Melt For Me (Against All Odds Book 3) by Elisabeth Naughton Read Free Book Online Page A

pinned Faith with a hard look. “That’s why they would do it now. Everyone knows what a shitty week this is for Ella. If she ever had a reason to run, this week would be the reason.”
    Tate’s confusion grew. “What do you mean about this week? And what happened in the accident for Ella to feel guilty?”
    Faith glanced warily at Kelly. “He doesn’t know? I assumed if they were friends, he knew.”
    “They’re not technically friends,” Kelly answered. “He’s the guy . You know, the one from before.”
    Faith’s eyes grew wide with understanding as she looked back at Tate. “Oh!”
    Tate took a step toward the women, his patience almost at the end of his grasp. “What about this week and the accident?”
    “It happened this week,” Kelly said. “Kyle died on Christmas Eve.”
    Crap.
    “It was snowing that night.” Faith looked down at her hands. “The roads had been icy. We’d had a cocktail party here at the bar after it closed, to wish each other a merry Christmas. Ella didn’t live upstairs then. She and Kyle had a small house outside of town.” A sad expression slid across her face, and she shook her head.
    “Ella was driving,” Kelly said quietly when Faith couldn’t finish. “Hit an icy patch and slammed into a tree. Kyle died at the scene. It was awful. Ella was hurt but walked away from the accident. Since her blood alcohol level wasn’t over the limit, she was never charged. But it’s weighed heavily on her ever since.”
    Oh shit.
    “Everyone said it was lucky they never had kids,” Faith said. “But I think that actually made it harder for both Ella and Gillian. Gillian couldn’t wait to be a grandmother, and Ella had just told me a week before the accident that she and Kyle were considering starting a family. It was all so sad.”
    Tate looked up the empty stairs, things slowly starting to piece together in his mind. Ella’s coldness, the way she kept herself isolated from others, the way her mother had encouraged him to come to Holly. Images flashed behind his eyes—Ella with a family, Ella in that car on a snowy night, Ella alone in this bar.
    “Kyle adored her,” Faith added. “And even though we all knew he wasn’t the love of her life, they were happy together. For a while. It’s really just so sad that she won’t take a second chance on love.”
    Tate’s heart picked up speed, pumping faster with every passing second. He looked back at Faith, then to the stairs again. And in his head, he heard Ella’s voice from that long-ago summer they’d spent together, giggling as they’d rolled across the sheets in that motel room, telling him, “ You are the love of my life, music man.”
    “Ella has walked through this town like a zombie for two years,” Kelly said behind him. “The first time I saw even a spark of life in her was last night, when she spotted you in her pub. And I saw it again just a few minutes ago when she ran out of this cellar. I don’t know what’s going on between the two of you, Kendrick, but whatever it is, don’t let it die out. Ella needs some sparks in her life. She needs to live again. And something tells me you might be the one to help her do that.”
    Tate looked back at the bartender, his heart beating even faster. No way was he letting anything die out. Not when he now knew there was still something smoldering between them. Something hot. Something special. Something that hadn’t faded, even after nine years apart.
    He just had to find a way to convince Ella of the very same thing.

    E lla signed the last of her payroll checks and clicked the end of her pen. It was almost time for the dinner crowd, and since Angela Smith had called in sick for her shift, Ella knew she needed to get down to the bar and help out. Though part of her just didn’t want to.
    She’d been hiding in her office for the last hour, cutting accounts payable checks she didn’t need to do until the end of the month and balancing the accounts she’d just