Hope Falls

by Addison Moore

  “You wouldn’t dare.” My voice shakes with rage as I come over to his side of the counter.

  “You wouldn’t listen.” His cheek rises deviously on one side. “Please, Misty, hear me out.”

  “You don’t tell me what to do.” I yank the cake over a notch to use as a shield, and it slides right off the counter and launches airborne before I can stop it.

  “Nolan!” I cry as he lunges to catch it, taking the mixing bowl of frosting right along with him. I try to grab it midair, and the two of us collide, landing on our backs with three tiers of yellow cake crumbling around us.

  “ARGGHHHH!” I scream as the girls whip out their phones to document every last horrible detail to social media. “Get out!” I scream at the hot pink masses. “And take your beefed-up, hot as a forest fire, underwear model, billionaire boyfriend along with you!” I try to kick Nolan in the seat of his pants but end up slipping in the mess we’ve created. I glance up at Nolan with fire shooting from my eyes, and that cocky grin of his perks right up as he lands a swath of frosting over the tip of my nose.

  “You don’t get to touch me!” I dig into the frosting that’s pooled onto his chest and rub it lovingly all over his face and up his nostrils. “How are you enjoying the taste of vanilla-laced revenge?”

  Nolan wipes his eyes clean before reaching over and taking a softball-sized chunk out of the side of the cake and shaping it, forming it into a perfect yellow little snowball.

  “Two can play at that game!” I start amassing ammunition and pelting Nolan in the head and chest. I make sure to coat my ammo in the errant globs of frosting lying around, and after five solid minutes of lobbing oversized cake pops at one another, we’re both laughing so hard we’re crying. I use the cabinets as a luge as I sink to the floor, firmly landing on a pile of frosting—the moisture penetrating both my jeans and my panties, bringing new definition to my sweet spot. My hair is covered with crumbs and frosting, a shade of white I hope to never achieve in the natural. Nolan looks as if he just bathed in snow, his hair slicked back with a graying effect, and it only makes him look like a hot silver fox. It’s not fair when your opponent, your newly sworn enemy, looks far sexier than when we first got started. I go to wipe my tears and end up giving myself a frosting facial, which only makes me scream with laughter.

  Nolan slides down next to me with the spatula in his hand, and he tips it my way. “Truce?”

  “Truce.” I let out an exasperated sigh. “There really is something cathartic about kicking your ex’s ass with cake.”

  “Everything is better with cake. We should fight like this more often.” His evergreen eyes soften into mine. “Misty”—he shakes his head as he blinks back glittering tears—“I never wanted to hurt you. I wanted to move heaven and earth to say I’m sorry. I knew you wouldn’t speak to me otherwise. It was never my intent to trick you into my bed. I just wanted another chance. I had a feeling it would be my last.”

  My heart hiccups in my chest at the idea of having a last chance with Nolan. “It wasn’t your last chance.” I close my eyes as I feel my own confession bubbling to the surface. “I took a position at Whitney Briggs University. My brother, Seth, is there, but that’s not why I took it.” As impossible as it is to look back into his watery eyes, I force myself. “I wanted to do it. I wanted to be near you, Nolan.” Tears come, and I can’t stop them. “I’m in love with you. It’s just a simple fact. I need to be near you just like I need to breathe and eat. You’re a part of me, and you have been for the last four years. As hard as I tried to forget you—the memory of who you are, who we were—just seemed to burrow itself deeper into my heart. You stitched your soul to mine that last night we were together all those years ago, and now I can’t seem to shake you.” I let out a soft laugh. “But you’re the same person.” A heavy ache infiltrates my chest. “You use whatever means to get what you want, and you think it’s okay to do it. When you tested me like some gold-digging lab rat all those years ago, I was so hurt.” That last word is painful to evict past that heart-shaped lump in my throat. “I thought you loved me.”

  “I did—still do.” He pulls me onto his lap, and I’m too tired to protest.

  “But not enough to trust me. You could have told me at any point that summer, and you didn’t. I had to hear Mattie May talking to her nieces about the handsome billionaire pretending to be a regular guy just to find his special princess.” I give a hard shove to his chest. “You cut my beating heart out and stomped on it for your own pleasure. I bet you were laughing at me on the side—snickering at what a commoner I was.”

  “Not true.” His lips redden as his own tears stream silently down his face. “I was an idiot, a fucking fool. I swear to you, I wanted to tell you the truth that first day. It was some ridiculous experiment my father suggested I try because yes, I had an entire rash of girls who were very interested in my bank account. But you were refreshing.” He glances to the ceiling. “You were sweet, and genuine, beautiful, and I couldn’t get you out of my mind. I wanted to be with you every hour of every day. I still do. I’ve never felt that way before and certainly not since. You’re special, Misty. I swear it, you’re the one for me.” He hitches a loose hair behind my ear. “You’re the only girl I’ve given my heart to, the only girl I said those three words to—the only one I ever will. I swear on all that is holy, I wasn’t testing you this time. I learned my lesson four painful years ago. All I wanted was another chance.” He rubs his finger over my lips, his eyes still locked on mine. “Are you still coming to Hollow Brook?” He looks hopeful. “Because I’m begging you to.”

  “Yes.” I meant for it to come out stubborn, but it sounded more like a surrender. “I’m leaving for Hollow Brook in the morning. All of my things have already been delivered to my rental. A rental is a place where commoners live for as long as they like without having the—”

  “I know what a rental is.” His left dimple digs into his cheek and annoys the hell out of me and warms me all at once.

  “Of course, you do. You’re probably my new slumlord.”

  He winces. “I might be.”

  “Don’t get your silver-lined boxers in a bunch. I pay my rent on time”—I sneer at him a moment—“in cash covered with hot sauce—ghost pepper to be exact.” He huffs a little laugh. “What? It still qualifies as legal tender in all fifty states. It’s not my fault if you suddenly feel the need to rub your eye or your crotch. I suggest you do both.”

  He winces before breaking out into a slow smile, his eyes pegging mine, and as much as I want to run, I’m helpless to move. Don’t want to.

  “I love you, Misty Baker.”

  “I”—the words bubble in my throat. Nolan Knight is beautiful and kind and a master of trickery. “I’m sorry. I have a party to get ready for.” I bounce out of his lap, run past the crowd amassed at the door, and bolt to my room. As soon as Mattie May’s party gets underway, I’ll be headed to Hollow Brook—where I will officially resign from my new position at Whitney Briggs University.

  Nolan

  Misty loves me. I know she does. I keep telling myself that to keep from losing my mind. I can’t believe I’ve managed to fuck things up once again. It seems to be the only thing I can get right around that beautiful girl.

  I straighten my tie in the mirror before slipping on my suit jacket. I can hardly stand to look at the bed the two of us christened without my heart twisting in knots. I figure I have one hour tops to plead my case, and as much as I’d like to think I can pull it off—and if I’m honest with myself, I don’t think I can—I’m afraid she’ll bolt, and I’ll never see her again. Misty pegged it. She may be stubborn—but I am certainly a jackass. That combination doesn’t stand too much of a chance.

  Downstairs, the party is raging, minus the guest of honor, with enough men and women congregating in the common room of the bed and breakfast to break the fire code. A few women, giggling by the fire, steal glances my way. The redhead with the tight matching dress winks and raises her colorful co
cktail at me, but I take off in the other direction. The clock is ticking, and I have to find Misty. If I lose her again, I don’t know what I’ll do.

  Then like a beacon of light in this cave of inexplicable darkness, Misty descends the stairs in a mouthwatering tight black dress and boots with spiked heels that pull up over her knees.

  “Shit,” I mutter. I’m breathless. Misty isn’t just a sight for sore eyes. She’s a salve that can restore the vision of any blind man with a beating heart. “Misty,” I call out to her, and our eyes meet just as the lights in the room cut out.

  “She’s here!” someone shouts, and the room quiets down to a hush. The lights come back on, and a collective roar of Surprise! sweeps through the room.

  Mattie May stands in the entry with a blinking tiara on top of her head, her mouth opened wide with surprise. “Oh my goodness! Are y’all tryin’ to kill me?” She cups her hand over her mouth, weeping and laughing at the same time as the room breaks out into laughter and applause.

  Thankfully, Misty is still there, frozen on the stairwell, and try as I might, I can’t seem to swim through the sea of limbs fast enough. Just as I hit the bottom of the steps, she disappears like a ghost.

  I jet past Mattie and her nieces, and someone yanks me back a few steps.

  “Here you are!” Mattie wraps her arms around me and offers a solid embrace. “Where’s Misty? Please tell me everything is okay between y’all!”

  “It is—it will be. It had better be,” I whisper that last part under my breath. “Happy birthday, Mattie May.” I land a hard kiss to her cheek. “I’m going to run a lap around the block if I have to, but if you find her first, call me.”

  She offers a quick thumbs-up. “I sure will! Go get her, boy!”

  And I do. I run like hell into the icy night, screaming Misty’s name from the top of my lungs, the wind knifing through my clothes like sickles. I check the woods across the street, then do a quick sweep of the front of JT’s before spinning back toward the B&B. A glimmer of light emanating from the back of the building gets my attention, and I run in that direction like my life depends on it.

  “Misty!” I howl into the moon like a deranged idiot. “Misty Baker!” Her name comes back to me in an echo—and then like a portrait, oil over canvas, I see her. Standing in the gazebo with the twinkling lights casting down their soft illuminating blessing is Misty with a tear-slicked faced, and my heart breaks. “Misty,” I whisper this time in hopes she won’t hear me and bolt for the hills. Instead, I make my way over, and she groans once she sees me coming. “Don’t leave.” I hold my arms up in surrender. “I’ll go if you want me to. I just have one last thing I need to say.” I head into the gazebo and drop to my knees before I ever get close to her. “I love you, Misty.” My chin stays planted to my chest, but my eyes float to hers because they have to—just the way my heart has to hope for hers. It’s nothing I can help. Nothing I want to.

  “That’s it?” Her eyebrows do a little dance. I can watch every single expression of hers for hours. Misty is a show in and of herself.

  “That’s it.” I nod, never breaking our gaze. “I pleaded with you to listen, and you did. It was more than I could ask for.”

  “So, you’re letting me go?”

  “I never meant to hold you here against your will.”

  Misty takes a step forward and falls to her knees beside me. “What if I told you I wanted to stay?” She sucks in her bottom lip a moment. “What if I told you that day I saw you walk into JT’s my heart skipped a beat, and I knew I never wanted to be apart from you again.”

  My eyes widen at the prospect of what this might mean.

  “What I’m trying to say is”—her fingers scratch lightly over my cheek, and a warmth spreads through me at her touch—“I love you, too. I can’t stop. I never will. I forgive you for what happened in the past and this whole bucket list thing—well, at the end of the day, I find it a little bit romantic. You can thank my book boyfriends for that. I’m coming to Hollow Brook, and I’m going there to be near you. If you’ll still have me.”

  “If I’ll still have you?” Every good emotion I have ever felt pales in comparison to this one moment in time. “I beg of you.” I pull her in and seal my lips over hers, telling her I love you, I want you, I have always needed you all at once.

  A roar of an applause breaks out, and Misty and I look up to find Mattie May along with every last guest at that party circled around the gazebo.

  “Did it all work out?” Mattie May cries with her hands clasped together as if in prayer.

  “Yes!” Misty shouts, wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes, happy tears this time. “It’s all working out,” she says before pressing a quick kiss to my lips. “Looks like I’ve got me a brand new boyfriend.” She leans in and whispers into my ear, “We’ll get to the licking soon enough.”

  A lighter round of applause erupts.

  “Boyfriend, huh?” My heart inches all the way into my throat. “I’m much more interested in being something else.”

  Her lips part as a slight look of disappointment washes over her features. “Friends.” She nods into the lunacy.

  “I was thinking something far more significant—like a husband.” The crowd around us gasps. “Misty Baker, you stole my heart, and I never want it back. There is one thing I’ve learned over the last four years—I can’t live without you.” I pull the ring out of my pocket and warm the platinum in my hand. “Would you do me the honor and be my bride?” I hold the ring between us like a promise.

  “Nolan!” Misty takes in a breath, and the world stops spinning for a moment. “Yes!” She squeezes her eyes shut and offers a quick embrace. “Yes, God, yes!” She pulls me back by the arms as her smile quickly melts. “But no wedding for at least a year. That should give me enough time to bask in the glory of being Nolan Knight’s fiancée.”

  “You got a deal.” I press another kiss over her lips, and the crowd goes wild as if it were the winning home run of the World Series, bases loaded, bottom of the ninth. And that’s just how it feels. The greatest victory with the greatest woman God ever put on this Earth.

  The bases were loaded with four long years of anticipation, and we just so happened to hit the winning run right here in Hope Falls—but we’re headed for home, to Hollow Brook where we both belong.

  After a long night with Misty wrapped naked in my arms, my hard-on and my heart finally getting some solid relief, Misty and I pack up all of our belongings and say goodbye to the bed and breakfast we’ve inhabited once again. Just like the first time, memories were made and hearts were broken, but unlike the first time, the memories ended on a sweet note and hearts were mended and stitched back together.

  I carry the last of the bags to the truck, and Misty welcomes me back to the B&B with open arms, that devious look in her eyes lets me know she’s up for licking me up and down one more time before we hit the road.

  Mattie May comes in from outside, shivering, her cheeks flush from the bitter air.

  “Well, where ya going?” She throws her arms around both Misty and me. “Don’t tell me you’re leavin’ already!” Her face is rife with mixed emotion, and to tell the truth, so is mine. I love this damn place.

  “We’ll be back.” Misty presses a kiss to Mattie’s cheek. “Often, if we can help it.”

  I pull Misty in and dot her temple with my lips. “We’re thinking about making a pit stop here regularly if you’ll have us.”

  “Of course, we’ll have ya! I’m sure Levi and Shelby will put ya to work, too!”

  “Sounds like a plan.” I kiss Mattie May on the cheek and pull back with a devious look of my own. “Should we let her in on our little secret?”

  “Oh no,” Misty groans hard as she drops her face into her hands. “Just let me have it. Rip it off like a Band-Aid.”

  A grin begs to take over, but I won’t let it. “It’s another secret I’ve been keeping from you.”

  She sucks in a quick breath, and I’m guessing I have
three solid seconds before she smacks me.

  “Mattie gifted me her engagement ring, and I happily gifted it to the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

  Her mouth widens into a perfect O. “Nolan Knight!” She smacks me over the chest before lunging at me with tears in her eyes. “That’s the most beautiful thing I have ever heard.” She leans over and pulls Mattie May into our embrace. “Thank you for believing in us even when I didn’t. The thought of you giving him that precious ring last night makes my heart sing.”

  “Oh, hon”—Mattie rattles out a soft laugh—“I didn’t give him that ring last night. I gave it to him four years ago.” Misty loosens her grip as her jaw goes slack at the thought. “And you’re right. I believed in the two of you long before either of you did. I was the one who sent Nolan into the kitchen that day you met just to watch the fireworks go off. I knew in my heart the two of you were meant to be. Call it fate or destiny or simply a country girl’s intuition, but as soon as I set eyes on this young man”—she gives my cheek a hard pinch—“I knew he was special. Levi wanted me to send him to work down at Gowan Enterprises all the way across town, but my heart, my Harold, said send him to the kitchen. By the time that summer was nearly over, I practically threw my ring at Nolan. Of course, the story didn’t turn out the way any of us planned, but I didn’t want my ring back. I knew there was a happy ending waiting just for ya. It just took a little while for the two of ya to turn the page and get where you needed to be.”

  “Mattie.” I pull her in, and Misty and I indulge in a longer, stronger hug. “Thank you for that—thank you for everything.”

  “I second that.” Misty offers her one last kiss as we head out the door.

  Misty and I pause at the truck and look back at the bed and breakfast one last time, and we catch Mattie May waving her heart out before she heads inside.