Baby It's Cold Out There: Aspen (Love in the City Book 2)

by Victoria H. Smith

  With the exception of the last.

  Pushing my way through the other vacationers, I sought out the reason for that exception, the reason why everything had changed and made things not hurt so much. I hadn’t hurt at all that night and she did that. She took it away and all she had to do was be there. She was there.

  “Noni!”

  I called to her one final time, as the flurries of Aspen blew around me. I watched a cab pull off, Noni inside. She left, another woman already inside the cab waiting for her. The pair had left together and all that remained for me….

  Was the memory of hardly more than a night.

  Check-in at the airport had been quick, seamless. So smooth, Willa and I had ample time to get to our gate and ultimately home.

  “I’m going to go to the bathroom real quick,” I told her, stopping amongst the other travelers rolling bags in the hall.

  She waved, on her cellphone of course. She had been since we’d gotten in the cab and checked out. She was talking to her son, ready to go home too, I supposed.

  She turned.

  “I’ll meet you at airport security,” she said, covering the receiver and I simply laughed.

  No matter how her life had changed since having her son so young, I doubt she’d change a thing. She loved that boy, the kid very much her joy.

  I gave her a thumbs up, then stood in the hall, watching her go for a second before finally taking the time to do what I wanted to do.

  The bathroom was surprisingly light of other occupants, a few full stalls. Rolling my bag to the mirrors, I picked one out, smiling at the one other person there.

  An older woman, she winked at me, only pausing for a moment before continuing to make up her face. She rolled on a stick of bright red lipstick, something that surprised me but kept the smile on my face. I wondered where she was going to wear such a color, if she was going home, too, to someone.

  Forcing myself to mind my business, I left her to it, pushing my sleeves up. Waving my hand under the facet, I used the cold setting.

  The splash of water to my face woke me, got me together for a moment. I let the drops fall to the sink a little bit before ripping a paper towel off the wall to dry my face.

  My sink mate had finished by then, nodding at me before leaving the room, but I stayed. I stood there in front of that mirror, looking at myself for longer than intended.

  I should be happy to be going home. In fact, ecstatic. I’d gotten the call of a lifetime before coming here, the ultimate reason for my quick departure. Turned out, I must have had a good business plan because the bank had called me. I’d been approved for my small business loan.

  My dream was becoming a reality.

  The details needing to be decided right away, I decided to come home with Willa and start the next chapter of my life. I should be so happy.

  But you’re not.

  I shook my head, literally throwing in the towel when I tossed my actual paper towel into the wastebasket.

  I had an amazing time with Asa and way better than that…

  I found something, something foreign to me, and though unique, that had been fine. It had been more than fine.

  I had to push air through my nose. I had to keep from thinking and move forward with that next step, my life. I let someone cripple me before, make me forget the good things I already had in my life. I was healthy. I was alive and was about to make my hard-earned dream into a reality.

  It’s time to go home.

  The hallway was just as busy as before I went in, and down the way I spotted the area designated for airport security easily.

  Turning my bag, I made the move to ease my way into the stream of other travelers, but a hand coming down my arm gave me pause. It touched my hand, guiding me to face in the opposite direction.

  His direction.

  Asa touched my shoulder, my neck, and then…

  Hot, full lips caused me to bask in warmth, taste. He cupped my jaw and my hand ultimately left my luggage, the bag directly below me but forgotten.

  Asa made me reach up on my toes and soar for the tower of him. I’d been so out of sorts just moments before, but somehow, someway, he guided my way. He helped me, clarity in his hands and on his lips.

  His sweater against my curled fingers slid light, soft, and I actually hated my bag now, hated it for being between us and keeping any bit of us apart.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, still kissing him. I couldn’t stop.

  I felt his smile against my lips.

  “I needed to say congratulations.”

  The slip of paper he seemed to pull out of the ether, bringing it up to eye level. He pulled away and I knew exactly what it was, my handwriting on the front.

  Asa, the folded note said on top, that note the last instance I’d thought his name would turn up for a while. Things seemed to be too up in the air, the unknown my fear.

  Asa lowered the note, tapping the air with it before looking up.

  He smiled. “You’re really headed home to do this? Be a business owner?”

  He’d read the whole note, the one I’d left for him at the reception desk. I gave them his room number and his first name. That was all I knew, but it turned out to be enough. They said they’d take care of the rest.

  I knew he’d get it, the note eventually, but I never would have believed so quickly.

  I played with my bag’s handle. “Seems like it. Yeah.”

  His teeth moved over his bottom lip. After pushing the note into his pocket, he slid hard arms around me, his hands wonderfully squeezing my hips.

  “And you have to go now,” he said. “Today?”

  I nodded. “There’s a bid already on the place I’m looking at. I need to act.”

  Blond lashes flickered away, and though he was clearly affected by it, me leaving, so many questions lingered in the air for me. Questions about him that had me so confused before I left.

  I had no idea who that woman was I’d seen him with. I mean, I hadn’t even seen her face and it was a mystery to me whether something happened between them or not. So many questions, ones that ran deep and tossed wildly in my head.

  His next move made me forget it all, even if only for a moment.

  My bag was guided away by his hand and he used the other to press my body to his.

  His forehead touched down on mine. “I wish you could stay.”

  It’d been the way he said it, tearing my heart and ripping it.

  He lifted his head. “But I understand. I’m in business, too.”

  How interesting, the coincidence…

  But then again, we had so many before.

  He pushed his finger into my belt loop. “I didn’t know what to think when you left. I thought it was the universe messing with me, my ex showing up, you leaving…”

  My heart raced.

  “She came to the lodge for some reason,” he went on, twirling my bag. “She said she wanted to talk to me about something. I didn’t care whatever it was. I just left, left her, but Christine coming actually helped. It only reaffirmed something for me, something about you.”

  I didn’t understand. His ex? Had that been the woman… the one I’d seen him with? It had to have been. The conclusion only made sense.

  And he said he left, he left her. But he also said something else.

  “What did it reaffirm?” I asked, but was so cautious about it. Mostly because I wasn’t sure.

  I didn’t know if I wanted to know the answer, his answer, because so many things could get in the way of it, life, reality…

  But hands on my cheeks paused all thoughts. Asa’s mouth on me created a semblance of time, a peek at forever, and I wanted it however long it lasted.

  “That I needed to see you again,” he said, brushing his lips over my mouth. “But not just for what we did. Other things. Things like talking. I like talking to you.”

  He’d said it so innocently, holding me innocently, and I braced his sweater, the earth tones of it favoring the sh
ade of his eyes.

  “I put my number on that paper, too,” I said. “My address.”

  Because for some reason, I held faith. Despite what I’d seen in the hall I had.

  I was so glad I had.

  He lifted his head and a piece of dirty blond hair curled over his eye. It always did that.

  “But you don’t have mine,” he said, and then let go to pull out his phone.

  He pressed just one button and out of the air, the abyss of the crazy in the airport, my cellphone rang.

  He’d already programmed me into his phone.

  I took mine out, flutters inside my chest. His number disappeared when he ended the call, but I brought it back up, replacing the digits with his name, Asa.

  I’d never forget it.

  He kissed me one more time in that hall, but he also promised me something. We promised each other this meeting wouldn’t be the last one. If he didn’t call me, I’d call him. This wouldn’t be the end.

  Asa walked me as far as he could to security and I spotted Willa. By the wall, she was heavy in her phone call, her voice carrying even from there.

  My friend definitely had a voice.

  In her spiel, her vision collided with mine and that’s when her mouth dropped open.

  I was sure because someone’s hand was in mine.

  A wide, “Who’s that?” could be read across her lips and I laughed, mouthing back to her.

  “It’s him,” I said because it was, the man I told her about.

  Her loud and boisterous, “Oh, shit!” was only muted by her hand, catching more than a few eyes in her direction.

  Including Asa’s.

  Facing down, he eyed me and I shrugged.

  “That’s my friend,” I told him and he laughed, nodding at her with a warm smile.

  He lifted his hand, waving, and kind of awkward, she did the same. This man managed to make my confident friend stumble on herself. I guess miracles could happen.

  After lowering his wave, Asa lifted my hand, kissing the back, and I decided to keep it, that warmth and touch forever.

  “This isn’t over,” he said, committing himself into my deepest memories. His breath hummed over my skin. “It’s only starting. We’re only starting. I just have a feeling.”

  And I did, too, an unexplainable tie I had to him, a bond I couldn’t yet figure out.

  I guess I had a whole plane ride to think.

  Lowering my hand, he let go, and then watched me leave. I made it a few steps away from him, but even still I felt that tie, that bond. It didn’t let up, or sever for anything.

  “Asa?”

  His head lifted. He had started to turn around, his expression curious.

  I smiled at him.

  “That place I’m looking at?” I said, shrugging a little. “The one I’m going to put my restaurant in? It’s in Brooklyn. I looked into it this morning.”

  Because Brooklyn was home. My home. There’s a place I had always loved there, one down the street from where I’d grown up, and though small, it fit me. I also remembered it being recently vacant. I gave a call this morning and the owner said it could be mine. All I had to do was give the best offer, which I had.

  I’d call that fate for sure, unforeseen. I never knew that’s what I wanted. Funny how it took a stranger, Asa, to make me see it.

  He grinned upon the news, waving to me, and like his kiss, I committed it to memory. Today wouldn’t be the last time. In fact…

  I felt a long history ahead.

  Baby Be Mine (Love in the City Book 3)

  Blurb

  A sizzling, contemporary romance about a secret baby, a cautious restaurant owner, and the playboy billionaire determined to have them both in his life.

  A blast from his past…

  Asa: She caught me with my pants down and another woman spread eagle in front of me when she came back into my life.

  And why did I feel like that was fate playing its hand?

  I never forgot her… Noni, the woman just as unique as her name who never failed to light a fire inside me. The last time I saw her I was in a bad place, a dark one that actually sent me to the Big Apple today. I was in the city to lead another one of my late father’s corporate divisions yes, but running, escape, had been my true plan of intent. I had lots to get away from, my sins a laundry list, and it had been she, Noni, who got me out of them the last time. She did more than just fill a void. She fixed my messed up soul no matter how brief a time.

  So why had I let her go?

  She has a secret…

  Noni: I came upon him in a similar state before… desired by women. They flocked to the man like groupies to a tour bus and however naively, I had been one of them over four years ago. A vulnerable place sent me to vacation in Aspen and it had been Asa who found me, made me moan, made me forget and I didn’t come away from that vacation unchanged. He gave me the most wonderful little blessing I could ever receive, my son Jalen.

  He never called me, though. After an amazing weekend, he left my mind to wonder. Hurt, I deleted his number and vowed to never think about him again. It was only later I discovered I was pregnant and now that Asa seems to suddenly be back in my life, I have to figure out how to tell him something very important. I have his son.

  And I never forgot his father.

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