Welcome to Willow Creek
“Where are we going?” Julie asks.
“I just was thinking about Willow Creek and how you haven’t seen the mountains in years. So I figured we could go for a drive and see them.”
“I can see them now,” she says, gesturing out the window. No matter where you are in Willow Creek, you can normally see a mountain towering over you in the distance.
“I mean really see them. Up close. Where do you want to get dinner?” I ask.
“Oh…” Julie chews on her lip, thinking about it for a moment. “I could really go for Chinese food.” I know she’s trying to save as much money as possible at the moment, so I doubt she’s treated herself to much of anything recently.
“Chinese food it is, then. We’ll go out to The Golden Wok. My treat. So how was work?” I ask.
“Oh, it was a lot,” she says, shaking her head.
“Why? What happened?” I ask, concerned.
“It was just… I didn’t want to come back here, you know that. And coming back knowing I’ve failed, and everyone else knows I failed… well that’s not really something I want to explain to someone.”
“Was someone rude to you? Whose ass am I kicking?” I ask.
“Pretty sure you’re not going to beat up Mrs. Johnson.”
“I can take her,” I say and Julie laughs. I’m not going to beat up an old lady, but at least I was able to make Julie laugh. “Don’t listen to them. They’re idiots if they were making fun of you.”
“They’re right, though. I wasted ten years chasing a pipe dream just to end up back here and having to explain it to everyone,” she says.
“What’s that Tennyson quote again? It’s better to have tried and failed than never tried at all?” I ask.
“Love. It’s loved and lost,” Julie says.
“Ah, same thing,” I say, pulling in to the Chinese restaurant parking lot.
“Yoda would disagree. Do or do not. There is no try. I did not, so there was no point in trying,” she says, slumping down in her seat.
“You did a lot, by my books. You played hundreds of shows. You made people happy, listening to your music. Even if they were too drunk to remember. You probably played for people on the nights they met their spouse, or had to get over a breakup, or met their best friend. You are the soundtrack to their lives for that night. Is that not what you wanted?” I ask, cutting off the engine.
“I guess so,” she says. “It would have been nice to play a stadium or something, though. I wanted to have a record deal and do tours. I wanted to be really, really successful. And I did the work, I just didn’t have the results I thought I would. The results I deserve.”
“I’m sure it would have. It would be nice to be a millionaire, but even if I can give myself a living with selling lessons, I can still keep a roof over my head. And I have meals, and clean water. I’m healthy. I’m rich by a lot of people’s standards.”
She seems to think about it for a second.
“I guess so. It just feels like, when I’m here, all I can do is focus on what I couldn’t do,” she says.
“Then I’m going to help you realize all the things you did do,” I say. “Right. Let me go get the food. I’ll be right back, and then we can take this over to the mountains. And no more conversations about failure. You’re here now, that’s the main thing. And we need to make up for lost time.”
I turn the music up on the radio and Julie and I start singing along.
Once we reach the bottom of the mountains, I find a space slightly out of the way, so if there’s someone driving by they won’t see us right away. I reverse park so we’re facing outward to the road.
“Why would we park back on to the view?” Julie asks.
I look over at her briefly. She tucks her long brown hair behind her ear, looking out the window. She has no idea that no matter where we are in the world, seeing her is the only view I care about.
“I’ll show you. Wait there a minute.”
I get out of the truck and go around to the bed of the truck. I take the air mattress out and hook it up to the front of the truck, quickly blowing it up. I can see Julie in the front seat looking around, trying to see what I’m doing.
“What is that?” she asks when I go back to the front and get the hose.
“It’s a surprise. Just give me a minute,” I say. I finish getting everything ready for her.
I open Julie’s door and gesture out. She unbuckles her seatbelt and I hold her hand as she jumps out of the truck. It’s slightly high and I don’t want her to slip on any loose rocks on the ground. I hold her hand as I guide her around the truck.
“Oh my God, it’s beautiful,” she says, taking in the view. The sun is setting perfectly. The sky is painted with bright orange and red hues.
“I forgot all about Willow Creek sunsets,” she says.
“They’re perfect, aren’t they?” I say.
“I need to start sitting out on the patio more often. Lately, after work and bedtime routine with Tommy, I’ve just been crashing on the couch and reading a book.
I can’t believe I’ve been missing these.
” Her face is full of wonder looking at the view.
She still hasn’t noticed anything else I have planned for her.
Julie turns around and her face lights up.
“Austin! This is incredible,” she says.
“Do you like it?” I ask nervously.
“I love it,” she says and climbs up in to the bed of the truck, which is open. The air mattress is inflated and I have the bed completely full of all the pillows and blankets I could gather. Our dinner is sitting next to the bed. She sits down and sinks in to the pillow.
“Are you comfortable?” I ask.
“Oh, this is perfect. Thank you so much,” she says. I open the bag of food.
“Your roast duck vermicelli. And chicken chow mein for me. With extra fortune cookies,” I say and hand them to her.
‘They’re the best,” she says.
“I also have a mini bottle of wine for you. I’ll drive home, so I have a soda for me.” I open the small bottle of white wine and pour it in to the plastic cup I brought. “Not too fancy, sorry.”
“No, honestly. It’s perfect,” she says, and takes a long drink of the wine.
“This is… incredible. Now, let me dig in to this before it cools down too much,” Julie says and starts on her dinner.
We spend the evening laying in the bed of the truck, wrapped up in a blanket to protect us from the chill in the air.
My arms are wrapped around Julie, with her cuddling in to my chest. We watch the stars pass and discuss everything we missed in the past decade.
I don’t know how long we stayed out there, but it had to be hours, which felt like it went by in the blink of an eye.
“You are incredible,” Julie says, looking up at me and kissing me. I brush her hair away from her eyes and tuck it behind her ear.
She kisses me more deeply and I guide her back down on her back, putting my forearm on the mattress and my other hand on the other side, pinning her down.
She starts unbuckling my belt and reaches in to my jeans, grabbing my cock. I’m already hard for her. I reach up to the waistband of her black jeans and unbutton them, quickly pulling them down.
“Are we allowed to do this here?” she asks quietly.
“Oh fuck it, I don’t care,” I say quickly between kisses. I don’t want her face to move off mine for a second. I quickly rip her shirt over her head and unclip her bra, freeing her.
“Oh my God, it’s freezing,” she laughs. I move my body over hers to cover her and I pull the blankets on top of us, trapping as much heat as possible.
The cold November air is making her nipples hard.
They stand at attention for me. I reach down and put one in my mouth, gently flicking over it with my tongue.
“Oh,” Julie moans, sinking in to me. She wraps her legs around my torso and I can feel her wetness on my lap. She’s tempting me and she knows exactly what she’s doing to me. Julie reaches up my shirt and pulls me closer.
“I need you inside me,” she whispers in my ear.
“Oh, fuck,” I say quietly. Well I can’t exactly say no to that.
I push myself inside her and she lets out a soft yelp.
“Is that okay?” I ask, stopping.
“No, no, it’s okay. It’s great. It’s just been a while and you’re… No, I’m fine, keep going,” she says. I look down at her and look in her eyes. God, she’s beautiful. She has big brown eyes I could get lost in.
Now that I have her back, I don’t think I could ever let her go. It would absolutely kill me.
I push in to her again, more gently this time. She bucks on me, taking me the rest of the way in. I lose any sense of control that I once had and start thrusting in to her, taking her all the way.
She reaches up and brushes her fingers through my hair, pulling gently, exposing my neck. In that moment, I would let her to absolutely anything she wanted to do to me. She reaches up and nibbles on my neck gently, before kissing my neck.
I need to make her feel incredible.
I put my finger on her clit and rub gently, sending her over the edge. At the same time, I pump in to her more intensely until finally, I can’t hold back any more and we come together.
Julie and I lay in the back of the truck for another hour, her wrapped in my arms. The blankets are up to our necks to protect from the cold.
“I’m so sorry,” she says quietly.
“For what?” I ask, jumping up to look at her. I support myself on my forearm, still trying to keep her as warm as possible.
“For all those years that you missed with Tommy… I just can’t believe I kept him from you for so long.”
“I mean, you didn’t do it intentionally. You misunderstood. And you were young. We were both so young. We didn’t know what the hell we were doing.”
“I guess so. Eventually I just… wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know how. I dug myself in to such a deep hole. And now I’m crawling my way out of it.”
“It’s fine, we’ll work through this. There is one big thing we need to do before we can move on completely, though,” I say.
Julie nods. “We need to tell Tommy.”
Grab your softest blanket and your pumpkin spice scented candle for this cozy, steamy, small town romance. Welcome to Willow Creek!
Julie McNamara never planned to return to Willow Creek, the town that is a constant reminder of what she could have had.
But after her failed music career, she finds herself back in the place she once swore she’s never return to, with her ten-year-old son in tow.
What she doesn’t expect is to run into Austin Davis, the man that broke her heart.
Austin spent the past decade teaching music and running his shop, but Julie was always the one that got away.
As old sparks rekindle and secrets edge toward the surface, Julie must decide if she’s brave enough to let Austin—and Willow Creek—back into her life.
You Belong With Me is a cozy and steamy second chance romance set in the small town of Willow Creek, Wyoming. You Belong With Me is the story of two fated lovers and the obstacles they overcome to have their happily ever after, no matter how many years pass.
Tropes:
Second chance
Cozy small town
Secret baby
Single Mom
Found family
Dual POV
No third act breakup
Happily Ever After
Perfect autumn read
This is the first in a series of interconnected standalones and can be read by itself.
The rest of the book can be found here