In this day and age, getting a phone call from a guy didn’t mean anything. AJ could be anyone. He forced the sudden paranoia back and he came up next to her and put his hand on the rock too. “Well, once upon a time there was a super-hot blonde who came to the picturesque town of Hope Falls and made the poor, experienced tour guide loose his mind.”
She gave his arm a playful punch. “No, smart ass. Why is this rock so smooth? It barely even feels like rock…”
“When the winter snow melts, this is one of the ways the water escapes. I guess over a few hundred years of these sporadic streams, it’s worn the rock down to this.” He ran his hand over the perfectly smooth stone that felt like a soft marble. Just one of the unexpected wonders of these mountains.
Her hand finally fell away from the rockface. “You bring all the girls up here?” Her tone was joking, but she wasn’t looking at him so he couldn’t tell whether she was drilling him about his own relationship status. Maybe they were both thinking the same thing.
“Just you,” he said honestly. In a town this small, it was hard to date without hundreds of eyes watching his every move. And after his first year there, the Hope Falls residents had become surprisingly possessive of him. Any time a tourist showed the slightest bit of interest in him, he’d be drilled with questions every time he went to Sue Ann’s Cafe.
They headed back down the trail in silence. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. Personally, Josh was pretty damn content at the moment. Beautiful day, beautiful woman by his side, damn good sex. Quite frankly, this day was already a ten out of ten and it was only noon.
Every once in a while, he’d stop to give Steph a bit of the tour guide treatment, showing her signs of animals that had passed through recently or show her some of the more unique plant life.
Once they were closer to the main trail, they passed a few hikers here and there and every single time, Steph would get that adorable blush again. He knew she was thinking about what they just did and damn it if his cock didn’t perk up to attention again. It didn’t make for comfortable walking, but it was worth it to see that cute blush.
They reached the fork in the trail again and Steph pointed in the direction they’d chosen not to go. “Stables?” she asked.
“Yeah, but we can drive. I think we got our workout in for the day.”
She raised a brow. “Got our workout in? Or are you conserving your energy for later?”
He snorted. “Maybe both.”
It would’ve been a twenty-minute walk to the stables but in the truck, it was only about five minutes. It was a Thursday, so it wasn’t that busy, but there were still some families and couples taking vacations or a long weekend who were there.
The stables were one of the oldest standing buildings on site, but they had been modernized over the years. On the coldest days, the horses had heat and there were even some fans installed a few years back that would allow the air to flow on the stifling hot days of the summer. But no matter how nice the barn, it still smelled like a barn. He glanced over to Steph to see whether she’d have the city-girl response of wrinkling her nose, but she just looked around in wonder.
He thought back to what she admitted about her family life. About her privileged history. He hated to admit it, but if he had known sooner, he might’ve never asked her out. He was out of his league when it came to money. He’d never even had a savings account until he got this job at Hope Falls.
So the idea that he could take Steph anywhere that would impress her was comforting. And he shouldn’t worry too much about impressing her. It wasn’t as if she was going to be hanging around for long.
He blinked at the thought. That didn’t make him feel better. He ran a hand over his head and through his hair. He’d known this was complicated but every time he thought about her leaving him, he felt a strange constriction in his chest, as though she had a literal hold on his heart.
He didn’t believe in love at first sight. Hell, he barely believed in love at all, but he couldn’t pretend that what was happening between him and Steph was normal.
“Oh my goodness,” she said as they approached a stall with the new horse. He was tall, one of the largest horses there. He was almost all black, but had a white star on his forehead and a large white splotch on his chest, along with some gray and white hairs threaded into his mane. “Who is this?” Steph approached and ran her fingers over his star.
“I call him Pain in the Ass, but his official name is Pepper.”
She glanced over at him quickly. “He’s the one you mentioned yesterday, isn’t he? The one you knew I’d like.”
“All the girls fall for Pepper. They must like the assholes.”
She rolled her eyes at him before she turned all her attention back to Pepper. “Is he too much of a pain to ride?”
“He’s great to ride. It’s why we rescued him.”
“Rescue?”
“All our horses are rescues of some kind. We have to go through a big screening process, since the horses here all interact with guests and they have to have a good temperament, but there are enough rescues out there that there are plenty of good ones.”
“That’s awesome. I’ve always wanted to adopt a dog,” she said wistfully as she scratched Pepper’s big neck.
“Why don’t you have one?”
“Because once you get a dog, you’re their entire life for ten plus years. And I have no idea what I’m doing from week to week, let alone for the next decade.”
He nodded as he saw through her words. “You don’t want the commitment.”
“I’m not afraid of commitment.”
“You don’t have long-term relationships. You don’t adopt dogs. You don’t have any steady jobs even though I bet you could get one in a heartbeat.” He hadn’t known her long, but could tell she was smart and obviously had family connections. If a bum like him could get employment, she would be a shoo-in anywhere she wanted to go.
“Well, you don’t have a dog either,” she pointed out.
“Maybe I don’t like dogs.” She didn’t even bother to respond, just giving him a skeptical look. “Okay, I did have a dog once. I had a messy breakup and she got the dog.” When he thought about Rocco, he still got upset about it. Somehow taking the plunge into giving his heart and home to another animal hadn’t seemed like an option, even now that his life was more stable.
“That’s horrible.” Steph’s eyes clouded with sympathy. “I can’t believe she would do that to you. You couldn’t work out visitation or shared custody?” Her face scrunched as she said it, realizing how strange the idea of shared custody of a dog was.
“Hey, I would’ve been up for every other weekend, but it was more complicated than that. Where I was going, I couldn’t really bring a dog.”
“Where were you going?”
He looked down at Stephanie’s beautiful face. She had an upturned nose and the skin of a movie star. Somehow, he had gotten this little piece of perfection to be totally into him. Was he going to ruin it by telling her the truth? “Well,” he said tentatively. “You remember when you said you were a bad person? Well, you’re not. I am.”
“Josh, you’re not—”
He cut her off before she could say anything without knowing all the facts. “I couldn’t have the dog because I was in prison, Steph.”
Chapter Five
Steph took a step back from Josh and eyed him up and down, trying to reconcile the words with the man she had been so comfortable with. It wasn’t just that she’d slept with him. She felt as if she’d known him. As though they had some sort of connection that went beyond words or back story.
It was like a slap in the face as she realized how little she really knew about this man she’d just shared her body with.
Josh cursed under his breath and turned away. His long strides widened the distance between them by the second.
Steph stood motionless, watching him leave before reality hit and she realized what was happening. “Wait!” she called as she sta
rted to run after him.
She caught up right as he headed to the truck. “Josh, I want to know more.”
He pulled open the passenger side of the door and held it for her. “It’s okay. I got it.”
“No, you don’t got it. I was surprised and—”
“We don’t know each other,” he pointed out. “Today was nice, but maybe it was a fluke. Let me take you back to your car.”
“I don’t want you to take me back to my car. I want you to finish the story. I want to know what really happened.”
“Really happened? There is no sob story here, Steph. I did a bad thing and I got sent to prison.”
“And now you’re out of prison. So I don’t see why I need to suddenly hate you when nothing has changed in the past two minutes.” She had been so lost in her own self-loathing of the past few weeks that it never occurred to her that Josh might be going through the same thing.
But the world didn’t revolve around her. Other people had real, serious problems that would follow them around for life. And whatever Josh had done, whoever he really was, it didn’t change the perfect gentleman he’d been with her.
“Come on, Josh. You dropped a bombshell on me and I didn’t immediately hug you and tell you everything was going to be okay. I’m allowed to be surprised. You can’t punish me for being human.”
He squinted and stared at her in shock. “Punish you? I’m protecting you. You’re a heiress passing through town. You don’t need to be caught up with some ex-con who is only just getting his life together.”
“Do me a favor. Don’t protect me. I didn’t come out with you today because I wanted a bodyguard.”
“Then why are you with me? Because there is absolutely no reason that we should be doing anything together and I can’t—”
He broke off and Steph desperately wanted to know what he was going to say. “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I don’t have any answers for what’s happening or what I want or where I’m going or how long I’m staying. Everything about my life is in the air right now, so I’m not exactly a model of stability. But are you going to end whatever this is because we’re riding blind? Or are we going to keep whatever this is going?”
He started to say something but stopped. He reached up and ran his fingers along the bottom of her jaw before the pad of his thumb brushed over her bottom lip. She took in a shaky breath as all of the sudden she was right back in the sensual haze that it was so easy for him to drag her into.
Finally he said, “I don’t think that not knowing is a good idea for us.”
She nodded as she tried to remember how to breathe normally. “So we need to decide then. Is this over or are we going to try for something real?” How the hell was she supposed to decide that? How was she even supposed to think straight when he was around? And was her inability to think straight around him a good sign or a bad one? “You decide. This is too hard for me.”
“Hard for you?” He raised a brow and she let out a snort of laughter as she caught the double entendre of his words.
“Fine. What do you suggest, oh wise one? If I can’t decide and you can’t decide, what do we do?”
He glanced up at the sky and squinted. “We’ve had a long morning. Why don’t we take a beat and then meet up for dinner?”
“Dinner at my place?” The bed-and-breakfast had a brand-new stove and an entire working kitchen she could use.
“Maybe someplace public would be best,” he said with just enough wickedness glinting in his eyes for her to know exactly what would happen if they were alone again. “Sue Ann’s Cafe has the best food in town.”
“Okay. Dinner at Sue Ann’s,” she agreed. “And then we can have the talk.”
“It’s a date.” They both smiled at each other at the sudden agreement, but Steph knew that neither one of them felt totally comfortable with the idea of putting a label on the explosive reaction between the two of them. But in a few hours, everything was going to come to a head.
~~~~~
It was five in the evening, but Sue Ann’s Cafe still smelled like cinnamon and pancakes and comfort food. Steph took a deep inhale to appreciate the scent as she walked to one of the open tables. There were about a dozen tables at comfortable angles. The tables were covered with various mismatched tablecloths that seemed to all go together with how different they were. Along the back wall, shelves were lined with various crafts and local mementos, and the walls were covered with pictures of locals. Some of them looked old, but Steph wondered whether she spent enough time looking, she would find one with Josh…
She sat down right as her phone started to buzz. She took it out to see whether it was Josh calling to cancel or tell her there was no reason to talk because he’d already decided this wasn’t worth it. But it was only when she realized it was AJ calling again that she remembered that she still didn’t have Josh’s phone number. God, this was so strange.
She’d slept with a guy a day after meeting him. She didn’t even have his phone number. And the strangest thing of all was that she didn’t even regret it. Even if she left town and never heard from him again, she couldn’t say that she wished that day had never happened.
She smoothed the blue dress down her legs. It was a bit shorter than she wanted while sitting but it was the closest thing to a date outfit she brought with her on her soul-searching road trip. It was loose and airy and great for the summer heat. The v-neck was flattering on her and it would look better with a pair of heels, but the flip-flops she had would have to do.
A friendly waitress came over and Steph ordered two waters as she waited for Josh. Like that morning, her nerves had caused her to get there much too early, so she was willing to take her time.
But, also like that morning, Josh arrived soon after, still much earlier than the five p.m. time they agreed on.
The cafe was reasonably busy with some young families and older couples. Back home, she usually didn’t eat dinner until at least eight at night, but she supposed—or hoped, at least—that Josh wanted an early dinner because he didn’t want to go that long without seeing her.
She smiled at him across the restaurant when his eye met hers and she bit her lip as he approached.
“Hey.” He took his seat.
“I don’t need any more time,” she said without any preamble.
His eyes widened and he shifted his weight in his seat. “Yeah?”
“Let’s do this. For real.”
“Even though I’m—”
“This doesn’t make sense and it might not be logical, but for a few seconds I thought you might not show up today and that freaked me out so much that I don’t want to end this just because I’m afraid. Now, I don’t really know the logistics. I only have the bed-and-breakfast for three days before Shelby said the next guests are coming, but I have an American Express Black card and thanks to my fear of commitment, I can hang around for a while, so I’m going all in on the stupid part and we’re going to do this.” She stopped when she realized she’d said all that without giving him a chance to say anything. Josh had leaned back in his seat and folded his arms in front of him. Was he sitting like that because he was guarded or because he was just more comfortable? “So where do you want to start?” she asked carefully.
“Pancakes would be a good start.”
She smiled at the answer. They’d start with pancakes. She could do that. She reached for the menu to look over what kind of pancakes were available when the door opened and a strikingly beautiful couple walked in. She squinted at the woman, trying to place where she knew her from, and then blinked a few times when she realized who it was. “Karina Black?” she asked Josh.
Josh looked over his shoulder to the table where the couple was sitting. “Yep. Her husband, Ryan, is the grandson of the owner of this place.”
“Huh. That’s so interesting.” Steph went back to looking at the menu and tried to decide whether the hike that morning would cancel out chocolate chip pancakes. After a few moments, she realized Jo
sh was staring at her. She poked her head over the menu to meet his gaze. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. I just… You don’t seem to care that one of the most famous women in the country is sitting a few feet away from you.”
Steph frowned and glanced around the cafe. She realized that the tourists evidently noticed because they had started to whisper among themselves while not so subtly looking to where Karina and Ryan were smiling lovingly at each other. “Trust me, I’m impressed.” She went back to the menu.
“Do you not like her music?” asked Josh.
“Of course, I like her music. I’m human. Don’t listen to the newer stuff, though.”
“The new stuff is a thousand times better than the manufactured pop.”
Okay, this conversation now required her full attention. She set the menu down and leaned forward on her elbows. “Josh, are you a Karina Black fan?” she asked with a teasing smile.
“I live in Hope Falls. We’re all Karina Black fans here. But for real, you like the older stuff better?”
“I like it all. But I usually only listen to music at the gym, so the more upbeat stuff is what gets played more.”
“But you’re not excited that she’s so close? I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone famous before I moved here and I used to live in LA.”
She smiled at him as she realized why he was so confused. “Josh, remember when I said I was rich? I’ve met famous people before. It’s much less fun when you realize they’re just people. I’m sure she’d rather eat without me gawking at her. Besides, I’d rather gawk at you,” she said with a little wink.
He leaned back and considered her once more. “You know, I’m not hungry anymore.”
She raised a brow. “We could always order in.”
He nodded. “I think ordering in is the best idea.”
~~~~~
Hope Falls: The Perfect Lie (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 4
