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“But Jana has short hair, not a ponytail.” Evie’s grin is sly. “Are you sure it’s not Rowan’s sister you saw? Here, I’ve got photos of them both on my phone.”
Fuck fuck fuck.
“What are we talking about?” Rowan asks, stepping back out onto the deck with two beers and a ginger ale all in sweating glass bottles. I wave Evie’s phone away before snatching my drink and knocking back half of it in two desperate gulps.
“Nothing,” his wife says sweetly, winking at me as Rowan settles next to her on the bench again. “Just talking about Ash’s journey here. He walked past Flint’s.”
“Oh yeah? Tess is working there tonight.”
I settle in a wooden chair, my insides swooping. It’s really her, isn’t it? The first time I’ve ever wanted a woman in my whole life, and it’s my best friend’s little sister. The one person I can’t have.
Never mind that I scared the crap out of her by staring like a creep. Never mind that she’s a thousand miles out of my league—she’s off limits anyway.
I chug down the rest of my beer, glaring up at the trees.
Three
Tess
Last night I saw a man that startled me to my core. Not for the usual reasons that men freak women out—not because he was being threatening, or eyeing me up while his wife or girlfriend was right there. But because I looked at him, and he looked at me, and everything felt… right.
Like the universe was slotting into place. Like I was exactly where I was supposed to be for once.
Crazy.
Jana thought I’d gone loopy when I scurried back behind the bar and hissed to her that there was a guy outside. She reached for the pepper spray we keep under the bar just in case we need to scare someone off, but I shook my head so fast my neck twinged.
“No! Ow. No, not like that. Not a troublemaker. I mean like—a guy.”
Jana stared at me for a beat, then rolled her eyes so hard she must’ve seen the back of her skull.
“Don’t tell me you’re finally hitting puberty in the middle of our Friday night shift. We’ve got hikers to get drunk.”
“I know, I know,” I said, fanning myself distractedly. “But I’ve never… is this how people feel? All the time?”
Jana snorted, reaching past me to yank the refrigerator door open. The waft of frosty air felt like pure heaven against my flushed legs. “Only horn dogs. Keep it together, okay? Go slip him your number, then you can tell me all about him at closing time.”
“But—”
“Do it,” she ordered, spinning me around by the shoulders, then pushing me back toward the crowd. “Or you’ll regret missing your chance.”
She was right. By the time I got back outside, my mystery man was gone. I stood there in that sea of sunburned hikers, arms hanging uselessly by my side, staring at the patch of grass where he’d just stood.
If I squinted, I told myself I could see the exact spots his boots had flattened the grass into the dirt. Pictured myself going over there and measuring my own sneaker against his boot print, like a complete loon.
He’d been so big. I’m a tall girl, but would the top of my head have even cleared his shoulder? Did seeing me startle him too? I’d probably never know.
And that’s why hormonal awakenings during busy Friday night shifts are the worst. Another life lesson learned.
This morning, as I stumble out of town toward the Starlight Ridge lake, the mystery man is still on my mind. He haunts me.
What’s he doing in town? He’s not a local, that’s for sure—this is a small mountain town, and I know every resident here nearly as well as my own reflection. Didn’t look like the standard tourist we get either, since he wasn’t dressed in outdoor gear and had no fancy camera hanging from a strap around his neck.
If anything, the man’s strong posture and reserved expression reminded me of my brother. So military, maybe.
Dewy grass scrunches beneath my sneakers as I stride out to the lakeside, the moisture soaking into the canvas and dampening my socks. My shoulders and back are sore from last night’s shift, but it feels good to get moving.
Mountain peaks loom all around, blushing prettily in the morning light, and it’s a hot day already though the sun’s barely up. The surface of the lake shines like liquid gold.
