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Luckily, I had money and I could travel as often as I wanted.

“I think you’ll get that dream,” Nate reassured me.

I tossed my empty cider cup in the trash and studied my friend.

Nate was eyeing Sara the same way that I looked at Jenna.

He was silently hurting, and I hated that.

Nate didn’t show his emotions to many people, but I knew him well enough to realize that he was still pining over Sara.

Friend, my ass.

He’d been attracted to her almost from the beginning, but Sara had rebuffed him.

He’d backed off, but I knew he’d never gotten over the way he felt about her.

Nate played at being in Sara’s friend zone, but I knew it irritated the hell out of him.

“You ever going to try again?” I asked, nodding at Sara.

“She’s made it pretty clear how she feels about me,” he replied tightly.

“She feels the same way,” I assured him. “There has to be something in her history that’s making her blow you off.”

I was willing to bet my life on the fact that Sara cared about Nate as more than a friend.

We all knew she was hiding something, but she looked so damned distressed every time we tried to get more information about her past, we’d all left it alone.

I’d thought she’d talk when she was comfortable, but that hadn’t happened yet.

Hell, I knew she trusted us, but she was too damn traumatized by something to talk about it.

She’d moved to Cherry Cove without any connections here.

What single woman did something like that?

This area wasn’t exactly a metropolis or well-known to anyone who hadn’t spent time here before.

She’d never shared where she came from or why she’d moved here.

She’d gotten a job managing the local arts and crafts store, and she sold some of her own items, like her mandalas, in the store.

That’s where she’d met Nate.

I’d been with him the day he’d met Sara. We’d gone in because he needed some art supplies.

That meeting had brought us all a good friend, but it had brought Nate a lot of heartache, too.

Their relationship had grown into a close friendship, but I knew that wasn’t what either of them really wanted.

“She doesn’t want me like that,” Nate said roughly. “And I’m not going to chase after a woman who isn’t interested.”

That made sense.

Nate had been hurt once, and that experience was blinding him to the fact that Sara really did feel the same way.

I’d told him that over and over, but something was going to have to happen to make him see some sense.