Page 152 of When Wrecked Meets Ruined
It was time to start a new chapter of my life.
* * *
Cypress Springs hadn’t changed much, but I felt like I was looking at it through new eyes, and now I could appreciate the beauty of the town where I grew up. I drove past a field of sunflowers that reminded me of Quinn. Sunshine on a cloudy day.
She and Jesse moved back two and a half years ago when Quinn was pregnant. Since my residency didn’t start for another three weeks, I was spending the first two with Quinn before I moved into my apartment in Austin near Dell Med.
Five miles from Quinn’s house, I pulled over at the gas station and convenience store, filled my tank, and used the restroom. I’d been holding it in for the last fifteen miles.
On my way out, I stopped at the magazine rack and flipped through anArchitectural Digest. I’d started dreaming again, imagining that someday I could have the life I’d always wanted. I was so much closer to making all my dreams come true. I’d finish my emergency medicine residency in three years and be an ER doctor.
Maybe I’d buy a place in Austin near the lake. Or maybe I’d move closer to Quinn. For the first time in my life, the future was filled with possibilities instead of roadblocks and detours.
The bell over the door chimed, signaling that a customer had entered, and I don’t know how I knew it was him. I just did. I felt him before I saw him. Even after all these years, the air still crackled with electricity whenever he was near me.
“Hey, Cherry.”
Hey, Cherry. So cool. So casual. It was just as if it hadn’t been three years since I saw his face. Slowly, I turned to face him. My first love.
The hotshot football player who had recently signed a $100 million contract.
Quinn told me he had a house here now, and he spent a lot of time in Cypress Springs during the off-season, so I knew we were bound to run into each other, but I hadn’t expected it to happen as soon as I got here.
But he was standing right in front of me in athletic shorts and a T-shirt, tall and broad, comfortable in his own skin.
Nothing had changed. Everything was still the same. All those old feelings for Ridge came rushing back. How was it possible that I wasstillin love with him?
“You’ve cut your hair,” I said with a little smile.
He returned my smile. “And yours is long again.” We laughed like we were in on a private joke. “Dr. Bellamy. Has a nice ring to it.”
“So does Super Bowl champion. Do you ever wear the ring? Flash all those diamonds and gemstones?” I teased.
“Ice, baby. That thing is so heavy it weighs down my whole hand. I only wore it once for a photo. After that, it went straight into my safe.”
He had a safe in a house I’d never seen. And thanks to my occasional stalking on social media, I knew he had a supermodel girlfriend. She was tall and willowy with white-blonde hair and ice-blue eyes. The opposite of me in every way. Maybe that was the whole point.
Ridge was a public figure now. So whenever I googled him, I got plenty of information and enough photos to satisfy my curiosity and feed my masochistic heart.
Ridge in a tux and his girlfriend in a designer gown at a charity gala. Working with kids at the non-profit foundation he and two of his teammates had set up in the inner city. Visiting a children’s hospital and handing out gifts like he was Santa Claus.
He had the means and the money to make a difference now, and true to his word, he was giving back to the community.
Ridge looked down at the magazine in my hand. “Any plans while you’re in town?”
“Not really. I’m just here to relax and unwind and spend some time with Quinn and Fable before my residency. And I thought….” I let out a breath. “I thought it would be a good time to put some old ghosts to rest.”
He nodded as if that was something he understood.
“I mean, I’ve moved on, but I still feel like something is holding me back,” I hastened to add. I don’t know why I said that.
“Somethingor someone?”
I stepped aside for a lady to pass. We were blocking the aisle in a convenience store, and I didn’t know the answer to his question. Or maybe I did, but I didn’t want to admit that he was the reason I broke up with Ben. I had loved Ben, but I wasn’tin lovewith him. Not in the way that I’d loved Ridge. And maybe you only got one love like that in a lifetime. But once you’d gotten a taste of it, it was hard to settle for less.
“It was great to see you, Ridge.” I edged away because standing this close to him made me want things I couldn’t have. “I have to get going.”
“Yeah. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”
