by Natalie Ann
“I haven’t gotten around nearly as much as I’m sure you’ve heard and I can tell you right now I’ve never brought a guest to my house. Ever.”
She sat down on the couch. “Let’s start over. You said you came here to bring me back. Why?”
“Because I love you. There. I said it. I should have said it weeks ago. But the question is, if I did, would you have stayed?”
“I don’t know.”
He was losing his mind. The rejection he was fearful of was just standing inches from his face right now. “So you’re mad because you wanted me to say it and yet not only would you not say it back to me then, you’re not even sure you would have stayed if I did say it?”
“Stupid, I know. The thing is, that last day I was going to tell you how I felt. When you weren’t home, I just took it as a sign that it was better that I did not. I almost didn’t even leave the note.”
“We probably passed each other. I’d gone to the hotel to see you shortly after your shift. They said you’d checked out early. I missed you by twenty minutes.”
“Oh,” she said.
“So now what?” he said. “You still haven’t told me how you feel. All you said is what you thought you were feeling.”
She snorted. “My letter said it.”
“No, it didn’t. Believe me, I read that letter enough times and I’m still not sure what you meant.”
“I said that you made me believe in things I never thought were true. Why did I go to Lake Placid to begin with, Zeke?”
“To learn more about your parents.”
“What exactly did I want to find out?”
“If they fell in love that fast. That you didn’t believe all the stories you’d heard.”
“I didn’t believe in love at first sight,” she said to him.
Now he understood. “And now you do?”
“I do. I had planned on telling you, but like I said, when you weren’t there I realized it was for the best.”
“And you came back home to what? No job? No family?”
“How do you know about my job?”
“That’s where I went first. The hostess recognized me from your videos.” He moved closer to her. “I’m going to talk to you. I’m going to say what I feel and what is in my heart. I’m asking you to come back to Lake Placid with me. Work with me. Live with me. Be by my side when I wake up each morning.”
“I want to say yes,” she said, tears in her eyes.
“Then why aren’t you? What’s holding you here?”
“There’s nothing holding me here. I just came from my parents’ house where I walked around it and cried. I can’t be here. I couldn’t even work up the courage to go through their things and know that I need to. I came back to this apartment that I used to love. This life I thought was so great and I realize there isn’t anything left for me anymore.”
“Then say yes,” he said, leaning and kissing her.
“I wanted to call someone a few hours ago. Tell them I was upset and see if they could help me pack up my parents’ stuff and I realized I had no one to call. That the first person that I wanted to dial was you. I wanted you to hold my hand. To hug me. To tell me it was going to be okay. To love me and make me feel loved like I did for that time I was in Lake Placid. You once told me even at the worst of times it’s nice to know you aren’t alone if you’re with family. Guess what? I found out I’m alone. That I fell in love with you and it wasn’t enough for us to even talk or work anything out.”
“I’m right here, Kendall. All you have to do is ask me to help you.”
“I’m not used to asking anyone for anything.”
“I’m not just anyone. I’m the man that loves you.”
She reached for him and held him tight. “You are. You’re the first person I’ve thought of every time I wanted to tell someone something. The only person I thought of to share things with. I didn’t know it’d hurt this much when I left.”
“I’m only going to ask you one more time. Come back to Lake Placid with me. You can run the kitchen. Or not, if you don’t want to, though it’s a mess since you’ve left,” he said grinning at her. “You can work on your blog. Do what makes you happy. You told me once I made you happy. I can do it again. That’s all I’m looking for. You. Just you and you can figure out the rest of your career along the way. I don’t care what you do as long as you are with me.”
“You never stopped making me happy. I’ve been miserable since I’ve been gone. I’ve missed you so much. Yes, I’ll go back to the Collins Lodge with you. And I’d love to run the kitchen there, but it’s not about work or adventure anymore.”
“What is it about?’ he asked
“You, me, us. It’s all about us!”
Epilogue
Ten months later, the following January, Zeke looked over when he saw Kendall nervously riding the horse next to him on the trail. “I thought for sure you’d be used to Sally by now.”
“I said I’d never get on her again in the winter. I’m not sure how you talked me into this.”
“You’ve been riding her all summer long on the trails. I thought you’d feel more comfortable.”
“Not comfortable enough. Why did we have to do this today?”
“Come on. Not much further. Then I’ll explain.” When they finally reached the spot on the trail that was slick, he slid off his horse and pulled her off of Sally.
“Now what are you doing?” she asked.
“Explaining. There’s a reason I wanted to do it this way. I think I started to really fall in love with you the first time we road on this path. When the horse lost her footing and you wanted to panic but didn’t. You pushed through for the sake of the adventure even though you threatened to walk home. You didn’t give up until you were done.”
“I was terrified,” she’d said.
“But you were determined. I saw that determination and knew there was so much about you I wanted to learn. That deep down you were so much like that. That you just wanted a place to belong. A place to call home that you could go to each day to relax.”
“I’ve always wanted that. I never understood my parents’ need to move around so much. As I got older I realized they stopped because of me and I wondered if they’d regretted it.”
“I don’t think so because when you love someone you make decisions for them and you don’t regret those decisions.”
“Like getting on a plane and flying to a city that probably felt as foreign to you as flying into space?”
“Like you moving here even though I know how much you hate the cold,” he said laughing at her.
She snorted. “But it is nice to be able to spend time outside in the summer and not worry about burning up.”
“There’s a positive to everything. And when you talked about wanting to make memories and adventures on your trip, I realized that this has to be a memory too.”
He pulled a ring box out of his pocket. “Oh God, is that what I think it is?”
“It probably is,” he said smiling. He grabbed her hand and took her glove off. “Here on my land, in the most beautiful place on earth, I want to ask the most beautiful woman in the world to be my wife.”
She was crying now, but she was laughing too. “I never would have thought this was the most beautiful place on earth. I’ve been to a lot of places, but I have to agree with you. Everything I could ever want is here at my fingertips. And that means you too. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
The End!
Want to read more of the Love Collection?
Secret Love:
Vin Steele has always been in control. Always been a leader. Failing at what he always did was a bitter pill for him to swallow, sending him into an isolation…of sorts. A new life and a new career, trying to find the person he lost.
Piper Fielding spent her life putting on a good face. Looking for the positive in the light of all the negative in her world. When a threat forces her to face the ugliness she always avoided, she finds herself running t
o the only person she can trust. Her sexy neighbor that has mystery and complications written all over him.
True Love:
Shattered dreams vs a new beginning. Can they help each other heal?
Jared Hawk thought he had it all. Until he didn’t. Until a bomb exploded bringing a building down around him and his unit, leaving him less than the man he was. Broken and disabled, he needed to figure out a new plan of action hoping to find a glimmer of the happiness he’d had before.
Shelby McDonald wanted a fresh start. A new life. She didn’t expect to be a single mother—a widow—at just twenty-three. She was strong enough to start over once, she could do it again. She had to. She had no choice. It may not have been the life she envisioned, but she’d be damned if anything was going to hold her back…including the sexy Navy Lieutenant trying to find his way again.
Finding Love:
What happens when a hopeless romantic falls for a cynical romance writer?
Sheldon Case spends her days writing about romance and love. Only she doesn’t believe in it herself. Happy ever after…nah. It only exists in books and movies.
Dr. Erik McMann had the love of his life...or so he thought. Until he found out it really didn’t exist like he imagined. Like he always dreamed. But now he wants to try again, and when he meets Sheldon, he decides she’s the one. If only he could convince her that what she’s believed her whole life is false.
Beach Love:
A reformed playboy. A woman looking for love. What happens when trust becomes an issue?
If you looked up privileged in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of Dr. Connor Landers, trust fund playboy extraordinaire. He loved having that title, but the real reason he was that way was something very few people knew. Then reality was shoved in his face and he had to make a choice.
Melissa Mahoney was looking for love in all the wrong places. How hard could it be to find someone to trust? Someone to give her what she’d been dreaming of? She takes a risk and puts her heart in Connor’s hands, but will he just end up shattering it like she’d been fearful of all along?
Intense Love
A detective on the mend. A psychiatrist being tormented. Can their pretend relationship uncover who’s behind the threats?
Dr. Cameron Mason went into private practice so she could help the victims. She spends a lot of her time putting the accusers away. It’s what she thrives at. What she wants. What’s right. Until someone didn’t think it was so right and decided to silence her from ever helping others again.
After killing a teenager hopped up on heroin—that happened to be stabbing his partner—Detective Ian Price is mandated to get released by the city shrink. He wants to get in, get his release and get out. Until he sees she’s being victimized herself. Now he must go undercover in his most dangerous assignment yet. The threat isn’t just for his safety or his sanity, but also his
Autumn Love
What happens when Ali’s grandfather’s ghost decides to make an appearance and meddle in her life?
Liam Sullivan is a well-respected businessman in the community. He sees a beloved apple orchard falling into disrepair and offers to buy it, making a dream come true for his mother. When he discovers the woman he’s interested in is the daughter of the current owner, he’s stuck with a choice between work and pleasure. Or could he have both?
Ali Rogers’s life is falling down around her. She’s in debt up to her ears. Her mother is selling the family business that should have gone to her and the sexy new owner has his eye on her. Only, there is nothing she can do about it because she is losing her mind. How else does she explain all the conversations she’s having with her deceased grandfather?
Holiday Love
Sometimes failed relationships are needed to make the next one count.
Dr. Owen Taylor is on the fast track to running the Radiology Department at one of the top ranking cancer centers in the US. Plans of a family are in his future, just not his immediate future. That is until he finds himself a single father and failing miserably at juggling it all, forcing him to return home to Upstate New York needing help.
Jill Duncan had plans of her own. But time, money, and a failed marriage squashed her hopes like a soldier's boot on a cockroach during an apocalypse. When a new doctor shows up at her job, she starts to think that old saying “better late than never” just might apply to her, if only she could get over her own insecurities.
Christmas Love
What happens when even the strongest are blinded by insecurities?
Former model, Noelle Bennett has decided she wants to be behind the camera instead of in front of it. She is longing for peace and quiet. No more traveling. No more crowds. No more men hitting on her left and right. Or people only wanting one thing from her. Just her and the woods around her little home, snapping pictures of the landscape beyond. A normal life for once...maybe.
Veterinarian Chase Martin has always gotten along better with animals than people. So when a sexy woman who looks like she just walked out of a fashion magazine shows up at his clinic offering to volunteer to take pictures of the dogs for his rescue shelter, he finds what should have been a great idea turning into uncharted territory for them both. Now he is wondering how he got so lucky...or is it more how unlucky he’s always been?
Winter Love
Kendall Hendricks spent the first decade of her life as a modern-day gypsy, until her parents finally planted themselves in Las Vegas. She loved it there. She made a name for herself. She was happy… or so she always thought. Then tragedy struck and her parents were gone, leaving her a note asking her to scratch those itchy feet she’d inherited before she settled down.
Zeke Collins has never known anything other than working at the family lodge his whole life. Now he and his sister own and operate it and he’d have it no other way. Lake Placid is where he wants to be. It’s where his heart is and nothing could make him move. Not even the bewitching stranger with sorrowful eyes and adventure driving her course. The question is...can he change her mind?
The Road Series-See where it all started!!
Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery
Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption
Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality
Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason
The All Series
William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love
Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing
Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me
Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way
Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want
Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love
Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You
The Lake Placid Series
Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance
Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance
Caleb Ryder and Celeste McGuire – Our Chance
Cole McGuire and Rene Buchanan – Take A Chance
Zach Monroe and Amber Deacon- Deserve A Chance
Trevor Miles and Riley Hamilton – Last Chance
The Fierce Five Series
Brody Fierce and Aimee Reed - Brody
Aiden Fierce and Nic Moretti- Aiden
Mason Fierce and Jessica Corning- Mason
Cade Fierce and Alex Marshall - Cade
Love Collection
Vin Steele and Piper Fielding – Secret Love
Jared Hawk and Shelby McDonald – True Love
Erik McMann and Sheldon Case – Finding Love
Connor Landers and Melissa Mahoney- Beach Love
Ian Price and Cam Mason- Intense Love
Liam Sullivan and Ali Rogers- Autumn Love
Owen Taylor and Jill Duncan – Holiday Love
Chase Martin and Noelle Bennett- Christmas Love
Zeke Collins and Kendall Hendricks- Winter Love
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