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Ian paused, as if he had spoken too much. “Sorry to go on about parenting woes,” he said. “Tonight was supposed to be an adult night.”

Cam raised her eyebrows. “Do you mean like X-rated?” She meant it as light banter, but as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realized that she would very much like to do non–PG-13 things with Ian McCabe. And from the way he was looking at her, she suspected the feeling was mutual.

“Maybe,” he answered, his voice going husky. “You know, you’re a pretty special person, Cam. What you’re doing for your grandmother is kind, and I know what you have to do to make it happen isn’t easy. You care about her, and that house, and for all the right reasons, which is important. And to top it all off, you’re kind of freaking beautiful—more beautiful than you know, which somehow makes you even hotter.”

Ian stepped toward her, and suddenly, all of the worries that Cam had been carrying around with her—that Ian was complicated, that she didn’t want to put herself in a position to have her heart broken, that she lived in New York while he was rooted here in Silver Cove—seemed to float away. For once, Cam’s perpetual mental list-making and overthinking had stopped. And all that she was left with was this… want for Ian.

He took the wineglass from her hand and put it on the counter with his own. Cam watched him just like she had watched him work through the window at Birdie’s. And just like he was on the job, his movements were purposeful and determined. He moved closer to her and placed his hand on her face, his rough thumb stroking her cheek while his fingers pulled her closer to him. Heat pooled inside Cam’s body, and she felt herself reaching for him, wrapping her arms around him to feel the taut muscles of his back.

Their lips met, cautiously at first, their kiss deepening until every single thought had been driven from Cam’s mind. As she ran her fingers through his hair—the way she had wanted to so many times—she felt the walls that she had built around her heart starting to melt away as if they were made of spun sugar and not rock, like she had always thought.

At first, the sound of Ian’s phone ringing from the kitchen counter didn’t register with either of them. But the sound grew more insistent, and Cam could feel Ian go tense as he pulled away. “I better get this,” he said. “Maybe Davis wants to come home from the sleepover…” He reached for his mobile, his brow knitting as he saw the caller ID. “It’s Paige,” he said. “That’s weird. She never calls.”

“Hey,” he said, “is everything…” He paused, and his voice took on an urgency Cam had never heard before. “Sweetie, are you okay? Where are you?”

Cam could hear the girl crying on the other end of the line and sensed from Ian’s expression that something had gone terribly wrong.

“He had a gun? Jesus!” Ian was in full-on panic mode. He paced as he talked, and Cam’s mind was reeling, too.

“Paige, listen to me,” Ian said. Cam could hear him forcing a calm he surely didn’t feel into his voice in an obvious effort to steady his daughter. “Here’s what I need you to do. Go inside the gas station. Is there someone behind the counter? Okay, you tell the woman what happened. And you stay with her there. Don’t get out of her sight, don’t be alone. If that guy comes back, you call nine-one-one right away. Okay? I’m going to stay on the phone with you until you’re inside. I’m coming to get you.”

After a few tense moments during which Ian grabbed his coat and car keys and Paige apparently walked inside, he hung up.

“I’ve got to go get Paige,” he said. “You can stay here.”

“I’m coming with you,” Cam said, reaching for her own coat and deftly turning off the stove. There was no way she was going to let Ian do this alone—whatever it was.

“I don’t know,” Ian said. “It’s safer here.”

Cam pulled on her coat. “I’m coming with you,” she repeated.

Ian clearly didn’t have time to argue and merely nodded. The two of them ran to the truck, and Ian threw it into gear, his tires kicking up gravel as he pulled out of the drive. As they reached the main road heading south out of Silver Cove, Ian told her the thumbnail sketch of what had happened. Paige had not gone to a classmate’s house to work on a project and instead had decided to hitchhike back to North Carolina, using an app to find a ride. Paige quickly realized that the guy who had offered to drive her was a creep, but she had really panicked when she saw he had a gun in his glove box. When he stopped for gas, Paige had managed to jump out of the car and told him she had changed her mind. Luckily, he had just sped away, though Ian couldn’t be sure the guy was gone for good.

Ian handed her his phone. “Can you call Paige again?” he asked.

Cam pulled up the list of his recent calls and hit Paige’s name. A photo of the girl, flashing a peace sign and sticking out her tongue, appeared on the screen. This was not exactly the ideal meet-the-kid moment, she knew. She hit the speakerphone button so Ian could talk without needing to use his hands, which were clutching the steering wheel so hard she worried that he might bend it out of shape.

“Hey, Dad,” a teary voice answered.

“Paige, I’m on my way to you. I’ve got my friend Cam here in the truck with me, and we’re coming to get you. Can you ask the lady behind the counter for the address?”

Cam could hear Paige asking, and the teenager came back on the line. She said an address and Cam took it down, inputting it into her own phone and pulling up directions.

“Paige?” Cam asked. “It’s Cam, your dad’s…” Her voice trailed off, her eyes darting across the darkened truck cab at Ian’s profile. “Friend. My nav app says we are twenty-eight minutes away. We’ll be there before you know it. Just sit tight.”

Ian shot her a grateful look from across the seat.

“Okay,” Paige’s weak voice replied.

“Do you want us to stay on the phone with you until we get there?” Cam asked. “We don’t have to talk about tonight. We can just talk about other stuff. Like, um, what’s your favorite food?”

“Um, I guess it’s this chicken thing that Dad makes,” she said, still sounding shaky.

“Roast chicken, right? It’s one of my favorites, too. What about pizza? Do you like pizza?” Cam asked. Of course she did—all kids liked pizza.

“Yeah, I guess, but not Dad’s,” she said. “His is gross.”

After what felt like hours of small talk, they finally pulled into the brightly lit gas station. Ian audibly exhaled as soon as he spotted Paige. She looked small and scared with a bulging backpack slung across her shoulder. Cam stayed in the truck while Ian got out and enveloped the girl in his arms, cradling her fiercely. Cam could see him fighting back tears as he held his daughter. She got out of the cab when the pair approached the truck, unsure whether to try to hug Paige, too. But Paige had a withdrawn look that did not invite a hug, so Cam merely stepped aside to let the teenager slide onto the bench seat closest to her father.