What are the Chances: Love in Vacationland, #2

By Chelsea M. Cameron

Colette had zero intention of ever going back to her tiny hometown in Maine, until her friend Farrah proposes a month-long vacation—and Farrah is a hard person to say no to. All Collette needs to do is keep her head down and avoid as many people as possible. It's all going well until she runs into her high school ex's little sister, Quinn, who isn't so little anymore. Even though Colette has an instant attraction to her, where would it even go? Quinn is settled in Castleton and Colette is only there for a few weeks.
Quinn can't believe that Colette is back in town. She'd had the biggest crush on her older sister's girlfriend back in the day and now they're both grown, and Colette looks better than ever. She can't believe it when Colette shows interest in her and they end up falling into bed together, but Colette insists it's a one-time thing and will not be repeated.
Except that it happens again. And again. And again…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chelsea M. Cameron
• Release date: Jul 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215084779

Chelsea M. Cameron

CHELSEA M. CAMERON is a contemporary romance/New Adult author from Maine. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Maine, Orono, that she promptly abandoned to write about the people in her own head. More often than not, these people turn out to be just as weird as she is. For the latest updates and more about Chelsea, visit her website at www.chelseamcameron.com, find her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter @chel_c_cam.

Book preview

Chapter One

Colette

I swore I would never, ever, under any circumstances, go back to Castleton, Maine. At first, when Farrah had suggested a vacation for the four of us best friends, I’d been a little hesitant. I had a ton of work deadlines and I’d just started expanding my web-design business to take on more clients. It just wasn’t the right time, I thought. Then they had, as usual, talked me into it and said I needed a break, a truth I couldn’t argue with.

As soon as I had come around to the idea, Spencer had suggested that we head to Castleton, the town that I’d left years ago and had decided never to return to. The town I had completely turned my back on. It had been such a relief when my parents had finally joined me in Massachusetts when I’d gone there for college. My younger siblings had undoubtedly benefited enormously from my campaigning to get the fuck out of Castleton. They didn’t show me near enough gratitude, but that was okay. Someday they would.

Before I knew what was happening, I was packing my car and driving to the town I said I would never visit again. The cottage we rented was beautiful, and my main plan had been to hole up inside it and live like a grumpy goblin the whole time, living on coffee and cheese.

Things were going mostly according to plan until one day when I brilliantly decided to volunteer to get coffee for everyone and saw someone I never, ever, thought I would see again.

Fuck, I said as I nearly dumped the entire tray of iced drinks and the bag of pastries on the street outside the café.

She’d been coming out of a gift shop across the street, her red hair floating around her in the breeze. Every time I saw someone with long red hair, I thought of her.

Amber. The girl who had not only broken my heart, but had demolished it, destroyed it, devastated it.

I stood there, frozen as she walked down the sidewalk, oblivious to me. She was alone.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I hoped with every fiber of my being that she didn’t turn and see me watching her like some sort of creeper.

As if she’d heard my thoughts, she turned and even across the busy street, meeting her eyes was like being hit by one of those bullet trains.

It wasn’t her. It was her sister. They looked so much alike, but I did realize that this wasn’t her. This was Quinn. Not Amber.

Quinn gave me a puzzled look and then looked down at the phone in her hand and picked up a call, heading further down the sidewalk and away from me.

Excuse me, someone said, and that finally made me move. I walked as fast as I could back to the cottage, my head spinning.

How could someone affect me this much, so many years later? It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair.

My friends were obviously concerned when I had a miniature collapse when I made it back to the cottage.

It was difficult to explain, and I wasn’t usually one for discussing my feelings. I loved my friends, but they didn’t need to know every single nook and cranny of my life, of my past. Especially when that past had been brutally painful and still made me feel like I was suffocating when I thought about it.

Eventually I got myself together enough to function the rest of the day, but that night I lay in bed, unable to sleep, even if my life had depended on it.

It wasn’t just that she looked so much like her sister. It was how good she looked. Way too good. Good enough that I wanted to see her naked.

Fuck, I said, covering my face with my pillow.

This was exactly why I hadn’t wanted to come to Castleton.

Colettey, are you okay? Hope asked softly knocking on my door the next morning. Normally I was the first one up and about, eager to get started with the day, but I was so exhausted from the night of no sleep that I just lay in my bed feeling awful.

I’m fine, I said through clenched teeth. Hope didn’t take the hint that I didn’t want to talk about it but then again, she never did.

Hope came in and crawled right into bed with me, turning on her side and looking at me with her big brown eyes. Everything about Hope’s face was just as sweet as her personality. Round cheeks and big eyes and a petite nose.

Do you want to talk about it? she asked, tucking some of her medium brown hair behind her ear.

Hope, when have I ever wanted to talk about feelings? I asked.

Hope just grinned. Never, but I thought that vacation Colette might be different.

I snorted. Sorry, I’m not going to change on vacation. Least of all a vacation in Castleton. I wish we’d gone somewhere else. Anywhere else.

I must have been out of my mind when I agreed to this in the first place. That was the only explanation. My one consolation was that the trip was almost half over. If I could manage to lay somewhat low for the rest of the time, then I might get out of this forsaken town unscathed.

Was it really that bad? she asked.

Yes, I said, speaking of how my relationship with Amber had ended. That woman had devastated me. Taken the heart I’d so reluctantly given to her and crushed it in her hand before throwing it away as if it was nothing.

You didn’t come back from a heartbreak like that, and I didn’t think I’d ever be over it. It had absorbed into my blood and my bones and was as much a part of me as my genetic material.

There was no way I was ever letting myself go through that again. No matter how attractive someone might be to me. My heart was dead and gone and that was it.

You know you can talk about it with me, always, Hope said.

I don’t want to, I said, for what felt like the millionth time.

I know, she said, before sitting up. Come on. You need some coffee.

Hope had been my best friend for years and as much as she exhausted me with her desire to have a therapy session about every little emotion, she had been there for me in so many ways, and we were family. More so than some of my own biological family.

So I let Hope drag me to the kitchen, just like how I’d allowed her to drag me on this trip.

Somehow I made it to Friday without seeing Quinn again, but I did have many other encounters with Castleton residents who couldn’t stop talking to me and asking what I was doing now, and how was my family, and when I was coming back to visit, and if I was married and on and on.

It was fucking exhausting, so even I was up for