The Winter Affair

by Alicia LaFontaine

  The Winter Affair

  Alicia LaFontaine

  The Winter Affair Copyright © 2019 by Alicia LaFontaine. All Rights Reserved.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Cover designed by DLR Designs

  http://www.etsy.com/shop/DLRCoverDesigns

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Alicia LaFontaine

  Visit my website at www.amazon.com/Alicia-LaFontaine/e/B010G3N3Z4

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing: March 2019

  Kindle Direct Publishing

  ISBN-13 9781090125262

  Also by Alicia LaFontaine

  In Historical Romance:

  Jocelyn: The Brookstone Series Book One

  Jane: The Brookstone Series Book Two

  In Contemporary Mystery:

  In the Woods: In the Elements Book One

  In the Fire: In the Elements Book Two

  In The Dark: In the Elements Book Three

  In Poetry:

  The Poetic Ramblings of a Teenage Mind

  This book is dedicated to the amazing cover artist behind DLR Designs, Donna.

  This story was just a whimsical fantasy for me until I saw your book cover. I knew instantly the woman on the cover was Trish and that I had to write this story.

  Thank you so much for being such a wonder to work with.

  Contents

  Also by Alicia LaFontaine

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  1

  Trish Greene squinted out her windshield at the blinding white of a raging snowstorm. Of course, squinting didn’t make visibility any better and she chastised herself for her foolishness. Not only had she ignored the numerous weather reports that morning which had warned everyone to not travel if it could be helped, but she’d continued despite passing several cars stopped to wait it out on the side of the highway.

  She gripped the steering wheel tighter, her knuckles going as white as the snow outside, as her car hit a small patch of ice and fishtailed for a few harrowing moments before she was able to regain control.

  “Fuck!” she grumbled aloud, although relief washed over her. Her heart had jumpstarted into overdrive and now thumped uncomfortably in her chest. She could’ve kicked herself for her stupidity except, well, she was driving.

  She wouldn’t be, she knew, if not for her own stubbornness. Still, it had seemed like a good idea early that morning when she’d awoken with surprise to find herself wrenched painfully out of bed by her hair. A woman she’d never seen before held on with a firm grip to Trish’s long, blonde tresses, screaming a foul stream of obscenities which all garbled together after a while. Trish had been able to catch enough words throughout, though, to discern the snarling woman was the wife of the man with whom Trish had spent the previous evening.

  Devin. That was his name. Coward would have been a better moniker, Trish remembered thinking as she’d gotten free of the woman’s grasp. He hadn’t moved from the bed during the ordeal but remained where he was, sitting up with his hands bunched in the sheet and pulled up close to his face. It was the face of a child enduring a harsh scolding from an unhappy parent when the woman once turned her venom on him. Trish had gathered up her clothes as quickly as possible and left, pulling everything on as she fled the house.

  Of course, had she known he was married, Trish never would have gotten involved with the scuzzbucket. So, she’d raced to flee her feelings of shame and foolishness as much to get in her car and out of town. Slamming the driver’s side door and tearing off down the road hadn’t left those feelings behind. Still, putting some distance between her and the unhappy couple sounded like a much better idea than sticking around to wait out the storm.

  She could probably turn off somewhere now, she thought. There was a good sixty miles or so of snow-covered road separating her from her recent bad decision. If the weather didn’t let up in the next few minutes and she stayed on the road, she could soon find herself face-to-face with her next one. Her ire had cooled enough that she was no longer driving with stubborn pride.

  Was that an exit sign she’d just passed? There’d been a tiny blur of that tell-tale green off to the right of the road. Trish crossed her fingers—figuratively—that’s what it had been. If she could just make it to that exit, perhaps she’d be able to hunker down until the worst of the storm—

  “Ah!” Trish screamed as her tiny Jetta’s tires spun wildly across a patch of black ice hidden under the snow. She did her best to remember her high school driving lessons not to panic and overcorrect too much, but there was nothing she could do.

  It felt like she was sucked into the vortex of a blinding, snow tornado as her car spun around in circles over and over down the highway. All she could see was white out every window. Although not religious, she began fervently praying there wasn’t another car too far behind her because, if she couldn’t see them, they likely wouldn’t see her in time to avoid a collision.

  With a jarring thud, the car stopped. Thankfully, the impact wasn’t severe enough to even set off the airbags. Trish was relatively certain her head hadn’t snapped around too much, either.

  A quick scan out the windows didn’t reveal much beyond white on all sides until she saw headlights barreling at her through the storm.

  2

  Trish cowered in the driver’s seat and covered her head, bracing for the impact.

  But, it never came.

  She heard the tell-tale whoosh of a vehicle passing close-by at high speed and looked up to see the red taillights of a truck racing into the distance.

  “Fucking truck drivers,” she mumbled, clutching her chest. Her heart was beating like it’d been kickstarted with jumper cables. “They always drive way too damn fast in the snow because they think their truck can handle any weather.”

  Trish brushed off the nagging voice in her head which combatted with the argument that perhaps she wouldn’t have skidded off the road if she’d have been driving a heavier car. The truck had, apparently, navigated successfully over the same patch of black ice. She loved her little, black Jetta, though. She’d take fuel economy over the occasional necessity to fly down icy roads any day.

  It’s not as if she made it a habit to drive through blizzards, after all. She’d only been on the road because—

  “Ugh!” she grunted and smacked the steering wheel.

  How could that bastard have lied to her about being married?!

  She huffed out a frustrated puff of air, unsure with whom she was more upset. Yes, Devin was a jerk. That much anyone could agree on.

  Still, said the devil’s advocate voice which had suddenly taken up residence in her head, shouldn’t she have seen warning signs?

  Had there b
een any?

  There had been one instance when Devin had visited her and she’d thought she’d overheard him talking on the phone in her bathroom to someone he’d called “babe.” He’d claimed he’d said “bro” and had been talking with a friend. Trish had let the incident go quickly because she had wanted to believe him. He’d driven all that way to see her, after all. He must be really smitten with her to do that.

  At the time, it hadn’t occurred to her that “smitten with her” and “single” weren’t mutually exclusive terms.

  The problem with dating a guy who lived two hours away was that she wasn’t with him more than she was with him. So, he’d been able to keep her as his “other woman” safely away from his normal life and schedule their encounters to avoid getting caught.

  “Jesus,” Trish muttered, “I can really pick them, can’t I? He had to have been a complete idiot to get caught.” Laughter bubbled up from her throat until she was giggling uncontrollably at the whole situation.

  “Well, fuck! What do I do now?”

  Whether there had been red flags or not, and whether she had been an idiot to ever date the guy or to run off as the worst snowstorm of the season was just rolling across the state, Trish now needed to put those queries out of her mind and figure her way out of this. She couldn’t just sit on the side of the road all day in her car.

  Another whoosh of a passing car revved her into action. How likely was it no other car would lose control on that black ice? She really couldn’t risk staying where she was too much longer. Although her car was off the road, it was still perilously close to the right-hand lane. Hell, she worried, who’s to say any driver could even tell where the lanes were anymore in this whiteout?

  Trish reached for her purse on the passenger seat and grabbed inside for her cell.

  “Damn! Seriously?” she groaned. “How do I have no service?”

  She smacked the steering wheel again but with less vigor. Her one and only idea on getting out of this jam was a bust.

  “Now what?”

  She let out a slow, heavy sigh. If she couldn’t call a tow, where did that leave her? She looked all around her but then shook her head at herself. As if the solution to her problem would magically appear out of the blinding snow? Her judgment definitely needed a tune-up.

  A thought suddenly sprung to her mind. She was relatively certain she’d seen the sign for an upcoming exit not long before hitting the ice. That would mean she could be within a mile of the exit, or maybe less.

  Or, maybe more.

  Still, there was bound to be somewhere she could take refuge off that exit, a gas station or restaurant, some place with a working phone.

  “God, Trish, you really are delusional!” she chastised herself. How could she even entertain the idea of wandering into the swirling void of white when she couldn’t see more than five feet in front of her?

  Was it complete madness, though? She could stay in her car, true. But, how much longer would the storm rage on around her? Was it smart to risk the chance of another driver losing it on the ice and crashing into her? What if a huge semi was clearing its path just a few feet too far to the right of the lane?

  On the other hand, was it a good idea to brave the storm on foot? If she worried other drivers couldn’t see her car, how would they be able to see just her?

  She debated the pros and cons of each strategy for another five minutes, all the while feeling a sense of dread which grew with the cold permeating the car.

  Before she forced herself to decide, headlights in her periphery caused her to snap her head to the right.

  They were coming right for her!

  “Fuck, not again!”

  3

  Mimicking minutes before, Trish braced for the inevitable impact.

  But, again, it never came.

  She didn’t hear the whoosh of the vehicle sailing on past her down the highway, either, though.

  Slowly unfurling herself from where she’d tucked her head into her chest, Trish stole a glance out the passenger side window and was greeted with the image of headlights blazing.

  In another second, though, the headlights were gone as the vehicle was, apparently, turned off. It was a pickup truck, she could see now.

  She watched as the driver’s side door opened and a tall figure emerged. Her blood began to run as cold as the temperature outside.

  What if this person had sinister plans for her?

  She would’ve scolded herself for watching too many scary movies had she felt any inkling of her own foolishness, but she didn’t. Not as the figure made its way to her car.

  Trish scanned the inside of her car, futilely searching for something with which to protect herself should this encounter turn ugly.

  A rap on the passenger window made her jump nearly out of her skin. She looked up to find—

  “Garrett?”

  4

  Trish pressed the button to roll down the automatic window.

  “Are you okay?” the male voice asked as he began to bend forward to peer inside. “Nearly didn’t see your car over on the side on the road, but…oh my god, Trish?”

  “Garrett! God, what are the odds! I can’t believe it’s you!” Trish exclaimed, all the tension in her body flooding out the open window at the sight of the familiar face staring back at her.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked, a smile playing at the corners of his lips despite the emergency state of the situation.

  “Oh, you didn’t know? I prefer to spend my morning ramming my car into snow banks to see how thoroughly I can get myself stuck. Kind of my thing.” She winked in jest at her sarcastic joke.

  He laughed and a thousand memories bombarded her brain in an instant. She had no time to linger on them just then, however.

  “So, you can’t back up at all, then, huh?” he asked, his deep baritone breaking through her thoughts before she could allow herself to get lost in them.

  Oh, shit!

  With his words, she realized something which made her want to smack herself in the head.

  She hadn’t even tried to back out of the snow bank!

  Somehow, the harrowing experience of spinning out on black ice off the highway and landing the front of her car in a massive snow pile had jarred her worse than she’d thought. She realized now, she’d just assumed she was stuck there.

  “Um…” she tried to stall and think of some way to justify her stupidity, but finally caved in. “God, I feel like an idiot! I hadn’t even tried that.”

  “You didn’t try to back out of here?” he asked, that smile pulling at more than just the corners of his lips now.

  The flirtatious side of her which had always seemed to come out with Garrett took over. “Well, I guess I was just waiting here for you.”

  His smile finally broke out in full force. Suddenly, it felt ten degrees hotter in the car.

  “Well, why don’t you give it a try right now.” His tone wasn’t mocking, just gentle.

  “Okay.”

  Trish turned the key in the ignition, wondering just then how the car had turned off before. It turned back on just fine, so had she turned it off after plowing into the bank?

  She put the car into gear and slowly pressed down on the accelerator. Instantly, she heard the tell-tale sound of tires slipping on snow and not getting any traction. She tried for several more seconds, just to be sure, but then stopped, turning back towards Garrett.

  “Here,” he started, standing up and tromping his way through the knee-high snow which surrounded the front of her car.

  He got himself into position with his hands braced and Trish tried again. Even with the added force of Garrett heaving his weight into rocking the car back, the tires just weren’t catching hold of anything.

  Finally, they gave up and Garrett came back over to the passenger window.

  “Well, I’d pull you out myself, but I don’t have a winch on my truck right now. But, you could try calling a tow,” he suggested.

  “Yeah,” s
he explained, picking up her phone, “that would be a good idea if I got reception out here.”

  “Oh, dang. Well, here,” he offered, opening the passenger door and plopping down on the seat, “we can use mine.”

  Trish watched as he pulled out his cell and began looking up numbers for tow truck companies. “You always were the sweetest guy. Always a problem solver.”

  He looked up from his phone and gave her a wink, “Only for you.”

  The butterflies that erupted in Trish’s stomach nearly threatened to burst out of her. Over ten years later and he could still cause a reaction like that with the simplest words. She knew now, as she’d known all those years ago, it wasn’t necessarily what he said. It was the fact he was saying it to her. When your high school crush makes you feel like you’re the only girl he sees, the effect could be quite intoxicating, she’d learned.

  Now, after the mortifying events of that morning, the idea of a guy having only eyes for her sounded pretty damn good.

  5

  Nearly an hour later, Trish was getting into the cab of Garrett’s truck so they could follow the tow into the nearest town. It was only a half-mile down the road. Still, Trish was glad she hadn’t tried to brave the elements to go searching for help on her own.

  And, that wasn’t only because of the hardship she would’ve faced walking a half-mile in the snow. As heat began blasting from the vents, Trish soon got that familiar sensation—almost a tingling—which comes from the delight of her extremities warming. She and Garrett had sat in her running car with the heat on while they’d waited for the tow. So, now, this sensation came purely from sitting so close to her knight in shining, silver pickup truck.

  “I still can’t believe you’re the one who came to rescue me,” Trish remarked.