Ask Me to Stay Read Online Free Page A

predicted higher temperatures in the last few weeks of February. She liked summer well enough, but preferred autumn. The deciduous trees would turn from a brilliant green to a spectrum of red before they fell from their heights and lined the streets of Hinterdown with crackling colour. People would bustle about in scarves and beanies. It was all so cosy. Summer just burned. She’d been putting a towel on the front seat of her car, lately – not to protect the leather so much as her flesh.
    Bright reflections off cars and windows tickled her eyes as she walked past the small supermarket and the modest chemist out of its depth the moment someone came down with something the least bit exotic. The front yard of one of the many houses along the main street was full of screaming, shrieking children in their bathing suits, enjoying a hot Saturday with their friends. A large sprinkler jetted cool water into the air and soaked the lawn underfoot.
    To some this town was inconsequential – a small settlement built around the rich grazing areas of southern New South Wales – but to others, Hinterdown was more than enough.
    Sam loved it here. She’d been born and raised in this town, just like Dean, Ethan and Bree. She knew every street, every local and every bit of gossip worth hearing in these parts. She sat in the same pub as her primary school teachers, sold machine parts to farmers she’d terrorised as a girl, and hadn’t been the subject of the town’s scrutiny in two years. Which wasn’t a coincidence.
    That Ethan Foster, he managed to put Sam’s names on people’s lips every time he breezed through town.
    People wondered if she still held a candle for him. One woman had even gone so far as to suggest Sam leave town to escape Ethan’s sporadic returns. But Sam didn’t want to leave. As much as she hated the spotlight on her now, as much as it might be easier to leave Ethan and Bree behind her and start again, she wouldn’t go.
    She’d sometimes wondered if she should thirst for more. Maybe she was a small-town girl with small dreams, maybe she didn’t know any better, but she had no desire to leave and map out another life. She’d travelled and seen the odd wonder or two, but she would always return to this place. There were people like Ethan who could leave it all in his dust, and people like Anna who craved bigger and better things than this small country life – but then there were people like Sam, Cal and Dean – their loyalty to this town was solid and ever-lasting.
    By the time Sam rounded the outer perimeter of the yard, she had missed the lunch rush. Even from half-a-street away she could see that the pub’s outdoor dining area was nearly empty. It would be the same inside.
    Her stride hitched when little Nina Foster exploded out of a shop ahead, her little legs furiously pumping her towards the road. Before Sam had taken a step in her direction, Ethan appeared, a blur of white and khaki. He seized Nina under the armpits and lifted her into the air. Her delighted squeal was a beautiful thing to hear. Without pausing, he rolled her under his arm like a football and charged back into the shop, the sole café in Hinterdown.
    Curious, Sam approached. She pushed aside the plastic curtain strips meant to deter flies, and saw Ethan waiting at the counter, Rowan at his side, Nina locked against the counter with his knee. She was giggling and swatting at him, trying to free herself, but the kid stood no chance.
    Ethan looked to be nursing a temper.
    It was the first time in eleven years that she’d seen him two days in a row. Every time before now he’d left the same day, staying only long enough to witness whatever milestone or highlight had made it onto his radar. Two years ago it had been Bree opening her little craft shop, six years ago it had been Nina’s birth, eight years ago, Rowan’s. When Dean and Bree had married a year before that, Ethan had left before the end of the reception, murmuring about the