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“My therapist says being consistent is the only way to deal with someone like him. That what you allow is what you teach. I have to set clear boundaries and enforce them.”

“I’d say that was pretty damn clear. God, he’s annoying. He’s like that hair stuck to your shirt and you know it’s there ’cause you can feel it on the back of your arm but you can’t get rid of it?”

I laughed. “I’m never giving him that house.”

“You shouldn’t.”

“I’m not. I spent an entire year furnishing it. I use those trails more than he does, and my friends live there too. That is my damn house.”

Then we sat there for a minute.

I faced her. “I think I need to call that guy.”

“I think so too.”

“I mean, I should return his hoodie, right? That’s the right thing to do. What if it has sentimental value?”

She looked amused.

“What?”

“Let’s call this what it is. It’s a booty call. You need this rebound. Someone to make you feel safe and beautiful and give you all the good sex you didn’t have for the last seven years. And he sounds perfect for the job. Too far away to be up in your shit. Too young to want a commitment.”

“And we have nothing in common, so no way I’ll get attached,” I added.

She nodded. “Not even a possibility.”

Chapter 7

Daniel

I sat at a high-top table in the VFW, nursing a warm beer. Doug was being annoying. This meant his anxiety was high. I was used to it, but my patience had been shorter than usual this week.

April was one of my favorite months. No tourists, so I got to shut down the rental property and focus on my carpentry full-time. The weather was starting to get good and the leaves were budding, which I liked. But I was in a bad mood anyway.

I couldn’t stop thinking about her. About why she’d left. I felt like I’d frightened away some beautiful creature I’d never lay my eyes on again.

I ran the night through in my mind over and over, and so many stupid fucked-up things had happened, I couldn’t put my finger on the one that had done it. Was it the pig? My loft?

Me?

I knew what it hadn’t been. It hadn’t been the sex. That had been amazing. For both of us. At least that was obvious.

Her hands had been so soft. I’d threaded my fingers through hers when I was on top of her—but then I wondered if my hands were too rough for her. If she noticed the calluses and if it turned her off. Or maybe it was the massive pile of dog shit that Hunter had left like a present directly outside my front door—that she’d stepped in. I knew this because she’d abandoned her shoe in it.

I’d cleaned it. Not like I had any expectation that she’d come back for it. It had been a week.

I never minded living in Wakan. It never bothered me that we only had a pizza place open during the summer, or that I had to drive forty-five minutes to get to a Walmart or a Home Depot. But dating here was difficult. The small town didn’t exactly have a singles scene, and sleeping with tourists was never a means to an end. I didn’t do Tinder or whatever the hell Doug was doing these days. I dated a girl named Megan from Rochester for a while, but there had never been that spark between us. Eventually she told me she was seeing someone else and broke things off with me. I hadn’t even cared enough to be disappointed.

But Alexis…I was disappointed about her.

I don’t know what else I expected. Chances were she would have left the next morning never to be seen again, even if she had stayed the whole night. But I hated it anyway.

Everything about her had drawn me in. Her personality, her sense of humor. The curve of her body, the smell of her hair…

I had to stop thinking about it. Especially because there was nothing I could do.

“Hey,” Doug said. “Let’s do pull tabs.”