Wild Card (North Ridge #1)

Her body tenses and then starts to quake beneath me. She pulses around my cock, her clit throbbing under my finger. A sharp cry leaves her lips, then fades off into breathless little moans that bounce off the walls.

I come immediately after. There’s a rush along my spine until something at the base of me explodes. I grunt like an animal, thrusting deeper and deeper, the bed shaking. The neighboring rooms are getting quite the show.

I exhale loudly, trying to find my breath again, my heart thudding to a marching beat inside my head. I lean back on my thighs, absently run my hands over her ass while I remember how to breathe. Then, when it doesn’t feel like I’m having a heart attack, when the sweat stops rolling off my brow, I gently pull out.

Leaning forward, I put my lips to her ear. “Did you miss that?”

She turns her head, her eyes closed and makes a sweet murmur of agreement.

I brush the hair off her face and kiss her cheek. Then place tiny, soft kisses on her neck, shoulder, down her spine.

“Welcome home,” I whisper.





Epilogue





Rachel





A waft of cigarette smoke hits my nostrils seconds before Delilah cries out, "Damn it Joe! What in God's name did I tell you about smoking?"

I bite back a laugh as she leaps over the bar like some kind of superhero and stalks across the peanut-shell covered floor to where Old Joe is sitting in his usual booth. I've seen this scene play out weekly over the last four months I've been living in North Ridge and the only difference in tonight is that Joe isn't sitting alone. In fact, he's got a lady friend sitting with him, who I'm pretty sure is Suzy Richardson who used to be the cafeteria lady in high school.

I watch as Del gets to his table, about to rip the cigarette from his lips, then pauses once she notices he has company.

"Oh, sorry," she says, looking between the two of them. With a hand on her hip she puts on her most pleasant voice. "Joe, you know the rules. You can't smoke in here. Besides, it's not exactly the best manners to be smoking in front of your gal."

At that Joe's old face turns beet red, all the way to his white hair and he gives Suzy an apologetic shrug.

Del turns around and heads back to the bar, exchanging an exasperated smile with me and rolling her eyes.

"Well that's a first," she says to me as she begins to wipe down the bar. "All my years here and I've never seen Old Joe with a woman."

"It does get pretty cold in the winter," I tell her. I'm not kidding either. It's early March and the snow has been falling steadily for weeks now. I guess it's a good sign since the snow packs the ski hills and glaciers and ensures that next summer we aren't so low on water, but I'm not used to the temperature. Sure, it got extremely cold in Toronto but that was a city. You were usually inside a building and the city was a maze of lights. In North Ridge it gets black as sin, which makes everything seem even colder.

"Right," Del says, "I guess when you get older you're more likely to settle for anyone."

I glance over my shoulder at them. Joe has the cigarette stubbed out and is chatting away to Suzy, who is leaning forward on her elbows and listening to everything he's saying. It doesn't seem like either of them are settling but I can't blame Del for being cynical. I'm acutely aware of how badly she has it for Fox and how oblivious Fox is.

The bar is pretty empty tonight. A lot of the skiers and snowboarders who come into town are young and are usually at the more obnoxious establishments in town. The Bear Trap is pretty even keel, which is great. It's really become like a second home to me (again).

I thought at first that it would take a bit to get back into the small-town, everyone knows everything, North Ridge, swing of things, but it's like I never left at all. Actually, that's not true. The town isn't the same as it was when I used to live here. My father is gone, put away for good, my mother and I finally have a good and honest relationship, and I'm making new friends. Sure, none of them stay for long but ever since we rebuilt the worker's cottage and added an additional structure, we've been able to turn it into an Air B&B.

It's perfect, actually. Not only does it bring us extra income, which is always needed on that damn ranch, but I finally feel like my skills are being used for the best. I'm able to create amazing advertisements and copy and make sure the place is consistently booked. In fact, I've heard from a few guests already that it's one of the best places to stay in the area, which is pretty amazing because it's only been going for a few months now.

So maybe the reason the town is better is because I'm better. I'm finally doing something I love and really love. Not something I thought I had to do because it was different, because I had something to prove. I never loved advertising, I just liked that I could do something that was hard. But there are plenty of things that challenge you because they are a labor of love.

Running the B&B is definitely that.

Shane, on the other hand, is not a challenge at all. Being with him, loving him, is the easiest thing in the world.

I know they say that you can't go home again and in some ways, I think that's true. Because when you leave, you change. But that doesn't mean a place can't be a home to you again, it just means it becomes a new one. We all carry this yearning in our hearts for a place for us to truly belong. Somewhere where we can be ourselves and give love and receive love and never have to worry about the cost.

North Ridge is that place to me. And I've made a home for myself right inside Shane's heart. I know now that I never have to be afraid or feel alone again, not while we're together.

A cold blast of air hits me as the door to the pub opens and I swing my head around to see a familiar sight. Not just Shane, shaking off snowflakes from his jacket, but Hank and my mother.

Hand in hand.

You think it would be weird to have my mother dating my boyfriend's father but the truth is, it feels right. Like it always should have been this way. My mother took a few wrong turns in life, fell for the wrong man, but even though what he did to us both was horrific, she was still able to find the man she always should have been with.

And Hank, wonderfully grumpy Hank, he turns into a smitten kitten when he's around her. It's adorable to see, especially since Dick has told me on more than a few occasions that he hasn't seen his son that happy since before Emily died. Both Hank and my mother have had to overcome loss of love in different forms and managed to find each other. They were broken but they loved with all their broken pieces until they were made whole.