HEARTBREAK RIDGE
BELLA
T his man was something else. Dropping all kinds of love bombs on me before running away. The hopeless romantic in me wanted to believe everything he’d said, but how could I? This was the most time we’d spent together since he’d been back in town, and here he was, claiming me like I belonged to him.
I couldn’t help but question every single thing that came out of his mouth. Matthew O’Grady could quite literally have any woman he wanted. Why was he chasing me? Because I was a challenge? Because I was ornery? Because I centered him ? What a laugh.
We drove in the car in absolute silence, except for the radio. He didn’t try to touch my thigh again or lean his body in my direction, which I both appreciated and hated. A part of me liked that he wanted me. I felt vindicated for all my years of wanting him.
When I glanced over at him, he was looking straight ahead. I had no idea what was going on in that head of his. I punched in the code for the gate at his complex and pulled to a stop in front of his building.
A long sigh escaped his lips before I saw him turn to face me out of the corner of my eye. “If you have ex-boyfriends in town, I need to know, Bells.”
I swallowed hard before meeting his gaze. “And why would you need to know that?”
“For my own peace of mind. Plus, I need to know who I’m up against.” He smirked from the passenger seat.
“Up against? They’d be an ex for a reason, don’t you think?”
The last thing I wanted to admit to Matthew was that there were no real ex-boyfriends. That I hadn’t officially dated anyone since he’d been gone.
“What if they try to get you back? I can’t be caught off guard.”
“No one is trying to do anything, except for you. Now, go away so I can write up your offer and get you a house.”
“Us. Get us a house.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Say it,” he pushed, and it made me laugh.
“No.”
“Then, I’m not getting out of your car. Ever. I’ll live in it.”
“Why are you like this? Don’t you have a job to get to or something?” I’d meant the words lightly, but the look on his face told a different story. “Hey.” I reached out my hand and put it on his arm. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Bells,” he said, but his tone definitely did not sound fine .
Matthew loved that resort. The whole town did. Him looking like he was about to throw up wasn’t like him at all.
“Then, why do you look like you’re about to blow chunks?”
Everyone else had been tiptoeing around Matthew since he’d been back, but I’d never been the type to pretend like things were fine when they weren’t.
He plastered on a big, fake smile, and I wanted to knock it right off his face. He thought I couldn’t see through his bullshit.
“Maybe your driving made me carsick. Ever think of that?”
I growled, “You might be able to lie to your brothers and your dad, but you’ve always been a shit liar to me.”
The smile that he wore almost dropped, but he caught it and kept it in place. “Thought we didn’t know each other anymore?”
I sucked in a quick breath, knowing exactly what he was trying to do. Matthew always twisted things around so that the focus was no longer on him, but on you. He’d become a master at doing that after his mom died, and apparently, he still was.
“Guess we might still know some things,” I admitted.
“When will we find out about the house?” he asked before opening the door and getting out.
“I’ll reach out to the agent and then write up an offer. It’s been on the market for a while, and the previous owners were tourists, so we should hear back by end of day at the latest,” I said, sounding like a professional even though I most certainly didn’t feel like one. At least not in this business.
“Okay,” he said before adding, “I don’t care how much it costs.”
“Well, I do.” Even though Matthew drove me crazy most of the time, I didn’t want him to overspend if he didn’t have to. “I’ll get you a good deal,” I promised, as if I truly had any control over what the sellers would agree to.
“I know you will,” he said before shutting the door a little too hard, and I winced with the loud slamming sound.
I could have stayed and watched him walk up the stairs to his condo, but I left before realizing that my entire car smelled just like him.
I drove back to my apartment, my head spinning and replaying all the romantic things Matthew had said. Anna was going to flip out as soon as I filled her in… if I filled her in. Even though she was my best friend, she was clearly on Team Matthew. She always had been.
When I opened up the front door to our place, Anna was standing in the kitchen, burning something on the stove, the smoke billowing all around her as she frantically tried to wave it away with a towel.
“What are you burning?” I asked with a laugh as I tossed my keys onto the counter.
“Grilled cheese. Why won’t the cheese ever melt before the bread burns? I don’t get it. My bread is completely ruined, and the cheese is still hard inside,” she said with a dramatic groan before throwing it into the garbage.
“You’ll have to ask Addison how to make one. She’ll know,” I said because Addison was a fantastic chef and knew how to make everything.
Anna pointed at me with a determined look on her face. “You’re right!” She snapped her fingers. “So, how’d it go? Did you guys find a house?”
I nodded. “We did, yeah. Speaking of, I need to look up the agent’s contact information and give them a call. I’ll be right back,” I said before heading into my bedroom for a little privacy.
Knowing Anna, I thought she’d follow me right in and sit on my bed as I tried to work.
Thankfully, she didn’t.
The agent answered on the first ring, and after I did a little prodding, he told me what it would take to get the home sold. I hung up, wrote up the offer, and emailed it to Matthew before sending him a text, asking him to sign it. He’d be getting this house at a steal, as long as the sellers accepted the offer and nothing too negative came up during the inspections.
My phone pinged. Matthew had signed it already. I sent it to the agent and crossed my fingers before heading back into the kitchen.
“So, how was it? I kind of thought you’d be gone longer,” Anna said as she pulled out a handful of chips and started eating them.
“He liked the second house we looked at.” I shrugged. “So, after that, I took him home.”
Anna barked out a laugh. “I can’t believe he let you. I figured he’d pretend to hate everything so you’d have to spend all day with him.”
“Trust me, it was enough time together.”
“Ooh.” She rubbed her hands together like some sort of mastermind. “What did he do? Confess his love for you? Propose? Put a baby in your belly?”
“Um…” I paused as I stared at her. “No.”
“To which one?” she shouted.
“All three of them.” My response came out sounding confused. “He just flirted like normal. That’s it.”
“Boo.” She frowned. “Matthew flirting with you is old news. He really needs to step up his game.”
This was why I stopped myself from telling her that he’d called me his future baby mama. And how he’d said I’d be living with him someday. She’d hear that and never be able to keep it to herself. It would come slipping out at work or while she got her nails done or something. I loved my best friend, but she was shit at keeping secrets sometimes.
I glanced at my phone and noted the time. “Hey, I’m going to run to the restaurant and make sure I have everything I need for the soft opening.”
The restaurant was having a soft opening in a couple of days before the grand opening a few days after. I was more excited for this than my potential commission check. And that sucker was going to be huge.
“Okay,” Anna said before her eyes grew wide. “Ask Addi how to make grilled cheese. Please!”
“You can come with me and ask her yourself,” I suggested, knowing that she’d say no.
“Nah. I’ll be spending enough time there soon enough.”
I walked to the counter, grabbed my keys, and headed back out the door. As much as I wanted to sit on the couch and binge-watch some shows, my need to be productive wouldn’t allow it. My brain refused to let me sit still when there was something I could be doing instead.
It was my lucky day, apparently. A lone parking spot right in front of the barbeque restaurant sat waiting just for me. I pulled in and shut off the engine, noticing that all the lights were on inside. I hadn’t even thought about Addi not being here when I’d decided to show up unannounced.
I walked through the front doors and closed them behind me.
“We’re not open yet,” Addi shouted from somewhere in the back.
“It’s just me,” I yelled back before she appeared, her long, dark hair in braids.
“Bella! Yay! I mean, what are you doing here? But yay!”
She sounded so excited and not at all stressed. I wasn’t sure that I could be the same if I were opening a restaurant in two days.
“I just came to check on everything and make sure there wasn’t anything I needed to get before the soft opening,” I explained.
“I love that about you. Thank you.”
“How are you doing? Is everything ready?”
Addison had worked her ass off to get this space remodeled as quickly as possible. To be honest, not a lot had to be done since it had already been in really great condition and the previous owner had left all his equipment here. Or her fiancé, Patrick O’Grady, had bought it all in the deal he made to purchase the space. I wasn’t sure which.
The biggest holdup on opening had been getting the equipment that Addi needed in order to cook the meat properly. There had been multiple delays and once I saw the thing that she’d ordered, I kind of understood why. It was the largest smoker I’d ever seen, not that I’d seen a whole lot of them, except for on TV cooking shows.
“The smoker is a work of art. I’m in love with it—don’t tell Patrick.” She closed her eyes and looked so happy. “I think I’m going to name it.”
“The smoker?”
“Yeah. I love it. He needs a name so I can talk to him and tell him how pretty he is. Or yell at him when he’s naughty,” she explained, and I giggled. “Any thoughts?”
“On what you should name your new toy?”
“Yeah. What’s he look like to you?” she asked before dragging me out to the back, where the monstrosity lived.
“He looks expensive,” I said, and her eyes shot to mine.
“Oh, he was. But he was worth every penny.” She grinned again, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen someone so filled with joy.
“You should call him Butch,” a deep, masculine voice said.
Addi and I both spun around to find where the response had come from.
Damn. That is one fine man.
“Oh, Dustin, you scared the hell out of me,” Addi said before greeting the man.
Right then, another guy appeared. He was even better-looking than the first one, which was saying something.
What was it with men in these mountains? Did the water make them so handsome?
“Bella, this is our meat guy, Dustin.”
“Meat guy?” he repeated with a gruff laugh, and I noticed the wedding band on his finger.
Addi had spent the last two weeks driving to various towns within three hours to meet with the local ranchers in order to find the perfect meat supplier. When she’d settled on a rancher in Heartbreak Ridge, I hadn’t really paid much attention. I was definitely paying attention now.
“Well, you are!” Addi laughed back. “Bella’s my bar manager. She makes a mean cocktail. And by mean , I mean perfect,” she complimented, and my cheeks warmed.
“Oh, and this is my cousin, Weston,” he said before Weston interrupted.
“No one calls me that. It’s West. Nice to meet you both,” he said, but he was only staring at me.
I felt that look all the way down to my toes.
“Are you a rancher too?” I asked West, but he and his cousin started laughing so hard that they coughed.
“Him?” Dustin thumbed toward West. “He’s too pretty to be a rancher.”
Can’t argue with that logic.
“Well, what do you do then, Mr. Too Pretty to Be a Rancher?”
Am I flirting?
“I’m a fireman,” he said.
I grinned. “Makes sense.”
“’Cause he’s so pretty, right?” Dustin asked. “He has the day off, and he wanted to go for a ride. I have your first delivery, Addison.”
The two of them slipped into business conversation, and West grinned at me.
“Want to go inside and make me one of your famous cocktails?” he asked.
Excitement tore through me. “Yes! You can test this new drink I’m working on. Let me know if it sucks or not,” I said before turning around and feeling his eyes on my body from the back.
I pointed at a barstool and told West to sit before I hustled behind the bar and got to work on mixing and shaking.
“Do you live in Heartbreak Ridge too?” I asked as I poured the drink into a martini glass, careful not to spill any of the contents.
“No.” West shook his head. “I live over the hill in Whisper Falls.”
“But Dustin is your cousin?”
“Yeah. We have family in both towns,” he explained. “Have you ever been out that way?”
“No. It’s weird, right? We’re not that far, but I don’t really leave Sugar Mountain often.”
He grinned. His smile was gorgeous. He was gorgeous.
“It’s not weird. Why would you leave one small mountain town for another?”
It was a question that didn’t really require an answer. There wasn’t really any reason to leave Sugar Mountain. And especially not to go to another town that was apparently just like it. What was the point?
I dropped some bitters on top of the drink I’d just prepared, took a toothpick to make a design, and slowly pushed it toward him. I watched as his lips touched the rim of the glass.
“Damn, Bella. This is really good.”
My face lit up with the compliment. “Thank you.”
“It tastes like summer.” He grinned some more, and my chest swelled.
“It’s the pineapple.” I winked before wondering what the hell I was doing. “Can I ask you something?”
He cocked his head to the side, a mischievous grin on his face. “You can ask me anything you want.”
“Why is it called Heartbreak Ridge anyway? I always thought the name was so sad,” I asked, and I could tell that wasn’t at all what he’d thought I was going to talk about.
“Back in the mining days, word spread that there was a vein running underground. But there wasn’t. Not a speck of gold. Not an ounce of silver. Not a damn thing. So, the families living there said the town gave them nothing but heartbreak, and the name stuck.”
“Damn,” I breathed out. “That is heartbreaking.”
“At the time, it was devastating. We’re lucky they didn’t name it that,” he said before taking another drink, followed quickly by another.
“There you are.” Dustin walked into the bar and whistled. “Addi, it looks amazing in here.”
“Thank you. I love it so much.” She spun in a circle as she looked up, taking the whole space in.
“But do you love it more than you love Butch?” he teased, and she gasped.
“I do not,” she responded seriously, her hand suddenly over her heart. “Don’t let him hear you,” she whispered.
“I guess the name stuck,” West said quietly in my direction as he finished off the cocktail.
“I guess so,” I said back.
Dustin slapped West on the shoulder. “Hate to break this up, but I need your help with unloading the meat into the freezer, and then we need to start heading back before it gets dark.”
“Bella”—West reached out his hand for mine and gave me a shake—“it was nice to meet you. This drink was fantastic. Thank you. I’ll be seeing you again.”
“You will?” I questioned.
He grinned. “Better believe it,” he said before turning around and following his cousin out the back door.
I stood there with my mouth open as Addi suddenly filled my vision with her shocked face.
“Are you kidding me, Miss Bella Sanchez? That man is gorgeous.”
“Tell me about it,” I agreed because he was.
“And he was flirting with you!” she informed me, as if I hadn’t put two and two together for myself.
“I know,” I whisper-shouted.
“What are you going to do? If Matthew finds out—” she said before stopping the rest of her thoughts completely.
“I don’t belong to Matthew,” I said, but the words felt wrong the second they came out of my mouth, like my mind and body were not in agreement with the sentiment in the slightest.
“I didn’t mean it like that. Of course, you don’t belong to anyone. I’m just…” She stumbled on her thoughts before waving a hand in the air. “I love my future brother-in-law, and I’ve never seen him like this before.”
“Like what?” I asked because a part of me enjoyed hearing this kind of thing. Especially from Addison. She wasn’t the kind of person to say something because she thought you wanted to hear it.
“He basically stalks you. Matthew doesn’t stalk. He doesn’t chase. He doesn’t have to.”
None of that was news.
“I’ve noticed,” I said because there was no sense in denying the obvious.
“Do you like him? I mean, we all know you did when you were a teenager, but that was a long time ago,” she said, and my face heated.
“Does everyone know I used to have a crush on him? That’s so embarrassing,” I admitted as I reached for West’s glass and started rinsing it out in the sink.
She nodded her head. “We all knew. But the thing is, I always thought Matthew liked you back.”
I practically burst out laughing at the insinuation. “No. A three-year age difference might not be a lot now, but back then, it was way too much.”
“I know.” She nodded her head in agreement. “I honestly think that’s one of two reasons why he never pursued you.”
One of two reasons , I repeated in my head.
“What was the other reason?” I asked, feeling completely clueless.
“Your brother,” she said like I should have absolutely known that already. “Leo was his best friend. And he told Matthew to stay away from you.”
“What? When? Why?” I started stuttering on the words as they left my mouth.
Addi only shrugged. “I don’t remember exactly what he said, just that Leo had definitely warned him off. Matthew told me and Patrick one night when I was grilling him about you. He said something like, ‘Leo told me he’d kill me if I ever touched her, and she’s just a kid anyway.’”
I sat there in silence, absorbing the words. My brother had always tried to sway my crush, but I’d never suspected that he’d told Matthew to stay away from me. Never thought he’d have to say something like that to him.
“Leo used to try to get me to stop liking Matthew after he left for hockey.”
Addi leaned forward, her elbows on the bar, as she gave me an inquisitive look. “Really? What did he do?”
An annoyed huff left my lips. “He used to print out all of the articles about Matthew and other women and leave them on my bed for me.”
Her jaw dropped. “That’s just cruel.”
“It used to make me cry.” I pulled the glass from the soapy water and moved it underneath the fresh water.
“I can imagine. What do you think Leo would say about you and Matthew now? Think he’d be upset?” she asked.
Honestly, I hadn’t really considered Leo’s feelings in the matter. I’d been too caught up in trying to figure out my own.
“I don’t really care.”
“Good to know.” She slapped a hand on the bar top and turned on her heels. “I need to make sure they aren’t loading the freezer wrong. I’m glad we had this chat.”
“Addi, wait!” I said, suddenly remembering Anna’s request from earlier.
When she spun around to face me once more, I knew she thought Matthew was still going to be the topic.
“Anna ruined her grilled cheese today. She says there’s no way to get the cheese to melt without burning the bread. Any tips?”
Addi laughed. “Tell her it happens to the best of us. And the trick is to use a lid. Medium to low heat. Lots of butter on the bread. The cheese can’t be too thick, or it will always have trouble melting in the center, but covering it is the key. Low and slow. Too high of heat will burn the bread and leave the cheese unmelted.”
“She’ll be so happy. Thank you.” I smiled and set the glass on the drying rack and pretended like my thoughts weren’t filled with the one guy I’d been trying to convince myself I wasn’t still interested in.