“Oh, it was. And the guests became our extended family. I had a twenty surrogate grandmas and got more birthday cards from strangers than people in my class.”
I watched her talk, watched the way her hands moved when she got into a story, and how her lips curled like she was half-living the memory while she spoke it aloud.
“Still sounds like the Hallmark version,” I pointed out.
“I suppose.”
“And were you?” I asked, leaning a little closer. “Were you a wild child?”
Her smile turned coy. “Define wild.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Skipping class? Making out behind the fudge stand at the fall festival?”
“Okay,rude—that happenedonce.”
I grinned. “Knew it.”
Her laugh bubbled up, and she shoved my shoulder lightly. “I was mostly well-behaved. Until I hit seventeen and decided I was destined to be a rock star.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You’re joking.”
“I had a keyboard. I wrote angry breakup songs about boys I’d never even kissed.”
“Please tell me there are recordings.”
“Therewere,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “Sienna may or may not have burned them.”
I shook my head. “Tragedy. The world was robbed.”
“Oh, trust me, it was a mercy killing. But yeah, I was a dreamer. Thought I’d leave town, tour the country, and come back famous.”
“And instead?”
She looked at me, softer now. “Instead, I stayed because life happened. Because the lodge needed someone. Because… maybe I loved it here more than I realized.”
That last part hung in the air between us.
“Once I went to college, I knew I wanted to come back here.”
Her eyes locked on mine, and something shifted again, deeper and heavier.
Because everything about her was pulling me in, from the pink flush on her cheeks to the way her legs stretched out beside the picnic basket, and the memory of her body pressed to mine in the back of that truck made my jaw tense all over again.
“I can’t picture you anywhere else,” I said honestly. “You belong here.”
“I don’t always feel like I do.”
“You do to me.”
That stopped her.
Just for a second.
Then she said, “You’re trouble, Florida.”
I leaned forward, not breaking eye contact. “You started it, Wisconsin.”
Her breath caught just enough for me to notice.
