Page 1 of The Challenge

Chapter 1

CHLOE

This place looked nothing like the listing. Wandering around the house I’d rented, I couldn’t help but notice that it already seemed inhabited—or at least not cleaned since the last tenant. There were a couple of dirty dishes in the sink and a man’s large black hoodie hanging over one of the kitchen chairs.

I’d just arrived in my hometown of Dry River, Wyoming, after a long hiatus, and this had been the only place available in the vicinity. The next town was an hour away. I’d been back home once briefly in the past year, but that was only to visit. This trip was different because I’d be staying indefinitely. My mother, who had dementia, lived in a long-term care facility now, and instinctively I knew these might be her final days. Even if she didn’t know who I was anymore, I needed to be here for her.

I surveyed the scene again. I’d been looking forward to using one of the three bedrooms in this rental home as an office. As of now, two of the bedrooms had clothing and other personal items strewn about in them. One of the rooms had a little girl’s stuff in it. What the heck? People had to be living here. The property management company I’d used to book the place had already taken my money and confirmed that everything was good to go. The code they’d sent me for the front door had worked, but that was the only thing going according to plan thus far. I felt my blood pressure rising and my chest growing tight as I considered my options. Which were none.

About ten minutes later, as I continued to walk around the house, trying to make sense of things, I froze when I heard footsteps. Then came a deep voice.

“Hello?” he called. “Who’s here?”

I walked back toward the front door.

The sight of him nearly knocked the wind out of me. Those deep brown eyes. A body that towered over me. Beautiful jet-black hair that curled around his ears. In a matter of seconds, I was a teenager again. And he was ten times more man than I remembered.

“Oh my God.” I covered my chest.

“Chloe?” He blinked.

Standing before me was the one guy who needed no introduction. Evan Ricci. The same Evan that twelve-year-old me had secretly crushed on back when he’d moved in with my family for a year before he joined the military. The same Evan who’d become my best friend when I was seventeen and he was twenty-two and fresh out of the Army. The same Evan I’d basically fallen in love with at eighteen, whether he realized it or not. The same Evan who’d broken my heart before I moved away for college.

Now, a decade later, staring up into his dark eyes seemed surreal.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded.

His tone snapped me out of it, and my heart started to pound. “I’m supposed to be staying here. I rented this place.”

Evan’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not possible.”

“Yes, it is. I signed a lease.”

“This house isn’t available. I took the listing off the market a week ago.”

“Well, I booked it long before that, and the property management company certainly didn’t notify me about a cancellation. They took my money and gave me the code to get in.”

Evan let out a long sigh. “They fucked up. I’m living here now with my daughter. Have been for a few weeks.”

His daughter. I’d heard through the grapevine that Evan had gotten married and had a little girl. But I’d avoided any further details over the years. If he was living here with his daughter alone, though, where was his wife?

I blew a breath up into my hair. “So, you own this place?”

“It’s one of a few investment properties I have in town. We wouldn’t normally choose to live here—the rooms are too small—but our new house is being renovated. So, Effie and I moved in temporarily.”

Effie. What a cute name.

Then a little girl came in, carrying a basketball tucked under her arm. She was maybe seven or eight years old and had Evan’s face, but her hair was lighter than his. My heart squeezed.

She looked up at me. “Who are you?”

Just as I’d opened my mouth to speak, Evan interrupted. “Effie, go hang out in your room for a bit, okay?”

She pouted. “But I—”

“Please,” he urged.

“Okay…” She sulked.