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By the time Celeste showed up for dinner, I hadn’t even been trying to talk myself out of it anymore.
My plans for Wild Lake have changed.
My plans for everything have changed.
Saturday afternoon, when I’ve given it a solid twenty-four hours and my mind is still made up, I make it official with a call to Jasper.
“You can’t be serious,” he barks, his voice crackling from the spotty reception up at the lake.
I watch a hawk glide over the glistening water and feel like I’m that hawk, gliding toward freedom.
“Dead serious. It’s already done. Buy me out or I’ll find someone else. You know it would take one call.”
Jasper and I have never been friends—he’s too cutthroat, suspicious in nature, and manipulative to a fault. All traits that made him an excellent business partner but no one I’d want to chill with on the weekends.
“And the lake site?” he asks, voice calmer as his shock fades and his avaricious brain clicks on.
“I’m taking it with me. That’s the deal. Everything else is yours, but Wild Lake is mine.”
There’s a small pause. “Are you sure you’re in your right mind?”
“That’s the thing. I feel like this is the first time in ten years I’ve been in my right mind.”
He sighs. “Fine. Can’t stop stupid. I’ll call the lawyers and get things started.”
The hawk lifts on an air current, heading toward the forest. A smile spreads on my face as I hang up. Maybe Jasper is right and I’m out of my damn mind.
I know I can’t change the past. My choices. My mistakes.
But I can do this.
17
Two days later, I haven’t stopped thinking about Friday night. About Lucas’s fingers gripping my legs as he hauled me to the shower. About his honesty and vulnerability over dinner and before I left. About his eyes, so clear and direct. The way my body reacts when he touches me, like it knows something I don’t.
I’m caught between wishes. One, that time had changed Lucas more, shaping him into a man I didn’t recognize so that my heart and body wouldn’t ache like this. And two, that he’ll leave soon and life will go back to normal. Predictable and safe.
There’s nothing safe about Lucas Adler. And there’s nothing safe about the dreams that woke me up in the middle of the night and made me reach for my rarely used vibrator.
“Hi, Celeste.”
I look up from building a bouquet, blinking in surprise at the man currently smiling at me. Then a surge of embarrassment hits.
Chris Walker is a perfectly nice, perfectly handsome man. He graduated in the same class as Lucas, Jeremy, and me, though we were never close during high school. After living out west and earning a degree, he now teaches chemistry at the high school.
We went on one disastrous date a few months ago. Not his fault, really. Just timing. He’s recently divorced and we ended up talking about his ex-wife, which led me to talking about my dead husband, which resulted in us both going home depressed and alone. He’d called me once a few weeks later, but I hadn’t answered.
“Hey, Chris,” I say after a too-long pause. “How’s your Sunday going?”
He clears his throat, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Good. I’m good. How’ve you been?”
“Just fine.” I force a smile. I have a bad feeling about why he looks so nervous. “Can I help you with something? Need some flowers?”
“Actually, uh—” He scratches the side of his nose, and the skin beneath his beard flushes red. “I was sort of wondering if you wanted to grab dinner tonight.” After dropping that bomb, he rushes on, “I’m sorry I haven’t called you. I needed to figure stuff out, you know? But I’d like another shot, if you’re willing.”
After an internal wince, I open my mouth to let him down gently. Then I hear a familiar laugh, deep and loud. I glance outside and see Lucas on the opposite side of the street, a huge grin on his face. He’s standing on the sidewalk with a woman—Principal Miranda Keller. Her face is flushed and pretty as she continues talking and Lucas continues smiling. They’re standing close together, matching coffee cups in their hands. Like they spent Sunday morning hanging out.
A burning sensation fills my chest.
