LAKE BITTERSWEET COLLECTION 2

BOOKS 5-8

JENNIFER BERNARD

CONTENTS

The Rebound

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

The Crush

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

The Do-Over

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

The Winter Wish

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

About the Author

Also by Jennifer Bernard

1

Even though it was five o’clock on a rainy June morning, Jason Mosedale whistled as he strode into the apparatus bay of the Lake Bittersweet firehouse. He considered himself lucky to live in the most beautiful town in Minnesota, no matter the rain, lucky to work as a firefighter, lucky in most ways—with some giant glaring exceptions. He preferred to whistle through those.

The other crew members, volunteer and staff alike, groaned at the sound.

“You got laid, didn’t you?” grumbled Brent, a longtime member of the crew, the best driver they had.

“Isn’t that every day for him?” Colleen Hopper, one of the three women volunteers, nursed a steaming thermos of one of her herbal concoctions. She kept trying to coax the others into trying her mixes, but got no takers. “There’s hardly a woman in Minnesota who would kick him out of bed.”

“Sorry, aren’t you…?” Brent squinted at her from under his deer hunter’s cap.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” she said sternly. “But the answer is yes.”

“Uh, what’s the question?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Jason figured they were skating awfully close to some kind of human resources rule. He’d better put a stop to it, especially if he was going to apply for fire chief.

Big “if.” Would he be able to joke around like an ordinary crew member if he was the fire chief? Joking around was one of his favorite things in life. Was moving up in the world worth it? He still wasn’t sure, but he’d better figure it out soon because the board of aldermen wanted someone in place before the summer season really got going.

“Can’t a guy whistle just because he’s in a good mood?” He dumped his duffel bag next to his locker and pulled open the door. A blowup doll burst out of it, making him jump back in surprise.

The other firefighters howled in laughter. Good one, he had to admit. Nothing like a firehouse prank to kick off an early morning training exercise.

“If he didn’t get any last night, he can now,” called one of the volunteers.

“I heard he goes for the airhead type,” said someone else, triggering more laughter.

Jason composed his face into a serious expression, which was a big lift for him. His usual mode was fun-loving and easygoing. He loved life and saw no reason to hide that. He took hold of the doll and slowly, menacingly turned to face the ring of firefighters.

“What. The. Fuck…?” He spat the words out. Everyone’s smiles dropped away. Brick, the rookie, turned white and looked like he might throw up. Jason continued after a perfectly timed pause. “…are you still doing here? Can’t a guy get a little privacy?” He wrapped his arm around the doll’s plastic waist.

It took a moment, but then everyone howled with a new wave of laughter. Relieved laughter. The poor crew had no idea what to make of a seriously angry Jason Mosedale. Who would? It would be as if one of the local moose wandered out of the woods and ordered a cappuccino.

Someone at the edge of the crowd, back by the entry door, cleared their throat. “Should I come back another time? Looks like y’all are busy.”

Jason startled at the sight of Kendra Carter halfway in the door, her hand still on the doorknob. As always, even at this early hour, she looked stunning. Her hair was held back with a vivid red silk bandanna and she wore a tight-fitting white shirt.

He’d known Kendra forever; they’d even been friends in high school, sort of. Their lockers had been close together, and they’d exchanged friendly jabs nearly every day. She’d even tutored him in public speaking and American history.

But she’d jetted off early to an accelerated college slash business school program while he’d slogged through the rest of high school and then studied for the firefighter exam. Recently, she’d come back to town, and things had been…interesting between them. A little banter, some casual conversation, maybe even some flirting.

She had his attention, for sure. But as far as he could tell, she didn’t take him at all seriously.

Then again, she might have good reason for that. He remembered that he was holding a blowup doll and thrust it behind him.

“We’re about to start a training exercise, but if this is an emergency…”

“It is,” she said gravely, coming forward. “Why else would I be here before sunrise?”

The plastic arm of the doll popped out from behind his back. He shoved it down. Smothered laughter came from the crew.

“What’s the nature of your emergency?” He said it with hopefully enough sternness to make up for the absurdity of the blowup doll trying to sabotage Kendra’s impression of him.

Not that there was much to sabotage. In high school she’d thought of him as unambitious. She’d even lectured him about it.

“How should I know? Isn’t that your job?”

“Huh?” A whistling sound came from behind him. Crap—the blowup doll was losing air. It made a quiet wailing sound punctuated by odd squeals.

“Damn, Jason. You sure know how to make a woman moan,” said crusty old Sven Lundgren, who should have retired years ago, if you asked Jason.

“Is this the emergency?” Kendra asked, gesturing at the doll. “Am I supposed to do something? Remedial foreplay instructions?”

Howls of laughter came from his cursed crew. Great. He felt his face turn a slow-baked red. Normally, he didn’t mind playing the fool for laughs, but with Kendra around, it bothered him, just a little bit.

But at least he’d finally figured out what was going on. “You’re filling in for Patty?”

“Yeah, she called me this morning. Very, very early this morning. Her bursitis is flaring up and she asked me if I could play your victim.” She spread her arms open. “So here I am. Your designated damsel in distress.”

Jason couldn’t imagine anyone less suited for the role of damsel in distress. Kendra Carter was smart as a whip, good at everything she tried, independent, outspoken. On top of that, she had a longtime crew of friends and a retired blues legend for a father—Alvin “Redfish” Carter, with whom she ran the restaurant at the Blue Drake Club.

Kendra Carter was used to taking care of herself. Except that…he still didn’t know why she’d left Minneapolis and come back to Lake Bittersweet. At first he’d assumed it was because of her father, but something told him it was more than that. Since she’d come back, she’d seemed more subdued than he remembered. Something had happened in Minneapolis, but she wasn’t talking about it. At least, not to him.

He dragged himself back to the task at hand. Training exercise. Victim. She stood a few feet from him now, her arms folded across her chest. She wore a thin gold necklace that glinted against her radiant brown skin. “We’re doing a swatting drill.”

“I know how to swat mosquitoes. Those little mother-effers know they can’t mess with me.”

“I bet.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

And there was the feisty Kendra he remembered from high school. “Hey, you said it. I’m just agreeing.”

“No, there was subtext. I heard it.”

He grabbed the hand of the blowup doll and slapped his own cheek with it. “That’ll teach me to keep the damn subtext out of my mouth.” He slapped himself again with the plastic hand. “And not to say ‘damn.’”

Her lips quirked. “Jason Mosedale, I did not drag myself out of bed at four in the morning to watch you play the fool.”

“It’s worth it, though, ain’t it?” called Brent.

“Definitely not.”

Jason decided he’d had enough of the peanut gallery. “You guys get yourselves some coffee while I bring Kendra up to speed on victim protocol. Back in ten.”

The other firefighters chaotically headed out of the garage, toward the common room where they usually hung out on a slow day. Lake Bittersweet had more than its share of slow days. Hence the nonstop pranks and jokes.

Kendra tapped a foot on the ground. Busy woman, places to go, things to do, said her body language. Except that Jason detected something else, a shadow behind her brightness. He wanted to ask her if everything was okay. But they weren’t exactly the confiding sort of friends, and her manner screamed “let’s get on with this,” so he didn’t.

“So what do I do in this swatting scenario?” she asked.

“Do you know what swatting is? Not the mosquito kind?”

“Nope.”

Weirdly, it felt good to know something that Kendra wasn’t already proficient at. All through high school, she’d been either at the top of every class or close to it. He’d always muddled around in the middle somewhere. It wasn’t until he’d dated an occupational therapist that he’d learned he probably had an undiagnosed learning disorder. The fact that he’d done as well as he had in school was probably a minor miracle. Nancy had insisted that he was highly intelligent, and that was what had saved his ass from complete failure.

“Swatting is when some nefarious person calls 9-1-1 to report a nonexistent crime happening somewhere. Law enforcement responds, full-force, and an innocent person finds themselves at the business end of a bunch of hyped-up first responders. Usually it’s police, but here in Lake Bittersweet, us studly firefighters respond to 9-1-1 calls, so we need to know what to do in a situation like that.”

“That really happens?” She looked appalled. “That doesn’t sound like something my people would do.”

Come to think of it, she probably wasn’t wrong. “I don’t have a demographic breakdown like that, so I can neither confirm nor deny.”

Her eyebrow lifted. “Practicing for the fire chief position when you have to face the media?”

He grinned at her. “How’d you know?”

“I didn’t! I was…mostly joking. Are you really going for it?”

Was that respect in her eyes? She probably thought of him as so easygoing that he’d never push for a promotion like that. And she might be right.

But man, how would it feel to see that look in her eyes more often?

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“So what’s stopping you?”

“Who needs the stress? It’s a lot of responsibility. I’m all about the simple life. Fishing, firefighting, good f…un.” He deliberately let that last “f” linger before completing the word.

She rolled her eyes at his dumb stab at a joke, but then turned serious.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Jason. You’d be a good fire chief.”

A compliment from Kendra? Now that surprised him, so much so that he loosened his grip on the blowup doll and it bounced to the ground. He grabbed at it. Plastic squeaked and then a pop let out all the remaining air in one big whoosh. He dropped the limp deflated plastic to the concrete floor. “Oh yeah? Tell me more.”

She burst out laughing. “Never mind. So tell me what I’m doing here, Jaybone?”

He winced at the sound of that old nickname, inspired by the fact that he played the trombone in high school. He still played, but only as part of an informal jam session organized by Redfish Carter. “I haven’t heard that one since high school, and I can’t say that I’ve missed it.”

“Really? I always thought it was cute. It suited you.”

Was she saying he was cute? He wanted to pursue that possibility, but they were running out of time.

“Here’s the drill. You’re going to play the victim of a swatting attack. All you have to do is act like you’re an ordinary person sitting at home watching TV. We’re going to swarm you as if we’re going to arrest you. You have to act like a normal innocent person. Can you do that?”

“There won’t be guns, will there? I’m not trying to get a bunch of guns pointed at me.”

“Of course not. We’re firefighters. We don’t carry guns.”

“Are you going to push me around? I don’t want that either.”

Trust Kendra Carter to set her boundaries so clearly ahead of time. He admired that about her. Along with so many other things.

“No physical contact. No one will touch you.”

She thought it over, then nodded her consent. “I got it. Patty owes me for this one.”

“Yeah, sorry. She’s our usual victim. She’s done it so many times that she critiques us afterwards. Catches all kinds of stuff.”

Kendra’s face lit up. “Ooh, now you’re talking my love language. Can I do that too? You know there’s nothing I love more than giving my opinion.”

“Sure. We’ll give you a feedback card that you can drop in the suggestion box.” He gestured at the burn barrel in the corner of the garage.

“Cute, Jaybone. Supercute.”

They grinned at each other. A moment. We’re having a moment. Me and Kendra. Or should it be Kendra and I?

Because one thing he knew for sure, Kendra would correct his grammar if he got it wrong. He knew because sometimes back in high school, he deliberately got it wrong just so she’d give him that look. The one that said, “I’m smart and hot and dream on, bud.”

“Okay then.” Just like that, Kendra shattered the moment. “I’m ready to scream my ass off because some idiot firefighters can’t tell the difference between a real call and swatter.”

Ha. Yup. Dream on.

* * *

“Get out of my house, you’re trespassing and trampling all over my civil rights and I will sue your asses!” Kendra shouted at the firefighters stampeding toward her.

“Cut!” Jason gestured at the crew. “Let’s try it again.” He strode over to Kendra, who’d taken a seat on a folding chair he’d set up between the paramedic van and the fire truck.

“Cut? Are we making a movie?”

“Yeah. It’s called ‘Why Can’t Kendra Act Like an Ordinary Person?’”

“Well, that’s going to look ridiculous on a movie poster.”

Jason looked so frustrated—in an undeniably hot way—that she couldn’t help smiling at him. He’d really, really grown up fine, and she’d been aware of that fact for a while. Quite the glow-up. It wasn’t just the muscles he’d developed since he’d become a fireman. It was the gleam in his eyes, the smile always hovering in the corner of his mouth, even that damn groove in his cheek. Jason was the kind of guy people wanted to be around.

That is, other people did. Not her. That fun-loving vibe was appealing, sure, but it didn’t bode well for a future. Besides, she had enough to juggle. If it wasn’t the new restaurant, it was worries about her father. If it wasn’t all of her friends getting engaged or married, it was the fact that she was still recovering from getting callously and shockingly dumped.

Dominic Robb, her boyfriend and business partner, had broken up with her on his way to London, where she’d assumed she’d be joining him. He’d used the business venture they’d developed together and parlayed it into a new position at a top investment firm in England.

Without her.

Now she had no boyfriend and no business.

How had it come to this? She was the naturally suspicious one who always told her friends not to trust a man, especially a smooth-talker like Dominic. How had she been so blind? They had the same dreams. He wanted to succeed, to be the best. They were perfect for each other, or so she’d thought.

How wrong she’d been. She didn’t usually make catastrophic mistakes like that, and it had shaken her to the core. Over a year later, she still hadn’t so much as gone on a date with a man.

She glared at Jason. Her crushed dreams weren’t his fault, but this silly victim scenario was. “You said to act ordinary. That’s what I’d do if you guys charged into my house like that.”

“Well, apparently you’re not ordinary.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“More of a compli-sult.”

She remembered that long-running joke from their locker-buddy days in high school. “The dreaded compliment with an insult hidden inside? How dare you.”

He raked his fingers through his hair. “How long do Patty’s bursitis episodes usually last?”

“It varies. Sometimes I think they last as long as it suits her.” She put a hand over her mouth in exaggerated apology. “Oops, I didn’t just say that. Don’t tell Patty.”

“You’re afraid of Patty?” His face brightened. “Good. I’m going to tell her what a godawful victim you are if you don’t shape up.”

She was starting to feel sorry for him. “You’re sounding desperate. Okay, fine, I’ll be good.”

“Okay. Thank you.” He gestured to the crew. “Places, please.”

Now it really was starting to sound like a movie. Kendra sat in the folding chair again. She checked her watch. Almost seven. Pretty soon she had to wrap this up and get her ass over to the Blue Drake. But for now, she was enjoying the spotlight, she had to admit.

As the firefighters charged toward her for the fifth time, she let out a bloodcurdling shriek, and convulsed onto the floor, where she twitched and moaned dramatically.

All the firefighters stopped in their tracks.

“She’s having a medical event!” Jason shouted. “What do you do in case of a heart attack or a stroke?”

When no one moved right away, he ran to her himself. He crouched down next to her and put his hand near her neck. Not quite touching her skin, but nevertheless, she could feel the warmth of his hand.

“You check her pulse. Make sure she’s breathing. Do your ABCs. What are the ABCs?” he continued.

Colleen piped up. “Airway, breathing, circulation.”

“That’s right. You check all of the above. Sure, she’s a potential suspect, but her medical situation comes first.” Jason’s hands were moving around her body, indicating her throat, her mouth, her chest. Clearly he knew what he was doing. His skill shone in every movement, even though he didn’t actually complete any of the actions he was describing.

She felt herself relaxing on the uncomfortable concrete floor of the garage. It was very uncharacteristic of her to do something so dramatic. She’d done it to throw them off and annoy Jason some more. But it hadn’t exactly worked out that way. It was soothing to watch him do his thing. If I ever had a real medical event, I’d want Jason to be my paramedic, she thought dreamily.

“Okay, you’re fine,” he said brusquely. She glanced up at him. They’d never been this close before, not even when they used to sling friendly insults at each other from locker to locker. His eyes were such an intensely dark blue, as if an artist had wanted black, but pulled back and gone for blue instead.

Her gaze dropped to his upper lip, searching for…there it was. That scar. She’d never forget the night he got that scar.

After all, he’d been defending her.

2

“Do you guys remember when I nearly started a brawl at the Cue Ball pool hall?” At the end of the long day, Kendra sat with her besties Carly and Gina at the bar at the Blue Drake Club and Resort. A jazz combo played on the iconic stage with its enormous statue of a blue duck.

Recently, her father had taken over the restaurant portion of the club and renamed it Alvin’s Burgers and Blues. After they stopped serving, the bar stayed open until midnight. That was when she could finally relax and enjoy the acts that came through town. Thanks to Steven Gault, Carly’s father and Alvin’s close friend, this tiny spot on the map was a top destination for some of the best musical talent in the world.

“I heard something about it, but it was just you and Brooke, right?” Carly sipped from a bottle of nonalcoholic beer. She’d just gotten married this past New Year’s Eve and was due to give birth any day—or minute—now. She sat astride the bar stool, the heels of her boots hooked on the rungs. Her dark hair was pulled into a low ponytail and she looked tired. Kendra kept trying to get her to slow down, but she was a constant ball of energy.

“Yes, and really it was all Brooke’s fault,” Kendra said. “She was the instigator.”

“Well, of course. You were such a good girl.” Gina pulled a sassy face, her dark curls dancing as she bopped to the music. “By which I mean you were more careful not to get caught.”

Kendra laughed and clicked her vodka tonic with lime against Gina’s wine glass. Gina had recently fallen in love, too. So had the fifth member of their friend group, Trixie, back in Lost Harbor, Alaska. Only Kendra was currently single. Well, and Brooke.

It’s me and you, Brooke. She toasted her friend’s spirit. Me and a ghost, we’re the only ones still single.

Gina ran a finger around the rim of her wine glass. “Do you know how many times I think, WWBD?”

Kendra cocked her head. “What would Brooke do?”

“Yes. And the answer is always the opposite of what most people would do.”

They all laughed. Brooke the Rebel. “Do you think if she’d lived, she would have stopped being such a revolutionary?” Kendra asked her friends.

“No. Not Brooke,” Gina said instantly.

“I’m not so sure,” Carly mused. “If she’d lived, she would have been a mother to Danny. She might have toned it down for him.”

Kendra took a sip of her ice-cold vodka. “She probably would have dragged him to protest marches.”

They all laughed, knowing it was the truth.

“I still miss her,” Kendra said softly.

“I do too,” said Carly. “Especially being back in Lake Bittersweet. It’s like she’s just around the corner, and if I move fast enough, I’ll catch her. I love hearing stories about her, especially if I can tell them to Danny.”

When Carly had married Thomas, she’d become stepmother to Danny, who was now a teenager. Danny was the result of one experimental night between Thomas and Brooke, seventeen years ago. Tragically, Brooke had died while giving birth to him, and Thomas had raised him alone. Kendra couldn’t imagine anything more perfect than Carly stepping into Danny’s life at this point.

“This might not be the best story to tell him.”

Carly chuckled. “Let me guess. Brooke tackled some idiot and made him eat pool chalk?”

“No. Jason stepped in. He got a pool cue in the face.”

They both looked at her blankly.

“Jason Mosedale,” she prompted.

“The cute firefighter?”

Kendra felt her face warm. “Sure, I guess.”

“Okay, now you have to tell the whole story.” Gina bounced on her barstool in excitement. “Tell, tell! Where were we? Me and Carly?”

“You were all asleep. I think we smoked a little too much. Everyone crashed except me and Brooke.”

“God, that takes me back.” Carly sighed. “We were such teenagers. Sometimes I think it’s a miracle we survived. Summer in Lake Bittersweet. The crazy shit that went down…”

* * *

That summer, Kendra and the other chambermaids—Carly Gault, Brooke Kendall, Gina Moretti and Trixie Tran—became the best of friends because there was nothing like being required to wear white while cleaning cabins and swabbing toilets to cement a bond.

Even on their off days, they spent time together. They’d go swimming in the lake, hang out on the Blue Drake dock, or roast marshmallows on the beach. They shared secret crushes and embarrassing confessions. They talked about their dreams for after high school. Of the five of them, Kendra and Brooke were the most ambitious; they both wanted to change the world. Fix it. Stop climate change. Stop racism. Stop exploitation.

One night in the Wood Duck Cabin, where the out-of-town girls lived, Brooke brought out some weed that she swore was the best she’d ever smoked. Kendra debated long and hard about whether to try some. Her father always warned her to avoid it, but since he’d smoked plenty—along with Gault and all their musician buddies—it seemed hypocritical. Shouldn’t she at least try it and decide for herself?

Turned out, while the other girls got mellow and even fell asleep, she got hyped up. Around midnight, she looked around and the only other girl still awake was Brooke.

“What now? I want to go have some fun,” she told Brooke. Brooke flipped back her blond hair and grinned. She was from a wealthy summer family, and usually lived back east.

“Let’s play some pool.”

“You don’t want to play pool with me. I grew up in blues dives. I’ll whip your ass.”

“Ooooh, then I have an even better idea! Let’s make some money.”

They rode their bikes to the Cue Ball at the edge of town, ditching them in the weeds because they’d forgotten their bike locks. The midnight sky was so spectacular that Kendra suggested skipping the pool game and just lying in the weeds and staring at the stars until sunrise.

“Don’t be chicken.” Brooke hauled her inside to a smoky room filled with frowny-faced men. Pool was serious business, apparently. Kendra giggled, and couldn’t stop until Brooke pinched her.

The smoke gave everything a hazy, dreamlike feel. She played a few games and barely knew if she won or lost. The round shine of the balls, the thunk of a shot landing in the pocket, the feel of the pool cue sliding through her fingers, that was all that mattered. Win, lose, who cared?

She tried to explain it to the man she’d just beaten. He just sneered at her and challenged her to a rematch.

“Rack ‘em up,” the man growled. He looked really grumpy, she realized. Maybe she should let him win the next one. Older men didn’t like it when younger women beat them at pool. Did it matter that she was Black? Maybe. The man was Hispanic. Either way, she was a girl and she was beating him and he clearly didn’t like that.

Lose the game, she told herself. Just miss a few shots. It’s not the end of the world. Win, lose, who cares?

Across the room, she saw a group of boys from her high school come in and claim a table. The ground steadied under her feet. This was her town. She could win at pool if she wanted to. No way was she going to hold herself back just to make some old out-of-town dude feel better about himself.

So she won. Then she won again. Brooke was raking in the dollars the man kept sliding across the table. He kept ordering more beers, challenging her to more matches. Time passed, but she didn’t notice. Chalk, cue, ball, pocket. Dollar bills. It was almost as if every part of her brain except the part needed for pool turned off. The focus was intoxicating.

And then it all shifted. The man crushed a beer can against the edge of the pool table.

“Hey man, keep it cool,” said Brooke.

“Shut your trap, rich girl. I saw you around the lodge. What are you, slumming it down here with the cleaning staff?”

Brooke and Kendra looked at each other and laughed. “We have the same job, idiot. That has nothing to do with the fact that she’s kicking your ass at pool.”

Even through her foggy haze, Kendra knew that Brooke was taking it too far. Winning was one thing; taunting another.

The man turned to Kendra, shutting Brooke out. “Are you cheating?” he demanded. “Is she helping you? No way you’re winning fair and square.”

“I’m not. Want to go again?”

“Yeah. But I want her out of here. Let’s see if you can win on your own.”

“I’m not leaving,” Brooke began.

“It’s fine.” Kendra waved her away. “Just go hang out with Jason and the others over there. I’ll beat him again and be right over.”

The man snarled in anger. She beat him again. But this time, he lost it. He shifted the pool cue in his grip like a lance and lunged across the table at her. She stumbled backwards and would have fallen, except someone was there to catch her. Whoever it was had a wiry, strong body and smelled like he’d just been eating barbecue. He pushed her down just as the pool cue jammed through the air. She felt his body shudder and knew the cue must have hit him. A gush of blood spilled onto her sweater from above.

She crawled out from the melee and jumped to her feet. Several men were holding back her former competitor. One of them wrestled the pool cue away from him. And Jason Mosedale was surrounded by his buddies, who were doing things like stuffing paper napkins onto his face and grabbing ice cubes from random drinks. She felt someone tug her away, trying to get her out of there. Brooke.

But she resisted. She couldn’t just leave Jason after he’d taken the blow meant for her. The pool cue had split his upper lip open. That was where all the blood was coming from. The whole lower part of his face was already swelling up. He caught her eye. “You okay?” he called to her.

She nodded, even though she felt very far from okay. She was smart. She knew better than to get herself into a position like this. How had she let this happen? What were her parents going to say?

“Let’s get out of here,” Brooke said in a low voice. “Before the police get here.”

Police? Holy shit, she’d be in trouble for sure if the police got involved. If she had to walk some kind of straight line, she might fall on her ass.

Jason jutted his chin toward the exit. He was telling her to leave before she got in worse trouble. Everyone knew Alvin Carter and how proud he was of Kendra. She didn’t know much about Jason’s family. They seemed to be more the “benign neglect” type. Anyway, boys never got into as much trouble as girls did when they stepped out of line.

She and Brooke fled toward their bikes, and were furiously pedaling down the road when they saw the sheriff’s car whiz past.

Over the next few days, she braced herself for the other shoe to drop. Surely someone would want to talk to the girl who had incited the brawl with her refusal to lose a game of pool. But it never happened. Maybe the guy had been too proud to admit he’d lost to a girl. Definitely Jason and his buddies had never mentioned her name.

The next time she saw Jason at his locker, his lip looked terrible. A big scab had formed on his upper lip. He was going to have quite the scar.

She closed her locker door and faced him. “Listen, Jason. Thanks for—”

He waved away her words. “It’s al-wight.” His swollen lip made the “r” sound fuzzy. “I already got three dates out of it.”

“Like you need more reasons for girls to chase you.” That was one of the things she teased him about. She knew why girls were crazy for him—he was so good-looking—but he was too laid-back for her, not driven enough.

“Good point.” He winced as his lips formed the “p.” “There’s one lucky thing, though. I get to skip band practice. Like forever.”

“No more trombone?”

“The nurse said I’ll never play trombone again. Well, I begged her to say that. Sick of being teased for my nerdy choice of instrument.” He grinned, then winced again as the movement tugged at his scab.

“So I rescued you from band practice? I guess you should thank me then.”

“Yeah…maybe after the Tylenol kicks in.”

She laughed a little. “Seriously, I can’t believe you stood up for me like that. I could have kissed you.”

“You still could.” His eyes twinkled at her. “After I heal up.”

“Dream on.”

* * *

Carly snapped her fingers. “I knew there was something between you and Jason. I noticed him looking at you during last year’s Sunburn Fest.”

“There’s nothing between us. There never has been. We’re…friends, I guess. In high school, anyway. I haven’t seen him much since then.” For some reason, she felt self-conscious. “He’s not my type.”

“Well, he was definitely looking at you. That’s all I know.”

Gina propped her elbow on the bar and rested her curly head on her hand. “Good old Jason. Such a hottie. Who’s he dating now?”

Kendra shrugged. “If he’s anything like he was in high school, it’s probably hard to keep track. He always had someone.”

“No, I think he just broke up with someone. Ugh, my fuzzy hormone brain.” Carly rapped her knuckles on her skull. “Thomas told me. Some girl he’s dated on and off for years. Everyone thought they’d end up together, but she moved out of town and married someone else. Jason was crushed.”

Kendra shook her head with a frown. She didn’t like the idea of easygoing Jason getting his heart crushed. He didn’t deserve that. He was one of the good ones. “Are you talking about Gretchen Pilsner?”

“Yes. Gretchen. But she’s Gretchen Corsi now. I can’t believe I know this. Firehouses are so gossipy. Thomas isn’t even fire chief anymore and he still hears all the hot goss.”

“Wow. So that’s really over. Poor Jason.” She had a vague memory of Gretchen Pilsner, sunny and freckle-faced. The two of them had seemed like a good match, except that Jason was one of those not-ready-to-commit guys. “When did that happen?”

“Hmm…why are you asking a pregnant woman the tough questions? I think it was earlier this year. Recent.”

Gina pursed her lips. “Hmm. You know what that means.”

“That he deserves our sympathy and support?” said Carly.

“That, and he’s on the rebound.”

“Ooh.” Carly raised her eyebrows. “Which means don’t go anywhere near him.”

“What? No, it doesn’t.” Gina took a sip of her wine. “Rebounds are fun. The trick is to know going in that there’s no chance of it working out because it’s just a rebound. It’s low-stakes, high-reward.”

“How is it high reward?”

“Because someone on the rebound is just happy for the attention.”

“That’s cold, Gina.” Kendra shook her head at her always-sassy friend. “Anyway, that’s not Jason. He always gets attention. I don’t know why. He’s cute, but he’s no Winston.”

Everyone knew Winston Duke was her ultimate.

“But Jason has that dreamy Latin-lover look.”

“Oooh, he does, doesn’t he?” Carly made a show of fanning herself. “This is because I’m very pregnant, not because of Jason,” she explained. “But Kendra, are you really surprised he’s so popular? He’s cute, he’s a fireman, also he’s hot and he’s a fireman. Meaning he rescues people while being cute and hot.”

Kendra made a face at her. “Some of us are looking for more than cute and hot and rescue-y.”

Carly pointed an accusing finger at her. “He rescued you from a pool cue!”

“That’s true. And I did say that I wished I could kiss him for that. But his face was all swollen, so that never happened.”

“It’s never too late.” Gina pushed her glass toward Kendra, who splashed more wine into it. “Rebound, rebound.”

“Don’t do it, don’t do it,” chanted Carly.

“Hmm.” Kendra flashed a smile at her two friends. “WWBD?”

The two of them looked at each other, then back at Kendra. “Do it,” they said together. They all laughed.

“It’s been over a year since Dominic,” said Gina gently. “Don’t you think it’s time to at least try?”

Kendra opened her mouth to explain that she was fine just as she was. But the words refused to come out. Maybe she wasn’t fine.

“Rebound” meant that you were recovering, coming back from the worst of it, ready for something new.

Was she even rebound material?

If she told her friends how shaky she still felt, they’d be supportive, of course. But they were both so freaking happy right now. They wouldn’t be able to relate.

She let out a sigh as she realized that there was someone who probably could relate. Jason. They could be the Rebound Twins. Both trying to claw their way back to a normal social life after getting punched in the mouth with the Pool Cue of Rejection.

She shook off the thought. She wasn’t ready for any kind of dating, not even a rebound. This was the time for her to focus on her career—which Dominic had also ruined.

Luckily, Pop had asked her to help him out with the restaurant. Alvin’s Burgers and Blues had been a great distraction. She’d come back to Lake Bittersweet to lick her wounds, but she wanted more for herself then running a restaurant.

An idea had been bouncing around in her head ever since she saw the notice at city hall. “Can we stop talking about boys for a minute and discuss the fact that I’m considering a career change?”

“What?” Alarmed, Carly gripped the edge of the bar. “You’re going to leave us to run this place without you?”

“Don’t worry, it’s a long process. I might not even get it. Sure, I’m ridiculously qualified and all that. But there’s a lot of old people in charge around here who might not want me to get it. The dreaded board of aldermen.”

Carly shuddered, since she’d had her own run-ins with the town powers-that-be. “What’s the job?”

“Town manager. The job where I get to boss everyone around.” She smiled gleefully.

“Oh my God. That would be perfect for you. As a local business owner, there’s no one I’d rather get bossed around by.” Carly offered her hand for a high-five. Kendra obliged, then high-fived Gina as well. For the first time in a while, she felt some hope. Maybe Dominic hadn’t completely ruined her career and love life in one swoop.

“What about Alvin? Is he okay running the restaurant by himself?” Gina asked.

Kendra bit her lip. That would be the hardest part, for sure. Working with her father was great. She’d needed to come home after Dominic had shattered her dreams. But on the other hand… “Do you think he’ll understand that managing Alvin’s was a rebound job?”

They all laughed. “So you are open to rebounds!” Carly clapped her hands together.

“Rebound, rebound,” Gina chanted softly.

3

Of course it was inevitable that Jason would run into Gretchen. Lake Bittersweet was small enough that it was impossible to avoid any particular person forever, even if they’d moved to the next town over.

With the weather finally warming up, he and Galen Cooper decided to take a canoe out for the summer’s first fishing trip. They were carrying Galen’s big double canoe down the pebbled beach when he spotted Gretchen’s strawberry-blond head in a speedboat tied up at the public landing. She wore a visor to keep the sun off her face and bright pink lip gloss.

Probably watermelon flavored. That was her favorite. He didn’t like the taste of watermelon—too sugary. But he’d never told her that and now it didn’t matter since he’d never kiss her again.

“You okay, man?” Galen asked. For a wilderness dude, he was surprisingly sensitive. He was Jason’s best fishing bud, a real character, a bristly-haired mountain man more comfortable in the wilderness than around people. He’d been growing his beard out for so long that no one remembered what his face looked like. Every time he tried to cut his hair or shave, he panicked.

Jason loved the guy because he was so much himself, and besides, Jason got a kick out of most people.

“Yeah, it’s all good.” He shrugged. Easygoing Jason. Easy come, easy go. That was his motto, right?

His phone rang, the ringtone telling him his sister Holly was calling. As her surrogate parent, he couldn’t ignore her calls. He motioned to slow down, and dug his phone from his pocket. “Hey, we’re about to go catch dinner. What’s up?”

“I’m having friends over tonight.”

“Okay…” Holly was seventeen—a later-in-life surprise for their parents—and had friends over all the time. Even though he’d been her main parental figure since their parents had moved to Minneapolis three years ago, they were more like roommates than anything else. Only occasionally did he have to play the authority figure.

“One of them has a crush on you. Just a warning.”

He groaned. “I’ll stay away.” If anything would be guaranteed to make him stay out of the house, it would be one of Holly’s friends with a crush.

“Thanks.”

Something in her voice made him pause. “How many friends?”

“It’s not like that.”

He waited. The edge of the canoe bit into his other hand, and he adjusted his grip. A slick of green algae on the pebbles made his boots skid a bit.

“Chloe’s going through a hard time and she started seeing this one guy who’s a fucking bitch-ass loser, so we’re having an intervention.”

Jason let the curse words flow past without comment. Holly was fierce when it came to defending her friends, and that extended to the language she used. She’s just expressing herself. And I’m not her damn parent.

When their actual parents had broached the idea of moving their dance studio to Minneapolis, they’d assumed Holly would go with them. But she’d hated the idea of leaving her friends. Their older sister had enough on her plate with her own crew of hyperactive kids, so Holly had begged Jason to let her stay with him. She’d promised she wouldn’t cause any trouble. To prove it, on her first night living with him, she’d announced that she didn’t intend to have sex until she was at least eighteen.

So far, she’d stuck to her promise. Boys weren’t an issue. Her problems came from her extensive network of friends who texted twenty-four-seven with all kinds of drama.

“Anything I can do to help? Chloe’s a good egg.”

“You can start by not calling her an egg.”

Water splashed onto his boots as they reached the edge of the lake. Catching Galen’s eye, he nodded and they lowered the canoe into the water together. “Listen, I gotta go. We just splashed the canoe.”

“Who are you going with?”

“Galen.”

“Okay, well, whatever you do, don’t bring Galen over. Marissa has a crush on him.”

Jason nearly laughed out loud. Galen, with his wild black hair and bristly beard, always looked like he’d spent the night curled up under a pile of leaves in the forest. Good to know that didn’t make him immune to teenagers’ crushes. Those hormones were really something.

“Are you really supposed to be telling me about your friends’ crushes? Isn’t that a HIPAA violation?”

“Ha ha. But it’s a good point. I wouldn’t tell anyone except for you. Because you know I can kill you in your sleep anytime I want.”

“Damn, Holly. Are all teenage girls this bloodthirsty?”

“Welcome to the future. We’re going to run this world. You’re lucky I have your back.”

Galen beckoned at him, looking impatient. Out of the corner of his eye, Jason saw the speedboat carrying Gretchen ease away from the dock. With any luck, it would be long gone before they made it onto the lake.

“I’ll see you later,” he told Holly.

“Much later.”

“Right. Much later.”

Crap. Maybe he should crash at Galen’s. Or at the firehouse. Or at Gretch—Dammit. He wasn’t ever going to sleep at Gretchen’s again.

He wasn’t going to be able to avoid her, either, he realized. The speedboat was lingering near the dock. After he slid his phone back into his pocket, he steadied the canoe so Galen could get in, then slid in after him. By the time they got their paddles out and their strokes synchronized, they were heading right toward the snappy red boat.

“Ahoy there, Jason,” Gretchen called over the low rumble of the twin 500 horsepower engines. Who needed that much horsepower for a lake it took fifteen minutes to cross? Her new husband, Jack Corsi, was at the helm, ignoring their lowly canoe.

“Hey, Gretch. What are you doing back in town?”

“Oh, Jack bought this new boat and wanted to try it out on the nearest lake.”

The nearest lake? He wasn’t buying that for a second. Had they driven all the way to Lake Bittersweet to rub his face in their newfound bliss? Gretchen had warned him that she wouldn’t wait forever for a proposal. He hadn’t listened.

Or maybe he had, and just…didn’t really want to propose to her.

“It’s a beauty,” he said cordially.

“Did you really call it the Retch?” Galen called to her. “Weird name, but okay.”

“It’s the Gretch, you idiot.”

Jason bit back a smile. Gretchen never had liked Galen much. It had probably started the night he’d shown up with a deer strapped to his roof rack and a bloody field-dressing knife he wanted to wash in the sink.

Galen steered away from the boat, toward his favorite fishing hole where the walleye hung out.

Jason waved at Gretchen over his shoulder and caught a glimpse of her stepping to the wheel to wrap her arms around her new husband. Quickly, he looked away.

“You’re better off,” Galen growled. “I hope you’re not eating your heart out over her.”

“Me? Nah. I’ll be okay.”

Galen threw a dark glance at him over his shoulder. The deep green waters of the lake whispered past the hull of the canoe. “You sure? You’re not yourself lately.”

“We weren’t even together when she met Jack. We’ve broken up about twenty times since high school. It wasn’t meant to be.”

He didn’t want to admit to Galen that it hurt like hell to watch her nuzzling Jack in that cozy way she used to snuggle with him. He’d taken her for granted, he knew that. They’d had such an easy relationship. More like best friends than lovers. He still had the urge to call her up when he was bored. She’d always been up for something fun—let’s drive to Braddock and go bowling. Let’s ice skate down Grant Creek. Let’s fill the rookie’s car with Cheetos. Now she was having fun with a rich guy with a speedboat, and she deserved every bit of happiness.

They paddled a few minutes in silence. “How do you do that?” Galen asked.

“Do what?”

“Say goodbye to one woman and be so sure another one’s going to show up.”

“Experience?” Jason said with a smirk.

“Man, I wish I was you. No heartbreak for Jason Mosedale. One goes, here comes another. What’s that song? ‘Thank U, Next.’”

Did Galen really listen to Ariana Grande? The mountain man had all kinds of secrets up his sleeve. But did he really think Jason didn’t feel any pain over a breakup?

Stung, Jason blurted out the truth, which he hadn’t done with anyone since Gretchen got married. “That’s bullshit. I cried real tears when Gretchen left.”

“Tears? Like, out of your eyes?” Galen feathered the paddle to bring them skimming to a stop.

“Yes, jackass. It shook me up. I always figured we’d get married someday, it just never felt like the right day. I haven’t dated anyone since Gretchen left me. I’m…grieving.”

“That’s good.”

“Why is that good?”

“Maybe you’ll start to appreciate how lucky you are when it comes to women,” he said in a gloomy tone.

Poor Galen. He’d been hung up on the same woman for some time now. One of these days maybe he’d ask her out, but none of his buddies wanted to rush him.

“You know, I used to think I was lucky with women, but I was dead wrong. I’m just as single as you are. I lost my longtime girlfriend because I wouldn’t get serious enough to propose. Now I’m Holly’s latest project. She wants me to get the rebound relationship out of the way quickly so I can find the real thing. She keeps bringing up things like family dynamics and psychological blocks. I don’t know where she gets all the therapy shit, I think she sees it on TikTok.”

But Galen wasn’t listening. He was peering over the side of the canoe. “Never mind that, I hope you’re ready to catch your weight in walleye.” He scooted the end of his fishing rod over the edge and dropped the line, and in the next moment, reeled in a squirming, shiny-scaled fish. “‘Thank U, Next!’”

* * *

After they’d filled their cooler, Galen and Jason stowed the canoe and roasted two fat trout over a small campfire. They pronounced the summer season officially kicked-off. Then, needing beer, they made their way to Mariano’s Pizza, which had the best price on pitchers. As always, it was crowded with locals and the first summer folk arriving in town.

Jason elbowed his way to the bar and signaled the bartender for a pitcher of beer. He spotted some buddies from the firehouse at a corner table. A friend from high school and his wife were canoodling nearby. A group of crafters held down the large table for their monthly night out on the town. Conor Gault and his new love, Emmaline Curtis, were sharing a pizza with her brother Henry and his new love, Jamilah.

Love was breaking out all over the place. Like chickenpox.

His old trombone teacher waved at him from the bar. With his hands full of pitchers of beer, all he could do was nod back at him. Old Herbert Simonson had been crushed when he’d had to quit the trombone. When he’d found out it was due to a pool room brawl, he’d nearly wept.

Good old Lake Bittersweet. Where everyone knew your name, your romantic history, and your high school misdeeds.

But still, it was his town and he loved every quirky inch of it.

Galen stopped to talk to one of the fish and game guys, so Jason headed for the table where his firehouse buddies were gathered. Halfway there, someone stepped in front of him, causing him to splash beer on their sweater. Her sweater. Kendra.

A shiver swept through him. Hadn’t he just been thinking about that time at the pool hall with Kendra? Weird timing.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to get beer on you.” Droplets glistened on the garnet angora of her turtleneck sweater. She brushed them off briskly and thoroughly. Kendra did everything as well as it could be done. It used to be annoying, but now he simply admired it.

“It was my fault. I wanted to talk to you.”

He looked up in surprise. Kendra Carter was seeking him out? “Are you signing up to play victim again?”

She shuddered. “I think we can all agree it’s best if you find someone else to fake-rescue.” She jerked her thumb at the table of firefighters. In a lower, almost intimate voice, she said, “They actually told me they’d take up a collection to pay me not to do it again.”

He laughed out loud. “That’s bullshit. They’ll spend their money on beer and train with whoever I can get.”

He started to move around her, but she blocked him. “Seriously. I want to talk to you. Can we sit?”

“Uh…” He looked around at the crowded restaurant. The canoodling couple was getting to their feet, still locked in a kiss. He gestured with his head. “Over there?”

Kendra shot off to claim the table. He followed with the pitchers of beer, which looked ridiculously excessive when he set them on the table.

She eyed them curiously as she pulled up a chair. “Big beer drinker? It doesn’t show.”

“Where does he put it?” He mimicked a fawning compliment, making her smile. “They’re for the crew. But depending on what you want to talk to me about, I might need them. Am I in trouble?”

“In trouble?” She frowned. “Why would you be in trouble? And why would I have any authority over you to say you were?”

“You’re Alvin Carter’s daughter, and no one wants to disappoint Alvin,” he explained. “Especially not me.”

“Why especially not you?”

“He lets me play trombone in his jam sessions in Braddock. I’m always sure he’s going to boot me out.”

“Look at you, Jaybone. Still with the trombone.”

“Go ahead and tease. I’m all grown up now and comfortable with my instrument.”

She wrinkled her forehead at his ridiculous double-entendre. He took in her perfectly cut cheekbones and perky nose. On someone else, those features might add up to “temptress.” But Kendra wasn’t about collecting men’s hearts. She’d always wanted to make her own mark on the world.

He pushed a pitcher of beer toward her. “Have a drink and tell me what’s up.”

She shifted in the chair, which drew his attention to the tight red jacket she wore. Kendra always looked put-together in her own particular hot-girl way. He took the stack of cups from his pocket and plopped one on the table before her. She splashed some beer into it, then drank it down.

“Have you decided about the fire chief position?”

Damn. And here he’d thought maybe she’d been flirting with him. Kendra Carter was all business. “I’m still thinking about it.”

“Have you looked into the hiring process? I know it involves the board of aldermen, right?”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Yeah. I have all the paperwork. I know what I have to do, if that’s what you’re wondering. I don’t need any tutoring.”

She poured herself some more beer. “I’m not offering help, I’m asking for it. This is top secret information I’m about to share. I know I can trust you because…” Her gaze dropped to the scar on his upper lip. It tingled under her gaze. “Well, you know.”

“Sure, you can trust me. Does this involve pool?”

She snorted, then leaned forward on her elbows and dropped her voice. Her scent floated toward him, fresh and crisp, like apples in the snow. “I’m thinking about applying for the town manager job.”

He digested that. If he got the fire chief position, they’d be working together, sort of. Or at least they’d attend the same meetings together. He wouldn’t mind that. Seeing Kendra always sent a buzz through his system. “Cool,” he told her. “Good luck.”

“Wait. The thing is…” She hesitated. “I need to know if it’s a waste of time to apply. The board of aldermen hated Gault, absolutely despised him. They did everything they could to shut down the Blue Drake. My dad was Gault’s best friend. They might laugh me right out of the interview room.”

“Well, if they do, that’s their loss.”

She shook her head. “You don’t get it. I’m not going to put myself in a position where some old white men get to decide my future if they aren’t even going to give me a fair shot. I don’t mind taking my chances if I actually have a chance. But if I don’t…” She shrugged. “Then screw them.”

He gazed at her for a long, thoughtful moment. “You’ve never been turned down for anything, have you?”

“No,” she said after a pause. “Not exactly.”

“You can learn a lot from failure.”

“I don’t fail,” she snapped. But then something darker shadowed her face. A painful memory? A regret? “I mean, I don’t usually fail. But that’s partly because I do my research. So I’m doing my research now. Thomas Cooper’s on the board of aldermen now. You’re firehouse friends with him. That kind of bond goes deep. Can you get the lay of the land for me?”

“Isn’t your best friend Carly married to him?”

“Yes, but she just had her baby and I don’t want to put her in the middle.”

“I know she did, I’m the one who got her to the hospital. I nearly delivered him in the paramedic van.” He lifted his glass. “To baby Teddy.”

“To Teddy.” They clinked glasses and each took a sip.

“So you don’t mind putting me in the middle?” he asked curiously. It was…different, Kendra asking him for help. The reverse of high school.

“No, I don’t mind, because everyone likes you and they tell you stuff.”

“Is that flattery?” He wrinkled his forehead. “Because I feel like it could be a little better.”

“You’re insulting my flattery?”

“Absolutely not. Best flattery ever. How do you do it?”

She laughed at him and he felt giddy for a moment. Making Kendra laugh wasn’t like making other people laugh. It gave him a charge, like he could do anything in the whole goddamn world. “I’ll do it. I’ll be your spy.”

“Thanks, Jason. I really appreciate it.” She started to get up, but he touched her hand. She looked back at him curiously.

The contact—eye and hand—was like a punch to the gut, or a shot of adrenaline. Like that moment when a call came in and he ran to don his gear.

“I’m curious about something. You said you don’t usually fail. What do you mean by that?”

4

Kendra hadn’t intended to tell Jason about the fiasco with Dominic. She hadn’t planned to tell anyone. It was too humiliating on every level. But there was something about Jason that, quietly and steadily, drew the story from her.

She began with the short version. “Long story short, my boyfriend of two years broke up with me. Since he was also my business partner, he left me hanging professionally too.”

“Damn.” He waited for her to say more. She didn’t want to, but those steady eyes of his refused to turn away, and somehow the words kept coming.

“We met in Minneapolis, in business school. I’ve always wanted to run my own business. I don’t have the personality to be an employee, I want to be the boss.”

“Fair enough. Was that a problem for your ex?”

“No. Maybe.” She frowned, thinking it over. “Probably,” she admitted. “Remember how furious I was in our environmental sciences class when I learned that hardly any plastic actually gets recycled? I’m not a scientist, but I can help get the information out. I came up with this idea for an app that would let people know about all recycling options in their area, along with facts about what local businesses were doing in that space, simple steps to use less plastic, alternative plastic-free products, petitions to sign, just everything related to plastic recycling.”

“Great idea. What’s the name, I’ll download it.”

“It’s still in beta form. We hadn’t even named the app, but the company name is Explastica. Dominic—that’s my ex—came up with it. He had more experience with app launches, so I met with him to pick his brain. We had dinner and by the end he wanted in. We became partners.”

That night had been magical. She’d seen the rest of her life unfurl before her. Kendra and Dominic, conquering the world, together forever. She’d believed in that vision with every cell in her body.

“We were joined at the hip after that. We were the perfect business partners because we have similar work ethics. We both go hard, nonstop. And then we fell in love, and that made it even better. I assumed we’d be together forever.”

She caught his expression, and knew that he got it.

“I heard about Gretchen. I’m sorry. Breakups are the worst.”

He looked down at the table. “I just saw her on the lake. She’s really happy now. She deserves it. I wasn’t giving her what she wanted, so that’s on me.”

“She wanted to get married?” Kendra didn’t remember much about Gretchen other than freckles and a sunny smile; they’d never been in the same friend groups.

“Sure.” He shrugged. “I have nothing against marriage. I guess I just…I was waiting for something, I don’t know what. Something that would tell me it’s time to get married.”

Men. Kendra didn’t say it out loud, but good lord, did they need everything mapped out for them?

“If it was me, I would have just proposed,” she told him. “Not to you, obviously. To my man.”

“Did you? With Dominic?”

“No, because we were focusing on the business first. We had this unspoken agreement that once we got the app underway, we’d deal with our personal relationship.”

“Unspoken agreement,” he repeated, and she could hear for herself how sketchy that sounded. “I hope the business end of things was more official.”

Warmth flooded her face. She’d been so freaking blind. “That’s the problem. We have a contract, but the exit clause is too loose. Technically, he’s still an equal partner, but he slow-rolls everything. It takes him weeks to answer a single email. He wants me to buy him out, but I don’t have the money. In the meantime, anything I do for the business makes it more valuable and therefore more pricey to buy him out. He left me in limbo.”

Jason shook his head, nothing but sympathy in those dark blue eyes. No judgement. Jason didn’t judge, she realized. Maybe because he’d had struggles of his own.

“What’s this jackass doing now?”

His phrasing filled her with delight. “Behind my back, he went to this big international firm and pitched himself as an expert in recycled plastic business opportunities. Companies always want to say they’re doing something for the environment to offset their horrendous records. He got himself hired as a kind of recycled plastic czar with a huge budget including seed money for small ventures around the world. He gets to travel wherever he wants searching for new businesses to invest in. It’s a dream job for him. He’s in London now.”

“My Irish grandmother used to say, you can’t trust the Brits. Sometimes there was spitting involved. If she saw an English Breakfast tea bag, she’d literally stomp on it and grind it to dust. If she was still alive, you could sic her on Dominic.”

It didn’t fix anything, but it made her laugh. “Guess I should have listened to your grandma.”

“To be honest, she was off her rocker. Not just about that. She also believed that fairies lived in her chimney and came out at night to make trouble. She made me set up a videocamera to catch them in the act. When there was nothing on the tape, she suddenly remembered that fairies are invisible.”

It occurred to Kendra that talking to Jason was like floating down a river in an inner tube, soaking in the scenery along the way. He didn’t rush to get to the end. He took in everything along the way.

Was that why she’d always seen him as unambitious? Because he wasn’t going full-tilt for the end goal?

Kirk and Gina stopped by their table for a quick word. Gina had a question about the next day’s staffing schedule for the restaurant, and asked if anyone could give her a hand restocking the cabin kitchens. Kendra answered automatically. She could probably manage Alvin’s Burgers and Blues in her sleep. It presented no challenges. It posed no problems.

It also gave her a lot of comfort, working so close to her father. So there was that.

As they left, Gina gave her a quick wink. Not hard to interpret. Rebound, rebound.

When they were alone again, Jason sipped his beer and said, “So, not to be too critical of your ex, but he sounds like your basic selfish jerk. How does that count as your failure?”

“How? How much time do you have?”

He gestured at the crowd of pizza customers. “As much time as it takes. They close at eleven, but we could always go somewhere else.”

Was that an invite? She looked at him closely, but didn’t see any kind of come-on in those deep blue eyes of his. Rebound, rebound. Gina’s chant kept running through her mind. She shushed it. Jason deserved better than just being someone’s rebound. He was a good guy.

Back to her failures.

“Business mistake.” She checked off item one on her fingers. “I trusted him too much business-wise.”

“How? You had a contract.”

“Yes, but it obviously had glaring loopholes. And there’s nothing to stop him from using my ideas in his new position.”

He shrugged. “Still doesn’t seem like a failure. Sorry. You can’t control everything. No one can.”

Apparently not. Which sucked, because she really liked to feel in control.

“I failed to anticipate what an ass he was. I thought we were the same degree of dedicated. I didn’t see that he was mostly dedicated to himself.”

“Live and learn.”

That comment rubbed her the wrong way. “I hate when people say that. It sounds like an excuse for screwing up.”

“So you think you have to do everything perfectly the first time?” He swished the beer around in his glass. She noticed that he didn’t actually drink very much. The beer seemed to be mostly a prop. She also noticed that his hands looked strong. Those weren’t laptop hands. They were heavy-fire-hose hands.

“I usually do,” she said simply.

He laughed, that dimple in his cheek flashing. “True. So maybe you’re spoiled by your own incredible competence. Everyone screws up sometimes.”

“I don’t let myself screw up.” Now that she’d said that out loud, she realized how exhausting it had been, upholding that standard. Maybe it would be a relief to let it go.

“You’re awfully hard on yourself, especially because your screwup didn’t hurt anyone. Besides yourself,” he added. Then pulled an “apology” face. “Sorry. Did that sound bad?”

“No. I guess you’re right. No bystanders were harmed by my bad judgement about men. But that’s the thing. I’m always the one warning my friends about their bad choices. I’m the smart one. My entire reputation, down the drain, like that.” She snapped her fingers, trying to come off as joking. “Dominic really fucked me over.”

“My sister’s like that.” Jason shook his head and took a sip of beer. “She’s seventeen now and therefore pretty much knows everything. If you can believe it, she’s in the middle of some kind of intervention right now for one of her friends. I can’t go back until she’s done.”

Kendra searched her memory for her name. “Holly, right?” She’d seen Holly and her friends at Alvin’s Burgers a few times, now that she thought about it.

He nodded.

“So…you still live at home?”

“Where else would I live?” Then he got it, and burst out laughing. “You mean with my parents. No. They moved to Minneapolis. My sister lives with me. Her and a rotating cast of about ten of her friends.”

Now that surprised her. Taking responsibility for an entire sister, that didn’t fit with the carefree Jason she remembered.

“And she tells them what to do?”

“She does. For some reason they listen to her.”

“Does she give good advice? Maybe she has some for me.”

“Oh, no doubt. If you’re really lucky, she’ll do one of her interventions and really whip your life into shape.”

“Hard pass.”

After a laugh, he sat back in his chair and gave her a thoughtful stare. “Maybe it’s just me, but you don’t seem as torn up about losing your relationship as about the rest of it.”

“You don’t know me like that,” she protested. “I don’t show my business to everyone.”

“Fair. Sorry.”

His quick apology took the sting out of his observation. Enough so that she didn’t mind sharing more. “I was crushed. I couldn’t believe it. It took me days to realize it wasn’t just a big prank. Then I was stuck in Minneapolis with an apartment I couldn’t afford and a business I couldn’t do anything with. Alone. That’s why I came back here. Running home to daddy.” She rolled her eyes a little.

His eyes softened with sympathy. “Who better to get you through a breakup than a blues legend? Alvin could write you a whole album about it.”

“My dad is like…my security blanket. I knew I could come back and he wouldn’t judge. He’s happy I’m back. But…”

“But what?” he prompted. He was such a good listener, and questioner.

“I feel like I disappointed him. I was supposed to go off and set the world on fire. Instead I’m back here working for him.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Is he disappointed, or you?”

Ohh, good point. She laughed ruefully. “Me. Pop would be happy if I stayed forever.”

“You wouldn’t want that?”

Their eyes met, and she couldn’t quite read his expression. Jason had never left Lake Bittersweet, and probably had no intention of leaving.

She let out a long sigh. “To be honest, Jason, I don’t know anything anymore. I’m a damn mess, but no one seems to realize it. And you can’t tell anyone,” she added quickly.

“No one would believe me anyway. Kendra Carter, a mess? That’s more of a Jason thing.”

“Maybe we’re trading places.”

“You’re saying that because you’ve always wanted to drive a fire truck, aren’t you?”

She laughed, already feeling lighter. Jason always had that effect. “No thank you.”

They sat in comfortable silence for a moment. “Thanks for telling me what’s going on in your life,” he said finally. “I felt like something was off. I wasn’t sure what.”

“Well, thanks for listening. My friends know about the breakup with Dom, but I haven’t told them all the gory details about the business. It’s humiliating. But I know you can keep things to yourself.” Her gaze dropped to his upper lip, and lingered. His mouth had a nice shape to it, she noticed. The scar just enhanced his firm, full lines. No thin lips on Jason Mosedale.

“I won’t say anything. It’s your life.”

That phrase rang a bell.

She remembered the last time they’d talked at their lockers, just before she left school early for her accelerated college program.

“You should pay more attention in class,” she’d lectured him. “Or you’re going to end up running the cash register at the Quickie Mart. You’re better than that.”

“What’s wrong with the Quickie Mart? I like those little corn dogs they sell. The ones that rotate on little skewers, man, they’re good.”

“You’re impossible.” She’d grabbed the last emergency protein bar from her locker and tossed her lock in her backpack. “It’s your life. Good luck with your nowhere future.”

Her face heated again as she caught his eye over his glass of beer. She’d been pretty rude to Jason back then. Wrong, too. Being a firefighter wasn’t a “nothing” future. He was very good at it, from everything she’d heard. Where had she gotten off telling him what his future was going to be?

“That was the last conversation we had before I left, wasn’t it?”

He nodded with a wry look. “It had an impact, obviously.”

She dropped her head into her hands. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have gone off on you the way I did.”

He shrugged. “No worries.”

“What do you mean, no worries? I had no right to come at you like that.”

“It didn’t bother me. I liked it.”

“You liked it?”

“I figured you wouldn’t bother if you didn’t care. When I passed the firefighter exam, I wanted to rub your face in it. Seemed a little immature, though.”

Oh, that twinkle in his eye, that dimple, that sexy quirk of his lips. No wonder he never had a problem lining up the next girl.

Rebound, rebound.

Shut up, Gina.

“Well, of course I cared. You have a scar thanks to me.”

“Yeah, and thanks for that, too. Really. It’s a great story. Girls love it.”

Of course they did. The heroic kid diving in front of a pool cue to save someone else.

“As long as you keep my name out of it,” she said lightly.

“It’s permanently redacted. I’m pretty sure that mystery girl was just a summer tourist who couldn’t handle her Jägermeister.”

They both took a pause, and she realized that they’d been wrapped up in each other to such an extent that Mariano’s was half empty now. The other firefighters had left. There was no sign of Galen. At the jukebox, someone put on an old country love ballad, which somehow made the lights seem dimmer. It all seemed calculated to create an atmosphere of intimacy, but it was probably just in her imagination. This was Mariano’s, after all, not some hipster cocktail bar in Minneapolis.

And she and Jason didn’t have that kind of vibe.

Except that he was looking at her as if she was a dessert he couldn’t wait to savor.

“What are you doing?” she asked bluntly.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re looking at me different.”

“Different how?” He raised an eyebrow, but the look in his eyes didn’t change.

“Sexy.”

His lips curved slowly. “Are you saying I’m sexy? Or I think you’re sexy?”

Oooh, that sounded like a trap. But she’d had enough beer that she stepped into it anyway. “Both?”

“Huh.”

She waited, but he didn’t add any details to that frustrating “huh.” “That’s it? That’s all you have to say?”

“For now.” He shrugged. “It’s hardly big news that I think you’re sexy.”

He was wrong there. Her eyes widened. “It’s not? Since when?”

“I always thought so. Ever since I knew what “sexy” meant. It’s not so strange. Look at you.” The warmth in his eyes embraced her, made her feel like a goddess. “I never thought it went the other way, though.”

“Well…” She thought about it. Took another sip of beer. “It did. Sort of. I mean, I didn’t think of you that way. But if I’d thought about it, I would have said you were sexy.”

He tilted his head back and laughed. “Talk about a compli-sult.”

She liked the way his throat muscles moved. He had a healthy layer of dark scruff covering his jaw. What would he smell like, right there, between his collarbone and his neck? Something told her that scent would please her. He pleased her, on a purely physical level.

But there was so much more to relationships than the physical. Your goals had to be aligned. You had to click on a mental level.

Not for a rebound.

He finished his beer, then grabbed his jacket and stood up. “Should we get out of here?”

“Wait. No. What are you saying? Don’t you think that’s a little presumptuous?”

He shot her an odd look. “I need to get home and make sure the intervention didn’t turn into an emotional bloodbath. I can only handle so many sobbing teenage girls at a time.”

Right. Of course. Her face felt warm again.

“I’ll call you in a couple days. I’ll pick Thomas’ brain about the town manager job and let you know what he says.”

She shook herself back to sanity. This rebound idea was absurd. Also, very bad. Rebounds were trouble. She didn’t believe in them. Someone always got hurt. She didn’t want that to be her, and she didn’t want that to be Jason, either.

“Thanks, Jason. I owe you one. Stop by Alvin’s any time and I’ll set you up with a burger.” She got to her feet as well, and edged her way past the table. They both headed for the exit.

Should they time their departures so that no one thought they were leaving together? No, there was no need for that. No one would put her and Jason together. They were two high school locker neighbors catching up, nothing more.

A tourist who’d had too much beer stumbled into her. Jason put his arm around her shoulders to pull her out of his path. A spray of heat shot through her body. It settled in her lower belly, a throbbing knot of awareness.

“I’m fine,” she told him, trying to sound irritated. Did he notice the unusual shakiness of her voice? “Watch your step, mister,” she told the tourist.

“You better watch your—”

“Okay, okay.” Jason intervened, keeping his body between the two of them. “Lake Bittersweet Fire Department here. Keep it cool.”

“Whatever.” The man gestured recklessly as he turned back to the bar.

It wasn’t until they got outside that Kendra realized he must have accidentally made contact with Jason’s face. His lower lip was swollen.

“Jason Mosedale.” She tugged him to a stop and touched his lip. “You have to stop getting injured on my behalf.”

“Yes ma’am. I’ll do my best. Wait. Does this mean you owe me another kiss? Because this’ll be gone by tomorrow.” He pointed at the bump on his lip and grinned.

“You’re pushing it, Jaybone.”

5

The “intervention” must have been really something. Jason surveyed the teenagers snoring away in the basement den. The six of them filled every sleep-worthy nook in the room. One girl—he couldn’t tell who—was curled up in Rusty’s dog bed with the old Irish Setter. Both were snoring.

The space reeked of popcorn and scented candles. He quickly located the candles and confirmed they were well away from any paper or cloth. Good thing he’d trained Holly on proper fire-prevention protocols.

Holly, who was sharing the couch, head to feet with Chloe, opened her eyes when Jason poked his head in the door.

She put a finger to her lips, lifted Chloe’s draped arm off her leg, and carefully rolled off the couch.

In the dog bed, Rusty stirred, lifted his head, then dropped it back down as if the weight was just too much.

In the kitchen, Holly stretched and yawned. “What time is it?”

“Midnight. Did I stay away long enough?”

“Yes, but I thought you’d probably find someone to spend the night with,” she grumbled through another yawn. “It’s weird having you be so single.”

“I’m sorry my love life isn’t living up to expectations.” He opened the fridge and poured himself a glass of ice water. “How’d the intervention go?”

“Not well, at first. Chloe accused us of being a bunch of Karens getting in her business. Some feelings were hurt on both sides. We talked through it. I mediated. Then we watched a horror movie. There was this girl playing the violin, and—”

“Hey. You know I can’t handle that shit.” It was a running joke with them that the big strong firefighter didn’t like gory movies. The fact was, he saw enough upsetting things on the job, even in a small town like Lake Bittersweet. He didn’t need them in his movies. Give him a fun action movie or a rom-com any day.

“Right. Anyway, we’re all good now. We’re talking about taking a camping trip next week.”

“Is Chloe going to dump her boyfriend?”

“You mean her loser hookup who posts the worst memes in the multiverse? No. She had a point. It’s her relationship. We all agreed to support her no matter what, but reserved the right to say ‘I told you so’ if they break up.”

“Good negotiating.”

“Right?” They exchanged a high-five.

He took a sip and let cold water slide down his throat. It felt good after all that conversation in the crowded pizza shop, trying to make himself heard over all the chatter.

Holly leaned toward him and sniffed. “You had pizza.”

“No, just a beer.” He gave a little laugh. “I forgot to order one, if you can believe it.”

His sister eyed him suspiciously. She wore her favorite thread-worn sleep shorts and a t-shirt with a panda on it. “You must have been with someone fascinating. I know it wasn’t Galen.”

“If eccentric and fascinating are the same thing, it could be Galen. But it wasn’t,” he admitted. “I lost track of him early on.”

“Then who?”

For some reason, he didn’t want to tell her he’d spent the entire evening talking to Kendra. He loved his little sister, but she had opinions about everything.

He fudged. “An old high school friend.”

“Girl or boy?”

“Do you have to be so binary about it?”

She laughed, since that was a conversation they had on a regular basis. In fact, her friend Kayla was a trans girl, and he’d gotten a front-row seat—or maybe front-row, off-to-the-side—to her experience.

“That means it was a girl. I approve. You’ve been moping around about Gretchen way too long. She was never right for you anyway.”

Here we go, thought Jason with an inward sigh. How could Holly be so damn confident in her judgements? Had he been like that at her age? Maybe he had, but his opinions hadn’t generally involved other people’s relationships.

“I’m glad you approve. But there’s nothing to approve of. It’s not like that.”

“Not like that…” She nibbled on a thumbnail, then balled her hand into a fist, since she was trying to break that habit. “Hm…interesting. A girl you went to high school with, so fascinating she made you forget pizza, but not someone you’re hot for.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” he murmured.

She pounced. “Then you are hot for her, but you aren’t sure about her. I can’t stand it. You have to tell me! Who? Who, who?”

“Why is there an owl in here?” A yawning Chloe shuffled into the kitchen in her Adidas slides and neon orange knee socks, a crocheted blanket wrapped around her. Hadn’t he seen those knee socks on a different friend? They all seemed to exchange clothing all the time.

“I’m trying to get Jason to tell me who he just had dinner with,” Holly explained.

“I had dinner with Galen. We fried up our trout. Fun time, and you know the best part? We stayed out of each other’s business.”

Holly blinked at him. The two of them didn’t look much alike, other than the same dimple in their left cheek. She resembled their Irish father, while he took after their Argentinian mother. “Those words have no meaning to me.”

Chloe propped her elbows on the kitchen island. “You know you’re going to tell her eventually, so you might as well get it over with.”

“Love it when you all gang up on me. Is that what the intervention was like?” He reached over and squeezed her shoulder. “I’m truly sorry.”

“You have no idea.” Her heartfelt tone made him laugh a little.

Kayla wandered into the kitchen. She wore a black hoodie that she’d unintentionally decorated with green paw prints when her cat got into an open container of body paint. “What’s going on in here?”

“We’re trying to pry info out of my brother, this won’t take much longer. Just tell me what I want to know and we promise not to do an intervention on you.”

Jason looked desperately for an exit, but they were all blocked by teenagers. Was this some version of hell? He sighed and gave up. It wasn’t a secret anyway. Half of Lake Bittersweet had been at Mariano’s. “I should probably get that in writing, but fine. I was talking to Kendra Carter.”

Holly straightened up. So did Kayla and Chloe. They all exchanged alarmed glances, then simultaneously shook their heads. “No. Oh no. You can’t hook up with Kendra. If you even think about that, I will do an intervention,” said Holly.

“Excuse me?”

He wasn’t planning to hook up with Kendra. All they’d done was talk and, okay, maybe flirt a little. There had been chemistry, he wasn’t going to lie. But knowing Kendra, it would never go any further. She wanted more than an ordinary firefighter.

But the hell if he was going to let his little sister tell him who he could and couldn’t date. “Why not? Wait.” He flung up one hand. “If you say one word against Kendra—”

“Why would I do that? Kendra’s awesome. She comps us free burgers at the Blue Drake if we get an A on something.”

“Yeah, and she gave me some purple Fudge hair color for my birthday, right after I came out, and it was like, the nicest thing anyone ever did for me. I mean, grownups. Not you guys,” Kayla added quickly as Holly bristled.

“Kendra’s the bomb diggity, so you can’t go out with her right now,” Chloe explained.

“Right.” Jason nodded, hiding his hurt. They were just kids. No need to take it personally. “I’m not on her level is what you’re saying. I know that.”

“What? No, that’s absolutely not what we’re saying. You’re still grieving your relationship with Gretchen. If you’re going to have a rebound, it can’t be with someone as great as Kendra. That’s a waste!”

“A waste?” He was lost. Holly wasn’t making any sense. “A waste of what?”

“Of a potentially solid relationship. You have to wait until you’re ready, then you can date Kendra. There has to be a bridge relationship that leads you out of the depths of heartbreak back into a social life. But that person is just a springboard to the next relationship, the really good one.”

“Jesus, Holly, where do you get this stuff? You’ve never had a single serious relationship.” Bemused, he scratched at the back of his neck. All her theories seemed absurd to him.

“By choice. Which proves I take relationships seriously. You don’t, and that’s your problem. That’s probably why Gretchen ditched you.”

“Or it could have been because he’s the classic commitment-phobe,” said Chloe wisely.

“No, he’s okay with commitment.” Finally, his sister was actually defending him. “He’s the only pseudo-parental figure who’s still around. He just doesn’t take things seriously.”

“I take fires seriously.” He felt compelled to point that out.

“Do you though? Didn’t you just fill Brent’s boots with glow-in-the-dark worms? They say people could hear his screams all the way from the lake.”

“Pranks are a time-honored part of being a firefighter. They release tension, create unit cohesion, boost morale.”

Holly clapped her hands together. “You’ve been prepping for your fire chief interview! Yes! You’re going for it!”

“I still haven’t decided,” he said quickly. She’d been pushing him to apply ever since he first mentioned the possibility.

“See? If you really took things seriously, you’d already have that job. How do you expect someone like Kendra to want to date you—I mean, one girlfriend from now—if you don’t even apply for a job that’s perfect for you?”

“That’s easy. I don’t.” He shrugged. Dating Kendra wasn’t on his agenda. Or it hadn’t been, until tonight.

“Booo.” The three girls heckled him as he put his water glass in the sink and dodged around Kayla toward the stairs. “Scaredy-cat”… “cluck cluck”… “don’t be a pussy” … “Girl, pussy should be a compliment”…

He tuned them out as he hit the stairs.

But Holly had given him something to think about. If you want to date Kendra…

Did he?

Damn, he did. He really did. She was beautiful and brilliant and big-hearted and he found her absolutely fascinating. She thought he should apply for fire chief too. But would that really make a difference to her? He’d still be a small-town, simple-life guy. That wasn’t going to change. If he wasn’t good enough for her as he was…

Just do it. Push yourself. Take something seriously. Go for it. All the way. Prove to yourself you can do it.

Shocked, he stopped at the top of the staircase. That thought hadn’t come from his sister, or from Kendra. It was all him.

Damn. He was going to do it. He was going for fire chief.

* * *

On his next day off, Jason went to visit Thomas Cooper, the former fire chief. He’d lost his job in a confrontation with the board of aldermen, then turned around and run for an open seat on the board—and won. He knew all about Lake Bittersweet town politics.

Thomas opened the door and put a finger to his lips. From upstairs, the faint sound of a lullaby drifted down. Carly must be trying to put Teddy to sleep. Making as little noise as possible, they tiptoed out to the redwood deck. It had a view of the lake, if you squinted past scrub pines and eelgrass. Laundry hung from a line strung from an upstairs window to one of the deck posts. It seemed to be filled exclusively with tiny onesies.

“Good to see you, man,” Thomas said once they’d both settled into Adirondack chairs on the deck. An old apple crate served as a footrest. “Tell me something good. I need a distraction.”

Jason cut right to the chase. “Is there any reason Kendra Carter shouldn’t apply for the town manager job? She doesn’t want to waste her time if she doesn’t have a chance with our board of town fossils.”

“No reason, if she really wants the job. Why would she?”

Jason shrugged. “She likes being in charge of things. She’d be good at it.”

“If she likes pushing boulders uphill, she should go for it.”

Jason texted that to Kendra, then looked up to find Thomas’ penetrating gaze on him.

“How about you? Rumor has it you’re considering going for my old job.”

“Yeah. I might. I mean, I am.” God, why was he stammering? It felt strange, saying out loud that he was aiming for fire chief. “I, uh, just filed the application this morning.”

Thomas stretched his legs out and crossed them at the ankle. “What took you so long?”

“I know, I know. Took my time deciding, what can I say?”

“I’m serious. It’s a serious question. What held you back? The aldermen are going to want to know if you really want it. They don’t want to do a new search in a year.”

Well shit. That wasn’t the welcoming reaction Jason had expected. “I wasn’t sure I was the fire chief type.”

“And now you are?”

The edge in Thomas’ voice made him draw back. “I hope so. I’m a good firefighter. The crew respects me. The community knows me.”

“They know you as a friend. A jokester.”

Jason drew in a breath. Maybe mentioning this to Thomas had been a mistake. He started to rise to his feet, but Thomas stopped him with hand on his arm.

“I’m giving you a taste of what you might get from the board of aldermen. They usually hire laterally, you know. They like people who already have some leadership experience. You’re going to have to convince them you have what it takes.”

He sank down onto the chair. This close to the lake, the earthy scent of thawing mud surrounded them. He had his mud boots with him in his truck; maybe he should get out of here and go cast a line. Stick to the simple stuff.

Thomas shot him a curious look. “Seems like you might have to convince yourself first.”

He shrugged. “Maybe. I’m not like you. I’m just a guy.”

“Bullshit.”

That quick response took Jason by surprise. “Huh?”

“No one’s ‘just a guy’. But especially not you.”

While Jason was trying to figure out how to respond to that, Thomas switched gears. “How are your parents doing?”

“Good. Yeah. Business is booming. Lots of hipsters in Minneapolis wanting to learn swing dancing and conga.”

“You used to work for them, didn’t you?”

Jason squirmed in his seat. He hadn’t had a choice. His parents had needed him to play dance partner when there weren’t enough men signed up for the classes, or an uneven number, or they simply wanted someone younger to help out.

Not that he didn’t like dancing. He enjoyed it, and those skills had actually helped when it came to firefighting. Firefighting had an element of choreography to it, as well as coordination and controlled movement.

“Yeah. Until sometime in high school, when I didn’t have time anymore. Why?”

“You could have taken over their business. That would have been the easy route. Becoming a firefighter ain’t exactly easy. Especially with a learning disability. Makes the exam a lot harder.”

Jason froze. A sense of shame flooded him. He’d tried so hard to hide it. He knew how to compensate. Some things, like reading, just took him twice as long. The upside was that once he’d read something, he knew it. There was no such thing as skimming for him.

“How did you know?” he managed.

“I just figured it out after a while. Don’t worry, it’s your business.”

“Then why…why even…”

“Bring it up? Because I kept waiting for you to throw your hat in the ring, and you didn’t. I wondered if had to do with your learning disability. I just want to point out that you became a firefighter by working twice as hard as most people. I admire that. You underestimate yourself.”

Now he sounded like Kendra.

Thomas lifted his eyebrows, and Jason realized he’d mumbled that out loud. “Well, she’s usually right. You should listen to her.”

Jason let out a sigh and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. Kendra knew a lot of things, but nothing about being a firefighter. She didn’t know about his learning disability, either. He would have rather died than tell her.

“Seriously, Cooper, you think I can do the job?”

“Yes. But things would change. You’ll have to cut back on the pranks and all that shit. You can’t be one of the guys anymore. You have to set the tone. That’s what leadership is all about. Some people are just natural-born leaders, but other people have to work on it, like a skill. I’m not sure which one you are. My theory,” he squinted at Jason, “is that you’re a leader in hiding. There’s something holding you back.”

A cry floated through the air. As they both looked up, an upstairs window was flung open. Carly poked her head out. She held a tiny black-haired baby against her chest. “I need a break,” she called down to Thomas. “It’s either a break or some vodka, and since I’m still breast-feeding…”

“On it.”

Thomas leaped to his feet. Carly lifted a hand from her baby’s back to give Jason a wave. He felt an almost proprietary concern for her little guy, because he’d been the one who took her to the hospital. She’d nearly fainted at the hardware store. He’d been picking up supplies for the firehouse, but abandoned that job and whisked her off to the hospital. It turned out that she was already in labor, and she’d been so busy wrapping up loose ends at the Blue Drake that she’d ignored the contractions.

“I’ll show myself out,” Jason called after him.

As he headed for his truck, he realized his gut was roiling with anxiety. He hated talking about his learning disability. And Thomas’ mention of the dance studio…he hadn’t thought about that in a long time. His parents had been so disappointed when he’d told them “no” to their offer.

* * *

“Querido, we really wish you’d reconsider. This business is perfect for you. It’s entirely physical. You can hire someone to do the parts that are hard for you. You can hire an accountant, a front desk clerk, someone to keep records. All you have to do is spin around the room with one girl after another.” His mother demonstrated with one of her graceful moves.

“Not so hard, is it, buddy?” His father gave him that big old charming smile that he beamed down at every woman he twirled across the floor.

“I don’t want to run a dance studio. I want to do something different than that.”

“Different how?”

He thought hard about how to put it. “Life-saving.”

“Mi caro, you’d never get through medical school. This is not an option for you.”

“I didn’t say I wanted to be a doctor.” But he wouldn’t have minded it. Doctor, or maybe a nurse. On camping trips, he was always the one who knew what to do if someone sprained their ankle or burned themselves on a smoldering log. He’d even splinted his buddy’s broken arm after he’d fallen into a ravine. Then he’d helped get him up the rocks back onto the trail. Maybe he could be an ER doctor. He was good in a crisis. Everyone else freaked out, but he never seemed to.

“You need to be realistic,” said his father, serious now. “With your issues in school, you need to lower your expectations, son. Not everyone can be a superstar. Some of us just try to bring a little fun into the world. That’s what we do. Why can’t you be happy with that? Everyone loves you. Be happy with that.”

* * *

Well, he was happy. But he’d also proven his parents wrong. Just like Thomas said, he’d done the work it took to become a firefighter, and he was really fucking good at it. But it was hard not to take those long-ago lectures from his parents to heart. Not everyone can be a superstar. Some people are just here to bring a little fun into the world.

Was that where it began and ended for him?

6

Kendra’s first meeting with the hiring committee didn’t go well. They kept coming back to her lack of experience planning big events.

“Let me prove I can handle it,” she offered. “Give me an event. Any event. A square dance. A silent auction. A five-mile run. A blood drive. Anything. Watch me in action.”

“Do you even know what events the town sponsors?” Betty Bannister asked. Betty was nearly eighty, which made her one of the younger members of the board.

“Of course I do.” She’d rattled them off, starting with the iconic Sunburn Fest in May and going all the way through the Winter Carnival. “But I think we should have even more. If I get this job, I’ll be researching more potential events for the winter season. I’ve already started a list. I know what it’s like here in the winter, it’s very bor—I mean, quiet. A lot of businesses struggle to make it to spring. There’s no reason we can’t be drawing tourists here year-round. It would be good for business, good for the tax base, good for the kids who grow up here.”

She deliberately emphasized her local roots, since rumor had it her competitors were all from out of town.

They exchanged glances that ranged from impressed to amused. “You have a lot of energy and ideas, don’t you?”

“I do.” She paused. “I hope that’s not a problem.”

“No no, of course not.”

But it was. She learned that fact when she ran into Jason at the SweetBitter Café. In his work pants and dark blue Lake Bittersweet FD t-shirt, he looked as delicious as the fresh pastries.

He told her that his spy had informed him that more than one member of the committee was worried that she might shake things up too much.

“Shoot. I should have known I was coming on too strong. I tend to do that when I’m nervous. Right before I went in, my mother called and warned me about that. I should have listened.” She bit her lip as she took her blackberry muffin from Rick Sanchez, the café owner.

“No charge, buttercake.” Rick blew her a kiss and a wink. “Not when you’re looking so blue.”

“Buttercake?” she murmured to Jason as they left the café and stepped into the heat of the last day in June. “I seriously can’t tell if that’s a compliment or an insult.”

“Everyone loves butter and cake, so I’d go with compliment.” His tall form paced easily next to her. Ever since that night at Mariano’s, she’d been hyper-aware of Jason. Every time a fire truck rolled past, she perked up and checked to see if Jason was onboard. It was pretty ridiculous and made her feel like a teenager with a crush. She hadn’t been like that with Dominic. They’d simply slid into a relationship as if it was destined.

“Should I have toned it down in my interview?” She broke off the top of the muffin, then offered the bottom part to Jason.

“No way. It’s only the old relics who are afraid of change. The other people on the committee think you’re great. Just so you know, Thomas had to recuse himself from the decision because you’re so close to Carly. But he’s keeping tabs on it for me.”

He took the muffin from her and looked at her oddly. “Something wrong with this part?”

“Yes. It doesn’t have sugar sprinkles.” She wrinkled her nose at him as she bit into the top. “Generally I give my muffin bottoms to my dad, because he’s not supposed to eat too much sugar. But you’re here, so…” She shrugged.

“Wow, can I get that on my tombstone? ‘He was there, so…’” With a laugh, he bit into the muffin.

“Oh my God, I didn’t mean it that way! You’re much more than just ‘there.’ What I mean is, I wouldn’t share a muffin with just anyone.”

“Nice. A compliment for me, too. Thanks, Buttercake.”

It occurred to her that she’d never offered half of a muffin to Dominic. For one thing, he didn’t eat carbs. For another, he paid very careful attention to everything she ate, too, so she tended to only indulge in baked goods when she wasn’t around him.

“So what should I do, Jason? You’re good at that sort of thing. I’m open to advice, and believe me, I don’t say that very often.”

“What sort of thing are we talking about? Not muffins anymore?”

“The job. How can I get them to like me and want to hire me?”

“Why do you think I’d know?”

“Because people like you!” She gestured at the busy street, where the first tourists of the season mingled with locals running errands. “How many people have you said hello to while we’ve been walking?”

He shrugged, even as he waved at Mrs. Halliday as she pushed her folding shopping cart down the street. “Need a hand over there, young lady?” he called.

“Maybe later, smokeshow.” She grinned from under her crocheted hat.

“Smokeshow?” whispered Kendra.

“Hey, I get nicknames too.” They both laughed. “But what she’s actually referring to is when I put out a grease fire in her kitchen, and I used the term ‘smokeshow’ to explain what was happening.”

“Huh. So if I counted right, Mrs. Smokeshow over there was the seventh person you said hello to in the fifty steps we’ve taken between the café and here.”

“It’s a slow morning. A lot of people are sleeping in.”

“How do you do it? How do you get all these people to fall at your feet?” She paused, thinking further. “Actually, that would be annoying. I just want the board to respect me enough to hire me.”

“Kendra, believe me, everyone in this town respects you. You don’t have to do anything. Just be who you are.” He took a bite of the muffin bottom and chewed for a moment. “Didn’t you offer to handle a big event?”

“Yes, but someone’s already doing the SweetSummer Fest, which is the next one coming up.”

“So add on to it. How about an outdoor concert at the Blue Drake?”

She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at the fireman next to her. “Jason, you are a freaking genius.”

He laughed. “Funny thing to say to a guy you once tutored in history.”

“Oh my God, I forgot about that.”

He’d been struggling in the class, so she’d offered to help get his grade up. Then she’d been surprised by how interesting their discussions had been. He had no trouble with the concepts of the class. It was the amount of reading material that hampered him.

“You know,” she said sternly, “there are many forms of intelligence that don’t involve doing well in school. You probably have many of those.”

He finished the muffin by popping it into his mouth. “Is snack acquisition intelligence one of them? I’ve got that.”

“I’m pretty sure turning everything into a joke is a sign of lack of intelligence.”

“That’s too bad, since it’s my superpower.” His grin was so infectious, she had to laugh. They reached the corner where their paths would diverge, the Blue Drake one direction, the firehouse the other. She found herself slowing down so they’d have more time together.

“That concert idea is fantastic, but I’m not sure where I could find a band at this late date. Oh!” She snapped her fingers. “My dad’s jam session group. Didn’t you say you play with them?”

“Oh hell no.” He backed away from her. After a quick check of traffic, he bolted across the street. “Byeeee!” he called from the other side, then disappeared inside the firehouse.

She laughed long and hard, then hurried in the direction of the Blue Drake. Her father was in charge of that group, and she could get a “yes” from him with a snap of her fingers. Being a daddy’s girl had its advantages.

* * *

The biggest festival of the summer season in Lake Bittersweet, known as the SweetSummer Fest, was held on the first Saturday of July. The town always closed the downtown area to traffic, making room for food stalls and crafts tables and cotton candy and games and balloon animals.

As with all the town festivals, Alvin’s Burgers and Blues planned to set up a grill to serve the world-famous Blue Balls Burgers. Alvin offered to cover the stand until it was time for him to perform at the concert she’d organized for that night. She’d found three local bands willing to play under the stars on the Blue Drake pier; her dad’s group would be the headliner.

When he heard that news, Jason had sent her several texts that were basically all freakout emojis.

She sent back some chickens.

She had to admit, the rebound idea was getting more and more interesting. As an adult, Jason still had all the natural charm he’d possessed as a teenager who’d grown up in a dance studio, combined with years of experience with women. It was an incredibly tempting combination.

What if they just…talked about the possibility? What if they both went into it with eyes wide open, not expecting anything other than a temporary in-between sort of relationship?

She should see what he thought about it. She imagined the conversation. “So, Jason, since we’re both momentarily single and on the rebound, why not give it a try?” God, that sounded terribly unromantic. She tended to be pretty practical when it came to relationships, but she wasn’t calculating.

How about, “Remember those two kisses I apparently owe you? Anytime you’d like to collect, I’m available.”

Ugh. There was no need for this amount of awkwardness. This was Jason. She’d made fun of the photo of Beyoncé he had pinned to his locker. They’d teased each other over everything from her favorite pre-exam snack (peanut butter crackers) to his attempt to grow a soul patch (disastrous.) Get a grip.

Bright and early on the morning of the festival, she ran into Jason in the firehouse parking lot, where she was delivering supplies for the Alvin’s Burgers stand. He broke the news that he was on shift that night and therefore would not be playing trombone on the Blue Drake pier.

“Does being on shift include the traditional mandatory dunk tank?”

“Don’t you wish.” He grinned at her. “You dunked me twice last year. I haven’t forgotten.”

“It wasn’t just me. Didn’t you get awarded a prize for most times dunked?”

“Yes, which is why I opted out this year. If you want to dunk me, you’ll have to meet me at the pier and do it yourself.”

“You’re on,” she found herself saying. “Why don’t you come by after the concert and we’ll see what happens?”

See what happens? Not too suggestive.

Okay, pretty suggestive.

“Sounds good. I’m on shift until midnight.” If he was surprised that they sort of had a date-ish kind of arrangement, he didn’t show it.

“Midnight at the Blue Drake pier. See you then.”

He flashed her a thumbs up, and she hurried back to her car. “Walking on air,” wasn’t that the phrase? That was how she felt, as if she was floating six inches above the pavement.

Not because of Jason, probably. How could someone she’d known since high school make her feel that way? It was probably because she had a plan to win over the hiring committee. She was going to invite them all to the outdoor concert and show them just how well she could pull off a last-minute event with many moving pieces.

And then she’d meet Jason at the pier and they’d…dot dot dot.

* * *

Kendra spent the rest of the day shuttling between the Blue Drake pier, getting set up for the night, and the Main Street pedestrian zone, to bring more supplies to her father. With a clipboard in one hand, earbuds in place, phone ringing nearly constantly, she was in her damn element. She looked so official that strangers kept asking her questions about bathroom locations and raffle prizes.

Were the aldermen watching?

Her biggest mistake so far was letting Alvin be in charge of the grill. Their stand was set up smack in the middle of Main Street and had by far the longest line, thanks to her father, who chitchatted amiably with each customer. Everyone in town loved her dad for his music, his kind nature, and his mind-blowing burgers, and of course they wanted to chat with him.

She loved him too, but she was also intensely proud of him and extremely protective. If her mom was around, she could keep him on track, but she was back in Arkansas taking care of Kendra’s grandmother as she went through chemo.

It was up to her to explain to her dad that he needed to pick up the pace if they were going to break even on this event.

She slid into the booth, which was little more than a table on sawhorses and a portable propane grill. “Pop,” she whispered in his ear. “You don’t have to chat with every single customer.”

“Well, why the heck not? Usually I’m back in the kitchen and don’t get to see no one. This is good for marketing, sweet-pea. Don’t you worry about it.”

Even though she groaned, she had to admit he had a point. The whole purpose of the booth was to build community goodwill, and what better way than having her father shine his light on everyone he met?

“Fine. Have it your way.”

“Wait. Don’t leave yet. Want a burger?” He cast an apologetic look at the man at the head of the line, someone Kendra didn’t recognize. “Sorry, mister, this here’s my daughter and she’s busy keeping everything going. Mind if I feed her real quick? It’ll only take a minute.”

The man nodded amiably enough, but Kendra picked up on his irritation. She wondered who he was. The SweetSummer Fest was a casual event, with flip-flops, shorts and sunglasses the most popular outfits. This guy was wearing a damn business suit and a tie. Tall, blond, impatient. Important. Whoever he was, he was used to being catered to.

“Pop, it’s fine. I’m not hungry. I’ll grab something from the kitchen.” She beamed her best smile at the man. “You go ahead and order.”

“Kendra, right?”

She gave a double-take. “Do I know you?”

“No, but Dominic said you’d—” Before he could say another word, Kendra grabbed him by the arm and hauled him off to the side. Any conversation involving Dominic needed to happen in private. Too many curious locals were wandering around.

“Who are you? How do you know Dominic?”

He smirked. “Still touchy about the breakup?”

“Excuse me?” Whoever he was, Kendra already disliked him.

“Dominic told me I should say hi if I saw you. So, hi. I’m Mark Jordan.” He offered his hand, which she shook numbly. “My sister’s married to his brother Liam.”

She knew Liam Robb. He’d never liked her, and she’d never liked him. She could barely summon up an image of his wife, Amy. Blond, just like Mark. Very uninterested in anything to do with Kendra.

“What brings you to Lake Bittersweet, Mark?”

“I’m in town for a job interview.”

A sinking feeling came over her. If he was going for the town manager job, she’d have to do something drastic. She couldn’t bear it if this smug stranger got the job over her. “What’s the job?”

“I’m a firefighter. This town’s looking for a new fire chief. I’m pretty sure I have it in the bag. I’m overqualified, but I’m looking for a change of pace.”

He smoothed his tie. Figured a friend of Dominic’s would be wearing one to a festival.

This was even worse. Mark with the Tie was competing with Jason, not her. She had to tell him that he had some serious competition. He needed to step up his game if he was going to get the fire chief job. Jason was too laidback. Whit wore a blazer that fit him perfectly and had a smooth-talking manner that probably went over great at fundraisers and budget meetings. He was also pretty fit, broader in the shoulders than Jason, maybe a little bit taller.

How could Jason ever compete with someone like this?

“Well, Mark, as someone who grew up here, you should probably know that it’s a tough place to live. The winters are long and they can be boring. If anything exciting happens, it’s usually life-threatening. If you’re looking for peace and quiet, that’s not exactly what you get here. It’s more like tedium and bad internet access.”

“The wifi seems to work pretty well.”

“Sure, now. But it often goes out in the winter. The snow can get so deep you have to ski out of your second-floor window.” That had only happened once in anyone’s memory, but it made for a good story. “And I hope you like burgers and pizza, because that’s about all there is to eat in terms of restaurants after the summer ends.”

“How’s the pizza?”

“Excellent,” she admitted. “So are the burgers, since my dad makes them. I’m just saying, the pace is really slow here, so you might want to look into a job in a bigger city.”

Mark looked irritated. “I get it. You don’t want me here. If this is because of the Dominic connection, I’ll stay out of your way. Your breakup is your business.”

It wasn’t that. It was Jason. She didn’t want him to lose out on the job he deserved. She didn’t want some out-of-town dude cutting him out—especially one related to Dominic. She was Team Jason all the way. And when she was on someone’s team, she went all out.

A scheme formed in her mind, the kind of thing she and her crew used to do back in those long-ago summer days. Did she still have it in her or had the breakup ruined her sense of adventure?

She thought about the pool hall, and Brooke, and WWBD.

“Not at all, Mark.” She beamed her best smile at him. “How about I show you around town a little?”

7

By the end of SweetSummer Fest, Jason had given so many tours of the ladder truck to local kids that he seriously considered riding his bike to the next fire. He was that sick of the thing. But it was always fun watching kids’ faces light up when they got to try on a helmet or sit in the engineer’s seat.

This stuff was right up his alley. If he became fire chief, he’d try to increase outreach to the younger population of Lake Bittersweet. Getting them involved in junior firefighter drills or painting projects at the firehouse could help keep kids out of trouble. Like a lot of small towns around here, there wasn’t much going on and teenagers tended to get bored. And that was when bad things happened.

After his volunteer shift was through, he started his real shift patrolling the fair. He wandered through the crowded streets, sent a drunk tourist back to his hotel, broke up a fight between Dickie Brown and Sven Cavendish, who’d been feuding for the last sixty-seven years. He inhaled the scent of cotton candy, sunscreen, and the ever-present pine trees. Ah, summer. God, he loved Lake Bittersweet in the summer.

As night closed in, he decided to see how things were going down at the Blue Drake. Most people were headed that way anyway, drawn by the thump of the bass line reverberating down the street and off the brick-faced buildings. As he reached the back terrace, which looked out over the pier, he saw that the place was packed. He could barely see the band at the end of the pier through all the bobbing heads and raised Solo cups.

This party was hopping. Good for Kendra.

The night was soft as velvet. The violet remnants of the sunset lingered above the forest that surrounded the lake. The music floating over the water plucked a chord of joy deep within him. He wanted to dance, sing, swing someone around. He wanted that sparkle and fizz he felt only with Kendra.

The end of the Blue Drake pier had been transformed into a stage with a white canopy tent overhead in case of rain. He spotted Kendra near the far end of the pier, adjusting the position of a speaker, busy as always.

Glancing around, he saw mostly younger people. Would any of the aldermen get to see Kendra’s hard work? Since their average age was seventy-nine, they might be done for the day.

He had to do something to help her out. If she got the town manager job, maybe she’d stay in Lake Bittersweet. It would take something big like that, something interesting and challenging, to inspire her to stick around.

And damn, he wanted her to stay.

On a mission now, he headed back to the main street, which had been closed off for pedestrians. Find an alderman, any alderman. He’d drag one out of their house if necessary.

Fortunately, he was spared from trespassing and kidnapping when he ran into Betty Bannister. He knew Betty from the swing dance lessons she used to take with her husband. The Bannisters were third generation Lake Bittersweeters and very influential in town politics. If he could get Betty on Kendra’s side, she’d be a shoo-in.

Always the eccentric dresser, she wore a brocade vest over a billowing floor-length cotton muumuu. Her general vibe was “Bannisters can wear whatever we want.”

He flashed her a grin along with a little bow. “Evening, Betty. What a great SweetSummer Fest. I had so many kids come through the ladder truck I could have opened a preschool.”

“Well hello, Jason.” She looked a little flustered under the full force of his smile. “It was one of our best fests yet, if you ask me. And try saying that fast three times in a row.”

Betty had always had a quirky sense of humor. She reminded him a little of his infamous Irish grandmother, though he’d never tell her that.

He presented his elbow to her. “Are you headed my way? I’m going to check out the Blue Drake concert. Looks like just about everyone in town’s headed down there.”

“Well, with an offer like that, how could I say no?” She tucked her hand into his elbow and they strolled down the sidewalk. The volunteer cleanup crew fanned down the street, picking up trash. “Mind you, I have nothing to do with the fire chief decision. I’m not on that committee.”

He laughed at her wry warning. She had no idea that he’d forgotten all about his own job goals, and was totally focused on helping Kendra achieve hers. “Yes, I do know that. I’m not trying to win your vote. Although I’d be a damn good fire chief.”

“I’m sure you would. A very handsome one, too.”

“You’re a flirt and a menace, Betty Bannister.” A group of kids darted past them, racing toward the Blue Drake, waving balloon animals they’d picked up at the fair. He steadied her against the flow of young people.

“Thank you, “ she said. “Now why don’t you tell me what you’re up to, young Jason?”

“Up to?”

Glancing down at her, he caught her knowing gaze. He should have known he couldn’t fool Betty.

“I guess I’m busted. I do have an agenda. I wanted you to see what a great job Kendra Carter did putting the concert together. She’s going for the town manager job, you know.”

“Oh, I know.” Her tone didn’t sound promising. “She’s a real go-getter, isn’t she?”

“Yes. She’s also smart and hardworking and dedicated. She’d be great for that job.”

“I’m not so sure.” Betty picked her way past an abandoned balloon animal. Was it a goat? A hippo? Hard to tell. “How do we know she wouldn’t use the job as a stepping stone to something bigger? Kendra has always been ambitious.”

“Well…” Jason was at a loss for words. “Isn’t that how jobs work? Do you want her to commit to the position for the rest of her life?”

“No, no, of course not. But look at you. You’ve lived here all your life and never shown any inclination to go anywhere else. You’re committed to this town. Kendra, on the other hand, has been away more than she’s been here.”

“That’s a good thing. She’s learned things out there in the big wide world.”

“But we don’t want those things to come here. We like our boring little town the way it is.”

Resistant to change, he realized. She probably wasn’t the only one. His heart sank. Kendra would be up against some powerful forces, and those wouldn’t go away even if she got the job. Did she know what she was taking on?

“If Kendra commits to a contract, she’d never walk away.”

“You sound very confident in her.”

“I am. I’ve known her a long time.”

“Well, I’ll take that under advisement. Now why don’t you show me what your girl can do.”

“She’s not my girl. Kendra is her own woman.”

“Everyone’s so independent these days,” Betty grumbled. Jason wondered if he should have fed her some cotton candy to get her blood sugar up before dragging her to the pier.

He led Betty to a spot on the terrace with a view of the pier and the white canopy tent adorned with fairy lights. “Notice the tent? Kendra thinks ahead and plans for all possible problems. She knows there’s always a chance of rain around here.”

“My goodness, you really are a fan, aren’t you?”

A swing band was playing a fast-paced song, and a few couples were dancing along the length of the pier. Others milled around on the terrace and the back lawn; there were even a few people listening from their boats. The strings of fairy lights scattered sparkles across the surface of the lake. The atmosphere was pure magic.

He felt his feet move automatically to the music. That was what happened when you grew up in a dance studio. When he noticed that Betty was tapping one ballet-slippered foot, he offered her his hand. Just like the old days in his parents’ studio, he swung her in a gentle two step.

As they danced, he scanned the crowd for Kendra, but didn’t see her. Maybe she was inside somewhere, getting the next band ready for their slot.

Nope—there she was. He finally spotted her close to the stage, in the company of a tall blond stranger in a business suit, of all things. The guy looked absolutely wasted. He was swaying to the music, completely missing the beats. He kept sipping from a large clear plastic cup.

And Kendra….well, she kept filling it up from a flask stashed in her back pocket.

He squinted at them in confusion. Since when did Kendra push alcohol on people? That wasn’t her way. She was usually the one cutting customers off as soon as they showed any hint of being impaired.

Was she deliberately trying to get this guy drunk? It seemed so, but he couldn’t imagine why.

Sure enough, as he watched, Kendra added another splash of liquor to the stranger’s cup. Was it someone she was dating? Hadn’t she told him that things had ended with her ex, and that she was still recovering?

The stranger was getting sloppier. The way he danced looks more like a full-body spasm. Every step he took brought him closer to the edge of the pier. Even though it had a railing, people had been known to go over the edge and end up in the lake.

“What are you looking at?” Betty asked. He realized he’d come to a standstill. “Oh my, is that Kendra?” She dug in her quilted cross-body bag for her glasses, and peered through them at Kendra and the stranger. “What are they doing?”

The stranger’s foot hit the edge of the pier. He windmilled his arms to catch his balance, but he was too drunk to manage it. His hip hit the railing. Good, at least he wasn’t going overboard.

“Look at that, Kendra’s got it under control,” he said. “Of course she does. That’s Kendra for you.”

“Noooo…” said Betty, squinting to see better. “She’s…oh dear, I don’t think she’s helping.”

Jason saw it too. As she pretended to applaud the band, she took a step backwards, then deliberately jammed an elbow into the stranger’s ribs and boom, his butt hit the railing and he toppled over it, plunging head over heels into the cold lake water.

He surfaced right away, coughing and shouting. Swearing, mostly. Dammit, Jason knew he should go help him. He was on shift and it was his job. But that lake water still hadn’t heated up to its peak-of-summer temperature.

Nothing to it but to do it. He heaved a sigh. “I’ll be right back,” he told Betty.

“Did you see that?” As he moved to go, Betty grabbed at his arm. “Kendra pushed him off the pier! That doesn’t seem very professional to me.”

“I wouldn’t put it that way…”

“I know what I saw. She shoved him off with her elbow. It was a hit job.”

“A hit job? Shit, I gotta go.”

The man was spouting water out his mouth as he flailed around. Good God, did he not know how to swim? He definitely wasn’t a local, because everyone in Lake Bittersweet grew up knowing how to handle a plunge into the lake.

Jason jogged down the pier, stripping off his outer layer as he went. “Fire department, coming through,” he called so everyone would get out of his way.

“Help!” the man in the water screamed. “Someone help me! I’m drowning!”

“Dude! It’s not that deep! You’re not going to drown!” Kendra called to him.

“What the hell?” Jason murmured to Kendra as he ran up alongside her. Her eyes were wide and shining with mischief.

“You can practically touch the bottom here! He’s being ridiculous.”

“Help!!”

Jason stripped down to his t-shirt then he executed a smooth dive into the water, landing a safe distance from the splashing man overboard. Goddamn, it was cold. He gave himself a moment for his breath to catch up with the shock.

“Here! Over here, you moron!” the stranger yelled, as if Jason had missed the mark and was supposed to land directly on top of him.

“Don’t panic, I got you. I’m a firefighter. Stop moving your arms like that, you’re only making things worse.”

In a moment, Jason had him in a lifeguard’s hold and was frog-kicking toward the shoreline. The onlookers broke into applause as the two of them staggered onto the pebbly beach, where the man collapsed into a shivering heap. “Firefighter, you said?”

“Yeah, but around here we end up doing our fair share of water rescues too. You okay, man?”

“Looks like I’m alive.” He shuddered and wrung lake water from his tie. A tie. Who was this guy, anyway? He looked up at the audience lining the dock, and gave a resigned sigh. “Not a great first impression. Tell me something, firefighter. Who’s up there? Anyone important?”

Weird way to put it. Wasn’t everyone important? “Much of the town,” he told the drenched stranger. “It’s okay, no one’s going to hold it against you. You wouldn’t be the first to drink a little too much and end up in the lake.”

The man shook water from his hair. “Help me up, man. I need to say a thing or two to that bitch up there. She fucking knocked me overboard.”

“Oh yeah? How much have you had to drink? Should we check your blood alcohol level?”

“I’m sobered up now,” he growled. But his attempt to get to his feet went nowhere except back on his ass.

Jason put some steel in his voice. “I’ll help you stand up, but don’t go picking any fights. Just go back to wherever you’re staying and take a shower. That’s my advice.”

The man took a swing at him—he really got aggressive when he was drunk—but Jason caught his arm by the wrist. “You’d really better get a grip on yourself, dude. Around here, firefighters are frontline law enforcement. I can bring you in to the lockup if you keep acting like an idiot.”

“Are you threatening to arrest me?” he hissed. “You’re going to regret that when I’m your new boss.”

“What?”

“New fire chief. You’re looking at him.”

Jason watched him stagger upright, then lurch toward the terrace. At least he wasn’t going in Kendra’s direction anymore.

So they’d gone and hired someone without even giving Jason a chance to interview. Sharp disappointment shot through him as he slowly got to his feet. Now that it was off the table, he realized that he really, desperately, wanted the fire chief job.

What did that guy have that he didn’t?

Well, a silk tie, for one.

A gut full of lake water, for another.

“Jason!” Betty called his name as she clambered down from the terrace to the beach. “I saw everything, and I have some questions.”

8

Kendra had never seen Jason like this before. Usually he was so even-keeled. But now he was pacing across the dock, prickly energy pouring off him. It had taken an hour to break down the stage after the last performer wrapped up at ten. The concert had been wonderful, a smash success. Everyone in town had enjoyed themselves—except for a certain unwelcome stranger. And she knew for a fact that Betty Bannister had witnessed her triumph.

“So you got him drunk, then made sure he fell off the pier, am I getting that right?”

“Yes! While I was showing him around town, he told me he didn’t know how to swim, and to me, that should be a deal breaker for anyone trying to be fire chief in Lake Bittersweet. But how would the hiring committee ever find that out beforehand? Now they know!”

Watching his awkward plunge into the water had been extra sweet because of his connection to Dominic. If only she could have pushed Dominic off a pier. It was wildly empowering.

“He could have been hurt.”

“I knew he wouldn’t, the water’s not that deep. And the entire town was right there. And then you rescued him, and it couldn’t have been more perfect!” She clapped her hands together, still fizzy with glee. “He looked like a clown and you looked like a hero.”

“So you did this for me?”

“Yes. You’re welcome. Believe me, no one’s going to want to hire a fire chief who got drunk on his first night in town and fell overboard. There’s absolutely no way he’s getting the job now.”

“Does he know that?”

She took his hand, noticing that it was still chilled from his time in the lake. She didn’t regret what she’d done. Jason deserved a little boost. And Mark deserved a dip. Win-win, and she’d pulled it off flawlessly. The only downside was that she’d had to stay close to him all evening to keep putting vodka in his drink. It was worth it, knowing that Dominic’s smug jerk of a relative was going to end up in the water.

So very satisfying.

She smiled up at Jason, wondering when he’d stop fretting and start praising her. Why was he so upset? Maybe it was because his public safety sensibilities had been offended.

Fair enough.

“I knew he’d be fine,” she said again. “In the entire history of Lake Bittersweet, no one has died from falling off the dock.”

He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “That’s not the problem.”

“Okay, what then?”

“Betty saw you push him. We were dancing together. I brought her specifically so that she’d see what a great job you did with the concert. Then you screwed it all up with that stunt.”

Her heart plummeted right down to her feet. How on earth had Betty spotted her little maneuver? No one else had noticed. “Are you sure?” she managed.

“Yes. She said, ‘did you see what Kendra did?’ And then she used the word ‘unprofessional.’”

Kendra gasped, since she could barely imagine a worse insult. “Unprofessional?”

“Or ‘not very professional,’ something like that. I tried to play it off, but she knew what she saw. She lectured me.” He kicked at a loose plank on the pier. “I should never have brought her to the concert. Fuck me. I was trying to help you.”

“I was trying to help you!” Butterflies rampaged through her stomach. How badly had she messed up? Could she explain it away somehow? Claim it hadn’t been intentional, just a random arm spasm?

Then the irony of the situation sank in. “Wait. I was trying to help you. You were trying to help me. We were both trying to help each other, and we both totally screwed it up?”

They gazed at each other in the starlight. He looked gorgeous to her, the planes of his face molded in light and shadow, his eyes a dark shimmer.

At the same moment, they burst out laughing.

“We couldn’t have planned it worse,” he said.

“A perfectly executed disaster,” she agreed.

They laughed until Kendra felt tears squeeze from her eyes. She remembered all the times she and her crew of fellow chambermaids had laughed like that on this very spot. The Blue Drake pier had been their favorite place for sunbathing and goofing around.

Something shifted inside her, a kind of tension releasing. She hadn’t known she’d been carrying it—or maybe she had, but she’d gotten so used to it that she didn’t think about it any more.

“I guess all you can do is laugh about it,” she finally said, wiping her eyes.

“Pretty much my motto in general.”

Spent from her laughter and the long day of scrambling, she sat on the pier and rested her back against a post. Jason stretched out on his back, crossing his long legs at the ankle and interlacing his hands behind his head so he could look up at the stars.

“Nice night for a disaster,” he murmured.

She tilted her head back and took in the panorama of merrily sparkling stars overhead.

“Yeah, if you’re going to torpedo two careers in one night, why not make it a pretty one?”

He chuckled softly. “You know something, even if I do end up with a boss who has a grudge against me, it was worth it. The one and only Kendra Carter tried to help me. That’s almost better than getting the fire chief job.”

She stuck out her foot to poke him in the thigh. “Don’t say that. You deserve that job.”

He turned his head to look at her. “You think people always get what they deserve?”

“No. Obviously not. But they get what they fight for. Sometimes.” She could think of many examples of that not happening. “How about, you don’t get what you don’t fight for.”

“Unless you’re part of the good-old-boy network. Then you get what you suck up for.”

“Wait wait wait. Aren’t you part of any network like that?”

“Me? Why would I be?”

“You know. White boy that everyone likes.”

“First of all, I’m not all-white. My father is, but my mother’s half-Argentinian. She grew up in Buenos Aires.”

That explained his dark good looks. “How’d she end up here in Random, Minnesota?”

“She met my father on a movie set. She was an extra, and he was a stuntman from LA. They were filming a dance scene. One dance together, and that was it. When they first moved here, it was really hard for my mom. The whole Scandinavian Minnesota-nice vibe is very different from how she grew up. They’d bought the dance studio sight-unseen and were kind of stuck with it. Stuck here. For most of my life, until they finally figured out how to run the business, they had no money. Between that and,” he broke off, as if he’d been about to say something he wasn’t ready to, “my school struggles, I always felt like an outsider. So I compensated by being Mr. Likable. That doesn’t make me part of any network, though.”

There were so many things about Jason that she hadn’t really paid attention to, she realized. That easy smile hid so much. She wanted to know more. She wanted to challenge him.

“Okay, as a dude of some color, here’s the million-dollar question. Do you think there’s any racism here? Like, racism that might keep me from getting that job?”

“Ooh, the ‘r’ word. People don’t like to use that word around here.” He laughed. “What do you think? You’re Black, you grew up here.”

“I already know what I think. I want to know what you think.”

“Why do I feel like this is a trap?” He groaned and stretched his arms over his head, then sat up. “Okay, here goes. Yes, it’s a mostly white world here. So that’s the starting point. Everything’s tilted toward white. On an individual level, I’d say most people in Lake Bittersweet take a person as they are. They judge according to your actions. But not everyone. One old geezer didn’t want me coming on his property even though his freaking shed was on fire.”

“That’s messed up.”

He nodded in agreement. “It hurts when that shit happens. So yeah, I think there’s some racism, but no, I don’t think it’ll keep you from getting the job. The fact that you pushed the new fire chief in the lake might be a bigger issue.”

She groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

He whooshed out a long breath and gave her a nervous look. “Well, how’d I do with the R word?”

“Not bad, Jaybone. Not bad.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I basically agree. My parents had some hard moments when they first moved here. But my dad says most people here are down-to-earth and fair-minded. He says he still keeps his guard up sometimes, but not as much.”

“What about you? You keep quoting your dad.”

“Hmm.” She let her eyes drift half-closed as she thought about it. The wind off the lake felt like a cool breath on her face. The moon was just starting to rise over the pines to the west. Such a beautiful night, and here they were talking about “the r word.”

Funny. Especially when you considered that she’d had a very different “r word” in mind.

Jason stretched out on his side so he could watch her. He was so sexy with his long limbs and relaxed manner. Like nothing could really faze him. What did it take to become that comfortable with yourself—and with the rest of the world? She had no problem loving herself. Her parents had instilled that in her from an early age. But sometimes she struggled with some of the bullshit out there.

“To be honest, it pisses me off that we even have to have a conversation like this. I wish racism never existed. Or that it’s like thinking the Earth is flat. Like you can’t understand why anyone ever believed that.”

“Damn right. I bet we’ll get there. I don’t know when.”

“Maybe next week?” she said hopefully.

As he laughed, she watched his chest rise and fall. She wanted to touch him, but she resisted the urge.

“It’s weird, but it feels good to talk about this stuff,” he said. “I don’t usually have conversations like this. We tiptoe around it, all Minnesota-nice.”

“Maybe that’s part of the problem. Isn’t it better to talk about it?”

“There you go, being right again. Damn you, Kendra Carter.”

“Shut up.” With a laugh, she reached forward to swat him on the chest. The desire to touch him was just too irresistible, and this seemed like the perfect excuse. His chest was hard and muscular, just as she’d imagined.

When she tried to withdrew her hand, he caught her wrist and kept it where it was. “Where are you going?” he murmured.

“I don’t know. Where are you going?”

“Wherever you are.” He grinned at her. God, he looked good in the starlit darkness. He was like liquid sex poured into a six-foot body. “By the way, I always liked it when you got riled up. It was hot.”

“Oh, you thought it was hot?” Her heart was doing this odd skipping thing that made her voice sound husky. “Even when I was lecturing you about studying harder?”

“Especially then. Because you’d be aiming those gorgeous eyes at me. You have the brightest eyes in the world, do you know that?”

“They’re basically…brown. Dark brown.”

“No. They shine and sparkle and glow. It’s like there’s all this fire inside you, and it’s right there in your eyes. It’s a beautiful thing.”

Wow. She’d been complimented before, of course, but never in such a heartfelt way. Jason had a sincerity about him that Dominic, for instance, couldn’t begin to imitate. “Thank you. That’s…nice.”

Her hand was still pressed against his chest. She felt the steady thump of his heartbeat. The same rhythm seemed to echo in her own eardrums, as if their systems were synchronizing with each other. “You’re welcome. But it’s just the truth. You’re a star, Kendra Carter. You always were.”

She scooted closer to him, curled herself into the shelter of his stretched-out body, and rested her elbow on his hip.

“You know, sometimes you sound like you had a crush on me in high school.”

“I wouldn’t say that. I looked up to you. I thought you were incredible. But it wasn’t really a crush. Maybe I would have, but there was…”

“Gretchen.” She finished the sentence for him. She’d almost forgotten about Gretchen. But of course he hadn’t. He was probably still in love with her. You didn’t switch gears that fast.

“Yeah. And, you know, she had sex with me.” He grinned widely. “It’s hard to beat that when you’re a teenager.”

“You were each other’s firsts?”

“Yes. Ironically, that was one of our problems. FOMO. You know, who else is out there? What are you missing out on by staying with the first person you sleep with? I mean, it works for some people, obviously. In the end, I guess we just didn’t love each other to that extent.”

“I always thought you’d get married and have a bunch of kids by now.”

“Yeah. I can see why you would think that. But no. I hope she gets pregnant soon,” he added thoughtfully. “She always talked about wanting kids. And I was always like, yeah, sure, someday. I guess she got fed up with me.”

“So you don’t want kids? I’m confused.”

Amazing how this conversation was covering all kinds of ground. Usually she avoided the big topics in the early stages of getting to know a guy. But of course, this was different. She knew a lot about Jason already, and besides, this wasn’t on track to be a “relationship.” If it was going to be anything, it would be strictly a rebound.

“Sure. Kids are awesome. I have a niece and two nephews, they’re pretty great, plus I work with kids a lot. I guess I just don’t plan ahead like that. When it’s time, I figure I’ll know.”

And that was one huge difference between them. In her book, the more you could plan for the future, the better. Too bad her biggest and best plan, the business with Dominic, had blown up in her face.

But none of that mattered when it came to her and Jason. This was nothing but a…”rebound,” she said out loud.

“Excuse me?”

Welp, she sure had blurted that out of nowhere.

“Just wondering if it’s the only relationship terminology that’s also in basketball. You know, just randomly. Apropos of nothing.”

He scanned her face in the darkness. She lifted her chin to hide her unaccustomed embarrassment.

“It’s not.”

“Huh?”

“It’s not the only one. There’s also ‘slam dunk.’”

9

Jason watched that sassy smile spread across Kendra’s face. The moon had risen enough so that he could see her more clearly. Her eyes were still full of fire, but it was a softer glow than usual, banked embers instead of a brilliant flame.

“Are you saying you’re a slam dunk?”

“Nothing but net, baby.”

Holly would be furious with him, but he didn’t care. She was only seventeen, she didn’t know everything. If there was any chance of something with Kendra, he was going for it.

“Okay, but we should talk about it first.”

“We’ve done a lot of talking already,” he pointed out. They’d covered a lot of ground, too, topics he didn’t usually discuss. He was starting to get cold on the dock out here after midnight.

“I mean about, you know, being on the same page. Our situations aren’t so different. We both recently broke with someone we were serious about. Neither of us is recovered. I know I’m not. Do you know I looked up the definition of a ‘rebound?’”

“Why does that not surprise me?” he murmured.

She made a face at him. “It means getting into a new relationship before you’ve totally recovered from your last breakup. In other words, it’s doomed to failure because you’re still all messed up. But at least it’s something.”

“Wow. And you thought of me. I’m so flattered.” His dry tone didn’t quite hide his hurt.

“Boy, don’t act all wounded. We both deserve love and a solid, long-term relationship. But are you ready for that right now? Aren’t you still mourning over what happened with Gretchen?”

“Yeah. I saw her the other day with her husband and had actual fantasies about how I could sabotage their fancy-ass boat. It got quite specific. Rope in the engine prop, that kind of thing.”

“There you go. I have the same thing. Except in my case, it’s more like I schedule a meeting with his new bosses and present them with a PowerPoint of all the reasons they shouldn’t trust him.”

“I bet it’s very comprehensive.”

Her lips quirked in amusement. “You know it.”

“Okay, so, revenge fantasies. Check. What’s your point?”

“That we’re not fully recovered. Either of us. We’re both in a rebound-prone phase. But maybe that works out better. If we’re both on the rebound, then neither of us can really get hurt.”

“How do you figure?” He couldn’t wait to hear her explanation for that theory. The way her mind worked, it was really something. Those wheels were always turning.

“It’s like this.” She sat up, and he instantly missed the warmth from where she’d propped herself against his hip. “In a rebound, part of your heart is still with the previous relationship. Therefore it can’t get as hurt if the new one goes wrong.” She brushed her hands together briskly. “And I know neither of us is trying to get hurt again.”

Fair enough. Jason had no idea if her theory was correct or not. But he wasn’t going to argue. Kendra was the kind of person who wanted lots of logical reasons for anything she did. Him, not so much. He didn’t analyze things the way she did. Of course, that probably meant they weren’t a good match, but for the purposes of a rebound, did it matter?

“What else did you find out about rebounds?”

“What else?”

“Benefits, pitfalls, that sort of thing. I know you. I bet you dug deep into that research.”

“Of course I did.” She cocked her head with that “take on the world” attitude that he would always associate with her. “Are you sure you want to hear it?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, if you’re not considering it, why waste your—”

“I want to hear it,” he said firmly. How could she possibly think he wasn’t considering it? Had she missed the “slam dunk” reference?

“Okay. It’s complicated, like everything emotional. A rebound can be very healing, as long as you’re aware that you’re in a rebound, and that you’re still trying to work through things from the previous relationship.”

“So calling it a rebound right off the bat is a good thing.”

“It might be.” Her lips curved in a smile. It reminded him that she still owed him two kisses. Couldn’t they kick off this rebound with those? Like, soon? But she was Kendra, and Kendra approached things a certain way. With a lot of analysis and preparation. He could be patient. “The downside is that a rebound can prevent you from learning everything that the breakup could teach you. Breakups can be important growth experiences.”

“Fuuuck that.” His heartfelt exclamation had her laughing.

“I hear you. When I first read that, I had the same reaction. But seriously, they can be. Sitting with negative emotions, learning to be alone again, being independent. I mean, if I’m going to get dumped, I want to ninja that shit into being a better, stronger woman.”

He burst out laughing. Who else besides Kendra would insist on maximizing the growth potential of her breakup? And by the way, who on earth would break up with someone like her? Whoever this Dominic was, he hoped never to meet him, because he’d have a hard time keeping his insults to himself.

“I don’t mind being alone. It’s just that it doesn’t happen very often.”

“Because there’s always another woman ready to step in?”

He nodded, then added a wry shrug. “Maybe there’s a man shortage in Minnesota.”

“Oh stop. You know you’re a catch. Name me one cute fireman who has trouble finding a girl.”

Did he mind being reduced to a “cute fireman”? Nah.

“But seriously, Jason, did you ever think that maybe you’re in a constant loop of rebounds and it’s preventing you from really going deep?”

“Damn, Kendra.” He tugged her arm, destabilizing her so she tumbled on top of him. “Can’t we put the therapy session on pause and get to the good stuff?”

She smiled down at him with those brilliant eyes that seemed to gather all the starlight and shine it back just for him. “We can. But should we?”

He cupped her face in his hands. Her skin felt like lush velvet. “You might be overthinking this. We’re both available. I’m crazy attracted to you. You just called me a cute fireman. We’re both grownups who can decide if we want to take a chance or not.”

Tentatively, ever so lightly, as an experiment, he brushed his lips against hers. He just wanted to know what that contact would feel like. Her lips were so beautifully shaped, so generous with their laughter and their moods. He’d seen them tighten when she was upset, lift with scorn when something irked her, quiver when she was trying not to laugh. Now he wanted to see what they felt like.

So soft, and so so sweet. Her lips parted against his and he felt her warm breath. Kendra was such a self-possessed person that maybe he’d expected something different, nothing but strength and confidence in her kiss. But she was just as tentative as he was, as if they were both taking a tiny baby step across quicksand. Just feeling it out. Is it safe? Is it worth it?

Safe was debatable. “Worth it” wasn’t.

He touched his tongue to her pillowy upper lip. Her taste made him think of the top-shelf brandy he’d sneaked from his parents’ liquor cabinet as a kid. Not because of the rich flavor, but because of how adult it felt, how new and intoxicating. Maybe it was just a kiss, but he was sharing it with Kendra, and that put it in a category all its own.

She pressed against him, parting her lips so his tongue slipped inside. The heat and sleek wetness of her mouth made him dizzy.

Adrenaline coursed through him, all the way to his fingers. He was still cupping her cheeks and he wondered if she could feel the energy zapping from his fingertips. He felt alive and energized and ready to tumble her onto her back and strip the clothes off her beautiful body.

Get a hold of yourself, he scolded. But it was hard. He hadn’t felt this kind of wild desire for a long time. Ever?

A moment later, they were kissing each other with a kind of franticness that made him forget they were in a public place. He plunged his hands into her hair, loving the way her soft natural curls felt against his palms. Kendra could be very creative in how she wore her hair, and he always admired that, but for now, for tonight, he was glad it was loose so he could immerse himself in the sensual texture.

She was still lying partly on top of him, partly on the dock. He gathered her against him to cushion her from the wooden planks. She murmured something against his mouth, and eagerly fitted her body against his. What had she said? Did it matter? As long as neither of them was stopping, she could recite the Declaration of Independence for all he cared.