When Fall Fades (The Girl Next Door Series Book 1)

by Simpson, Amy Leigh

  He groaned. “You’re killing me.” Then took her mouth again in a ravishing kiss. The hem of her dress slipped up over her knees, his big callused hands repositioning to support her bottom beneath the fabric.

  “Mmm.” She squirmed closer, gripping his shoulders for leverage, her softness undulating against all his hard tense muscles until she started to come apart.

  “Sadie, we can’t … Not like this.” Archer breathed the words against her lips, and in contradiction trailed down her throat with hot, nibbling kisses, pressing her more firmly into the wall.

  She knew he was right. This was completely unlike her. But instead of untangling her legs from his waist she heard herself say, “We’ll stop in a minute.”

  Oh right, she could sooner stop the pull of gravity.

  He laughed, a thick, husky sound that clenched low in her belly. “Right. Just one more minute.” She felt his smile against the dip of her cleavage, then felt the wet heat of his tongue trace over the sweetheart neck line. Tangling her fingers in his hair she held him to her chest, panting, feeling almost mindless but completely self-aware as passion poured through her veins.

  “Archer, I’m—”

  “Excuse me, I’m looking for my daughter.”

  The familiar voice was like a slap. No. Way. It was her mother. And by the sound of it, she wasn’t far away.

  “Blonde, coral dress, with a, uh, tall, strong-looking fellow.”

  “Holy smokes!” Pushing against his chest, Sadie wiggled back down to earth, attempting to smother a laugh as Archer lavished her neck with affection, completely undeterred. She gave him a playful, scolding look to which he shushed her and ducked down to kiss her again, soundly.

  She pushed him back again before she was drugged brainless by his intoxicating kisses. “What are we gonna do? She could find us.” A giddy grin tugged at her face. She clamped her hand over the telltale swoon and the giggle that accompanied it. In less than two weeks she’d become a woman who giggled. What had become of her?

  He shook his head with mock seriousness. “Never. This is a perfect hiding spot.” He set to work, trailing kisses from her ear to her mouth and locked in, slow and thorough sweetness stealing her breath, riling her senses, dismantling her resolve.

  Lorelei’s voice grew closer, effectively dousing them with ice water.

  “She cannot find us here. Look at us! How on earth will I explain myself?” Archer huffed quietly, a naughty smile tipping those undeniably kissable lips.

  Sadie covered another giggle. If she looked anything like he did, disheveled and kissed-breathless, there would be no denying their clandestine rendezvous. Sure, if you wanted to get technical they were making out in a public place. Not exactly classy. But they were adults. And yet, like teenagers, they were hiding from her mother.

  Slightly frenzied, but smiling like a couple of loons, she started buttoning his dress shirt and tightening his tie while Archer shifted the neckline of her dress to its rightful place and smoothed the layers of her skirt over her hips with hands that proved distracting all over again.

  “You’re gonna have to stop touching me, double-oh-seven, or I’ll be forced to search your pockets for FBI-issued Bond gadgets clever enough to distract my pit bull of a mother. So tell me, got anything explosive in there?” She winked, because frankly she was having too much fun not to play ball. “I could justify frisking you for say, a penlight that causes short-term blindness or maybe an eraser that releases tear gas?”

  He growled, the heat flaring in his eyes hot enough to singe her eyebrows clean off. “On thin ice, Carson.”

  “Easy there, caveman.” She patted his chest then tried to snatch back her hand, but Archer held it against his heart. His big rough hand covering hers with fierce gentleness, speaking without words, cherishing the last moment of connection.

  “I—I think …” She slipped her hand free in hopes of jumpstarting her brain, “… we passed some bathrooms about two hundred feet around that corner to the left. That is our destination. Do your business, and we’ll casually meet back at the table.” Now that the plan was established she lifted to her tiptoes and yanked a fistful of his tie so they met eye to eye. “Got it?”

  “Dang, you’re hot when you’re bossy.” He winked, unleashing another playful little grin. “Swing for the fences, gorgeous.”

  “I love it when you talk baseball to me. Makes my tomboy heart go all aflutter.” And then, because she couldn’t resist, she pressed one final kiss to his delicious mouth.

  He sucked in a sharp breath, trapped her face in his hands for one stunningly perfect second, and then she turned away, peered around the corner, and hightailed it in heels across the clearing into the restroom without looking back.

  Once inside, she frantically smoothed her hair, blotted at her pink, swollen lips, and adjusted her passion-rumpled dress just before the bathroom door swung open.

  “Sadie! What are you doing? They started serving dinner ages ago.”

  She attempted sincere surprise. “Oh, I thought I had more time. I just wanted to see a little bit of the museum and freshen up. I’ll be right in.”

  Her mom’s eyes narrowed. “From the look on your faces when you and Archer left, I was sure you two slipped away to do some necking or something.”

  “And yet you still came looking for us. That could’ve been awkward.” Sadie quipped, pulling off a surprising facade of innocence and sarcasm without technically lying.

  “Maybe, but I think you could use a good kissin’. Might want to work on that, dear.” Her mother patted Sadie’s rosy cheek. “Now stop lollygagging, you can explore the rest of the museum later. Your dinner’s getting cold.”

  “Hmm.” Sadie hummed noncommittally. But once her mother’s back turned she unloaded a silent sigh of relief, trying to keep the rapturous energy from revealing her and Archer’s stolen moment. And trying not to dwell on the regrettable mistake of falling head over heels for Archer Hayes and his life-changing lips.

  Over the remainder of dinner, Sadie fought the urge to keep glancing over at Archer’s knowing smiles and sexy stare. She felt like their secret tryst, of sorts, must be broadcasting in high definition on their glowing faces, but luckily no one seemed to suspect a thing.

  As the night wore on Sadie dragged him by his tie to the dance floor where they danced and laughed to “What a Feeling” and “Love Shack”—two songs that gave a rather appropriate soundtrack for the events of the evening.

  And then the band began to play out a lazy melody, bringing couples to the floor for the first slow dance.

  “May I?” He lifted a dangerous brow and issued a rakish grin that, in combination, would be impossible for any living, breathing female to deny.

  Without a word, she folded into his open arms. The whine of the ballad seemed so far away as they swayed in their own time. Relaxing into him, she rested her head and hands against his chest, and he cradled her like the most precious thing in the world.

  All the other couples in the room disappeared. Sadie closed her eyes, savoring every moment, every shared heartbeat, drifting away on the heavenly scent of his clean, spicy skin.

  “Oh my darling, you look wonderful tonight …”

  The lyrics of the song jarred her out of her euphoria and back in time. She untangled from his arms and looked down at her dress. The flowing coral chiffon of her strapless sweetheart gown morphed into tufts of golden tulle. Her heart hit a snag, turning to ice in her chest when she looked up into Ryan’s crisp blue eyes.

  Broadsided, countless emotions slammed into her at once. Everything around her came to a screeching halt. Like a helpless crash victim, the only sound penetrating the panic was the dwindling of her pulse crying out for life support. She blinked. Blinked again.

  But there he was, her first love.

  Archer’s husky
voice beckoned her out of the illusion. “Sadie, what’s wrong? You look like you saw a ghost.”

  The smoke screen faded, and Archer’s toffee-colored eyes parted through the mist, the ballroom around them swirling with noise and movement that had ceased to exist moments before. Tremors took hold of every bone, every cell. A wave of nausea crashed over her, and she stumbled back another step. Anxiety latched on with a vise, forcing her to the edge of a cliff that dropped off to full-fledged hysteria.

  She’d thought that the panic attacks were long gone—thought the sporadic dreams were the last lingering symptom of her broken heart. But this was different than before. She was awake.

  Her mouth struggled to cooperate. “I—” She shook her head, fought back burning tears. “I’m sorry, I have to go.” And without the slightest hesitation, she fled from the dance floor.

  “Uh, oh.” Finn stood to intercept her. Tossing his napkin, he muttered to their father about the song.

  Sadie dodged around him, swept her clutch off the table, and bolted from the ballroom. Throwing wide the entrance doors, she ran out into the night. Lightning fractured the charcoal sky, the crack of light granting only a moment’s warning of the impending wrath of the clouds.

  The second she slipped behind the wheel of her Jeep, the clouds unleashed their violence. With shaking hands she jabbed at the ignition, cranked the motor to life, and gunned it out of the parking lot.

  It was hard enough to see through her tears, but the torrential force of the storm made visibility impossible. There was no way she wanted to turn back, and pulling over to the scant shoulder was just as risky as driving blind on this stretch of the interstate. She’d be a sitting duck.

  By the time she exited the highway, the roads were flooding, her tires losing hold, and the swiftness of the wind and water had her Jeep hydroplaning. Her brakes felt a little sluggish, mushy. And she found she kept pressing her foot farther down with little response. If she pushed any harder her spike heel would punch through the floor board and she could Flintstone it the rest of the way home.

  “What the—”

  She forced more pressure on the brake, scooting forward in her seat so that she could reach the vanishing pedal. She was gaining speed down the hill. The road would take a sharp curve before she would reach her street. The yellow and black sign announcing that the turn should be taken at fifteen miles per hour was a fast-approaching blur. “Come on!” She pumped the pedal again, and again, and again, this time with no results.

  Forty-two miles per hour—with water on the road and no brakes. Her mind scrounged for some sort of calculation or probability, but nothing came, and the time to think was gone.

  Her breaths came in short, inadequate puffs, her heart fumbling as fast as the frantic windshield wipers that were sorely unmatched for the heavy downpour. Her fingers tightened on the steering wheel, heat pouring into her fists, flaring through her body as the road hooked to the left.

  Jerking hard, the tires wailed and then released. A scream lodged in Sadie’s throat. It was a strange moment of calm. The ride a smooth drifting sensation. The white noise of the rain a deceptive lullaby. She stiffened her arms to brace for impact with a tree or the crash landing at the bottom of the drop-off as the Jeep sailed to the edge of the embankment and took the plunge over the side.

  Chapter 28

  He couldn’t have planned it any better. Oh, he’d hoped. But ultimately had no way of knowing if his efforts would hit pay dirt or simply create more problems.

  What a waste. That body, and all that fight, would’ve made for an unforgettable ride, but the chips had fallen just right for once. Right at that perfectly treacherous bend in the road.

  The windshield wipers whipped furiously as he carefully rounded the sharp curve where only seconds ago the girl’s Jeep had disappeared over the edge.

  With no brakes the squeal of the tires had been minimal. The water on the road and the heavy pound of the dumping rain drowned out the commotion until the faint but guttural crunch of steel signaled the crash.

  That had to be a long way down, and going that fast …

  He drove past, tuned to a local radio station, and drummed his gloved fingers against the steering wheel. That was one problem down. Without her interference, things would go so much smoother.

  Finding a gas station, he pulled under the shelter and ran inside to find something to take the edge off. He sat in the front seat and took a swig of the crappy bourbon, letting the fire burn through the cracks and solder over his guilt until all that remained was determination.

  It shouldn’t have had to come to this. But the truth came at a price. And it was time to pay the piper.

  He started back on the road, his nerves stroked into submission by the pleasant buzz of the whiskey. Hmm, she would’ve gone well with the fire and spice of the spirit wetting his tongue. Pity.

  A flash of light strobed just ahead, and his palms grew slick inside his gloves as the vehicle came into view.

  Gritting his teeth, he gripped the wheel hard as the truck raced past.

  A tow truck.

  Not an ambulance.

  No freaking way.

  The injustice of it ripped through him, like all those years of his repressed childhood bursting from its staid prison and revolting with flare. She was really starting to piss him off. This was his playground. His.

  He kept driving. A new plan formulating with each dizzy mile.

  If she was still alive, she would live to regret it.

  Chapter 29

  Sadie Carson

  There was another knock at her door. Sadie remained in a boneless heap on her couch with the remnants of a box of tissues. “Go away, Mom.” Apparently all cried out, her glazed eyes stared at something absent. This time it wasn’t Ryan, it was some other illusive untouchable drifting just beyond the present realm.

  “Sadie Cakes, open the door please … I’m not leaving … I will call your father and have him bring me the spare key if I have to.”

  Sadie was stubborn, but she’d learned from the best.

  With painfully slow execution, she managed to put her feet under her to trudge to the front door. Flipping the lock, she dragged her sorry self back to the Kleenex-covered couch. Lorelei let herself in and propped her umbrella against the wall.

  “I’m fine. I shouldn’t have even called you.”

  “You ran your car off the side of the road. If you hadn’t called me I would’ve been furious.” Her mom brushed away a few used tissues and folded in next to Sadie.

  “If I hadn’t called you, you wouldn’t have known. It was very anticlimactic. The towing company pulled my Jeep out of the ravine and dropped me off here.”

  Except that wasn’t exactly true. If not for the very large fallen tree that formed a crude sort of landing pad, the outcome of that slide down the drop-off would have been very different.

  It’s not a big deal. Sadie chanted the words to herself over and over. It was just an untimely mishap. Brakes occasionally went out, didn’t they?

  Sadie’s father owned a small chain of local auto body shops. She’d never done any real work on cars other than a little tinkering with her dad, but she knew enough to know that fluid had leaked from her brake line.

  But had it been nicked somehow, slowly leaking over time?

  Or … had someone punctured the line on purpose?

  Her mother sighed, like everything else about her it was overly dramatic. Sadie felt no need to fuel the fire with her unfounded suspicion, so she kept it to herself for now.

  “Well, you don’t look too banged up.”

  “Nah. My big, strong Jeep took the beating for me. He can be easily replaced.” Unlike some people. Sadie fought back a shiver, pulled the blanket up to her sore neck still aching from the snapping force of the airbag that had sav
ed her life. Well, the airbag and the tree. And probably her angel of mercy that had prompted her to put her phone in the cup holder instead of in the clutch that went flying, allowing her to call for help.

  “Maybe we should talk about something else.” Lorelei shrugged casually. “Like why you decided to vamoose and leave your handsome man alone on the dance floor.”

  She’d lasted all of three minutes. Impressive.

  “He’s not my man.” Though for a few hours there, it’d sure felt like it. The whisker-burn he’d left on her neck might as well have branded her. And if anyone asked, she’d blame it on the airbag.

  But this wasn’t about Archer, it was about Ryan.

  Her mother always had something to say on the subject. She meant well, but each pep talk would end with a relapse into depression. Talking about it was pointless. But after tonight—though it sounded about as fun as disimpacting bowels would have been if she’d taken that internship—Sadie knew she needed another perspective.

  She drew in a lungful of courage, cocked her arm back and decided to let the admission fly, not sure where it would land. “I’ve, uh, been dreaming about Ryan lately. Really vivid dreams. Like I’m reliving these flashes of memory from his perspective, as well as mine.” She scraped her nails over her palms. “I’ve been trying to move past it, but just when I feel like I’m gaining ground, another one comes and … I just can’t shake the feeling that they mean something. And then tonight, that song from prom … Mom, I swear I hallucinated him standing there with me.”

  Her mom scooted closer, wrapping Sadie in a soft hug. “I know this can’t be easy for you—everything all gaping and unresolved. But you do deserve to be happy. Ryan would want that for you, even if it wasn’t with him.”

  Nodding, tears tumbled from her eyelids. “I know that, but the guilt still comes. I can’t stop it. I’m just stuck here, in the same place I’ve been for five years, holding my breath, afraid to move.”