“We could have sex on this terrace and no one would know,” she flirted.
John got a devilish look on that made her melt. “I would know.”
“Kevin would probably know too,” she joked.
They busted out laughing.
“Are you finished traveling? Finished running from us?”
She cupped his face. “I was never running from us. I was running to us with a detour.”
“Baby, you’re home.” He picked her up so she straddled his lap and looked into his eyes. “One of the things I learned during your soul searching was that in Colorado there’s no waiting to get married. No blood test either.”
“You want to marry me?” Lucy was overwhelmed. She thought she’d lost everything. Thought her life would be filled with what-ifs that started with … what if she had stayed.
“More than anything. I don’t have a ring, but I’ll get one. We wouldn’t have to wait to get married, which is a good thing because I feel like as fast as things happened between us, I’ve waited long enough. I don’t want to wait anymore. Lucy Shoemaker, will you marry me?”
Lucy’s insides rippled and rolled. She had to wait to calm down to make a sound. “Yes.”
She pressed her lips to his to seal the proposal. It was a whole new experience kissing John Blackwood now that he was officially hers and she was his.
They didn’t make love on the terrace. Early spring in the Rockies was brisk. He walked them into the house that was different and yet the same, perfect for their new life together.
She rose up on her tiptoes, craning for him. John lowered his mouth and kissed her. It was slow and lazy and full of passion. His kiss released a torrent of need that had been pent up since the day she’d left. It was a storm that swept them away.
He tasted as sweet as she remembered, so wet, so warm, so dominant. There were no what-ifs. Her response was not like the timid one of their first time together, but confident and sure. She held him to her and kissed him passionately.
John pulled back. “Oh,” he said. “One more thing.”
He had converted what had once been his childhood room into a den, complete with a pool table. John was in for the long game.
It was the last thing he showed her before they christened the master bedroom.
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Imagine That Sneak Peek
Kevin
Kevin Hoisington’s life began when Maya staggered past him nearly a year ago. She was a Blackwood by birth and kept her name after her marriage to Brad Dick. He couldn’t say he blamed her.
When she arrived in town, she needed someone and he set out to make sure that someone was him. Checking on the welfare of the people who lived in Blackwood was his job, so he drove the town twice a day to make sure everyone was safe.
There was nothing like the serenity of a new day. The way the light painted the Rocky Mountains and put a sparkle on the frost of an early spring never got old. Blackwood was not much bigger than a shadow cast against the mountains by a cloud as it passed across the sun, but it was huge to him. Everything he wanted was here, including Maya. As far as he was concerned, all was right with his world.
As he finished cruising the streets of humble homes he and the bartender Damon Perry called Blackwood’s suburbia, his radio hissed and he answered the call.
“This is Kevin.”
“Kev, I have Maya Blackwood sitting at my counter,” Damon said in a voice that was barely above a whisper.
No sooner had Damon entered his mind, he’d called. Life often worked that way. They’d been professional football players at different times and on different teams, but they worked out together. With so much in common, they’d become good friends. Kevin thought the bartender would make a great cop. He was an invaluable asset in situations like these.
Maybe thinking about Damon and Maya within minutes of each other had been a premonition of sorts.
When Damon said Maya was at the bar, Kevin’s stomach dropped, taking his heart with it. The last place Maya needed to be was in a bar.
“On my way,” he said, drawing in a deep breath.
He was two turns from the Blackwood Saloon. Except for the asphalt paving, the building probably didn’t look much different from when it was built over a hundred years prior. The cruiser’s wheels crushed the loose gravel in the parking lot as he put the vehicle in park. He approached the front door which was unlocked, despite the bar being officially closed for business.
“Morning,” Damon said, as he wiped down glasses and mugs.
There at the counter, quiet and contemplative looking, was the long and lean Maya Blackwood, of the same Blackwoods for whom the town was named. Every time he looked at her, he thought “model-beautiful.” He was probably the only person on the planet who saw her and felt a tug on his heartstrings. A tug of love and sadness at the same time. Few people felt sorry for the billionaire heiress, but he did. He wasn’t sure if he loved her yet—he was still sorting that out. There was a disconnect between his logical side—his head, and its emotional counterpart—his heart.
“Hey.” He approached her with an easy, soft whisper. He didn’t touch her. Didn’t want to unsettle her, but he wanted to get close to her and figure out why she was sitting in a bar at the crack of dawn. “You okay?”
She shook her head, sending the long black curtain of her hair swinging across her back. “I woke up and felt alone.” The sadness in her voice hung in the air. “There’s nothing wrong I can put my finger on. I couldn’t shake the urge. Damon was nice enough to let me in.”
She sipped her ice water.
“Just waiting on a fresh pot of coffee,” Damon interjected before moving to the other end of the counter to give them privacy.
Maya and Kevin lifted their heads at the same time and gazed into the mirror behind the bar. Kevin was struck by what a handsome couple they made, even though they were only friends. He rested his arm on the bar as he hovered behind her.
Though Maya was a tall woman, he looked like a mountain of a man next to her. The sleeve of his uniform cut against his thick bicep, pulling at the cotton of his shirt. Having played three seasons for the Denver Broncos, he was forever doing battle to find the proper fit. Looking at Maya in the mirror, he thought there was nothing to tailor there, she was off the rack perfect for him.
“You’ve got a lot going on, Maya. A new way of life. A new home. It’s a challenge getting used to new digs, even if that house is spectacular,” he assured her. “Now that the town has been sold, things creep up on us and come out in the form of a desire to self-sabotage. Especially when you’re new at this. You want a drink but you don’t need one.”
She stared into the mirror but she was looking into his eyes. “You know, John gave the house to you too.” Her face brightened. “Move back in. There’s room enough for both of us. We can be roomies again and I wouldn’t be so lonely.”
He smiled warmly, but knew his position was firm. There was no way he could subject himself to that kind of torture. He couldn’t live under the same roof with a woman he was attracted to and pretend they were only buddies. It wouldn’t work. He could not be her “roomie.”
“Maya, that big mansion isn’t for me. I have a comfortable home more suited to my style of living.” Staying at his place helped set boundaries as far as his feelings for Maya were concerned. “I like my place.” He let the lie slip from his lips. “It’s better this way.”
“It’s not a mansion,” she argued. “It’s an A-frame log cabin.”
He dropped his head and laughed.
>
“Just a simple four thousand square foot cabin,” he replied with a smile.
“Please—” Her lower lip rolled out into a pout.
She knew if she asked enough, she might get him to say yes. She could probably get him to do anything. That’s how weak his resolve was when it came to her.
“On another note,” he continued, not addressing her pleas to move back into the house, “this is not the place to come when you feel you need a drink. Call your sponsor. You know the drill.”
“She wasn’t home.” Maya drew jagged lines in the condensation of her glass. “She didn’t answer. Maybe she’s tired of me calling her.”
“Then call me.”
She lifted her eyes and connected with him. Her expression turned from downtrodden to hopeful.
“You aren’t tired of me yet?” She turned her face so if he moved an inch, he could kiss her.
“No,” he said. “I don’t think that’s possible. Come on. Let’s take a ride into Idaho Springs, hit up a 12-step meeting.”
Maya laughed and that warmed him to no end. He was happy he could brighten her mood.
“That wouldn’t look good. Me showing up to a meeting in a cop car,” she said playfully.
“It wouldn’t be unheard of. Besides, you’d look good in anything, including a cop car.”
She touched his arm tenderly. It struck him funny how a single innocent touch from her could ignite his entire body.
“I’ll be fine.” She glanced around the bar. “You’re right, this was silly.” She pushed her glass of water away.
“Are you feeling better, at least?”
“Yeah, there’s a meeting at the town hall at noon. Besides, Clem is coming to town, so I won’t be alone. He says he and Kaitlin are done for good, so maybe he’ll share John’s house with me, and I won’t be so lonely.”
Kevin knew he’d told her he couldn’t stay with her, and yet he was filled with jealousy that Maya’s brother might. If only he could crush this yearning in his gut. If only she knew his true feelings.
Clem being there should be a good thing, but what if it wasn’t? With Clem there, Maya might not need him. Her big brother would wonder why Kevin was always hovering around.
He silently scolded himself. This wasn’t a time to be selfish. He was glad Maya Blackwood was sober, but the fact that she’d had a problem with alcohol at one time sort of put a wrench in the works, at least for the time being. Her immediate needs required him to be patient and not impulsive, but being around such a beautiful, engaging woman when he’d been alone for such a long time was a living hell.
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Acknowledgments
Every book is a journey. I enter into a world that is unknown to me except for the notes I’ve used to plot. I meet the character the same way you do. They unfold in front of me. The location seems to open up and show itself and side characters silently plead for their own stories.
Often the stories come together like some kind of magic. Other times they need to be beat into submission. My favorite moment is when I close up the last chapter and know I’ve written words that will entertain.
Books go through many hands, friends, collaborators, and an editor who does her magic not once but twice. Then it heads to a proofreader who finds the few things that always get missed in editing. Next I send it to several trusted beta readers and they come back and tell me their thoughts.
I have two choices, I can listen to the reader who knows what they want and make the necessary changes so the book will be well received, or I can go the easier route and publish the book and hope for the best.
You dear reader are worth the extra work. I’ve found that changing a book is harder than writing it from the beginning.
If you loved What If please thank a beta reader for being brave enough to speak openly. Books don’t come out perfect, they simply come out, and it’s all the processes and checkpoints they go through that make them the best they can be.
Special thanks go out to Donna, Sabrina, Rebecca, DeeJay, Judy, Heidi, Dawn, Pat and Sharon for being the red ink in my pen.
Thanks to Kasi and Janice for being the red ink in their pen.
Thanks to the hot guy on the cover and to Michele Catalano for creating a cover worthy of a swoon.
Special hugs for my bestie Melanie Summers who always has an ear to listen and voice to speak the truth. She’s a one of kind friend, the kind I’d wish on every person in the world.
Thanks to the ARC readers who take a chance and trade their time for a first look at a new book.
To my mom Joyce, my sisters Cynthia and Terry, I may not always say it, but I love you.
To the readers who have stayed with me since the beginning when I was scratching words on the backs of receipts, and to those who recently found me, stick around, there’s so much more to come.
Hugs
Kelly
About the Author
International bestselling author of more than thirty novels, Kelly Collins writes with the intention of keeping the love alive. Always a romantic, she blends real-life events with her vivid imagination to create characters and stories that lovers of contemporary romance, new adult, and romantic suspense will return to again and again.
Kelly lives in Colorado at the base of the Rocky Mountains with her husband of twenty-seven years, their two dogs, and a bird that hates her. She has three amazing children, whom she loves to pieces.
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What If: A Small Town Big Love Novel Page 17