Page 2 of Take Me Slowly, Part 1 (Aurora Hollow duet #1)

LEAH

The key turned easily in the lock, the solid wooden door opening with barely a sound.

I stepped past a series of hooks hanging from a plank of wood attached to the wall, and into a small kitchen with butcher block countertops and a huge farm sink.

A wide window let in a ton of light. I'd be able to wash vegetables and look out into the street.

The small dishwasher beside the sink looked relatively new.

I peered through a doorway that led off the kitchen. A neat bedroom held a queen size bed and a small wardrobe. It shared a bathroom with another bedroom the same size as the first.

"Wow," I whispered to myself. A clawfoot tub sat under the window, allowing a view of the forest of trees beside the hollow. I could see myself admiring that view while enjoying a glass of wine.

I stepped past a small, cosy living room, to a sliding glass door which led out to an equally small patio. A couple of Adirondack chairs surrounded a fire pit which looked well used. Was that a hot tub beside the patio? It was.

I'd definitely find my way in there at some point.

I took the short walk back to the hotel I spent the night at before, checked out and got my car. The drive back to the cottage was no more than two minutes. Moving the rest of my belongings into the cottage took only a little longer than that.

I tossed my drawing pad and pencils onto the dining table before setting up my easel near the back door, where the light was best. I placed my paints down beside it. I hadn't painted in years, but having everything set up was a nice start.

I dragged my suitcase into one of the bedrooms to unpack my clothes into the wardrobe. Fortunately I hadn't brought much with me, because it was a tight fit once everything was hung on hangers. A couple of things, including my snowboots and jacket were relegated to the wardrobe in the spare room.

I pushed my suitcase under the bed and was about to step out onto the patio when someone tapped at the front door. After startling half out of my skin, I hurried over to open it.

I half expected to see Connor or Riley glaring at me, maybe insisting I pack up and leave.

Instead, I was greeted by an older woman, her grey hair tied back in a braid that fell to her waist. In one hand, she held a pie, in the other a bottle of wine.

"I heard through the grapevine that someone would be living here." She pressed the wine to me before stepping inside. "Figured I'd offer a welcome."

"That's…very nice of you," I said. I heard the grapevine worked fast in towns like this, but I hadn't expected it to be quite this quick.

She placed the pie on the kitchen counter. "It's how we are around here. We take care of each other and welcome strangers." She nodded as though she was hoping to pick up some juicy gossip to share with that grapevine.

"Most people have been very welcoming," I said. Connor and his friend were spending too much time rent free in my head already.

"I'm Louisa Hill," she said. "Mayor of Aurora Hollow. I make it my business to see everyone has what they need."

"Leah Kent," I told her. "I appreciate that. I think I'm going to like it here."

"Course you will." She stepped over to my easel. "You an artist?"

"I dabble," I replied. "Portraits and landscapes mostly these days." I tried to ignore the tug in my heart, the frustration of broken dreams. Ambitions I'd never be able to fulfil.

I forced them aside. Regret wouldn't change a thing.

"Is that right?" She picked up my sketchpad from the table and flicked back a couple of pages. "Huh, you're pretty good." She seemed surprised.

"I'm okay," I said.

Like any creative person, I saw the flaws in my work in ways others didn't. A line here that was too straight. Shading there that needed an extra touch. Fingers that were slightly too long. "There's always room for improvement."

"Well, if you ever need a model, I'm good at sitting still." She closed the book and placed it back on the table, almost with reverence.

"I'd be honoured to draw you," I said honestly. "I could use the practice." And she had a fascinating facial structure.

"Then we can make time," she said. "Like I said, I'm always down to help the people in town. Unlike some, I think the place could use some new blood. Otherwise a town stagnates, you know?"

"Any community does," I agreed. Even big cities stagnated without new people.

Carefully, I added, "Connor Ferguson and his friend Riley don't seem to think the way you do." I didn't know why I was bringing them up. They'd probably laugh their heads off if they knew. Thinking they got under my skin somehow. Ha, not a chance.

Louisa snorted. "Those two wouldn't know what's good for the town if it bit them on the ass.

They've always had some funny ideas. Their fathers too.

Jacob Ferguson and Henry Crane, the boys' fathers, were descended from the people who founded this town.

Seemed to think that means they owned the place.

If I'm honest, it's past time they got over themselves.

They didn't give you any trouble, did they?

" She narrowed her eyes, as if she was ready to storm out and give them a piece of her mind if I said they had.

"Nothing I couldn't handle," I said. "I'm used to dealing with men like them.

" Arrogant and full of themselves and their own importance.

They were nothing new. Admittedly, I wasn't used to them coming in such attractive packaging, but that was all it was.

Pretty on the outside, asshole on the inside. Original? Not at all.

"Good for you," she said approvingly. "Don't let either of them step on or over you. They do it once, they'll keep doing it."

That was exactly the impression I got from them, and I wasn't backing down. If they wanted me to leave town, then I'd stay. What could they do to me anyway?

"Think you'll be sticking around for a while?

" Louisa asked. This seemed to be exactly the gossip she'd come here for.

I was happy to give it in return for a pie.

I could smell the apple and spices, the scent drifting up and tickling my nose.

It would taste perfect with a big dollop of cream, or some ice cream.

"I thought I would," I said easily. "I'd like to see how it looks up here when it snows. From close up." I'd seen it from a distance for more years than I could remember. For just as long, I'd wanted to come here. I used to beg, even if it was only for a weekend.

My parents were… Not disinterested. Adamant. They refused to travel up into the mountains. I won't pretend to understand why. Every time I asked, they changed the subject. Eventually, I gave up asking.

I hadn't told them where I was going when I left Vancouver, just that I was getting away. I hated keeping secrets from them, but for some reason I couldn't explain, I had a feeling this would anger them.

Maybe it was nothing more than rebellion that drew me to this place. Maybe it was something more. Maybe it was a need for fresh air and altitude. I didn't know. I just needed to be up here.

"It's something else," Louisa said. "This place is beautiful in all it’s seasons and moods.

The blazing sun and heat, thunderstorms and pouring rain, and freezing blizzards.

If you have the right view out the window, you don't need a television.

You could stand there, watch the landscape change for hours and never get bored. "

"That's what I'm hoping for," I said. "I want to draw and paint all of those moods and seasons. I could do a series of paintings." For the first time in I didn't know how long, I was actually excited. My hands itched to pick up a brush or pencil and get to work.

"That sounds like a fabulous idea. We have a market once a month if you want to sell them. Every first Saturday, behind the Frosty Brew. Usually everyone moves into the pub after the market." She grinned, showing a gap between her top front teeth.

"Jacob Ferguson, he owns the pub; he loves it. Most of the money people make selling things goes to him in the end. But we do a lot of barter too. You know, a painting for a couple of dozen eggs. That kind of thing."

"I love that," I said sincerely. That was exactly the kind of thing I came here for.

I didn't mind swapping my work for things like that.

Useful things. Or not so useful, because life was too short not to have a few pretty or whimsical items on the shelves around the living room.

The cottage had a couple of vases, and books here or there, but it was impersonal.

If I was going to stay here for a while, I wanted it to feel like home.

If I could make a bit of money and not spend it all at the pub, that would be good too.

"Me too," she said. "It's a good opportunity to get to know our neighbours, and the kids always have a ball. You must try Lyle Johnson-Jones' cheesecake. He and his husband own Hollow Bites, the best restaurant in town. Not that I'm biased to one over the others." She slid me a sly smile.

"Of course not," I said with a grin. "I'm sure the town mayor has to be impartial."

"Naturally," she agreed. "But that cheesecake is pretty fucking good."

Now I laughed. "I'm hungry just thinking about it. I admit to being partial to cheese in general and cheesecake in particular."

Louisa chuckled. "You should fit in here perfectly. We tend to bond over our mutual appreciation of cheesecake." She smacked her lips loudly.

"I knew I was drawn to the place for a reason," I said.

And I was. I got into my tiny little hatchback and started to drive, not knowing where I was going until I pulled in here.

Something about the place made me stop and look twice.

Something comfortably familiar and magnetic at the same time.

I couldn't put my finger on what. Something needed me to be here.

Like a secret waiting to be unravelled. A secret that had nothing to do with cheesecake. That could be the cherry on the top.

"I should get back to it," she said. "If you need anything, town hall is right beside the café. If I'm not there, someone usually knows where to find me."

I nodded. "Thank you. And thank you for the pie.

I was wondering what I'd do for dessert.

" Of course, I'd have to figure out dinner first. I wasn't much of a cook, having left that to my parents, or a microwave meal.

Now was as good a time as any, to learn.

I certainly had the time to spare. I spied a modem in the corner of the living room, so the cottage had Wi-Fi.

I made a note to look up some recipes and write down a shopping list before heading out to the grocery store.

There was that twinge in my heart again.

The endless ache I tried so hard to ignore.

I came here to put it behind me and that's what I'd do. I’d draw, I'd paint and I'd learn how to cook.

I'd embrace this change and all the opportunities this small town held.

Now was my chance to reinvent myself and start my life over.

No one knew me here. No one had expectations of me. No one but myself.

This was exactly what I needed. A new beginning.

I kept telling myself that, but it didn't ease the heaviness in my chest and it didn't help the unease when I remembered the hostility in Connor Ferguson's eyes. I didn't know why it mattered, but I knew that man and his friend were going to be a whole lot of trouble.