Chapter 5
5
MONTANA
“ I hope you’re happy.”
I said that within seconds of walking through the front door of the Rosewood Ridge Retreat Center the next morning. Ashlynn, who stood behind the reception desk, looked up at me, eyes wide.
I scanned the lobby, verified nobody else was around, and marched straight toward her. The door to the office behind her was wide open, and it was empty too. I was free to speak.
“Your husband sent that Rowe guy over last night for a massage,” I said. “So blame it on him.”
Ashlynn blinked a couple of times, then narrowed her eyes at me.
“Rowe Walker?” she asked.
I shrugged. How would I know his last name? But how many Rowes could there be in one small town?
“Apparently, he has some sort of injury he needs healed before the baseball game they play every summer,” I said.
“Football,” Ashlynn corrected. “Unless they switched sports when I wasn’t looking.”
Football, baseball…what was the difference? At this point, it wasn’t like I could remember a single word of the conversation we’d had before we started stripping off our clothes.
“We had sex,” I blurted.
I probably shouldn’t be admitting this to her. But we’d been friends going all the way back to childhood, so if I lost my virginity, she was one of the few people I could tell. Even if what I’d done could cost me my license—my entire career.
“You did what?” Ashlynn set down her tablet and gave me her full attention. “You had sex with Rowe?”
“In the spa. On the table. Off the clock.”
He wasn’t a client. That was how I justified it to myself. He hadn’t paid me, after all. Aside from the fact that it was a professional setting, it could have been a date where he’d asked me to take a look at his knee and help him out. If it had happened in his bedroom, I wouldn’t feel guilty at all.
But Ashlynn wasn’t frowning at me. She was smiling.
“Rowe’s a good guy,” she said.
“That’s all you have to say?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Of course, he’s a good guy. But he lives here, and I don’t.”
That brought a frown to Ashlynn’s face. “Location is negotiable. Besides, you live one hour apart. You can meet halfway, and it’ll be no different than commuting to work in Knoxville every day.”
My commute was only fifteen minutes, but I got her point. She was missing mine, though.
“There are limited career opportunities for me in this town,” I said. “I can’t just give up everything and move here.”
Ashlynn frowned. “So, I take it that this was more than a one-night stand.”
“Of course, it was,” I said. “I’m not a one-night stand type of person.”
I’d never had sex before, but that was one thing I was certain of. I was not the type of person who could just have sex with someone and forget about him. Especially if that someone was Rowe.
“This wasn’t just sex,” I said. “This was more. At least it was to me. But how do I know if it’s just because he was my first?”
Ashlynn smiled. “Well, you know, Zack was my first, and I had the same thought. What if I was getting too serious and it was just sex to him? But there’s something about the guys up here in these mountains. They move here to be independent, but most of them don’t realize the reason they haven’t found love is that they just haven’t met the right person yet. Once they do, they shift completely.”
That was a generalization if I’d ever heard one. I didn’t see Rowe being the type of guy who would be willing to give up everything after one good roll in the hay—or on the massage table, as the case may be.
“You’re saying leaving my job, my family, and my friends to move up here with a mountain man wouldn’t be a huge mistake?” I asked.
“Maybe take it a little slower than that,” Ashlynn suggested. “Go to dinner first.”
I almost laughed out loud at that. Dinner. That was what we were supposed to do tonight. He made the date before we got naked together. I’d forgotten all about that until he mentioned it, and then I had to fight everything inside me to turn him down.
“That’s the problem,” I said. “If I go to dinner with him, I’ll get deeper into this. We’ll no doubt sleep together again, and then I won’t want to leave. Eventually, either he’ll dump me, or I’ll give everything up to move here and it won’t work out.”
“Or you’ll give up everything, move here, and it will work out.” Ashlynn sighed and picked up her tumbler, sucking some liquid through the straw before setting it down again. “Maybe look at it this way. Can you really go back home and not know what might have happened if you’d just said yes to this adventure?”
“My friends are back home.”
“And your friends are going to start getting married and having kids, one at a time,” Ashlynn said. “It happens to all of us. The next thing you know, you’ll be catching the bouquet and thinking back to what happened here.”
Damn it. Why did she have to make so much sense? My friend Kelsey was already engaged, and Ariana had been with the same guy since sophomore year and was constantly complaining he hadn’t proposed yet. It was only a matter of time before my other two friends met someone and maybe even moved away.
“It can’t hurt to get to know him.” Ashlynn shrugged. “Take it slow. You never know. Maybe he’d be willing to move to Knoxville.”
That was a thought. I entertained it for several seconds, but I was surprised to find it filled me with sadness.
No, Rowe belonged here. He was happy here. He’d never be happy living in some suburban neighborhood that looked like every other neighborhood in America.
“If you did move here, you could hang out with me,” Ashlynn said. “That wouldn’t be such a bad thing.”
“That’s definitely a checkmark in the ‘pros’ column,” I said with a smile.
Ashlynn brightened at that. “So, you’re weighing the pros and cons of moving to Rosewood Ridge?”
I started to tell her not to get her hopes up, but those weren’t the words that came out. Instead, I asked, “Where can I find Rowe?”