Starting Over

Book 1: Whiskey Ridge

by Rachel Hanna

Genres: Clean & Wholesome Romance; Family Life; Small Town & Rural; Southern; Women's Fiction; Contemporary Romance; American Romance; Small-town Romance

Synopsis

Quinn came to Whiskey Ridge with a secret. He never expects the woman sharing an office with him might uncover it accidentally.

Kelly just wanted to run away from her problems. She needs order and quiet, but her neighbor is driving her crazy. Plus, he’s a little too attractive, and she doesn’t need that right now.

Can opposites attract or will these enemies hate each other forever?

Release date: August 20, 2015

Publisher: Independently published

Print pages: 130

Sample

 CHAPTER 1

 

Kelly Cole had it all together, or at least that’s what she wanted everyone to believe. She’d been dating an artist, a painter by the name of Rio, and her life had been solid.

Emphasis on the words had been.

Everything had been in order, as she liked it, until she came home early one day to find Rio in bed with her best friend of six years. Their bodies were entwined in the most intimate of ways, legs dangling off her formerly perfect Pottery Barn bed which she’d later taken a sledgehammer to just before leaving town.

Now, four weeks later, she was left with the shambles of her former life. At the request of her personal assistant, Kelly had taken a full month off to deal with her anger and sadness over losing a year-long relationship. Four weeks wasn’t nearly long enough to leave her bitterness behind.

And she still needed a new bed.

Running her health spa had been the one constant in her life for over two years now, but losing Rio was difficult. No, he really wasn’t her type with his free spirit nature and longer-than-she-liked hair, but he was good looking and easy to be with most of the time. She was organized and “tightly wound”, as her assistant, Maggie, had often said. But Rio was like a free-flowing river with absolutely no direction.

And now he and her former best friend, Abigail, were “living on love” in Hawaii from what she’d heard. And here she was, in the tiny north Georgia mountain town of Whiskey Ridge, running The Spirit Spa, all alone yet again.

Kelly had carefully constructed her life over the last few years. Her father, in prison for several more years after way too many drug convictions and questionable behavior, was long gone from her life. She’d been raised by addicted parents, and her mother still struggled with a lot of her own demons. Kelly tried to have the relationship with her from time to time, but it never worked out. Having a relationship with someone who obviously has mental issues isn’t easy.

For the last four weeks, she’d forced herself out of her cottage home that sat on an acre, and went to Maggie’s aunt’s beach house in South Carolina. It gave her some much needed time to decompress and think about her next steps in life.

Yet she still didn’t really have an answer.

Sure, she’d love to have a boyfriend, but so far guys hadn’t stuck around for her special brand of insanity. Over the years, she had found herself getting more “tightly wound”.

Her home had to be super clean.

Her spa had to be perfectly quiet and serene for her patrons. Well, maybe more for herself.

Her yard was always freshly mowed and manicured.

Everything was perfect in Kelly’s world, except for her heart. It was, and really always had been, shattered into a million pieces that just couldn’t be cleaned up. Her heart was the biggest mess in her life, and she seemed completely incapable of cleaning it up.

“I’m about thirty minutes away,” she told Maggie as she drove around the bends of the mountain roads near Whiskey Ridge. The small Georgia town had been a respite from her crazy growing up years in Atlanta, and it was the place she planned to stay until she was old and gray herself.

With its friendly people and quiet atmosphere, Whiskey Ridge was like going back in time. It was the epitome of small town America with a real drugstore and a barbershop that stayed full all the time. Even though she certainly hadn’t grown up in the 50s, Whiskey Ridge reminded her of that era when people moved at a slower pace and everyone knew everyone else.

“How was your trip, boss?” Maggie asked, chomping on her gum, a habit that drove Kelly up the wall but she’d never tell her friend. She didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but that constant smacking and spearmint aroma in the air grated on her last nerve sometimes.

“Good. Quiet. Enlightening,” Kelly lied. Instead, it had been lonely. Boring. Useless. She was still angry, seething more like it. She’d spent most of the four weeks thinking of ways she could inflict pain on Rio and Abigail from thousands of miles away. Maybe a voodoo doll, she thought, and when she found herself Googling the idea and buying pins at the local drugstore, she decided it was time to come home.

“Glad to hear it. Abigail called you about a week ago,” Maggie said quickly, as if she was trying to get the words out as fast as possible so Kelly couldn’t shoot the messenger.

“What?” Kelly choked out.

“Wanted to apologize for her ‘lapse in judgment’, she said. I told her I was fairly certain your response would be to kiss your butt,” Maggie said, her sharp wit and uncanny knack of saying whatever she thought coming across the phone line clearly.

Kelly giggled, the first time a laugh had left her lips in weeks. “Thanks, Mags. That is totally what I would’ve said.” Actually, it probably wasn’t. Although Kelly had a lot of those kinds of thoughts rolling around in her head, she’d always had a problem confronting people. Wanting to keep the peace, she probably wouldn’t have said much of anything and hung up on Abigail. And that’s why she was all the more glad that she had a friend like Maggie who would say what she didn’t feel like she could say.

“She said Rio feels awful too, and that they wish you a lifetime of happiness. Then she rambled on about their nightly luaus and some kind of weird fruit they eat in Hawaii a lot…”

“Okay, okay. I don’t want to hear anymore,” Kelly said, already exhausted from her long drive. “I’ll stop by there in a few minutes before I head home.”

“Not necessary, Kel. I’ve got things handled here, just like I have for four weeks. Go home. Take a nap. Feed your cat.”

“Dang it! I forgot to pick up Tux!” she said, doing a U-turn in the middle of Main Street. Her cat, black with a white chest, had been with her for almost eight years now. He was her most trusted companion and snobbiest friend, but she loved him.

“Relax. I picked him up earlier and took him to your house on my lunch break,” Maggie said. Kelly stopped the car in a parking space in front of the local assisted living center and put her head on the steering wheel.

“Thanks,” she said softly. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good plan,” Maggie said before hanging up the phone. Kelly stared at the assisted living center for a moment as the startling and altogether frightening image of herself living there alone without ever having been married or having kids floated through her mind. Maybe her heart just wasn’t meant for love. Maybe the only real love she’d ever have would come in the form of a black and white cat who mostly ignored her and occasionally peed on her favorite arm chair.

And so she’d go home to him.

As Kelly drove up to her spa the next morning, she felt some normalcy coming back to her life after weeks of turmoil. It had been hard to go home last night without Rio there to greet her with one of his amazing Brazilian dinners. She didn’t really miss him as much as she missed his Churrasco and Brigadeiro for dessert.

There were a couple more cars in the parking lot than she would’ve expected so early on a weekday, but otherwise everything looked like it normally did. Maggie’s little beater of a car sat parked under the tall oak tree on the corner of the property, its back passenger window still taped into place as it had been for months now.

She loved her spa. It gave her some semblance of peace, and that had been hard to come by during her adolescent years. Rio had often told her that she wasn’t really living her life, but was too busy hanging onto the past by controlling the present. He didn’t control anything, including his own income, instead preferring to float through life on love and fun. But how long could that last?

The spa was located in a large, old Victorian house just off the town square in Whiskey Ridge. It was white with hunter green shutters and a large wrap around porch. The cobblestone walkway led straight from the small parking area up to the front steps, and Kelly had added small gardens on both sides of the walkway to give it more curb appeal. She loved seeing her red and pink roses in full bloom.

Although she didn’t own the building, her landlord had given her a longterm lease of five years at a great rate, mainly because the upstairs hadn’t been rented out in years. Frankly, the landlord seemed to really need the income. Kelly didn’t feel bad about her great deal because her business added to the community and changed people’s lives, in her unbiased opinion. And one day she hoped to expand upstairs, although she’d looked up there once and got creeped out by the cobwebs and musty smell. There was a spider up there that gave her nightmares for a few days too, so she’d just stay on the main floor for awhile, thank you very much.

Her goal was for spa clients to long for the quiet solitude of The Spirit Spa, and she worked hard to make sure that happened. Set back on a large lot, it was rare to even hear a passing firetruck. Instead, the loudest sounds at The Spirit Spa were the birds chirping and singing in the oak trees surrounding the property.

“Mags?” she called as she walked through the door. Everything looked like it did four weeks ago, with the exception of a new display table set up in the foyer showcasing a line of massage oils and facial masques. Maggie did a very good job at merchandising and maximizing the number of extra sales they made. The spa definitely wasn’t a money making powerhouse yet but it paid the bills and gave her a purpose.

“Hey, boss!” Maggie said, grinning as she grabbed Kelly in a big hug. It had taken Kelly awhile to get used to Maggie’s warm nature when they first met. Maggie was a hugger. She didn’t care if she knew you or not; she was going to hug you. The mailman. Clients. Her doctors. It just didn’t matter to Maggie Dale. Everyone deserved a hug. Except Rio. She’d hated him, and there were no hugs for him. In fact, she’d said on more than one occasion that she wouldn’t spit on him if he was on fire. Not the worst thing to say except she’d said it to his face without shame.

Maggie had fiery red hair, all natural, and the palest skin Kelly had ever seen. She was not a tanning queen herself, but the words “porcelain skin” had Maggie’s picture next to them in the dictionary. Her bright blue eyes were big and round, and she had one of the best smiles on the planet.

“Good to have you back,” Maggie said, holding Kelly’s arm as they walked from the foyer into the office, shutting the door behind them. Clients usually didn’t start arriving until after 10 AM, so they still had a good hour to chat and catch up on all the gossip for the past four weeks.

“Good to be back. I love the beach, but I realized I’d never want to live there full time.”

“Did you swim a lot?”

“At first, but then I just sat and watched the ocean, shopped, read books. Seethed with primal anger.”

Maggie smiled sadly. “I’m sorry, girl. I know losing Rio has been tough… the dirtbag.” She always liked to add a little something at the end of comments about Rio. Dirtbag was her favorite, but there were a couple of others that would’ve been bleeped out on TV.

“You know, it’s not losing Rio that was tough as much as feeling betrayed by him and Abigail. I’ve been betrayed far too much in my life,” Kelly said, sighing as she sat down behind her mahogany desk, one of the only splurges she’d made when she started the spa. The antique desk set her back almost a thousand dollars, but she adored it. “And the realization that I’m no closer to settling down and starting a family than I was a year ago.”

“Well, today is a new start. You’ll find somebody, Kel. Somebody who’s worthy of you,” Maggie said. She truly was the eternal optimist.

“I don’t want another man, Mags. Trust me. I’m done. I’ll be celibate for life, and maybe I’ll check into becoming a nun.”

“No… Their outfits are all wrong,” Maggie said shaking her head. “Black is supposed to be slimming, but have you ever seen a slim nun?”

Kelly shook her head and laughed. If there was one thing Maggie could always do, it was make her laugh and forget her problems for a few minutes. Unfortunately, they always came back.

“Listen, I do have a bit of news I need to share,” Maggie said, a look of anxiety sweeping across her face as she bit her bottom lip. If Maggie was nervous, something was really wrong because she didn’t let things bother her like Kelly did.

“You’re not quitting are you?” Kelly asked, putting her forehead on the desk. She just couldn’t take another piece of bad news, and losing Maggie would be like losing her right arm. Or a kidney.

“Of course not!” Maggie said. Kelly sat back up and looked at her friend, thankful that the news couldn’t be as bad as she thought.

“Then what?”

“We have a new tenant upstairs. He moved in last week.”

“He?”

“Yeah. I haven’t seen him yet, but the landlord called and let me know since we’ll be sharing parking and the foyer area. And the kitchen, of course.”

A feeling of possession welled up inside Kelly’s stomach. This was her place. That was her parking lot. That was her foyer. And if he even thought about touching her salad in the refrigerator, they may just come to blows.

“What kind of business is it?” she asked.

“I think some kind of workout place. The landlord was kind of tight lipped about it, really.”

“Did you ask any questions, Mags?” Kelly said, pursing her lips. Maggie was notorious for not asking enough questions, which was one reason she’d managed to get herself into trouble dating the wrong types of guys over the years.

“Some…”

“Ugh. I was hoping to get that space for the spa next year.”

“Well, maybe he won’t be here long.”

“Doubtful. Once he sees how great this location is, he’ll probably stay forever.” Kelly was starting to hate her own pessimistic demeanor lately. Where had her optimism gone?

“She said he will open his doors tonight,” Maggie continued.

“Tonight? But, there’s no sign out there or anything. How does he plan to get clients?” she asked, standing and pacing behind her desk. She didn’t even know this guy yet and already she wanted to poke his eyes out with a fork.

“I don’t know, but I’m sure it’ll be fine, boss. You’re back, and your clients will be so glad to see you. Betty Sue Canton will be in at ten, and then we’re booked until three.”

The Spirit Spa had a unique schedule. Kelly opened the doors at ten on weekdays, but she closed up at three. Then, she came back from six to nine for her clients who couldn’t come during the day. It was a grueling schedule, for sure, but it made her clients happy. And what else did she have to do at night? Yeah, that would be a big, fat nothing.

“And Cat will be here at six?” Kelly asked, referring to her staff yoga teacher who taught night classes.

“Yes. She and Jeremy broke up a couple of weeks ago, so she’s been going through her own issues lately.”

“Men suck,” Kelly said.

“That they do.”

“What about you? Any luck on the love front?”

“Nope. I think I’m too much woman for most guys,” Maggie surmised. She wasn’t overweight, but was curvy. And loud. And opinionated. Most guys around Whiskey Ridge couldn’t put up with her for long, and Kelly could see why. She was tons of fun, but a lot of woman for just an average guy. Maggie would require a superhero kind of guy.

Truthfully, Kelly was a little jealous of Maggie in several ways. She had a fun loving attitude that didn’t seem thwarted by any life challenge, although she’d had many in her past. Her hair was memorable, unlike Kelly’s dull brown locks that were more wavy than curly and landed just past her shoulders.

Maggie didn’t have a boyfriend currently, but Kelly felt she had more options because her larger than life personality drew people in. Men, women, children… even animals. Maggie had an energy about her, and Kelly felt dull. There was just no other word for it. Dull.

“There’s a special guy out there for you, Mags. I just know it,” Kelly repeated, as she had a million times in the years they’d known each other.

The rest of the day went off without a hitch, just as usual. Kelly made sure that she ran a tight ship. While clients felt comfortable and serene at The Spirit Spa, Kelly was like a frazzled puppeteer in the background, making sure all the parts and pieces of her business were running like clockwork.

By the time three o’clock rolled around, she was ready to go home for a few hours, feed Tux and put her feet up until she headed back to work at six. They’d seen only five clients all day, but she’d put her heart and soul into each of them. Facial for Betty Sue Canton, massage for Olivia Dane, Reiki energy treatments for two others and nutritional counseling for Ava Enders. All of Whiskey Ridge’s elite had been in to see Kelly on her first day back.

At least some people appreciated her.

As she drove down her long driveway at home, she was aching to take a deep breath and drink a nice cup of tea. But when she looked in her rear view mirror as she parked in front of her garage, she caught a glimpse of something.