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“I was going below the limit,” I answer, keeping my eyes straight ahead. “There was no reason to pull me over.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you? That’s harassment.” His low chuckle vibrates through me, and when I see his hand coming towards me, I jerk out of the way. “What are you doing?” I ask sharply, looking him straight in the eyes.
“Trying to get you to look at me.”
“Why?”
“You know why,” he says, his voice dropping a few octaves.
“No. I don’t. And I need to meet Ally, so…”
“So…what? Are you asking me if you can go?” The hint of humor in his voice makes my blood boil. He’s such an ass.
“No. And you pulled me over for no reason other than to make me see you as someone who can control me. And you can’t. So I’m leaving. Don’t pull this shit on me again, Ryan. Just leave me alone while I’m here.”
Bending down, Ryan rests his arms on my window frame. His sexy face is less than six inches from me, and his eyes are on mine, challenging me. “Why are you so mad at me, Ashley?” Jesus, my name just rolls off his tongue like it was always meant to say it. “Is it because you went back home and realized you’d never find a man there that could give you what you need?”
Curling my fingers into my palms, I resist the urge to slap him. “Fuck you.”
“I know you want to, sweetheart.” I know I want to, too. “I bet you’ve thought about me often.”
Try every fucking day.
Turning my car back on, I throw it in drive, and barely give him a chance to step away from my window before I step on the gas. My tires sputter in the snow, but then level out as I hightail it to Dottie’s. I don’t care if I just sped away from a sheriff. I know he’s not coming after me.
I can’t fucking do this. Why did I come here? I knew I’d see him, and I knew I’d want him all over again. The second I followed him into those woods last year, there was no going back. And the thing is, that I hate to admit to myself, is that I don’t want to go back.
Even before I visited Ally last summer, I was sick of dating around. No man ever had the ability to hold my attention, or spark my interest for longer than a week or two. I was always bored. I thought the problem was with the men I chose, until I began thinking that maybe it was me.
But then Ryan showed me what it was like to be with a real man, not the boys back in Jersey that try to pass as men, and I know it exists–passion.
Gripping the steering wheel tight, I check the rearview mirror to make sure he’s not following me, and I make the last turn onto Peach Place. When I reach the driveway with the mailbox marked 25, I turn into it, and make the long drive through the snowy pine trees. A minute later, it opens into a clearing, and a cute little blue cottage welcomes me.
The last time I saw it, it was bursting with flowers all around, and color was everywhere I looked. And while that was beautiful, there’s something about the simplicity of a snow-covered cottage amongst the trees. It makes me feel like I’m in a Hallmark Christmas movie, and the owner is going to be a handsome stranger who I run into all over town while I’m here.
Okay, I need to stop watching those movies every chance I get.
Parking next to Ally’s car, I wrap my scarf around my neck a little tighter and climb out, the freezing cold air whipping at my face immediately. Hurrying up the porch steps, I knock on the front door, and bounce from foot to foot to keep my blood circulating.
Ally opens it a few seconds later with a huge smile on her face. “Ashley!” she yells, pulling me inside and hugging me tight.
“Hey, Al.” I laugh, squeezing her back. “I’ve missed you.”
“Me, too.” She had come home for Thanksgiving with Jake a couple of months ago, but then decided to stay up here and celebrate Christmas with him and the Taylor’s. I definitely had a twinge of jealousy knowing she was spending time with Ryan, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. No one even knows about what happened between Ryan and I last summer. I couldn’t tell my best friend that I hooked up with her man’s older brother…
“So, I now know what you meant by it being cold. I’m freezing.”
“I just turned the heat up for you. It was on low so the pipes wouldn’t freeze, but it should warm up soon. And you can turn the electric fireplace on too.”
Closing the door behind me, I unwrap my scarf and smile, looking around the living room. “It’s the same. I love it.”
Ally smiles too. “I know. I loved this place. I never changed it while I was living here, even though Dottie said I could.”
“There’s nothing to change.” The muted pastels of the décor make it feel homey and lived in. The beige couch has a light pink, lilac, and cream crochet blanket draped over the back, and the chair in the corner has a similar one thrown over the side, along with a fur throw pillow. The walls are lined with bookshelves and pictures of flowers that tie in with the rose patterned side table lamps and area rug. Dottie loves flowers.
“Exactly. Now, let me show you where the heat switches are and everything else.” Following her down the hall, she stops at the end, right before the kitchen, and points at the dial on the wall. “This is for the heat. But I also took out all of the extra blankets from the closets and piled them on the bed in the purple room. I knew you’d like the pink room like I did, so I changed the sheets and added an extra blanket. Uh, what else? Oh, the keys,” she says, pulling them out from her pocket. “This is the front door, and the other is the back. With the snow covering everything, I don’t know if you’ll be walking around the property, but if you do, be careful. Don’t slip and fall into the ocean.”
