Welcome to Paradise (Welcome to Paradise #1)

“Okay, I will then,” she decided.

Nate set down the notepad next to the cash register and headed toward her. “Sorry, I just had to leave some instructions for Marty. I told him I wasn’t coming in today, so he’s working the bar alone.” He took her hand as they walked to the door. “And I’m glad you’re going to the library. I think you’ll have fun.”

They stepped out into the morning sunshine, and Nate turned to her with heat glimmering in his gray eyes. “Did you still feel like going to the lake?”

A little thrill shot through her, along with a spark of regret. Last time they’d gone to the lake, they’d made love for the first time. And then Nate had dumped her.

But before that…the lake had been their haven, where they went to escape the world.

“Yes,” she said, pushing aside the regret. It was time to associate the place with good memories again.

When they slid back in the truck, the cell phone Nate had left in the cup holder was letting out a sequence of chimes, indicating he had a new message. “Can you put it on speaker?” Nate asked as he started the engine and pulled away from the curb. “Voice mail code is three-four-oh-two.”

Charlotte fumbled with the phone and accessed the voice mail. An automated voice came on, indicating two new messages. Charlotte pressed the appropriate button, holding the phone toward Nate so he could hear it better.

“Hey, it’s me,” came a familiar male voice. Nate’s brother, she realized, though she couldn’t tell if it was Owen or Jake since those two sounded identical. “I just left Mom’s house. She gave me the same vague bullshit about Austin. They had a falling out, he’ll come back when he’s ready, yada yada.” There was a grumble of frustration. “I don’t like any of this shit, but Mom wouldn’t say anything else. Call me later and we’ll figure out the next step.”

Charlotte shot Nate a concerned look. “Did something happen to Austin?”

“I have no idea. He’s been out of—” Nate’s features hardened as the next message clicked on.

“Nate, it’s Evelyn. Call me. Please. Just…just talk to me.”

A shiver ran up Charlotte’s spine. The female voice had sounded so anguished, so…devastated. Judging by the deep crease in Nate’s forehead, he wasn’t happy to hear from that particular caller, which only deepened Charlotte’s uneasiness.

“Who was that?”

He didn’t say anything for a long time, his silver eyes focused on the road ahead.

“Nate?”

A sigh shuddered from his chest. “That was Evelyn.”

“Yeah, I got that part. But who is she?” She swallowed. “Who is she to you?”

“We dated.” His voice came out rough. “About six months ago. But I broke it off.”

She tried to ignore the jolt of jealousy that tightened her belly. She wasn’t allowed to feel jealous. Of course Nate had dated other women in the fifteen years they’d been apart. Wasn’t like he’d gone celibate.

“Why did you break up?”

“Because she lied,” he said flatly.

“Oh.” Another rush of unease flooded her body. “About what?”

“Her husband.”

Charlotte’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“She was married.” He laughed humorlessly. “Something she neglected to mention when we started going out. The whole relationship was based on a lie. She was living in a hotel, said she’d just moved to town and hadn’t found a house yet, but really, her husband had thrown her out after he caught her cheating for the second time.”

“Wait, she lives in Paradise?”

“No, Wyndham,” he said, naming a neighboring county.

Nate slowed the pickup as they reached the turnoff for the lake. With a ragged breath, he turned to meet Charlotte’s eyes. “About a month into the relationship, she admitted to being married, said she was going through a divorce, and at first I was willing to stick around, maybe see her through it all, but then…”

“Then what?”

“Lexie dug around—”

The sound of Lexie’s name made her spine stiffen.

“—and found out Evelyn had lied about a lot of other things. Like the fact that she had a four-year-old son, who her husband refused to let her see, or that she was actually screwing another guy at the same time she was seeing me.” Nate let out another breath. “Needless to say, it wasn’t a fun time for me. I ended it, but she keeps calling, begging for another chance.”

Charlotte bit her lip. “Do you want to give her another chance?”

“Hell no!” The abrupt exclamation reverberated through the car. “She lied to me from day one. Entered into a relationship with me on false pretenses. I’ll never forgive her for that.”

The conviction in his voice brought a trickling of anxiety. Charlotte swallowed hard, wondering how Nate would react when she told him the truth about why she’d come back to Paradise. Technically, she’d entered into this relationship on false pretenses too.

God, what if he couldn’t forgive her?