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He goes completely still.

I don’t know why I said it. Except that Martinez suddenly felt wrong. Too distant for what just happened between us.

His blue eyes find mine. And something in his expression changes so completely that my breath catches.

He reaches for me.

He cups my face with both hands and brings me back toward him. “You said my name.”

Then his mouth is on mine again. This kiss isn’t tentative and isn’t hurried either. It simply carries everything the first one was too new to hold. My arms go around him. For one breathless moment, I forget entirely that I’m supposed to be leaving.

When he finally lets me go, his forehead settles against mine once more. His voice is low.

“Maddy.”

Now it’s my turn. Hearing my name in his voice does something warm and impossible inside me. I look at him. He knows, not because he’s teasing, but because he felt it too.

I smile. “Goodnight, Javier.”

This time I make myself get into the car. He closes the door gently. I start the engine.

Javier steps back, hands in his pockets again, and watches as I pull away.

At the end of the gravel lane, I look in the rearview mirror.

He’s still there. The cottage glows behind him, warm and quiet, waiting.

I came back to Oakridge because I had responsibilities here. Noah. Mom. Lily’s life that needed sorting through. I told myself that once everything was settled, I would return to New York and the future I’d already built.

But somewhere along the way, Oakridge stopped feeling like a place I was passing through. The farm stopped feeling like Lily’s. It started becoming mine too.

And tonight, sitting across from Javier in the warmth of his kitchen felt frighteningly easy.

The kiss isn’t what unsettles me most.

It’s how much I already want to go back. To the farm. To that cottage. To him.

And for the first time since I came back to Oakridge, temporary doesn’t feel quite as certain as it used to.

Chapter Eleven

Javier

By eight Wednesday morning, I'm sitting at a table in Betty's with a cup of coffee in front of me.

That alone is enough to get noticed. Usually I come in, pick up the crew's order, and leave. Five minutes if Betty's busy. Three if she isn't. Today, the crew's coffee hasn't even been made yet. Mine has. And I'm sitting down, waiting.

Atlas lies beneath the table, his head resting on his paws.

The bell above the door rings. I look up.

Maddy walks in. She sees me immediately, and smiles.

Something about that smile hits differently this morning. Probably because last night I kissed her. Then kissed her again. And somewhere in the middle of all that, she stopped calling me Martinez long enough to say my name like it mattered.

I smile back.

She walks to the counter. "Morning, Betty."