Page 55 of Second Chances
Chapter 22
Josh looked down athis watch and stamped his feet, they had gotten cold waiting for Megan to round the bend in the trail. After ten minutes he started to get worried but knew that she was probably just taking her time and didn’t want to be around him.
When he still didn’t see her pompom come up over the knoll after five more minutes, he skied off in the direction they had come as fast as he could. After years of being on search and rescue, his mind had gone into overdrive imaging all the terrible things that could’ve happened to her, and it would be all his fault. Why did he have to be so goddamn bullheaded?
He was breathing heavily, and frost was accumulating on his beard.
“Shit,” he muttered to himself as he got to the section of trail where he had last seen her. He turned around again and tried to put himself in her shoes. There were no footsteps or errant ski tracks off the trail, so the only place she could’ve turned was onto the small side trail. It didn’t make any sense, but it was the only other place that she could be.
He heard Timber yipping and shook his head. Now he had to find a lost woman and a lost dog.
He felt a sense of dread building in him at the idea of something happening to Megan. Not again. The last time he had seen Erica, they had argued. His heart was pounding in his chest, and when he saw Megan and Timber on the trail, he felt like the huge weight that had been baring down on his chest lift. He picked up the pace even faster and didn’t care about anything that happened that morning.
Now, as they sat on the tailgate of his truck, he wondered what it was that she had to tell him.
“It sure is beautiful out there. You were right about the sunshine on the snow,” she said.
“There’s nothing like it,” he replied, knowing that she was stalling.
“Josh, I want you to know that this time with you has been very special to me.”
It sounded like a breakup line to him. He nodded and held her mittened hand in his gloved one. “Like I said earlier, I would love to stay in Chance Rapids and be with you. Actually, I thought that you were the reason that I was falling in love with this town. It turns out that there are so many reasons why I would want to stay here.”
“But you can’t.”
“Actually, I could move here. I could live here full time.”
“You could give up your city life for this simple town life? All of the excitement, and designer shoes, and trendy restaurants that leave you starving?”
“See. Here’s the thing. I’m not who you think I am.”
“Megan, I’ve spent a lot of time with you over the past month, I think I have a pretty good idea who you are.” He squeezed her hand tightly and smiled at her. She looked at him and smiled meekly then shifted uncomfortably and pulled her hand from his.
She sighed and rubbed her hands on her thighs. “I don’t own that house in Sugar Peaks. I don’t own the café. I’m not a rich ski bunny who doesn’t ski.”
“How is that possible?” Josh was thrown. This was not what he was expecting at all.
“The house is Charlotte’s. She’s the real estate developer. She’s the one opening the café. She just hired me to be the face for the project.”
“Why couldn’t you just tell me that?”
“Charlotte swore me to secrecy.”
Josh tilted his head, trying to compute everything that the gorgeous woman in front of him was saying. “Is this some kind of cruel game you two are playing? Try to pull the wool over the dumb Rapidians eyes?”
“I can’t tell you why.”
“Seriously? Well, can you tell me who you really are? Or is that top secret too. Is your name even Megan Brittle?”
“Technically my name is still Megan Snellton, Brittle is my maiden name. If you want the truth. Here it is. My husband cheated on me and got his mistress pregnant. This is after years of us trying to have a baby. The mistress thing was tough enough, but the baby was salt in the wound. And then he hid all our money. So, no, I’m not rich, I’m the opposite of what you thought I was. I was so hurt. I just needed to get away from the city and Charlotte offered me her place. Then, she offered me a job.”
Megan reached for Josh’s hand, but he pulled them away. “Josh, there were so many times that I wanted to tell you.”
“I still don’t get why this had to be a secret. What are you two hiding?”
Megan pursed her lips, as if deciding whether she wanted to divulge anything further, but she didn’t. “I’m sorry Josh, but there are just some things that I can’t tell you yet.”
“Oh yeah, when do you think you can grace me with the truth Megan? And how will I know it’s the truth? I mean, you’ve been lying to me for all this time. How can I ever trust you again?”
Josh hopped off the back of the truck and threw the skis in. He offered his hand to Megan to help her down, but she ignored it. “Everything else was real, Josh. Everything,” she whispered.
“I think that it’s time to take you home now, or whatever it is you’re calling that monstrosity on Sugar Peaks.”
Megan nodded and got in the passenger side of the truck. Josh opened the rear door for Timber and he curled up in the back seat. The two of them drove back into the town limits, the radio crackling with the one local station playing “Baby it’s Cold Outside.”
He was beside himself. It didn’t make sense. Why did she have to pretend to be someone she wasn’t? It had been so hard for him to look past the fact that she was too sophisticated and rich to want a carpenter like him, and now he was pissed. She was the perfect woman for him. But she was a damn liar.
