Melt For Me (Against All Odds Book 3) Read Free Page A

missed just being near her infectious energy. He would have gone to the ends of the earth for her. Wouldn’t have even thought twice about it. But then his summer season had ended, and instead of running off to the West Coast with him like he’d planned so he could finish school, she’d listened to her mother, who’d never much liked Tate to begin with.
    His heart pinched, just enough to tell him the bitter bite of rejection was still there. He could remember every part of their conversation that last day, and her arguments. The fact her first semester at art school was already paid for. The fact his future was in California, not on the East Coast. The fact long-distance relationships never worked.
    Looking back at the way his career had wound up, maybe her reasoning made sense. But to him, at the time, and after everything they’d shared that summer, it had sounded like an excuse. Like a reason to run. She’d left for college in Rhode Island before he’d been able to talk her out of it. And then, instead of going after her like he should have done, he’d tucked his heartbroken tail and gone home. Expected her to come to her senses and come after him. Only she hadn’t. She’d gone to art school. Moved to Holly, North Carolina. Gotten married. And forgotten all about him.
    He scratched the back of his head and sighed. A smart man would grab his guitar, get back in his car, and leave before he made things worse for himself. He had a gig in Miami on Christmas Day. If he hit the road tonight, he could be there with time to party beforehand. Meet a few girls. Forget about this stupid plan.
    But even as the thought hit, he remembered the look on Ella’s flawless face when she’d gazed up at him on the stairs. Soft brown eyes as fathomless as they’d been the last night he’d held her on that beach, when they’d danced in the moonlight to the music wafting from the boardwalk. Only this time they were shrouded in secrets and heartbreak and pain.
    He moved back up the cellar steps, debating what to do, and stepped into the kitchen. The kid working the grill looked to be barely twenty-one, with gauges in both ears and dreadlocks twisted up under a hairnet. A snowboarder, Tate decide. Holly Mountain was one of the best ski areas around.
    He waved at the kid, then headed into the bar and scanned the room. Ella was nowhere to be seen, which really shouldn’t surprise him, not after the way she’d bolted from the cellar. His gaze skipped over the patrons, and part of him still couldn’t believe she ran a bar. He knew from his conversation with Ella’s mother that the pub had been the dead husband’s business, but running a bar in a Christmas-themed village hidden in the mountains was as far from Ella’s dream of having her paintings displayed at the Museum of Modern Art as a person could get.
    Did she paint anymore? He looked to the walls, searching for something with her signature brushstrokes, but the decorations were all Christmas-themed prints and old-time outdoor sporting equipment like toboggans and skis. Nothing personal from her. He couldn’t see a single thing in the space that screamed Ella.
    “Didn’t go over so well, huh, handsome?”
    Tate looked to his left, where the bartender scooped ice into a cup and grinned up at him. Figuring he needed a drink to chill himself out more than anything else, he slid onto a stool and leaned both forearms on the dark mahogany surface. “What do you have on tap?”
    The bartender brushed her blonde hair over her shoulder and glanced at the taps as she added soda water to the drinks she was making. “Tonight we’ve got Lazy Boy Mistletoe Bliss, Deschutes Jubelale, Alaskan Winter, and Sam Adams Holiday Porter.”
    Tate shook his head. Man, this town went all-out in the Christmas department. He and Ella had only spent a summer together. He had no idea if she even liked Christmas but figured she must if she was surrounded by it twenty-four seven. “Give me a pint of Sam