Frowning at her friends, Samantha shook her head. “What? No! I’m going back to Atlanta to lick my wounds in peace. Now that I know you’re okay, we can get you packed up and leave tomor-“
Shaking her head, Vivienne sighed and interrupted. “You can’t do that, Sami, and neither can I.”
Shouldering the strap of her handbag, Sami reminded herself that shrieking at the top of her lungs and lunging for her best friend wouldn’t solve anything... no matter how much Viv might deserve it at the moment. And with her luck, her photograph would end up on the front page of whatever rag passed for a newspaper up in these parts…and that certainly wouldn’t help her rapidly fizzling career as a model. Not unless mountain chic had suddenly become a thing in the few hours she’d been away from home.
Nope, she was certain there was absolutely no reason she needed to stay in Paradise.
Not a single reason at all.
Chapter Four
Sami
“A stroll down Main Street isn’t going to change anything for me, Vivian,” Sami warned impatiently as she continued walking beside her friend down the cobblestone street of downtown Paradise. Hissing in a breath as one of the heels on her strappy, sky high Jimmy Choos caught in the sidewalk, she shook her head. “Seriously, girl, slow down. I’m not exactly wearing Sketchers here,” she complained.
Vivian snorted. “Oh, puh-lease. Quit being such a wimp. I’ve seen you sprint marathons in heels a hell of a lot higher than that. Remember that sale at Nieman Marcus last year when you grabbed that dove-grey evening gown out from under that Atlanta socialite’s nose? You would have given Jessie Owens a run for his money that day and that guy had an Olympic medal for sprinting.”
“That bitch was a menace. She had mace on her keychain and wasn’t afraid to use it, but that dress was soooo totally worth it,” Sami reminisced with a faint smile. “But I was in a race for my life that day. It was necessary. This stroll through Paradise you’ve hijacked me on? Not exactly what I’d consider a necessity, Viv. I’m tired and my feet hurt. Could you please cut me some slack and explain why in the name of Nordstrom’s you’ve got me trotting all over this joint? I’ve already admitted that this place is pretty. But it doesn’t have a mall, Vivian. Or a Starbucks,” Sami grumbled as her eyes scanned the streets. Jeez, couldn’t Viv see that she was on the verge of losing her mind entirely. Nothing about this place had made sense to her since she and Mannie had arrived. From Viv’s strange attachment to this town to the way Sami felt strangely comfortable here even among these complete strangers… it was a weird experience. She needed to go home… where she could be happily anonymous in the big city and virtually nobody knew her name or even wanted to. The only thing she was truly certain of at this point was that the longer she stayed in this tiny community, the more confused she felt herself becoming. And at a time where she needed to see clearly, she couldn’t afford to have her thoughts becoming a jumbled mess. She needed clarity, damn it!
“You need some air, Sami. We both do,” Vivian dismissed her breezily as she linked her arm through Samantha’s and continued pulling her down the street. “Can’t you just enjoy the atmosphere?”
“There’s air in Atlanta. You know, where we actually live,” Samantha reminded her friend sarcastically.
“Yeah… congested air. Smoggy air. Not pure air. Nothing like what you can find here. Do me a favor. Just take a deep breath and look around you. Soak it in,” Vivian demanded, sweeping an arm out to encompass their serene surroundings. From the cute shopfronts to the neatly kept sidewalks, this place screamed country elegance. “In your life, have you ever seen a more gorgeous town? Look up there,” Vivian directed, waving a hand ahead of them. “There’s an actual town square,” Viv noted enthusiastically, pointing toward where the courthouse sat at the end of the street built amid a perfectly manicured lawn. “How often do you see that anymore?” she asked.
“I don’t care how frickin’ picturesque the town is,” Sami insisted as she trudged along beside Vivian, barely paying attention to the unique specialty stores that lined the immaculately kept sidewalk. “It’s time to go home. Let’s get Armando and get out of here.”
“Sami, I love you. You are my best friend in the entire world. But you need to really listen to what I’m about to say to you. Hon, I need a change. We both do. And I’ve come to a decision in the last week. I’ve decided that I am home now,” Vivian shared as she stopped in front of a wooden bench and sat down, reaching for Sami’s wrist and tugging her down to sit beside her.
“I’m sorry? I’m gonna need you to repeat that,” Sami stated, recoiling as the weight of Viv’s statement hit her in the mid-section.
Hesitating slightly, Vivian shifted her body to face Sami’s, taking her friend’s hands in hers. “You heard me, sweets. I’ve decided to leave my firm in Atlanta, move here, and take a position at Abel Turner’s firm. If things work out, he’ll make me a full law partner in six months. I’ll be staying here in Paradise and still doing a job I love. This place… this community… it’s amazing, Sami. And here’s the thing… I think you should give some serious consideration to moving here, too.”
Shocked, Samantha could only stare at Vivian for a full minute. “You did WHAT?” she shrieked when she finally found her voice again, unconcerned by the stares that she drew their way from surrounding passersby. Still scrambling to latch onto a coherent thought, Sami tried to slow the breaths that were now escaping her lips in the form of gasps. “Are you certifiably INSANE right now, Vivian? Because I seriously think I might need to have you committed to the closest funny farm I can find.”
“No,” Vivian responded calmly. “I’m not.”
“You must be,” Sami retorted, blowing her hair out of her face as she jerked on the bench to turn and face Vivian. “Because there are several gaping flaws with this idea you have to drop everything and move here.”
“What?” Vivian questioned simply, clasping her hands in her lap as she merely stared back at Viv.
“Uh, for starters, you live in ATLANTA!” Sami yelled, not bothered in the least that she was making a spectacle of herself. She was a model for Christ’s sake. Or she had been. Either way, she was well accustomed to people staring at her. Vivian, however, not so much.
“Will you lower your voice?” Vivian hissed, her lips pursing as she continued to watch Sami’s face.
“Lower my….that’s what you’re concerned about right now? My raised voice? Viv, you have a life in Atlanta. A successful life. A life you worked your luscious ass off to build! One where you ALREADY are a partner in a big law firm. Something you worked your tail off to achieve, I might add. You’re just gonna walk away from that?”
“No, I’m not walking away. I’m merely changing the direction of my life. Don’t you see? I like it here, Samantha. I like the people. I like working with Abel. I like the fact that here not only do I make a difference, but I can SEE it. In Atlanta, I’m just one of hundreds of attorneys working around the city. Here, these people have Abel Turner. And now, they have me as well. I like how that feels. I have a fresh start. A clean slate. A… ”
“Oh, please! Stop it! You sound like one of those new age hippies talking about all this feeling crap.” Running a hand down her face, Sami shook her head. “Tell me the truth. Is this about that Diego guy you were representing? Have you fallen for a drug kingpin, Vivian?” she hissed.
Viv laughed. “He’s reformed, Sami. His kingpin status has been revoked by the cartel, I assure you. And I’m not sure how I feel about Diego,” she returned truthfully. “I mean, his body is sex on a freaking stick and that accent of his…it gives me chills... the good kind! But, he’s got a darkness about him that I’m not sure I can handle. So, no this isn’t about him. It’s about me. It’s about me finding something in this town that Atlanta just can’t offer.”
“And what the hell is that?”
“Peace. A sense of belonging. A place where I feel like I fit without having to try,” Vivian explained earnestly. �
�I’ve learned that I need that. And from what Devil and Mannie have told me, I think you need it, too. I want you to stay here a few weeks…see if you catch the bug, too.”
“Hold the phone here,” Sami interrupted on a huff, her eyes narrowing dangerously. “You’ve been talking to Devil and Mannie? I thought none of us had heard from you! Are you saying they lied to me?”
Viv chewed on her bottom lip for a moment before slowly nodding. “They were tryin’ to look out for you. Especially because of what happened with your modeling agency. Everyone that loves you can see how depressed you’ve been lately, and this recent mess with your modeling contracts just added fuel to the fire. You need a change of pace, and we all thought this place might offer you a little of what it’s offered me.”
“So your answer is for both of us to pick up and move our whole lives here?” Sami yelped
“Well, yes,” Vivian agreed with a nod, “But first, there are some things you don’t know. Big things,” she said, glancing across the street and frowning. “Huge things.”
“Woman, you are talking in riddles and I am no damned Confucius!” Sami raged, stunned by everything Vivian had said so far. She was moving here? Her best friend was leaving her? And Molly, Devil and Mannie knew about her nutty plan all along? Were they actually endorsing this insanity? Nothing made sense anymore. “Start making sense, dammit!” she demanded of the other woman angrily.
Taking a deep breath, Viv pointed across the street. “Sami, turn around. Do you see that storefront across the street? Read the sign.”
“Huh?” Sami grunted, glancing in the direction Viv pointed. “I dunno! I’m not real interested in shopping right now, Vivian. I wanna hear about what the hell it is that I don’t know since you and everybody else in my life seems to know everything.”
“Sami,” Vivian said gently, gripping Sami’s cold hand in hers. “Look at the building across the street. There’s a new sign above the awning that they finally got around to putting up last week. What’s it say?”
Huffing out an irritated breath as Viv continued to harp on the damn store behind her, Sami’s eyes went back to the brick building that her friend had indicated. Squinting she tried to see in the windows. “Hell, I don’t know, Vivian. It looks like some kind of studio. Art. Photography. I don’t know! What’s it matter?”
“It matters a lot, sweetie,” Vivian murmured. “You need to look at the sign above the door.”
Jerking to her feet, Sami took a step toward the street as she focused on the elegant black script of the sign above the green awning. “It says Ben-…No! No, that can’t be,” she whispered, blanching as her brain tried to make sense of what she was reading. “The Ben Atkins Studio,” she read aloud. Instantly recognizing the name, her chest tightened and she fought the urge to flee. “No. No way. It’s gotta be a different person. There’s no way that could be my Ben. He could be anywhere taking pictures of anything. There’s no way he settles in this little corner of nowhere,” she babbled even as her heart began a slow descent into her stomach. One look at Vivian’s face, though, confirmed her worst fears.
“Sami…” Viv began quietly.
“Oh, my God! You knew!” Sami accused furiously. “I’ve gotta go! I ‘ve gotta get out of here!”
And just when Sami thought she’d hit her lowest point, she realized there was still further to fall. And hitting rock bottom… well, that sounded a whole lot like the voice of the only man she’d ever loved.
“Vixen, I think it’s time for you to stop,” an achingly familiar deep voice demanded softly from behind her. “You’ve been running hell-bent for leather for the last three years. Aren’t those long legs of yours tired yet?”
Closing her eyes, Samantha couldn’t help her sad smile as she heard the ghost of her past speak. Hanging her head, she couldn’t help her rueful laughter. After all, only she was talented enough to find Hell on earth in this so-called Paradise.
Chapter Five
Sami
“Ben.” His name was barely a breath of sound falling from her lips, but she knew he’d heard her by the half smile on his face. He’d always had the ears of a bat and a knack for hearing all kinds of things she wished he hadn’t.
“Long time, no see, Vixen,” she heard Benjamin Atkins greet her way too easily after three long years of radio silence, the use of his old nickname for her painfully piercing what was left of her shredded heart.
God, this had to be some kind of dream. She was going to wake up any minute and find herself alone in her bed.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Sami. I assure you, no matter how many times you blink, I’m not going to disappear, Sami,” Ben teased with an amused grin.
Crap! This wasn’t a dream. It was a nightmare! Her own personal waking nightmare! “I… I just can’t believe you’re here,” she whispered as she tried to control the tremor in her voice. Self-consciously, Samantha silently cursed and lifted a hand to smooth over her hair as a breeze blew the silky locks into her face. From the flash of pity she saw in Viv’s gaze, she knew she had to look a mess. Still shaken to see her ex-fiancé, she could feel the color draining from her face and knew she must look white as a sheet. Of course, her appearance should be the least of her concerns, but what could she say? She’d always wanted to look her best in front of Ben. Even now. Hell, especially now. “Of all the small towns in all the world…” she chattered mindlessly as she released a nervous laugh.
“You had to come walkin’ into mine,” she heard him conclude smoothly, his captivating blue-gray eyes never leaving hers. God, you would think after everything they’d been through, those eyes would no longer have any effect on her. But no such luck. She still felt like she could happily drown in those pools of blue.
Clearing her throat, Vivian rose from the bench to stand between them, looking cautiously between the two. “Sami, I know this is quite a surprise, but Ben’s been here for the last couple of years. Isn’t that right, Ben?”
Nodding, Ben’s eyes never moved from Samantha’s face. “Sounds about right,” he agreed softly. .
“But, why?” Sami blurted before she could stop herself. “I mean, it’s a pretty town, but there’s nothing here,” she said, gesturing weakly around her. “I mean, there’s no publishing houses or fashion houses or…”
“I decided I wanted to take photographs of something other than a bunch of pretty bodies standing around in expensive dresses, Samantha. I made a good living doing it for a lot of years, but doing that then allowed me to do what I really love now. After I left Atlanta, I did some traveling. Found this place. You’re standing in the midst of some of the most beautiful land God ever created in a town that has some of the kindest people I’ve ever met. Setting up shop here wasn’t a hard decision.”
“Ben’s being very humble, Sami. He’s actually won several awards for photographs he’s taken of Appalachia in the last couple of years, but then, you’ve always known how talented he was” Vivian interjected, her eyes kind as they met Sami’s.
“Absolutely,” Sami agreed quickly. “Ben’s always been a genius behind the camera’s lens,” Sami admitted, feeling strangely proud of all he’d accomplished. She liked to think she’d had a small hand in his accomplishments, and because of that, his successes still felt a bit like her own. “I just can’t believe you left the fashion industry behind. You were at the top of your game… to walk away at the height of your career seems like it would have been a risky move.”
“Yeah, but it was time to do something different. You always knew that I didn’t wanna snap pictures of party dresses and swimsuits forever. That kind of thing paid the bills and gave me a nice nest egg to live on while I established myself here, but it wasn’t my passion.”
Oh, how she remembered that, Sami thought, the memories bittersweet. Ben had always said he had two great passions. Her and nature photography. She was thrilled that one of those had worked out for him.
“Besides, when I do have a hankerin’ to take pictures of a pretty
face, I have my studio work,” he continued with a nod toward his shop across the street. “Lucky for me, this town has no shortage of beautiful women and adorable babies to snap pictures of.”
Okay, message received, Sami thought bitterly. Ben wasn’t exactly pining away for her up her in the mountains. Knowing that hurt a lot more than she expected. But, she’d be damned if she let him know he’d landed an emotional hit. Pasting on a bright smile, she forced herself to look up into his still brutally handsome face. “I…I’ve gotta admit, Ben, I’m surprised to find you up here, but I’m genuinely happy for you. It sounds like you finally got the career you wanted,” Sami offered softly, each word sticking painfully in her throat. “I mean, the country life isn’t for me, but I’m glad you found what you wanted here.”
“Haven’t found all of it. At least, not yet,” Ben admitted, dropping his hands into the pockets of his well-worn jeans.
“I think you and Ben need to get reacquainted and I’ve got some work that I need to get done back at Abel’s office. Sami, we can meet up for lunch tomorrow at the café and talk about things, okay?” Vivian declared with a smile.
Eyes widening on her traitorous friend, Sami shook her head. “Viv, no! You can’t leave. We’ve got to talk about things. You can’t just decide that you’re going to pull up stakes and move here! It’s just not done!”
“Actually, it is done, Sami. I’m doing it. If you ask me, you should think about doing it, too,” she returned evenly, giving Sami a pointed look as she jerked her head toward Ben. “Look how well it turned out for Ben. You never know… it could all work out for you, too. If you were willing to take a chance,” she said before turning toward a dark sedan parked on the side of the street.
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