Page 7 of Almost True
I was back here in Silverton. In a place I’dalmostmissed entirely, and yet, in the last two hours of that first visit, I’d found a tether to a dream I hadn’t realized could exist.
The night I met Aidan. The night I’d met the first and only man to captivate me completely and need nothing from me. The night I left a little piece of myself here, though I didn’t realize it for months and months.
I’d crawled out of my hotel room at the Silver Ridge Resort because I’d promised Juliet I’d at least go get a drink at the gorgeous bar downstairs. I had gotten that drink, and before I knew what was happening, I was chatting with the handsome bearded local sitting next to me. He hadn’t been hitting on me—he’d been making fun of the bartender’s cheesy lines. It’d charmed me as much as it’d surprised me, much like the ensuing hours we spent perched on our barstools talking.
He hadn’t recognized me. I’d only given him my first name, and the lack of recognition had been what’d drawn me in initially almost as much as his pure, masculine beauty. Because truly, the man was stunning and so positively un-New York or LA, it’d sent a wave of longing through me I’dneverexperienced.
So many things I’d never experienced hit me that night—thoughts, fleeting dreams, questions asked.
Though I hadn’t told him everything about me, I’d been honest. More honest than I’d been with anyone other than my closest friend in a long, long time. Maybe even more honest because there was a certain kind of fleeting anonymity to our night. It’d been a fantasy, and so had the kiss at the end of the night before I’d returned to my life, not knowing how much those two hours would change me.
I’d learned to block the memory of this place, of the time with that man, from my mind during the workday. But as the intensity with the stalker had increased, my mind had run back here. And so, ultimately, had I.
For some strange reason, Silverton and Aidan had become a safe place for my mind. The combination of chemistry and connection, and honestly, probably the fact that I hadn’t known about the stalker yet, made the memory a reprieve. But as time pushed me farther from the reality of him and made those fleeting hours more and more of a distant fantasy, I fell further into work and, eventually, into fearing my life would ever return to normal. By the time I’d rung in the New Year from a hotel room in LA this year, I’d known I needed to truly escape. Things escalated, my mind returned here, here, here, tohim, and without much more than hope to guide me, I bought a house as an investment—an excuse—and made a plan.
And though this was where Korry Taggart had eventually found me, I couldn’t be angry about it. I mean, I was one hundred percent angry about it since stalking wasn’t something I was just going to chalk up to being moderately famous for a while, but more than anything else, I felt relief. It came in waves, almost like grief, and washed around me at intervals.
I shut my eyes and inhaled another deep, grateful breath and—
“Shoot, I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m—Maddie?”
The physical jolt of running into someone with my eyes closed in the middle of the sidewalk was nothing compared to hearing that voice again. Butterflies exploded in my belly, and anticipation lit every nerve.
Hisvoice.
I’d missed it. I’d longed to hear it despite only having spent a few hours with him the one and only time we’d met. It made no sense how good it felt, before I’d even set eyes on him, but my pulse pounded deep and satisfied at just being near him again.
“Aidan?”
I didn’t need to ask. Because when I opened my eyes, there he stood in the flesh, handsome as ever—more so. I hadn’t imagined that, at least. His dark hair was still a bit longer on top and closer-cropped on the sides with more of that salt-and-pepper look above his ears. He seemed taller, maybe, but we’d been sitting most of the first time we’d spent time together.
Goodness, the man was better than I’d remembered. And I’d remembered him a lot.
His brown gaze surveyed me head to toe, then he spoke. “Are you in town again? Or, that’s a stupid question, but are you here for a while?”
Adorable and charming and disarming. I hadn’t imagined that either. Or how good his dark beard looked. Or how his eyes were both kind and demanding, like they’d found something they’d lost when they looked at me.
“I am, yes.” I couldn’t help the blazing smile on my face because this was absolutely one of the things I’d hoped for when I’d originally planned to come back to Silver Ridge Resort and the small town of Silverton. It had called to me, the memory, this feeling, and now that I was back, something shifted into place. Not a piece into a puzzle or a key into a lock, but the brush of just the right color on a canvas.
“That’s good,” he said, a small half-smile playing on his lips.
Lips I’ve kissed.Heat flashed through me at the memory I’d revisited a hundred times since our first meeting. Completely out of character for me, but after talking for two hours straight, we’d shared that mind-melting kiss.
I’d started it, but he’d met me without hesitation. And like our hours together, what began as easy and casual became something devouring and delicious. It’d been astounding, and we’d failed to say a proper goodbye because of it. We’d kissed like our stars were dying and then we went our separate ways.
Most of me had, anyway. I’d often felt like I’d left a piece of me here—just a sliver. And I’d been compelled to come back and retrieve it.
“Yes. I’m glad to be back.” What an understatement.
Despite everything that’d happened, walking down this sunny little street, passing shops I couldn’t wait to duck into for the first time, I felt what I always did when something good was beginning. A jolt of adrenaline hit my veins and disseminated a sparkling, ready feeling through me. I had the urge to clap my hands together and dive into a big project I knew I could conquer, but today, the conquering wasn’t for work. It was for something entirely new.
“Would you—”
“Could I—”
We grinned at each other, and I gestured for him to go first.
“I was just going to ask if you’d want a tour. But maybe you’d already been exploring, so that would be redundant.”
