by A. J. Wynter
Josh looked down at his watch and stamped his feet, they had gotten cold waiting for Megan to round the bend in the trail. After ten minutes he started to get worried but knew that she was probably just taking her time and didn’t want to be around him.
When he still didn’t see her pompom come up over the knoll after five more minutes, he skied off in the direction they had come as fast as he could. After years of being on search and rescue, his mind had gone into overdrive imaging all the terrible things that could’ve happened to her, and it would be all his fault. Why did he have to be so goddamn bullheaded?
He was breathing heavily, and frost was accumulating on his beard.
“Shit,” he muttered to himself as he got to the section of trail where he had last seen her. He turned around again and tried to put himself in her shoes. There were no footsteps or errant ski tracks off the trail, so the only place she could’ve turned was onto the small side trail. It didn’t make any sense, but it was the only other place that she could be.
He heard Timber yipping and shook his head. Now he had to find a lost woman and a lost dog.
He felt a sense of dread building in him at the idea of something happening to Megan. Not again. The last time he had seen Erica, they had argued. His heart was pounding in his chest, and when he saw Megan and Timber on the trail, he felt like the huge weight that had been baring down on his chest lift. He picked up the pace even faster and didn’t care about anything that happened that morning.
Now, as they sat on the tailgate of his truck, he wondered what it was that she had to tell him.
“It sure is beautiful out there. You were right about the sunshine on the snow,” she said.
“There’s nothing like it,” he replied, knowing that she was stalling.
“Josh, I want you to know that this time with you has been very special to me.”
It sounded like a breakup line to him. He nodded and held her mittened hand in his gloved one. “Like I said earlier, I would love to stay in Chance Rapids and be with you. Actually, I thought that you were the reason that I was falling in love with this town. It turns out that there are so many reasons why I would want to stay here.”
“But you can’t.”
“Actually, I could move here. I could live here full time.”
“You could give up your city life for this simple town life? All of the excitement, and designer shoes, and trendy restaurants that leave you starving?”
“See. Here’s the thing. I’m not who you think I am.”
“Megan, I’ve spent a lot of time with you over the past month, I think I have a pretty good idea who you are.” He squeezed her hand tightly and smiled at her. She looked at him and smiled meekly then shifted uncomfortably and pulled her hand from his.
She sighed and rubbed her hands on her thighs. “I don’t own that house in Sugar Peaks. I don’t own the café. I’m not a rich ski bunny who doesn’t ski.”
“How is that possible?” Josh was thrown. This was not what he was expecting at all.
“The house is Charlotte’s. She’s the real estate developer. She’s the one opening the café. She just hired me to be the face for the project.”
“Why couldn’t you just tell me that?”
“Charlotte swore me to secrecy.”
Josh tilted his head, trying to compute everything that the gorgeous woman in front of him was saying. “Is this some kind of cruel game you two are playing? Try to pull the wool over the dumb Rapidians eyes?”
“I can’t tell you why.”
“Seriously? Well, can you tell me who you really are? Or is that top secret too. Is your name even Megan Brittle?”
“Technically my name is still Megan Snellton, Brittle is my maiden name. If you want the truth. Here it is. My husband cheated on me and got his mistress pregnant. This is after years of us trying to have a baby. The mistress thing was tough enough, but the baby was salt in the wound. And then he hid all our money. So, no, I’m not rich, I’m the opposite of what you thought I was. I was so hurt. I just needed to get away from the city and Charlotte offered me her place. Then, she offered me a job.”
Megan reached for Josh’s hand, but he pulled them away. “Josh, there were so many times that I wanted to tell you.”
“I still don’t get why this had to be a secret. What are you two hiding?”
Megan pursed her lips, as if deciding whether she wanted to divulge anything further, but she didn’t. “I’m sorry Josh, but there are just some things that I can’t tell you yet.”
“Oh yeah, when do you think you can grace me with the truth Megan? And how will I know it’s the truth? I mean, you’ve been lying to me for all this time. How can I ever trust you again?”
Josh hopped off the back of the truck and threw the skis in. He offered his hand to Megan to help her down, but she ignored it. “Everything else was real, Josh. Everything,” she whispered.
“I think that it’s time to take you home now, or whatever it is you’re calling that monstrosity on Sugar Peaks.”
Megan nodded and got in the passenger side of the truck. Josh opened the rear door for Timber and he curled up in the back seat. The two of them drove back into the town limits, the radio crackling with the one local station playing “Baby it’s Cold Outside.”
He was beside himself. It didn’t make sense. Why did she have to pretend to be someone she wasn’t? It had been so hard for him to look past the fact that she was too sophisticated and rich to want a carpenter like him, and now he was pissed. She was the perfect woman for him. But she was a damn liar.
Chapter 23
As Josh drove off, Megan stood in the driveway in a state of shock as the man she loved drove out of her life. She knew that telling Josh the truth had ruined everything, but she couldn’t keep lying. What was she going to do? Keep pretending so that she could sleep with him a few more times? The idea was tempting, but Josh deserved better than that. He deserved the truth.
He had opened up to her and not only had she rejected him, she had completely deceived him. She turned and shuffled into the house, noticing that Charlotte’s car was back. She pulled off her coat and hung it in the entryway closet. Her body was sore and tired and all she wanted to do was take a hot shower and curl up in bed and wish that she’d never agreed to Charlotte’s crazy scheme to begin with.
Charlotte popped her head out of the kitchen, “Coffee’s on.”
Megan perked up a little with the smell of the coffee and moped into the kitchen. She pulled a mug out of the cupboard and poured herself a glass of water, chugging it down in three big gulps.
“Thirsty?” Charlotte smirked. “Did someone get a lot of exercise last night?”
“It wasn’t like that.” Megan sat down at the island, impatiently tapping her fingers so she could go drink her coffee alone.
“Oh yeah, what was it like? How was he? How big was he? Would you do it again?” Charlotte went rapid-fire with her questions.
“It was amazing. He’s incredible.”
“Then why so glum?” Charlotte pulled the percolator off the stove, clicked off the burner and poured the hot coffee into Megan’s mug.
“You’re gonna kill me.”
Charlotte looked up at Megan. “You didn’t.”
“I had to.”
“What do you mean, you had to? We had a deal, you were going to wait until after the grand opening of the café.”
“I had to.” Megan repeated.
“Yeah, well, I heard you the first time. How could you?” Charlotte planted both of her hands on the island and stared at Megan, waiting for an answer.
“I didn’t tell him everything. He doesn’t know who you are.”
Charlotte’s shoulders visibly softened, and she breathed out a sigh of relief. “Well, then what exactly did you tell him?”
Megan took a sip of her black coffee and was about to start the story when the doorbell rang. She raised her eyebrows at Charlotte. “Are you expecting someone so early?”
“No. Are you?”
Charlotte replied as she slid off the seat and strode out of sight to open the front door.
Megan’s heart was in her throat. It had to be Josh. Could he have turned around, was he here to tell her that he needed her so badly he was willing to look past her deception? She gulped, her heart hammering in her chest. When she heard Charlotte speaking to a male voice her heart leapt into her throat. Could it be him?
“Megan. Door’s for you,” Charlotte’s voice rang out from the mezzanine. She sounded irritated.
Megan took a deep breath and tried to regain her composure as she walked to the front of the house. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw who was at the door.
It wasn’t Josh. It was the man she had wanted so badly to change his mind about her – about them, until Josh walked into her life. She hadn’t thought about him in weeks. He hadn’t entered her mind for even a nanosecond. It was Alex. Standing in the doorway. With flowers.
Chapter 24
He was driving faster than he should. His truck was in two-wheel drive and he loved the way it felt when he slid and fishtailed around the corners, his anger, his hurt expressed in reckless driving. As he rounded the corner before the covered bridge, he saw a silver Lexus creeping along the road and had to swerve to avoid hitting the car. The man in the car leaned on the horn and gave Josh the finger.
Josh knew that he deserved it, but still felt offended at the gesture. He pulled his truck over before the bridge and leaned his forehead on the steering wheel. He was a wreck. How could he have fallen in love with Megan in less than two months? How could he have fallen in love with someone who was lying to him about who she really was?
He thought back to their first kiss, to the first time he saw her when she dropped the wine, and the events of their time together melded into a series of memories. He realized that he had fallen in love with Megan, with her smile, the crinkles beside her eyes, the easy way she had about her, the way that she treated everyone equally. He loved the way her ass felt cupped in his hands, the way she kissed his neck, her tenderness, the way she embraced new adventures with him, even though he knew that she was scared.
He took a deep breath. He loved Megan. He needed her in his life.
He realized that she must have had a good reason for what she did and that he couldn’t just drive away from her. He couldn’t let something so good slip between his fingers without knowing why. He needed answers.
He turned the truck around and headed back up Sugar Peaks Way, determined to get some answers, to find some way to justify what she had done, to find some way that he could make Megan Brittle his.
He rehearsed his speech as he followed the curving switchbacks up the mountain road. He stopped short as he was about to turn into the driveway when he saw the silver car that he had almost run off the road parked there. The angry man who had flipped him off was standing in the doorway, hugging a woman holding a bouquet of red roses. Josh’s heart dropped when he realized that the woman wasn’t Charlotte. It was Megan.
“Her real life,” he muttered to himself and sped away, leaving the mountain house in his rear-view mirror.
Chapter 25
“What are you doing here?”
“Meg. I made a mistake,” Alex said and stepped into the foyer.
“Whoa. Hold it right there,” Charlotte said, stepping in between Megan and Alex. “I don’t believe that Megan invited you in.”
“I’m not a vampire,” Alex replied, looking over Charlotte’s shoulder at Megan.
“Close enough,” Charlotte muttered.
Alex took a step back, “There are some things I need to tell you, Megan.”
“It’s okay, Char. I’m fine.” Megan stepped around Charlotte.
Charlotte shook her head and grabbed a down jacket from the closet. “I’m going to go for a walk. Meg, I’ve got my phone if you need me.” She squeezed Megan’s hand on her way by and bumped Alex’s shoulder as he stood in the doorway.
“Can I come in, Meg?” Alex pleaded with Megan.
For the first time, Megan saw him for the pathetic man he was. He was staring at the doormat, and when he gathered the courage to glance up at her she saw that his eyes were circled and dark. He looked like he’d aged ten years since she last saw him.
“You can stand there and tell me what you need to say.”
Alex sighed and brought the flowers down from his chest so that the roses faced the ground.
“I can’t believe I ruined the best thing that ever happened to me. Megan, I want you. I need you back in my life.”
Megan couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The words coming out of his mouth were the ones that she longed to hear months ago. Now, they seemed foreign, as though Alex were speaking a different language.
“What about your mistress? What about the money you stole from me, from us?”
“She doesn’t matter Megan. And the money is all there. It’s in an account in the Cayman Islands. Come back to me, baby. I’m nothing without you.”
Megan didn’t feel anything except disgust. “So, you’re just going to walk away from this woman and child, just like you walked away from our life? You were ready to leave me high and dry, basically out on the streets. So, what? So, you could feel like you were twenty-five again? To go and start a new life with a new family? Have you any idea how much you hurt me?” Megan kept her tone even, but the volume of her voice was growing as the anger churned inside her belly.
“This is hardly ‘on the streets’.” Alex gestured to Charlotte’s house.
Classic Alex, Megan thought to herself. Always trying to diffuse the situation with humor, only this time she wasn’t falling for it. “You’re telling me that you want to show up, months later, with some lousy fucking roses, and expect me to jump back into your arms. To what, Alex? To be a step-mom to your love child? To help you run your business so that you can pay that woman alimony?”
Alex took a deep breath as though steeling himself, “That’s not going to happen. There’s no alimony.”
“Oh, that’s rich,” Megan laughed. “You figured out some way to screw her out of money too?”
“Megan, that baby wasn’t mine.”
This caught Megan off guard. “What do you mean that baby wasn’t yours?”
“I’ve left Roberta, the baby wasn’t mine. Meg. Just give me another chance.” He reached out and handed her the flowers. She automatically accepted them, her mind whirling with everything that he had just told her.
“Alex. I don’t love you anymore. You know it and I know it. Our relationship was over years ago. I think that it’s time for you to go.” Megan moved to shut the heavy door.
“Wait,” Alex shouted.
Megan paused and stood in the one-foot wide opening, shivering against the cold that was billowing in around Alex.
“You’re right, Meg. I don’t know who I was these past few months. I can’t believe I did those things to you. I once loved you. And I know that you once loved me. The pressure of trying to start a family and run the business, it just all became too much for me.”
His tone had changed and when he looked Megan in the eyes, she saw a glimmer of the man she once knew.
“We had a lot of pressure, Alex, but everyone does. We could’ve talked about it. I don’t know if I can ever forgive you for what you did to me, but I can thank you.”
“Thank me?”
“I’m free. I’m living a life that I never thought possible. You hurt me, but you also set me free to become who I really am. So, thank you, Alex.” Megan was surprised by the words that were flowing from her mouth, at the kindness she was showing her ex-husband.
Alex looked up and his eyes were brimming with tears. “You were, are, a good woman, Meg. I didn’t deserve you. I was a piece of shit.”
“Yeah. You were.”
“Meg. I’ll give you half. You deserve it. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” The tears were flowing freely down Alex’s face.
Megan had spent the past few months fantasizing about ho
w she would take revenge on Alex, what she would do when Margot Meyer found all his money, how she would ruin him, how she would ruin his new perfect life. But now she could see that he had done all of that himself. He had taken what she thought that she needed to be happy, and given her the greatest gift, he had given her herself back.
She stepped out and wrapped her arms around Alex, embracing him as he wept. She was so wrapped up in the drama unfolding on Charlotte’s front porch that she didn’t notice the truck approach and then speed away from the driveway.
She pulled back from Alex. “Thank you for the money, Alex. I really do hope that you find happiness, but I think that you need to go now.”
“Meg. There’s one more thing.”
Something in the tone of his voice held a darkness. “You may not be so forgiving when you hear this,” his voice shook, “but you deserve the truth.”
Megan didn’t believe him. What could be more damning than what he had already done?
Not only was his voice quivering, but Megan noticed that his hands were shaking. “I never thought it was me.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“All those years, all those tests that you went through, the fact that we couldn’t conceive. I never thought that it was me. I thought that the tests were wrong, I thought that it was you.”
Megan gripped the handle on the door and could feel the redness rising on her neck, the stress from all of those years creeping back into her body. “But you went through those tests too Alex.”
“No. I didn’t.”
“What do you mean you didn’t?” Megan was trying to stay calm.
“I just didn’t think that it could be me.”
“Yeah, you keep saying that Alex. All of those years I thought that there was something wrong with me. That there was some reason why I couldn’t conceive, that the universe was playing some god-awful trick on us. And you didn’t even go get the tests done?”
Alex stood a little taller. “Meg, I never really wanted to have a family, but I knew how badly you wanted it. When it wasn’t happening, I was relieved. I didn’t want to get poked and prodded.”
