Page 5 of Wildest Dreams

I hear a grunt as he hauls my bed-frame off the floor and then his heavy footsteps as he follows behind me.

I smile to myself as the elevator doors ding open.

How funny. I’d wanted to spend the day with my brother, hanging out with him and all of his football buddies like I did back in high school. But it’s starting to look like somethingwaybetter has just fallen into my lap.

The reason why I picked Carter U as my college in the first place is because there’s nothing that I want more than a small town life. Sure, there have been upsides to being a prep school girl but at the end of the day that’s never the lifestyle that I wanted – mainly because of the people that I’ve always been surrounded with.

Because those hotshot prep school boys who got the best athletic training and scholarships?

They’re the biggest players that you’ll ever meet.

I mean, I would know, seeing as my brother Connell was one of the biggest players of all. But even though I love him, I don’teverwant to be caught up with someone like that – hence why at schoolIwas the biggest player of all.

Never caring, never settling down, and never getting hurt.

Because if you’re the heartbreaker? You can’t get your heart broken.

I step inside the elevator and smile up at Tanner over my shoulder.

He steps in right behind me, his chest swelling as he returns the smile.

What a cutie, I think to myself as I press the button to my floor.A total sweetheart too. Definitely not a player.

I bite into my bottom lip as the doors slide closed.

In twenty-four hours I would wish that I’d never met him.

Chapter 1

Aisling

Present day

My fingers tighten around the wheel of my brother Connell’s 4x4 and Fallon, my best friend riding shotgun in the passenger seat, lets out a high-pitched yip as we lurch over another uneven patch of off-road terrain.

“Are we there yet?” she squeaks, hand gripping into the safety handle above her window.

I look through the rear view mirror and peek at the emerald green larch trees behind us. They’ve already completely obscured the road that secretly off-shoots onto the lower forest’s dirt track, leading to a magical suntrap and Larch Peak’s secluded seven and a half mile lake, right before the land trails up into the sloping mountains that the small town was named after.

My eyes drop back down to the navigation system on the dash and that little red pin indicates that we’re almost at our destination.

“It’s got to be, like, just through here,” I say reassuringly, although admittedly I’ve never actually visited this Larch Peak property. I chew nervously on my bottom lip as the car lurches over another undulation of crunchy rocks. “I mean, it isn’t as if no-one has ever been here before. So why the hell is there nosignage on the road?” I lift my right pointer finger off the wheel and my glittery golden polish sparkles in the summer morning sunlight. “First port of call on this renovation? Make a road sign so that people can actually find their way here.”

Fallon makes a nervous sound, fingertips tapping agitatedly on the back of her lilac phone case. “Are you sure that we can do this? Like, just the two of us?”

I try to tamper down the nerves tingling in my belly.

“Of course! For one, the house isn’t in total disrepair.”According to my parents, who haven’t actually visited this site in, like, ten years.“After I get the plumbing and electric contractors to check the water and the wiring, it’s going to be mostly the aesthetic side of things for us to deal with. A lot of wood polishing, maybe brushing a few stray twigs off the porch. Repairing the molding around the windows before I start ordering cute furniture. I don’t know the finer details but, seriously, how hard can it be? Plus, there’s a hardware store in Larch Peak that we can do our errand runs at, and Connell, Logan and some of the other football guys are going to stop by pretty soon, too.”

I feel Fallon’s eyes slide my way and notice that her fingers begin tapping more pointedly on her phone.

I roll my eyes. “Yes, Hunter can visit, too.”

A sunshine shimmer immediately radiates out of my best friend. “He’s actually staying in Larch Peak while we’re here,” she tells me, beaming. “Him and a whole group of the Carter U hockey boys. I think that they’re hanging out at his place by the creek.”

My grip turns vise-like around the wheel of the 4x4.

“Him and the Carter U hockey boys?” I ask, my eyes wide and unblinking.

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