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“It isn’t always a terrible thing,” she said, reaching for his hand. Her warm fingers tangled with his, sending sparks up his arm. Would he always feel this way when she was around? “Look at us. We weren’t looking for anything, yet here we are.”

He wouldn’t be anywhere else. He’d follow Alli to the ends of the earth and back.

Change wasn’t so bad after all.

Chapter

Twenty-Eight

About ten years ago…

“Lunch is on me,” Gabe told his older brother Alex. “I got this one.”

“No way,” Alex replied, waving his hand. “You’re leaving tomorrow. I’ve got this.”

Gabe was leaving for his senior year of college the next day. Alex still had a few more days before he returned for his second year of law school. They’d both spent the summer at home with their parents, and working every odd job they could find to sock away some cash for the school year. Neither of them was flush, so picking up the tab was a big deal.

“Then I’ll get the next one at Thanksgiving break,” Gabe said. “I can’t wait to hear all about whether you finally get a date with that girl.”

“That girl has a name. Cami. And she’s completely not interested in me. She has a boyfriend, you know. I just think she’s nice. Besides, the next time you come home, this place won’t be here anymore. Remember? Tate Winslow bought it. I hear he’s going to turn it into a sports bar or something like that.”

Gabe was sad to see the pizza place close, but it had been coming for a long time. The owner had been wanting to retire down to Florida for almost a decade, but hadn’t been able to sell. Until Tate Winslow had come along.

“How on earth did he get the money?” Gabe marveled. “He’s only a few years older than we are.”

“Are you kidding?” Alex laughed. “He’s a Winslow.”

Gabe had a feeling that old man Winslow hadn’t bankrolled this project. All the Winslow kids had a somewhat…difficult relationship with their father.

Which was a major understatement.

The oldest, Zack, had practically run out of town the day after his high school graduation to get away from his dad. And he was Joel Winslow’s favorite child.

The family issues had started long before Joel’s wife, Lily Winslow, had disappeared about a year ago. But now that Lily wasn’t there to mend the fences and keep the peace, the family was in chaos. She’d been the glue that had held it all together, and now that she was gone, nothing was ever going to be the same.

The door to the pizza joint swung open, and Frankie Winslow walked in with her younger sister Piper. Her gaze ran around the half-filled room, looking for a table, but then landed on the booth in the corner.

Oh shit. He’d seen that look on Frankie’s face before.

That booth contained the sheriff of Winslow Heights and one of his deputies. Sheriff Darren Burrell had been the law in this town for over twenty years, and he’d been a deputy before that. Not that he was any good at the job.

He wasn’t.

But he told the town council, and Joel Winslow, what they wanted to hear, and that was the major qualification, it seemed. The sheriff didn’t actually solve any crimes, at least not that Gabe knew about. Mostly, Sheriff Burrell hassled teenagers and wrote speeding tickets for the revenue.

The man had been particularly ineffective at finding Lily Winslow when she’d simply disappeared one day. They’d found her car in a parking lot, but the woman had vanished into thin air. Gabe wasn’t a true crime junkie, but the odds certainly weren’t in Lily’s favor when it came to being alive.

Of course, her children had taken it hard, especially as they had no answers. The investigation had gone nowhere, and now most of the town had moved on. The Winslow siblings, however, had not.

And two of them were making a beeline for the sheriff’s table. One aggressively, and the other more reluctantly. Piper didn’t like confrontations or loud voices. She liked peace, quiet, and harmony.

“Isn’t that Frankie and Piper Winslow?” Alex asked, breaking through Gabe’s reverie. “I saw that Frankie won the US Open a few days ago. I guess she’s home to celebrate.”

Frankie had won the tournament, but that wasn’t unusual. She was currently ranked number three in the world and might become number one after her win. She was relentless on the court, never giving up on a point.

Pound the lines. Kill. Destroy.

He had to admit that he admired the hell out of her tenacity and talent. Professional tennis wasn’t for wimps; that was for sure. Talent was one thing, but she had the discipline and work ethic to back it up.