Coming Home (Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 1) Read online

  Coming Home

  Snowy Ridge

  Love at Starlight Series, Book 1

  Kris Jett

  Coming Home

  Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 1

  By Kris Jett

  Copyright 2017 by Kris Jett

  This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Cover Photography from Shutterstock.com and Depositphotos.com

  www.AuthorKrisJett.com

  WELCOME TO STARLIGHT

  A family-owned pub in the picturesque snowmobiling town of Snowy Ridge, Wisconsin. The weather may be cold outside, but things are sizzling indoors.

  Fall in love with the new small-town romance series beginning with:

  Christmas at Starlight – Amber & Nick (Snowy Ridge: A Love at Starlight Novella, Book 0.5)

  Coming Home – Jessie & Cade (Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 1)

  Taking Chances – Wynn & Bryce (Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 2)

  Finding Me – Luci & Evan (Snowy Ridge: Love at Starlight, Book 3)

  Chapter One

  “You are so going down you little f-ers,” Jessie Foster hissed under her breath. She pulled the snow shovel far back over her head and jumped this time as she swung forward, missing again. “Damn it!”

  Her mom had asked her to shoot out here and handle the monster icicles over the doorway to the Starlight Pub before they came down on any of their customers’ heads. She’d thought the job would be fast so she only wore her North Face fleece over her navy pub t-shirt and was now regretting the choice. She was freezing and her feet were getting wet from stomping around in the snow, waving a shovel around for the last ten minutes.

  She pulled her right hand back behind her ear, shovel tight in her grip, and launched it through the air like a javelin, taking down three of the giant sharp swords of ice.

  “Yes!” she yelled, shooting her arms up in a V for victory.

  “You winning there, Jessie?” a voice said.

  Jessie turned and forced a smile at the customers making their way up the porch toward her and the entrance. “I’m trying, Mrs. Anderson. How’re the trails today?”

  “Friggin awesome,” Kyle, one of the Anderson’s fifteen-year old twins replied.

  The family of four were suited in matching blue snowmobile suits and carrying their helmets in their arms. They had parked their snowmobiles at the end of the porch with the other patrons and they stomped their feet as they walked, shaking snow loose.

  “You need some help there, Sweetie?” Mr. Anderson said, slurring on “Sweetie.”

  Ugh, was he drinking already? He probably had a flask tucked into his coat. People weren’t supposed to drink while riding on the trails but some did anyway. They all ended up here drinking by the time dinner hit anyway, you’d think he could wait that long. His wife didn’t even shoot him a warning look. She was just as content as could be. Probably had a flask of wine tucked in her own pocket. Vacationers.

  “No thanks, I’m about done here. Go on in and get a table near the fire if you can. I’ll be inside in a moment to help you,” Jessie told them. She involuntarily shivered when she mentioned the fire, wishing she was sitting by it herself right about now. It had to be ten degrees out here and her fingers were completely numb.

  The sun was setting and the white twinkle lights that outlined the entire building and porch of the pub flipped on. The rest of the dinner crowd would be funneling in any moment and she had to get these icicles down. She watched the Andersons shuffle into the pub and the door close with a thud behind them.

  “All right,” Jessie muttered. “If you won’t come to me, I’m going to come to you.” She climbed up a mountain of snow on the left side of the door, created from weeks of shoveling the walkway. She dug her feet into each side of the peak of the snow hill, trying to steady herself. There. She should be able to whap these icicles once and for all now.

  She pulled the shovel back to the right and just as she is about to let loose at the icicles a familiar voice from the past said, “Be careful.”

  Before she could catch herself, she let go of the shovel and felt her hands windmilling as she crashed backward off the hill and onto the ground.

  “Damn,” she groaned. Jessie was seeing stars and it wasn’t dark enough for that yet so she closed her eyes. She mentally examined each body part, trying to decide if she was seriously injured anywhere. Nothing hurt too badly, except maybe her head. It was a little foggy. She could have sworn she’d heard a voice that didn’t belong in Snowy Ridge, North Wisconsin. At least not anymore. A voice she hadn’t heard in over six years. One that belonged on a man off saving a rainforest or protecting ocean wildlife in Green Peace. No, she was sure if she just kept her eyes closed then that voice that sounded so much like the one from her past would actually be just another customer, coming in for dinner, not…

  “Jessie, are you all right? Open your eyes. Where do you hurt?” the voice said, now about three inches away, his warm breath on her face.

  She breathed in. Jesus Christ. The guy was still wearing Old Spice after all of these years. Didn’t anyone ever tell him you can buy cologne outside of the Shop Rite now?

  Her eyes fluttered open, taking in his face, the same face she used to spend hours staring at yet completely different at the same time. Older, rougher, a few days of hair growth across a much stronger jaw line. He leaned back and took her into his outstretched muscular forearms, pulling her easily to her feet. A smile spread across his weathered face and his aqua blue eyes searched her face.

  Jason Kirkland, her first love and the reason she hadn’t spoken to her sister Luci in six years.

  Chapter Two

  “I’m all right. Really. You can let go of my arm now,” Jessie said, refusing to make any further eye contact with Jason. What was he doing back in Snowy Ridge? Once someone left they rarely came back. It took a certain kind of person to love living in a small town in Northern Wisconsin and that person wasn’t Jason. Never was. Jason was always all about adventure. Base jumping off tall buildings, mountain biking down a mountain, swimming with sharks. Not hanging out at the Starlight Pub in the cozy snowmobile town of 1000. Last she’d heard he was teaching English to children somewhere in Africa.

  “Here, let me help you over to a chair,” he said, trying to wrap an arm around her waist.

  She pushed his hand away, hard. “Seriously, I’m fine. Please stop.”

  Jason held his hands up in surrender. “Fine, I won’t help you. But tell me how you are. What’ve you been up to? It’s been so long since I’ve last seen you.”

  And it’s going to be even longer before I tell you anything about myself, Jessie thought. There was no way she was going to sit around talking about the good ole days with Jason Kirkland. No rehashing the past for her. He’d hurt her badly, no scratch that. He’d killed her. And she wasn’t about to be kind or talk to him now, no matter how long he stood there with that goofy smile on his face.

  “You’ll have to excuse me,” Jessie said. �
��My boyfriend is waiting for me.” She turned her head and scanned the room, looking for anyone Jason might buy as her other half. Bingo. “He’s that hot rich guy at the table in the corner over there, by the window.” She pointed to a broad-shouldered guy with wavy jet black hair, intensely staring at some paperwork laying open in front of him. His long jean clad legs crossed at the ankles under the table. “He’ll make sure I’m okay. Don’t you worry.”

  Jessie walked toward the man in the corner, conscious that Jason was likely staring at her backside and wishing she had worn her good ass-hugging jeans today. She slid into the seat opposite the good-looking stranger.

  He looked up, startled.

  Jessie talked fast. “Help me out, will you? See that guy behind me, near the fire place, probably looking over here now?”

  The man glanced over her shoulder and then returned his gaze to her face.

  “Well,” Jessie continued, “I dated him about a million years ago and thought he was the love of my life and that we’d eventually marry. Then the asshole slept with my sister.”

  The stranger cleared his voice and leaned in toward Jessie. “Who do I look like, Dr. Phil? Tell someone else your story.”

  Jessie gasped. Who was this rude guy? “Hey buddy,” she said, “I’m not asking for a kidney here, okay? Just let me sit with you for a minute and act like the sun rises and sets on my very existence, all right?”

  The man sighed, looking more annoyed than enamored with her. “Listen ma’am.”

  “You did not just call me ma’am,” Jessie interrupted.

  “I apologize,” he said. “Listen lady, I don’t know who you are but I’m busy. I’ve got a ton of work to do and just want to get back to it and eat my dinner in peace. So, take a walk, would you? Find some other guy to make your old boy jealous.”

  Jessie stood slowly, smoothing down her jeans. “Dude, you’re a dick,” she told him.

  Refusing to see if Jason caught the scene between her and Mr. Asshole, Jessie made her way to the cash register where her mom stood with a big grin on her face.

  “Who’s the ass-hat at table five?” she asked her mom.

  “One of the Stone boys,” her mom answered. “Three of them just moved to town and opened a snowmobile repair shop down a ways here on Main Street. All of them single, just saying.”

  “Color me shocked. Can’t imagine why with the sparkling personality that one has.”

  “Is that your old boyfriend Jason over there by the fireplace, staring at you?” her mom asked.

  Jessie scoffed. “Yeah. I don’t know what he wants but I’m hoping he leaves soon.”

  “Maybe I should go over and say hello,” her mom teased.

  “Don’t you dare!” she snapped.

  The bell from the kitchen signaling an order was up sounded and Jessie’s mom retrieved it. “Well, here,” she said pushing the plate into Jessie’s hands. “Bring Mr. Stone his dinner and beer, then.”

  “Can I make him wear it?” Jessie mumbled, eying the loaded plate full of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn, and biscuits.

  “Only if he requests it to be served that way,” her mom countered.

  Jessie pursed her lips and looked over at the newcomer, who’s head was still buried in his work. He did have some pretty amazing hair, the kind you want to run your hands through. And he had a nice strong jaw with a dimple in his chin. She’d always been a sucker for chin dimples. Too bad it belonged to such a class-A jerk.

  She momentarily set the plate of food down on the counter next to his foamy beer and stepped a few feet away to hang up her fleece jacket on a hook just off of the bar. She gave her hair a shake. It was damp from the tumble in the snow she took. She absentmindedly tugged at her tight-fitting Starlight Pub t-shirt as she picked up the order and made her way back over to the pissy patron.

  “My deepest heartfelt apologies for disturbing your work once again but your dinner’s here,” Jessie said. She slid the meal under his nose and plopped his Guinness on a cardboard coaster.

  “You work here?” he asked, staring directly at the words “Starlight Pub” splayed across her breasts.

  “Wow, you’re quick. What gave it away?”

  “Certainly not your customer service skills,” he returned.

  Jessie tossed a couple of napkins on the table. “Actually, I own the place tough guy. And I hear you just opened a shop down the street. Probably should play nice with the local commerce folk, eh? Do let me know if you need anything else,” she added. She turned on her heel and walked away before he could say anything else.

  Chapter Three

  Cade Stone watched her walk slowly back to the bar, shaking her ass the whole way. For whose benefit, he wasn’t sure. The pub owner slipped behind the counter and pounded away at the cash register with a vengeance. He glanced over his shoulder and that guy, her ex or whatever, was still seated by the fireplace, hair all greased back and staring at her like a smarmy prick. He didn’t have to talk to him to know he’s an asshole. That and the screwing her sister thing she’d mentioned.

  Cade knew he probably should have helped her out. Been neighborly or whatever being new to town. He was being a dick just then. It was a reflex. But he never could stand when girls played games. And he didn’t need to be dragged into any dramas. He had enough of his own.

  He pushed his paperwork aside and set to work on his meatloaf while he stared out the window onto Main Street, Snowy Ridge, Wisconsin. Night life, nonexistent from what he could tell. At least outside. Snow blanketed the trees and white lights outlined every store and building including the tiny post office and village hall at the end of the street. A giant clock stood in the center of town showing it to not even be six p.m. yet and the town looked dead. Occasionally, small clusters of people shuffled along the cleared sidewalks, but most were probably indoors in restaurants having dinner. The tourists who come here each winter to snowmobile is why they’d moved here. The promise of a bursting business. The entire population who lived year-long in this town could probably fit on his block back home in Chicago.

  Home. Damn. What the hell was he even doing here? How did he let Cooper and Cash talk him into moving back? Or more like order. He had a sweet one-bedroom in Hyde Park, a decent job as an auto-mechanic, and a shit-load of women to choose from at a multitude of bars. Things were good. But now here he was in this tiny scrap of a town, working with his brothers.

  The Stones had lived in Snowy Ridge as kids but Cade didn’t remember. It’d been twenty years. He was five when they had moved to Chicago for his dad’s job. Cooper had all of these memories of amazing winters: snowmobiling on the trails and family traditions of ice skating, snowball fights, or some other Hallmark movie kind of bullshit. Cade must have blocked all that out because the family memories he had were anything but happy. Cooper had found this opportunity to open a snowmobile repair shop here and said it was the perfect thing. A business they as brothers could own together. A fresh start.

  Who said he needed a fresh start?

  Cade was sopping up the last of the gravy on his plate with a biscuit when he noticed the girl was back. She was at the table behind him, clearing the dishes and wiping it down. He kept his gaze straight ahead so she wouldn’t think he’d been paying any attention to her.

  He heard a guy approach her. That guy. “Hey, Jessie, can we just talk a minute? I swear I’m not stalking you. I didn’t even know you’d be here,” he said.

  “And where’d you think I’d be?” she asked.

  “Well, anywhere, I guess,” he replied. “We always said we’d ditch Snowy Ridge first chance we got. See the world. Have adventures.”

  “Yeah, that was you who said all that,” Jessie told him. “We all can’t traipse around the world cutting dolphins out of tuna nets. I have responsibilities.”

  “Right.” His voice softened. “I’d heard your dad passed away. I’m sorry. That must have been rough.”

  “Yeah, well,” she trailed off. “Is there something you need? Want me
to get you a beer or something?”

  “Nah, I’ve got to get going, but listen. I’m staying at my parents’ place. Maybe we can get together and talk while I’m in town? Get coffee or something?” he asked.

  Jessie hesitated. “Maybe.”

  “Good, good,” he said. “We’ll talk soon.”

  “Uh huh,” she said.

  Cade could hear the guy’s footsteps retreat toward the door and he took the chance to glance at her.

  Jessie began to move past him, balancing a beige tub of dishes on one hip and a wet towel in her free hand. He wasn’t sure what came over him but he reached out and grabbed her wrist.

  She stopped abruptly, looked down at his hand on her wrist, and then looked back at him.

  “He’s not right for you. That guy’s an asshole,” Cade said.

  Her eyebrows shot up. “And what? You recognize your own kind?”

  “Yeah. Something like that. Don’t meet him for coffee,” he added.

  She angrily flung his hand off her wrist. “I’m sorry but who the hell are you and why should I be taking relationship advice from you? You’re no Dr. Phil, remember? At least that’s what you said to me when I actually did need your help.”

  Cade took a deep breath. She was right. He knew better than to insert himself in other people’s problems. He shouldn’t have said a word to her. He should have paid his bill, collected his work, and went home. He wouldn’t make that mistake twice. “I’m sorry. It’s none of my business.”

  Jessie looked taken aback. “Well, yeah,” she said, more calmly. “It isn’t any of your business.”

  Cade nodded but didn’t say anything.

  Jessie started to leave and then hesitated. “And not that I need to tell you anything but I wasn’t going to meet with him anyway. I just said that to make him go away,” she told him and then continued on to the kitchen.