Chapter One
OUT-OF-STATE SUMMER INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS NOW AVAILABLE
All travel expenses covered
Excellent pay and inclusive of board and lodging
Email list of requirements below if interested.
SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD ANAH Blakely had been beyond excited when she saw the newly-posted notice on her high school's bulletin board. She had asked for her parents' permission to apply for it as soon as she had gotten home and was able to submit her application the very next day. It had taken a while to hear back, but she eventually received the response she was hoping for.
And so here she was in Hartland, Wyoming three weeks later, and Anah was still pinching herself like mad. Hartland wasn't anything like the small Texan town she grew up in. Since San Antonio was only half an hour away, it sometimes felt that Evergreen was simply an extension of the city, and the locals hadn't felt any need to build a community of their own.
Hartland, however, was wonderfully different. It stole Anah's heart from the very first moment she stepped off the bus, with its cozy but vibrant vibe that somehow felt like this strange, whimsical fusion of the Wild Wild West and the chic side of Paris. Historic buildings, made either of brick or natural stone, lined up the sides of the main streets, and their signages were either hand-painted in charming script or bright and colorful with incandescent lightbulbs outlining their business names.
There were streets permanently closed to vehicular traffic, and then there were also streets where she had seen a couple of horse-driven wagons rattling down and even a cowboy riding up to the local church.
It was a good thing , Anah reflected cheerfully to herself, she had decided to come up early to Hartland. The extra hours she had allotted for herself gave her a chance to explore the town at leisure while still having time to spare upon arriving at the community hall.
All newly-hired interns like Anah had been emailed a detailed printout for their job orientation. This also served as their entrance pass, and Anah duly presented this at the reception desk stationed outside Function Room B.
After having Anah sign her name, the guy behind the desk provided her with an ID. "Just grab a seat inside," the admission officer advised, "and wait for your name to be called."
After thanking him with a polite smile, Anah placed the ID securely inside her shoulder bag while taking her paperback out. She went straight to the first available seat she glimpsed, and since she had started reading as soon as she was seated, she was oblivious to the curious looks she had drawn from the other interns.
With her braids, braces, and make-up-free face, Anah looked far younger than her sixteen years, but in contrast to this was her air of quiet pleasantness, and it had her peers looking at Anah as if they couldn't quite understand how to place her. Wasn't she a little too young to be here?
The same question occurred to Ethan as well when he caught sight of Anah on his way down to Function Room A, a steaming cup of vendo-dispensed coffee in his hand.
With a majority of the fifty-plus interns inside Function Room B busy texting and chatting between their ongoing stream of selfies, the petite redhead seated at the back easily stood out, and the sight was interesting enough to have Ethan's steps come into a temporary halt. He watched her for a few moments, and he couldn't keep his lips from twitching at how oblivious she appeared to the noise around her.
Good for you, kid, Ethan thought, but he forgot about her soon enough as he rejoined his friends and continued on with their meeting about Hartland's current progress. He might've forgotten her completely even, if not for his visit to the library the next day and finding a familiar face behind the library counter.
It was the little redhead again , Ethan thought in pleased surprise, and his curious gaze went straight to the book in her hands. There had been too much distance between them yesterday for Ethan to see what she had been reading, but now he saw that it was an author he also read.
He was already moving forward before he realized what he was doing. It had been a long time since he found something that stirred his interest like this, and it made Ethan realize just how empty his life had been lately.
Anah was still lost in a world of serial killers and smart, handsome detectives when a deep male voice broke into her thoughts.
"Hello."
The sound startled her, and she automatically responded even before looking up. "Hel...lo." Her voice caught at the end, with Anah finally seeing who it was that had addressed her.
The dark-haired stranger was incredibly tall and impossibly attractive, but it was his hazel eyes that had her heart nearly stuttering into a stop. There was something sinfully mesmerizing about them, and they gleamed at her in such a way that had Anah's pulse leaping crazily under her skin.
"New intern, right?"
Anah's eyes widened. "How did you know?"
"I saw you yesterday at the community hall."
Anah didn't quite know what to feel about this. He had seen her yesterday, and he still remembered her?
"Aren't you a little too young to be working away from home?"
Anah's brows furrowed. "Am I?"
"You must be what? Fourteen? Maybe even—-" Ethan stopped upon seeing the girl shake her head.
"I'm sixteen," Anah corrected him with a smile.
Ethan didn't bother hiding his surprise. "Seriously?" A nod, and Ethan could only grimace in return. "I'm sorry. You seemed a lot younger."
"It's fine," Anah was quick to assure him, and because she could no longer contain her curiosity, she then asked in a rush, "Are you a resident here?"
"For some months of the year, yeah." Ethan offered his hand afterwards. "Ethan Blackwood."
"Anah Blakely." She placed her hand in his, and a jolt of electricity sparked through her body at the hard warmth of his clasp.
"It's nice meeting you, little Anah," Ethan said with a smile. "See you around."
"See you around," she managed to respond in a steady voice, but as soon as Ethan turned his back, she released her pent-up breath and practically sagged in her seat. She watched him walk away, and the way her heart was still racing like mad scared and excited her at the same time.
Prior to this day, most of her crushes had been on boys her age, and ones so famous that they might as well have been living in a different planet. Ethan, however...he was different. He was real.
That night, Anah found it ridiculously difficult to sleep. Her senses were still stupidly tingling, and her mind unable to forget the man she had met in the library. Ethan Blackwood struck her as the kind of man who could charm the socks off anybody, but at the same time, there was a bleakness in him that she sensed, and it made Anah wish she could just wrap her arms around him and say...
Stupid, Anah thought as she flipped to her back and stared at her bedroom's ceiling. She was being stupid, to think such stupid, unrealistic thoughts. Ethan Blackwood was too gorgeous to need someone like her to comfort him, and she'd only be hurting herself to think otherwise.
No more thinking about men out of her reach , Anah vowed as she tried willing herself to sleep. But when the next day came, and Ethan showed up at the library once again, the promise she had made to herself was promptly tossed out of the window.
"Good afternoon, little Anah."
Anah wrinkled her nose. "Little?" He had called her that earlier, too, and she wasn't quite sure if she liked it. "I'm not a child," she pointed out as soon as he reached her counter.
"I was referring to your height," Ethan said with a smirk.
"Oh." Anah couldn't help grimacing. If that were the case, then he had every right to call her 'little'.
Ethan glanced at the book Anah was holding. "Still not done?"
"Just three chapters to go," she answered.
"I read him, too," Ethan commented.
Anah was pleased, thinking it was a good omen if they had the same taste in books. "Really?"
Ethan was amused. "Do I look like I don't read?"
Anah choked. "Don't put words in my mouth," she protested.
"Then what did you mean?" he asked with a chuckle.
"Just...you..." Too late, Anah realized she shouldn't have bothered correcting him, since the truth was open to even more misunderstanding.
Ethan smirked again. "Can't think of a lie, can you?" He reached over the counter to ruffle her hair. "It's fine," he said generously. "You'll see soon enough that I'm more than just a pretty face."
With Ethan even punctuating the outrageously vain claim with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrow, Anah could only choke, torn between laughter and exasperation.
Ethan was fighting back his own grin. The look on Anah's face was priceless. She appeared almost sick actually, as if she was unable to stomach the amount of vanity in his words. He was just about to remark on this, too, when they both heard the door of the meeting room at the back suddenly open.
Anah saw the mayor's secretary poke her head out of the meeting room. "Calling Mr. Ethan Blackwood!"
Ethan glanced over his shoulder and saw Frankie frowning at him. "In a minute."
"Mayor O says now , Mr. Blackwood."
Ethan turned to Anah. "You heard the tyrant..."
Frankie rolled her eyes. "I totally heard you, too."
But Ethan pretended not to hear this and flashed Anah a brief smile instead. "I'll see you around then?" Ethan began walking backwards. "I'd have loved to spend more time talking about books—-" Frankie snorted loudly at this, which Ethan ignored even as Anah couldn't help giggling. "But duty beckons..."
Back inside the meeting room, Ethan was bemused to find the other members of The Hartland Initiative gazing at him with interest. "What?"
Instead of answering, everyone instantly became busy, with Oliver Winterbourne, the town mayor, suddenly finding something to ask his secretary while the others rifled through the daily reports as if their lives depended on it.
Ethan shook his head as he returned to his seat. Crazy motherfuckers. He picked up his own copy of the day's agenda but was unable to concentrate. Instead, he found himself remembering Anah's expression when he referred to himself as a pretty face.
She really was an intriguing little thing , Ethan mused. She was like a little sister he never knew he wanted, and for the rest of the summer, he found himself indulging his explicable whim for her company.
He liked how quiet she was without being shy. Most people mistook her for the latter, but Ethan had sensed from the start she wasn't what everyone thought, and his time with her proved that. The kid simply didn't believe in speaking unnecessarily, but it didn't make her any less friendly - or troublesome - when she was so inclined.
When he was with Anah, it was hard to remember she was just sixteen and almost a decade younger than his twenty-five years. He could talk to her about anything, and in times when there wasn't anything to talk about, her presence alone settled the disquiet inside of him. If someone were to tell Ethan she was an enchantress in disguise, he would've been half-inclined to agree, with how Anah practically had him under a spell.
ETHAN WASN'T ALONE in thinking that magic was afoot. Anah, too, found her instant connection to Ethan puzzling, but more than that, she couldn't help feeling anxious as well.
While she was pretty much an open book to anyone, the same couldn't be said for Ethan, who only occasionally shared bits and pieces about himself. Although she had spent most of the summer in his company, all that she knew of him could barely fill an entire page.
Of his family, she knew that his parents had died early in a helicopter crash, he had twin older brothers, and that while he was a third-generation Wyomite, he had also spent a few years with his English mother's side of the family while studying in Oxford.
Of his individual life, she knew even less. Several times, she had been tempted to ask Farica de Konigh, the beautiful blonde who co-owned the Redwood Cafe, if she knew anything about Ethan's past. But she always chickened out in the end, with Anah unable to shake off the feeling that the less she knew about the women Ethan dated, the better.
With only a week to go before her internship ended, Anah started feeling increasingly melancholic about the thought of being parted from Ethan. Although she read books to enjoy a temporary escape from reality, she was actually as pragmatic as they came, and one thing she had never tried to fool herself with was where she stood in Ethan's life. The man saw her as a little sister he could dote on, and she had learned to accept this. She might never become Ethan's girlfriend, but she could at least confidently say she was somewhat special to him. Or so she thought...until the day she visited Ethan's flower shop and saw the sign posted on its window.
TEMPORARILY CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
Anah was shocked. Did this mean Ethan was gone, just like that? He had...left without saying goodbye? This time, she didn't hesitate to run down to the cafe and ask Farica about it, and the older woman was visibly reluctant as she confirmed Anah's worst fears.
'I'm sorry, Anah, he flew out this morning. I'm not sure when he'll be back.'
And that was when Anah realized how mistaken she was.
She was not special to Ethan at all.