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Right after I left. “Rowan, I really am sorry. I didn’t mean what I said. I was—”Angry. Confused. In a daze from that heart-stopping kiss.
“You never called.”
“I didn’t think you’d answer.”
Rowan stares at me for several uncomfortable beats, but before he’s able to say anything, the front door opens. I fight an uninvited pang of jealousy as I brace myself to face the woman who’s stolen his heart.
CHAPTER4
Rowan
When Grandma Dottie steps onto the porch, carrying a plate of her famous homemade lemon-chip cookies, I’m certain I catch a visible sigh of relief leave Kinley. Her grim expression morphs into elation as she pushes to her feet. I do my best to look away, but I can’t seem to take my eyes off all her curves. I want to touch and caress every one of them. With my fingersandmy tongue.
“Dottie!”
“Kinley Gray, I thought I heard you out here.” Grandma Dottie sets the plate on the table, smacking my hand when I reach for a cookie, and goes to hug Kinley. “I’ve been meaning to swing by the diner and say hello, but there aren’t enough hours in the day. I’ve been getting ready for Cassius, you see. He’s staying with me while they build his house.”
It’s my turn to tense at the mention of my older brother. Bear lays his head in my lap, looking up at me with sympathetic eyes.
“Cas is coming back to Caribou Creek?” Kinley looks to me, as if for an explanation I don’t owe her. That simple glance, though, puts a crack in my steel exterior. We’ve been best friends since we were old enough to climb trees together. It’s not like me to keep something like this close to the vest. At least, it never used to be. I hated it when she moved to Anchorage, but we kept in touch every day.
Until she met Anders.Asshole.
“Oh yes! Which means Rowan will have some free time on his hands. I’m sure you two have a lot of catching up to do.” Grandma Dottie has no idea what went down between us, or why Kinley and I haven’t spoken in three years. No one does. I never told a soul, and from the way Willow acted when she came to see me earlier today, Kinley didn’t tell anyone either. It might be a record for an actual secret kept in this small town.
“A lot of free time, huh?” Kinley pins me with a playful look. The innocent gesture causes my pulse to double.
“Oh, yes. He’s been doing such a great job, but he worksallthe time.” Grandma Dottie tugs Kinley by the hand, motioning to the empty chair. When I start to stand up, she waves her hand at me to sit back down. “I’ve got to be running. Cas is coming in tonight, and I have a clean set of sheets to pull out of the dryer.”
“It was great to see you, Dottie,” Kinley says, snagging a cookie for herself.
“I’ll swing by the diner one of these days. Say, did you girls find a short order cook to fill in for your grandma? I heard she’s leaving tomorrow.”
“That’s actually why I’m here.”
Fuck. My chest clenches in something very like panic, but Kinley isn’t done. She’s biting her bottom lip in that fucking adorable pout as her glance ping pongs from Grandma Dottie to me, then back to Grandma Dottie. There’s no getting out of this now.
She clears her throat just a little, as if she’s actuallyreluctantto impose. “I was hopingNorth Star Timbercould spare Rowan. Just a bit. None of us Gray sisters can cook. Don’t want to burn the diner down before Grandma Rose comes back from her cruise.”
“Oh, that would be wonderful! Rowan, haven’t you been saying how much you miss—”
I pop out of my chair and drop a hand on her shoulder, steering her across the porch. Or at least I attempt to. For such a petite woman, she’s surprisingly strong and manages to keep her feet rooted in place. “Grandma Dottie, aren’t you running late?”
“I suppose I am.” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a giant bone-shaped treat for Bear. No wonder he’s been so well behaved these past few minutes. He knows a bribe when he smells one. “Kinley, you can have my Moscato. I haven’t had a sip yet.”
“Thanks, Dottie.”
“You kids stay out of trouble. No jumping off the roof or anything crazy.”
Kinley and I share a conspiratorial glance that takes me back to the summer I was nine. She convinced me we could fly if we jumped from a high enough point. We both broke an arm that day and ended up with matching casts. Though I got a ton of shit for getting a purple one. I think even back then, I knew I’d fall in love with her. It was inevitable.
Bear drops his giant head in my lap the minute I sit down, his eyes pointed at the plate of cookies. “You have a bone,” I say to him, nodding to the butcher bone I picked up earlier in the week. “You don’t need sugar.”
“Surely one bite won’t hurt him,” Kinley says, a twinkle in her eyes as she breaks off a corner of her untouched cookie and offers it up. She glances at me, as if waiting for me to stop her. I don’t.
Bear gobbles up the bite in one slobbery chomp.
“You’re not eating your cookie,” I say to Kinley, noticing her cup the rest in her palm. I lift a bottle of water I had sitting next to my chair and set it on her side of the table. She won’t touch the Moscato. Or any alcohol for that matter.
