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The drive into town was easy and uneventful, and the street parking in front of McCall's Hardware was nearly empty. I recognized all the vehicles there, save for one of them, and they all belonged to several of the older men in town who passed their time sitting on benches just inside
the hardware store, sipping coffee that Mrs. McCall made every morning for her husband and the men who stopped by for what amounted to a gossip session.
"How are you doing there, Alex?" Charlie McCall bellowed from behind the counter as I pushed open the door and stepped inside the store, my arrival announced by the tinkling of a tiny bell overhead. I thought I detected a strange twinkle in his eye, but I couldn't imagine what that would be about unless one of the old codgers on the benches had just told a dirty joke.
"Not bad, just here to grab a can of WD-40 and a roll of twine if you've got the size I'm looking for."
"Good deal, you know where everything is. Holler if you need anything."
I nodded in greeting as I passed by the gentlemen enjoying their coffee and headed down the front of the shop until I found the aisle I was looking for. The lubricants were toward the back of the store, and once I found myself in the corner, I grabbed the can I was looking for and turned to head toward the rope and twine when I ran smack dab into a head full of curly red hair that barely reached the height of my collarbone.
"Sorry about that, miss. I..." I stopped and looked at the face in front of me and tried not to let out the gasp of surprise I felt when I realized I was face to face with Madison Graston, the woman I had thought I was going to marry, for the first time in a decade.
Chapter 2
Madison
The sign at the office needed a fresh coat of paint, and I was determined to do it myself, so I had walked down the street to McCall's Hardware to see if Charlie could mix up a nice sage green for me. When I turned the corner at the end of the aisle, I hadn't been looking and apparently neither had the man I ran into. His chest was hard and chiseled, something I could attest to as I brought my hands up to shield myself as I bumped into his pectoral muscles with my head. My hair was up in a loose bun, red curls spilling out. It was a work day for me at the office, but I was so busy trying to fix up the outside that I wasn't really focused on seeing clients in the office, and I dressed accordingly—in a pair of paint splattered overalls and an old kelly green t-shirt.
It took a moment for it to register whose face I was looking at. And when I finally realized whose face it was staring back at me, I couldn't look away.
Alex jumped back like he had stood too close to a wood burning stove and was risking burning himself, backing away slightly and then pausing to look at me.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
Taken aback, I held up the can of primer that I would be using to cover the old paint on the sign once I made it back to the office.
"I needed paint," I said without attempting to explain myself any further. In the moment it was too shocking to see him, but it didn't take long for those buried feelings to start bubbling to the surface again. It had been ten years since we last saw each other. Ten years since the biggest fall out of my life. Over half of my life had passed by since the last time I spoke with Alex Killarny, and even though I knew the chance was high that I would run into him once I moved back into town, I hadn't expected it to be within the first twenty-four hours.
"You're back then?"
I nodded simply, and he nodded in return, his eyes never leaving my own. It seemed like a challenge, but what he was challenging me to I couldn't be certain of. All I knew was that I wanted to get out of the hardware store and back down the street to my office before we got any deeper than the ‘Hi, how are you?’ portion of this conversation. McCall's Hardware was not the place to have this talk, not that I was looking forward to the content of the discussion wherever it inevitably occurred, but I preferred that it not happen in the middle of what amounted to the gossip hub of this town. Anything that went down here would be all over town by the time people started heading to Claire's diner for lunch.
"I've...I've got to pay for this. See you around." I whipped around and walked toward the counter. It felt like he might have been following me, or at the very least his gaze was. I had a $10 out of my pocket and on the counter for Charlie before he could take the time to ring up the total.
"I'll be back later for the rest of the things I need," I said as I hurried out the front door, the little bell ringing behind me as I stepped out onto the sidewalk, never pausing to slow down. My office was only a block away. A straight shot from where I stood and I wanted to get back there, to the safety of it, before Alex could appear from the hardware store and chase me down. Not that I thought he had any interest in doing so, but I really had no idea what was on his mind at that moment. Clearly, we were both equally surprised to have run into one another, and I could tell that he was feeling just about as enthused about the encounter as I had been.
What had shocked me the most though were the feelings that came surging back to me, like a jolt to my system. It had been ten years since I stood in front of him and just as long since he had last touched me, and already I could feel the desire for him growing again. There it was like it had only been yesterday when we were last together
I had thought we could manage to avoid each other once I came back. It wasn't likely, but there was a slim chance. Maybe we would only cross paths every once in a while and then our lives could go on like normal without bringing up too much from the past. I had no idea how his life might have changed in the past ten years. Mine certainly had. Through the years I had dated and finished college. The last time we had spoken had been around the time of our high school graduation...we had basically spent our entire time as adults apart from each other.
Even when my best friend Lorna had tried to tell me about what was happening back here in Ashland, I had always steered her away from any discussion about the Killarnys in general and Alex Killarny specifically. She knew that talking about them was far too painful for me. Even hearing about them in passing was more than I wanted and she had learned a long time ago to leave them out of any conversation we were having about things from the past, no matter how pertinent the Killarnys might have been to the discussion. Beyond that though, I hadn’t shared most of what had transpired between Alex and myself all those years ago with my best friend. As far as she was concerned, it was a breakup and nothing more, but still, she had never pressed.
I doubted that Alex was following me because it was quite likely he never wanted to see me again, but I rushed into my office anyway, uncertain if he even knew what I was doing back in town. Surely he would hear that I had taken over Doc Halloran's practice at some point, but word might not have made it out to their ranch yet. He would find out soon though as I noticed from the schedule Doc had left behind for me. I was due to head out to the Killarny Estate in the next week to check their mares. The place was big though, and there was a good chance I wouldn't see Alex at all while I was there.
But it was probably just as great a chance I would have to see him, and now that bandaid had been ripped off, so it was one less thing for me to worry about.
Lorna was in the front office pulling things out of boxes and setting them out on the desk that had been designated as hers. She was there helping me out until I found a full time office manager. Doc's granddaughter had been helping him out over the past few years, and he hadn't ever gotten around to hiring someone full time since his wife had retired from the practice. Now that was going to be up to me, and I would need to put ads in the paper or up around the noticeboards in town soon, but that was one thing on my to do list that I didn’t feel like focusing on at the moment.
Lorna looked up as I entered the office. “Hey…what’s up with you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Is everything okay?” She dropped what she was doing, and I could tell from the concerned look on her face that my regular porcelain skin must have gone a full shade whiter—a terrifying thought in itself.
“You might say that. I ran into Alex at the hardware store,” I said as I came around the other side of the counter to where her desk was and put the can of primer down.
“Oh, shit,” she said, bringing her hand up to her mouth. “I guess…well; I guess it’s a good thing it’s over with then. Now you don’t have to wonder when it will happen.”
I shook my head slowly and tried to bring myself back to the present. There was too much important work ahead for me to get my mind in a tangle over seeing a high school boyfriend. But deep down I knew that it was more than that.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Lorna asked, perceiving my emotions like she always did.
