Hold on to My Heart (Maine Sullivans)

CHAPTER ONE

Ashley Sullivan stretched under the wonderfully soft duvet in her rental apartment, then threw off the covers. Vienna, Austria waited just outside her door. Her six siblings had traveled overseas multiple times. But this was her first time leaving the United States. She loved Bar Harbor, Maine, and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. But for the next forty-eight hours, she was thrilled to have the chance to explore one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.

When her brother Brandon had suggested she travel abroad for one of his hotel launches, she’d thought he was joking. After all, Ashley was not only a single mom to her eleven-year-old son, Kevin, she also managed the Sullivan cafés and Irish-themed boutiques throughout Maine. What’s more, she was constantly playing defense against Kevin’s father, Josh, pivoting again and again to try to stop disaster before it struck. Thankfully, they’d never married, despite the shocking discovery at seventeen that she was pregnant. What a disaster marrying Josh would have been…

Every day, however, Ashley thanked her lucky stars for Kevin. Her son was the light of her life. Being his mom was worth any and all sacrifices—missing out on her senior prom, not moving away from home or going to college at eighteen, never flying to Europe for fantasy vacations.

As a child, Ashley had loved reading about faraway lands and watching National Geographic TV specials. She’d dreamed of being a travel writer, at least until she’d realized that it wasn’t writing that she loved, but the chance to have adventures in exotic places.

At long last, she was living out her dream! Ashley had long been fascinated by what she’d read in travel guides about the wonders of Vienna—Empress Sisi, the Spanish Riding School’s Lipizzaner horses, and Schönbrunn Palace and its gardens. She could hardly believe that she was here, ready to embark on the forty-eight-hour whirlwind city tour that she’d meticulously planned back in Bar Harbor.

After flying in late the night before, she’d taken a taxi straight to her rental apartment. Brandon had offered to set her up at his swanky new hotel, but though she was grateful for his offer, she wanted this trip to be entirely on her terms. Her timetable. Her dime.

She’d saved a good sum of money over the years from her job running her family’s business. Normally, she spent her savings on new clothes and shoes for Kevin, as he outgrew them every few months. This weekend, she was looking forward to splurging on a few small treats for herself. Things to remember Vienna by.

She walked to the French doors, pulled them open, and stepped out onto a small balcony. Even as she lifted her face to the bright morning sun, she felt a pang in her heart. Of course she knew her parents were going to take good care of Kevin during her absence. Her siblings were more than willing to help out too. And she wasn’t under the misapprehension that she was indispensable at work either.

What worried her was having zero faith in Kevin’s father.

The endless nonsense Josh pulled when it came to their son boggled her mind. Josh’s latest crazy idea had been to suggest that Kevin stay at his place while she was gone. While that might be perfectly okay for most co-parents, Josh ate nothing but junk food, played video games all night long, was barely holding down his latest job, and couldn’t even keep a goldfish alive. Her ex was completely out of his mind asking her to trust him with their son for the weekend.

Fortunately, Josh had been offered the “chance of a lifetime” at the last second to go ATVing with some of his friends. It was only then that she’d booked her flight to Austria. Kevin had been disappointed that he couldn’t stay with his dad, and though Ashley hated it when her son was upset, she was hugely relieved that he’d be safe and sound with her parents instead.

Even so, she found it nearly impossible to stop worrying about Kevin. How could she, when her entire world had revolved around him since she was seventeen? It was the reason none of the guys she’d dated had turned into anything serious. Not a single one of them had been good enough to be Kevin’s stepfather.

Granted, most of her dates ran as fast as they could once they found out that she was a single mom. As for the ones who claimed Kevin “wasn’t a problem” for them? Ashley would much rather be alone for the rest of her life than settle for a man who looked at Kevin as a potential problem in the first place.

Her sisters, Cassie and Lola, were constantly trying to persuade her to date more. But as far as Ashley was concerned, everything in her and Kevin’s life (apart from Kevin’s father) was going just fine, so why risk both of their hearts on some guy who surely wouldn’t end up being worth it?