The Pace of Love: The Adventure Girls of Cascade Falls

By Allison Martin and Trish Martin

Take a quick trip to Cascade Falls where adventurous women and good-hearted men take the biggest risk of all...falling in love...

Pulse-pounding, adrenaline-fueled adventure has always had twenty-five-year-old Kasey Loren's heart. She's a woman who knows how fast life can slip away and is determined to seize every moment she can. She's sacrificed love, friendship, and stability to reach her goals, and nothing will get in the way of her chance to land a prestigious job at Outdoor Adventure Magazine. Not even the extra dreamy owner of MacKenzie's Bookstore who carries worn out novels in his back pocket.

Elliott MacKenzie lives through the pages of the Adventure Fantasy he loves so much, content to hide behind the magic of made up worlds to protect his broken heart. He is comforted by the routine and stability of his small town life until a whirlwind of a woman shows up in his store, stirring up feelings he hasn't felt in a long time. 

When Kasey and Elliott strike an unlikely deal to write an article on the town's secret hot springs, their ambitions, desires, and fears are exposed through their undeniable attraction. But can two people who have dealt with unfathomable heartbreak be brave enough to fall in love again?

 

A New Girl in Town Romance

• Language: English
• Publisher: A Martin Books
• Release date: Jun 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393861614

Book preview

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At the Heart of Love

A Helicopter Pilot & A Single Dad Age Gap Romance

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A forbidden glimpse into Cascade Falls as a feisty young helicopter pilot aims to seduce a divorced lawyer, not expecting to fall for him in the process.

— — —

Being in Topher's office was so neutral. Sure, it was his, but it wasn't emotional. It was carnal. It was hot. It was voyeuristic. It was a fantasy.

But as he stepped up behind her and slid his arms around her waist, kissing her shoulder and up her neck, she stared at the bed. In his home.

This wasn't just sex. It was intimacy.

— — —

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Part One

Never make life decisions while drunk.

That’s the first thing Kasey Loren thought to herself when she got out of a stranger's car on a side street in a small town she hadn’t heard of two weeks ago. A town she decided to come to in search of a mythical hot spring no one outside of Cascade Falls had ever been to.

Thanks for the lift, she said absently and the slight woman who picked her up a hundred miles back waved goodbye. Even her ride had pinched her lips tight and shrugged like a lying teenager when Kasey mentioned the hot springs.

It tore at Kasey’s belly to know why these springs were so protected by the locals. Being a journalist and an adventure seeker, she was hit on both sides by this mystery. But once she stood on the edge of town, reality flooded back in, reminding her that she hated small towns and the adventures she sought were action-packed not cozy mysteries.

Kasey shivered in the crisp winter air and tucked her hands in the pockets of her down jacket. At least she had the sense to bring the right gear on this ridiculous scavenger hunt.

Snow fell silently around her, landing in her long black hair and the tip of her slender nose. She rubbed the cold wet flakes from her face and took in the little town that surrounded her. Cute buildings and character homes dotted the streets colorfully, standing out dramatically against the solid wall of snow-covered mountains in the distance. It was a breathtakingly beautiful community, but she already knew that. She’d spent hours searching the town online.

She hadn’t landed in Cascade Falls by accident. She was there on a mission to uncover a hidden adventure. A mission that started with five too many glasses of chardonnay with her girlfriends and a full-on rant session about the decor magazine she worked for in the city and how backwards, crooked, and upside down the editors were. The magazine was going under, and the dinosaurs that ran the place were the only ones who didn’t see why.

Kasey had to find a way out before her career crashed and burned like the magazine. Her ticket to her dream life was out there in the woods that surrounded Cascade Falls. All she had to do was keep focused and keep digging. Small town folk could be difficult and unwelcoming, especially to journalists. That she knew from childhood experience.

Kasey tossed her backpack on her shoulder and made her way along the curved street toward the heart of town. Main street. Her resolve cracked further with each step she took, and Kasey gripped her backpack straps tight. The tiny shops and scattered townspeople on the sidewalks hit her with a flood of memories of her own youth on streets similar to these.

A small cluster of women chatted loudly up the street until Kasey got close. Typical of a small town; one looked over at her and then in turn so did everyone else. A foreigner in a place this size may as well have a neon sign that says I’m not from around here. Kasey shivered under their gaze and cast her own to the pavement.

She needed a place to warm up and remembered seeing a little bookshop with a coffee house attached online. Kasey passed a few more people who smiled their polite smiles, but their eyes searched her, trying to figure out if they’d seen her before. Her own mother had done the exact same thing, peering at unfamiliar faces and lecturing her children on stranger danger. Kasey crushed her eyes shut and pushed the memories deep down, back where they belonged. Regret gnawed at Kasey’s belly and she couldn’t help thinking that coming here may have been a huge mistake.

A wind gust cut across her cheeks with its icy touch, and Kasey’s thoughts switched back to hot mochas warming her from the inside out. The wind whipped through the street, funneled straight into town along the deep valley between the surrounding mountains. Trees poked up in random patterns the way nature intended, not in the man-made patterns of city trees.

In the distance, just on the edge of the main strip of town, the quaint little bookstore she’d seen online shone like a beacon of perfection. She picked up her pace and her strong legs carried her to her haven of warmth.

The door jingled as she entered. The heat of a fireplace welcomed her. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the dark cozy interior with wood shelves, deep red walls, and brown leather chairs meant to disappear into with a good book and warm drink.

Kasey set her backpack down beside the chair wondering if such a bookshop would have any local literature on the hot springs she came here to find. She moved slowly through aisles, her hands in her back pockets, leaning forward slightly to read the titles of the books.

There were only two things that could calm her mind and root her back into her true self, great books, and grand adventures. The ultimate medicine for Kasey was a combination of both. She devoured books written by brave women who challenged their mind and body through connection with nature. Women who overcame fear by staring it unflinchingly in the eye.

These women were her heroes. They were who Kasey had always aspired to be.

In her own small town, she’d dreamt up wild adventures of escaping her mundane life through these books. They became her lifeline when tragedy struck, shaking her life and her hometown to the core.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she knew who it was before she answered. Graeme called her every day at the exact same time. One hour and thirty-seven minutes before deadline.

Hey Graeme, Kasey said, not bothering to pause her scan of the bookshelf.

Miss Loren, the croaky voice of the publisher shocked Kasey. "Would you care to tell me why I’m getting phone calls from Outdoor Adventure Online asking about your work ethic?"

Kasey’s bones became chillier than when she was standing on the side of the highway waiting for someone to pick her up.

They weren’t supposed to call you, Kasey replied and then bit her lip. She shouldn’t have said that. Especially to Estelle Gray, the publisher of Uptown, a magazine about fancy houses and expensive fashion and other things Kasey generally hated.

Are you planning on leaving us anytime soon, Miss Loren? Her voice was tight and condescending as it usually was toward Kasey. They both knew that Kasey wasn’t the right person to work for Uptown, but Estelle liked to put a little pressure on every once in a while. Just to show who was in control.

You know that I apply for other positions, Estelle. I’ve never been secretive about what I’m working toward.

Working as a travel adventure writer was the dream from day one. It was the dream since she was a child and learned that life was too short to stand around and wait for things to happen. But in a male dominated industry, fashion was the best in for a young female journalist.

You’re a good writer. You shouldn’t waste your talents on some online operation run by a bunch of stoners in their mother’s suburban basements.

Kasey pulled the phone away from her ear and pressed it