both Mattie May and I gasp at the very same time.

  “Jumpin’ Josephina!” Mattie slaps her hand over her mouth, and I do the same to mine.

  Dear God. Right about now, I feel like slapping both Nolan and myself silly. How could he out me like that? Damn traitor.

  “I was drunk for fu—Pete’s sake! Clearly out of my ever-loving right mind.” I’m quick to defend myself, minus the expletives begging to bubble from my throat. I’ll save those for later when Nolan here tries to pin me under the gazebo once again. And don’t for a minute think he won’t. I know him well enough to realize he’s on the hunt, and both my vagina and me are in hostile territory. “Besides, I don’t remember anything that happened once you left. He’s probably making the entire thing up. God knows he’s been after that kiss ever since he saw me.” Okay, so that might be a tiny fib, but in my defense, I was three sheets to the whiskey wind. For all I know, I could have fabricated the entire event myself. My mind has been prone to sexually wander now and again—usually it’s always Nolan Knight’s fault.

  He belts out a bitingly loud laugh. “Have it your way. You did mention that you probably wouldn’t remember it.” He shrugs as we step forward in the queue and take our positions as the next in line. “I just thought you might—seeing that it was pretty nice.”

  “Aw!” Mattie May clutches at her chest as if she’s just witnessed a kitten in a tea cup. “That is the sweetest thing!”

  “It’s a terrible thing.” I’m quick to correct. “I was half-unconscious, and he stole first base.” I scowl over at him as though it had suddenly become gospel. “The only thing that was pretty nice about it was that it ended when it did. Word of advice, the next time I’ve had too much to drink, and you go in for the kill, you may not get your tongue back.”

  A wicked grin cinches up the side of his face. “Duly noted.”

  A bored looking teenager in a red vest helps set up the sleigh and asks the three of us to take a seat.

  “I’ll sit up front, and you can hang on to me, Mattie,” I offer as I try to make my way past my elderly spitfire of a friend.

  “Oh no, you don’t, missy. I’ve waited ninety years to get down this hill on a toboggan, and the last thing I want is a full view of the back of your pretty little head. I’m sitting up front, and there’s not a darn thing you can do to stop me.”

  Nolan lets off a few obnoxious chuckles, and it’s all I can do to keep my sanity and stop from giving him one firm shove off this sheer hillside, turning him into a human missile.

  The bored teenager helps Mattie May safely into position then proceeds to sit me directly behind her, and, of course that leaves Nolan to hold up the rear. He slips in behind, his knees coming up on either side of me, his long muscular thighs touching over mine. Thankfully, the rest of his body is settled far back enough to where we’re not conjoined in some uncomfortable hip-hugging way, but I can feel the heat emanating from him like an oven left on a little too high. If you would have told me a week ago that Nolan Knight would be cozying up beside me, kissing me in Hope Falls, I would have told you to run to the nearest hospital and have a CAT scan. But here I am, my body resting against his, his arms all but wrapped around me for the second day straight—clearly it’s me who needs to have my head examined.

  “The sled should keep on a track as long as you don’t do anything erratic,” the unenthused teen informs us. “You hold on to the front.” He places Mattie’s hands over the curled lip of the tiny red sleigh before nodding to me. “You can hold on to your friend if you like and same with you.” He removes the latch that’s holding us back from jettisoning to a certain death and blows a shrill whistle over our heads. “Incoming!” he shouts before sending us off with a shove of his sneaker.

  “Good God!” I wrap my arms around Mattie May as she hoots and howls with delight. We take twist after twist as we zoom down the makeshift luge. Holy hell, who thought this was a safer option than going down ourselves? Me. That’s who. Nolan himself is reason enough for me to never trust my instincts again.

  Nolan leans in hard with his heated chest pressed against my back like a rock wall. His arms wrap themselves around my waist as if his sole purpose in life were to keep me from catapulting into the sky. I’d protest the idea, but self-preservation has kicked in, and the only thing I care about is getting to the bottom alive and in one piece.

  The three of us scream and laugh as the sleigh crisscrosses the switchbacks. The icy air bites my cheeks, and my teeth feel as if they’ve turned into icicles, but I can’t close my mouth. I haven’t laughed this hard in years, and it feels too good to stop now. Something tells me this sled, toboggan, demonic sleigh on razor blades, was never meant to occupy three full-grown adults.

  We hit the middle of the run, and Nolan leans in, his heated breath pants over the side of my face, warming me, and instinctually I lean into him. His arms circle around me tighter, and for a fleeting, impossible moment, it feels as if we’ve been transported back to that magical summer where I thought I had found the man I would spend the rest of my life with. Nolan Knight’s singular gift was making me feel unreasonably safe and secure, and right about now, I feel just that way in his thick, strong arms.

  We pick up speed as we race toward the bottom, and Mattie May raises both her hands in the air for the final stretch of the run, prompting me to do the same, but Nolan never lets go of me. His warm embrace carries me all the way to the bitter bottom as our sled comes to a slogging end, and yet another bored looking teen in a red Mountain Ridge issued jacket helps lift our laughing bodies out of the toboggan.

  “That was fantastic, Mattie!” I shout as I wipe the nearly frozen tears from my eyes. “Are you ready for the cup of hot cocoa yet?”

  Nolan glances over as he wraps an arm over Mattie May’s shoulders. That smug smile of his reprises itself. “I thought you suggested grilled cheese and a soup of the day?”

  Know-it-all. “I did, but it feels a little early for all that heavy food.” I rub my arms to keep my limbs from freezing solid. “Hot cocoa might sound a little more appetizing at the moment.” Hell, it’s always the right time for chocolate, Nolan. Everyone knows that, I want to say but don’t.

  “No siree, Bob!” Mattie points an enthused finger at the top of the mountain. “I had such a good time. I want to do it again!”

  Nolan and I lift a brow at one another, and something about our shared amusement, our shared concern toward Mattie May warms me. We head wordlessly back up as Mattie fills in the silence with her enthusiasm for her new favorite outdoor sport. To hear her go on about it, you’d think she was gearing up to be an Olympic bobsledder. I knew she’d have a good time. I’m just glad she lived to tell about it. I can only hope I’m sledding down a hillside with so much gusto in my ninth decade of life.

  We hit the top, and the same bored teenager extends a hand to Mattie May to help her into position.

  “You know what?” Mattie glances back at the giant structure in the distance. “I think I’m gonna head over to the chalet and have that cup of hot cocoa. Why don’t the two of you enjoy the run on your own, and I’ll meet you there?” She nods over at the chalet, which is only a hop and a skip from where we’re standing, and my heart sinks with fear. She can’t leave me. Not here alone with him of all people—not the way he had his arms wrapped around me that first seemingly never-ending trip down the mountain. The entire right side of my face still sears from the heat of his warm breath. I can still feel him holding me as we spiraled
into a white winter wonderland.

  “I’ll go with you,” I offer in a panic, because for one, I happen to be sober. Being alone with Nolan practically requires a drink with a strong ethanol content. “He can go alone, and we’ll meet up with him later.” I turn to Nolan and give a hard wink. “Break a leg!”

  He frowns with that three-day scruff I can’t help but melt at, and his dimples depress without meaning to. “I’m pretty sure that’s only good luck in the theater, sweetheart.”

  “Who said anything about good luck, sweetheart?” I lob it back as quick as he tossed it over.

  The bored teen clears his throat. “There’s a line forming behind you. Whoever wants to get on needs to take a seat. One is fun, but two is better.”

  Great. It’s nice to see our resident blasé teen suddenly morph into Dr. Seuss.

  “You heard the man!” Mattie May shuffles off as quick as she can while holding on to the railing. “One is fun—but two is better! Have a great time, kids! The hot cocoa is on me!” She hikes up the stairs to the chalet like a billy goat before I can stop her, and the slightly miffed teen helps me into my seat.

  “Hang on to the front. The sun just crested the evergreens, which means our trails get slick, real quick.”

  “Perfect,” I grumble. Hey? Maybe I’ll be the one to break a leg. A vision of me holed up in a hospital bed comes to mind with my leg dangling off some demonic contraption connected to the ceiling. A part of me feels that might just be a safer and saner way to spend the next two weeks than with Nolan Knight scooting his rock-solid body tight against mine. But that’s just what he does. Nolan slips in behind me with his legs straddling me, his crotch tucked hard against my back, and my cheeks heat at the thought of what might be going on in those egotistical boxers of his. I bet he thinks I’m enjoying the hell out of this. I bet he thinks I’ve been dreaming of a moment just like this for the last four years. His arms cinch around my waist, and an involuntary sigh escapes me. But before I can properly reprimand myself for the misgiving, the teen offers us a sturdy shove from the dock, and we’re off to the races.

  The sleigh nosedives down at what seems to be a thousand neck breaking miles per hour. Good God, I don’t remember going this fast when Mattie was seated up front! What the hell? Did someone grease the run and forget to warn the masses? Or perhaps this was the work of some disgruntled soon-to-be ex-employee who thinks watching people scream like loons while zooming toward their impending deaths is a laugh a minute. I’m betting on the latter. Great. Nolan and I get to reap the nefarious rewards of some day shift supervisor’s wrath on some poor unsuspecting teen. It was probably the disgruntled kid who shoved us off the mountain to begin with.

  Nolan leans in hard. His warm breath pants hard into my ear. “Hold on tight. This might get ugly.”

  “Oh God, oh God, oh God!” I wail as the evergreens swish by in a blur. We take the switchbacks on this go around harder, faster, and far wilder than we did when Mattie May was with us. Clearly she has the hand of an angel upon her, because now that the angelic being has lifted his protective hedge, it’s clear Nolan and I are sailing to hell in a sleigh-shaped handbasket.

  His grip over me intensifies. I can feel each of his fingers as they press into my flesh, his body nearly encapsulating mine. If I knew just a few short days ago that I would be face-to-face with the man who shattered my blown glass heart to irreparable pieces, I would have cursed like a sailor at the impending doom. But now that my life is seemingly in his strong hands—correction—now that his strong body is ready and willing to break our fall—because God knows I’m not sacrificing a perfectly good pair of sexy ski boots to slow this Matterhorn madness—I’m thrilled to be within throat-punching distance of the man who crushed me to dust.

  “We might have to duck and roll!” he shouts up over the lioness roar of the wind we’re cutting through at a gazillion miles an hour. Honestly, I don’t think they clock things this fast. Nolan and I have long since sailed past the sound barrier as we twist and turn, barreling down toward a blurry oblivion. We take the last turn, the one that I remember feeling so very drunk with joy on the last go around, and instead of slowing like we did before, we only seem to speed up.

  Nolan and I glide like a bullet right past the teenagers in their red Mountain Ridge issued jackets, their shocked faces simply a blip on the screen of what is probably panning out to be the last scene of my life.

  Nolan tucks his mouth near my ear, and swear to God, he just gifted my left earlobe a quick kiss.

  “This is not the time to get frisky!” I shout into the wind as skiers and snowboarders alike make every effort to leap out of our way.

  “I’ve got you,” he thunders into my ear. “It’s going to be okay. I promise.”

  And just like that, any fear of hitting a tree and spilling my gray matter all over Hope Falls dissipates. Something deep inside of me demands to believe him, and does. With just about anyone else seated behind me, that brain splatter scenario would have panned out to be a reality. But with Nolan—it’s as if he’s just offered me a sneak peek at what’s to come and there’s no reason to be afraid.

  Nolan reaches over to the front of the sleigh and leans in until the demonic flying carpet takes a hard left and we hurdle toward a smattering of pines. Scratch everything I just said.

  Shit! I twist and do my best to bury my face in Nolan’s rock hard chest.

  “Hang on. Here we go!” His body all but engulfs mine as we bump and grind. The sleigh beneath us skids, left then right, before jackknifing and toppling the two of us onto a bed of untouched snow.

  “Are we alive?” I open an eye and inspect the surroundings. The sleigh sits tucked between two overgrown evergreens, with their sturdy concrete-like trunks that you could easily drive a small car through, and I gasp. It’s clear we’ve sailed far from civilization. Even the happy sounds of children shouting are all but muffled. It’s just Nolan and me, alone in the woods, nothing but miles of virginal snow and evergreens with their sparkling white branches.

  “We’re okay.” Nolan shifts, and I land with a thud over his body, my mouth just a breath away from his. Our eyes lock for a moment. Those ivy green eyes of his have always mesmerized me, but at this moment they own me.

  Nolan’s lips twitch with the idea of a smile as he brushes my hair to the side. “God, you’re beautiful.” There’s an indelible ache written on his face as he says those words as if it pained him on some level, and in truth, I want it to because I just so happen to share in that indelible ache.

  An icy patch of snow lands hard over my temple, sending my head to the left with a violent jolt, and we look over to find a couple of teenage boys pelting one another with softball-sized balls of icy mischief.

  “Watch it, you little brats!” I belt out while struggling to rise to my feet.

  Nolan hops up and scoops a mound of snow up before patting it down and pegging the one that’s laughing the loudest as they run back to the coven they came from.

  “And you better keep running!” I shout, my hand still poised to toss my, rather perfect, if I do say so myself, snowball. Nolan turns my way with that body I once worshiped, that beating heart that I swore would love me forever—and I fling it right at his five o’clock shadow, sexy as all hell face.

  “Whoa.” He spits the snow right out of his mouth with a laugh. “That right there was a declaration of war, Misty.”

  Nolan and I do our best to amass ammunition for the impending battle we’re gearing up for.

  “I didn’t declare this war”—I puff as I form another quick white ball of wrath and launch it in his direction—“you did!” I launch yet another missile at him and peg him right in the chest. The snowball detonates into confetti as if it hit a concrete wall at a hundred miles an hour, and for the most part it did.

  “This war only has one side, honey! And it’s yours.” He pelts me over the arm half-heartedly.

  “Lest you forget who wears the deceptive pants in this relationship.” I land
a sloppy one over the top of his head and cover his dark hair with a snowy cap.

  Nolan tosses one snow-laden bullet after the next in rapid machine gun like fashion until I’m laughing so hard I’m incapacitated from firing back.

  He comes in close, and I smash the melting snow in my hand over his face as we collectively trip over a rock. Nolan and I land on a pile of newly disrupted snow of our own making. His body lands square on top of mine, his elbows extended to keep from crushing my ribcage.

  “You okay?” he pants over my face with that goofy never-ending grin of his. Sexy as hell as it might be, it still has the power to vex me. I once lived and died by Nolan’s wicked grin, but in the hurtful aftermath, I saw it as something far more nefarious than it ever was loving. Nolan was a good guy right up until he wasn’t.

  “Yes, I’m okay.” My hands land over his chest in a weak attempt at self-preservation. The only thing my hands really want to do is grab the back of his neck and bring his mouth down to mine. Traitors.

  Damn Nolan Knight to hell for being the most gorgeous beast to roam the planet. I now know for a fact that he happens to be the wealthiest beast as well, but I didn’t care about that then, and I don’t care about that now.

  Nolan’s chest rumbles with a dry laugh, and his body rides up and down, taking me right along for the ride.

  “What’s so funny?” I stare up at that blessed by God face, and all I want to do is cry.

  “Nothing. I’m just happy to hear we’re in a relationship.”

  “Oh no.” I shake my head, grinding my scalp down to nothing with the ice knifing into the back of my skull. “We are in no such thing. Besides, I stopped believing in the R word exactly four years ago.” I wince because I just so happened to squeeze a quickie wedding in the interim. I hate that I’ve somehow given Nolan’s ego a boost in that he now knows my wedding bliss—albeit short-lived—was all a scam.

  He forces a quick frown, but that grin of his rubber bands right into place. “You said so yourself. I wear the deceptive pants in this relationship.” The frown does a reprisal and sticks around this time. “I’m sorry I deceived you.”