 
# Dancing Away With My Heart

## A Small Town Southern Romance

## Kait Nolan

# Contents

A Letter to Readers

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Epilogue

Make You Feel My Love

Other Books By Kait Nolan

Acknowledgments

About Kait
**Dancing Away With My Heart**

Written and published by Kait Nolan

Copyright 2019 Kait Nolan

Cover design by Lori Jackson

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All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: The following is a work of fiction. All people, places, and events are purely products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.
_For everyone who ever had prom trauma—I feel ya_

# A Letter to Readers

Dear Reader,

This book is set in the Deep South. As such, it contains a great deal of colorful, colloquial, and occasionally grammatically incorrect language. This is a deliberate choice on my part as an author to most accurately represent the region where I have lived my entire life. This book also contains swearing and closed door pre-marital sex between the lead couple, as those things are part of the realistic lives of characters of this generation, and of many of my readers.

If any of these things are not your cup of tea, please consider that you may not be the right audience for this book. There are scores of other books out there that are written with you in mind. In fact, I've got a list of some of my favorite authors who write on the sweeter side on my website at <https://kaitnolan.com/on-the-sweeter-side/>

If you choose to stick with me, I hope you enjoy!

Happy reading!

Kait

# Chapter 1

The light was perfect. A thin layer of clouds diffused the early evening sun, casting a warm glow over the Wishful town green. All along Main Street, flowers bloomed from carefully-tended planters and trees leafed out in a vibrant chorus of spring. People strolled or sat, enjoying the breezy, upper-sixties temperatures and soaking up sunshine on what was arguably an absolutely perfect spring day. Lexi's shutter finger twitched, and she wished she'd grabbed her camera when she'd gotten out of the car. She wanted to linger in the golden hour, while everything seemed just a little bit magical. But she was on a mission. Still, she turned her face into the cool caress of the wind and gloried in the sweet scents of azaleas and jasmine.

"Why, Lexi Morales, is that you?"

The delighted drawl snapped Lexi out of her reverie. She blinked at the older woman, who sported a huge, shellacked helmet of hair in an _I Love Lucy_ shade of red. Back when she'd taught tenth-grade English, she'd been known to change it as frequently as other women changed purses. There'd been a pool going on the color of the month. The winner got a whole dozen of their candybar of choice. Lexi had ended up with a lot of Snickers that year.

"Mrs. Landon."

Mamie Landon beamed, opening her arms and automatically pulling Lexi in for a pillow-soft hug. "How are you, sugar? I didn't realize you were back in town."

Knowing there'd be no escaping without at least a short visit, Lexi resigned herself to a delay. "Well, it wasn't a planned thing. My mom had a fall and broke her ankle."

One hand went to Mrs. Landon's ample bosom. "No! I hadn't heard! Why, I need to bring by a casserole. What happened?"

"She was trying to clean out the gutters and the ladder slipped. She fell right off. Clean break. She's okay, but I'm here to help out for a few weeks until she gets back on her feet." And to take care of a myriad of other things around the house that her mom had no business trying to do on her own.

"It's such a blessin' that you could get away that long from your job."

Lexi smiled a little. "My boss is pretty accommodating."

"What is it you're doing now?"

"I'm a photographer." She'd finally been able to afford to sign a lease on studio space in Austin. A lease she wouldn't be able to pay if she didn't figure something out for income while her mom recuperated.

"That's marvelous, darlin'. Seems like almost every memory I have of you from high school, you had a camera in your hands. You and that Warren boy. Used to be thick as thieves."

The faint smile froze on Lexi's lips. Yeah, she didn't really need a reminder of "that Warren boy." She'd made avoiding him without being rude an art form over the past decade.

"He's a photographer now, too," Mrs. Landon continued, oblivious to Lexi's discomfort. "Runs a studio right here in town. Did you know that?"

"Yes ma'am, I'd heard that. We keep up a little bit on social media." It was all she'd been able to stomach. But she was back in town for longer than a weekend now. She wouldn't be able to steer clear of him forever.

A bright flash of color drew her attention to the fountain at the opposite end of the green. A young couple, decked out in formalwear, grinned at each other, posing in front of the post-Civil War monument that had given the town its name. Over the years, people had come from all over to make wishes in its waters. According to Lexi's mother, the new city planner had capitalized on that colorful history over the past few years in a marketing campaign to increase tourism. Lexi supposed duping the masses with foolish hope was as good a reason to draw people to town as any, but she knew better. The fountain certainly hadn't granted her wish all those years ago.

Her gaze skimmed from the couple further back, searching out the photographer and hoping it would be some proud parents wanting to capture their kids in all their finery. But it wasn't parents.

"Oh, there's Zach now! It's prom night for the high school, so I figured he'd be out and about somewhere."

Of course, it was prom tonight. Because this walk down memory lane wouldn't be complete without that insult to add to her very old injury.

Lexi's skin went hot and prickly, and a whole murmuration of starlings performed aerial acrobatics in her stomach. She hadn't seen him in years. Not really. She could barely see him now at this distance, but she recognized his crouch with a camera lifted to his face. A face that now showed signs of a scruff he hadn't had when they were in high school. His sun-tipped brown hair was a little long, the way she'd always liked it. He was all dialed in to his subjects, calling out orders for posing, keeping them relaxed and comfortable. He'd always had a gift for that, where she'd had to work for it. She'd always, always preferred shooting any subject that wasn't people. But she'd gotten over it. Needing to eat was a powerful motivator, and weddings, engagements, and portraits were her bread and butter.

Mrs. Landon took Lexi's arm and began towing her down the sidewalk toward him, one hand lifted in a wave, despite the fact that his back was to her. Any second now she was going to sing out "Yoo hoo!" and draw his attention.

Lexi dug in her heels. "No, Mrs. Landon, it's bad form to interrupt a shoot. They'll lose the light. I'll catch up with Zach later."

As she watched, the boy dipped his date back in dramatic fashion. Laughter carried over the green, and Lexi felt a pinch somewhere in the vicinity of her heart. The bite of jealousy was fast and surprisingly vicious.

_Oh my God, really? You are a grown-ass woman. Are you really jealous of a couple of seventeen-year-olds?_

The unfortunate truth was yes. She hated prom season and all the reminders it brought. While she wasn't sure how she was going to make ends meet the next several weeks, she'd been thrilled to escape more of the shiny, happy teenagers and their parents, who approached the occasion with nearly as much seriousness as a wedding.

"I'm sure he'll be just delighted to see you."

Lexi doubted that. They barely qualified as friends anymore. "I'm sure it'll be good to catch up later. I've got time, after all." Sucking in a breath to calm her racing pulse, she managed another smile. "Listen, Mrs. Landon, it was so wonderful to see you, but I need to be getting on. Mama sent me into town to pick up mochas and brownies from The Grind."

"Of course, of course. You tell your mama I said hello now, you hear?"

"Yes ma'am, I will."

"I'll bring that casserole by later this week!"

"We surely appreciate it. Thanks again." Before Mrs. Landon could start in on any other subject, Lexi ducked away and hustled across the green to the coffee shop.

As she stood in line, she managed to get herself under control. It was stupid, really. She'd known she'd see him eventually. Wishful didn't even have a population of six thousand people. Over the past decade, she'd managed to limit those random encounters, coming home only rarely for weekends and sticking close to the house, rather than out and about. Her mother, God love the woman, had never asked for details about why Lexi no longer wanted to see the boy who'd been her best friend from the first summer before she'd started at Wishful High School, back in ninth grade. Lexi had hoped that time would dull the ache of missing him and the burn of embarrassment she felt every time she thought of him. But it hadn't. Not yet, anyway. So, she'd have to bite the bullet, take control, and arrange to see him on her terms. After she'd had a chance to get her head screwed on straight.

"Lexi?"

At the sound of the familiar male voice behind her, she closed her eyes.

_Crap._

Zach stood just inside the entryway to The Daily Grind. All thoughts of the clients he'd just finished with, and the large Zombie Killer with caramel he needed to fuel the late night of editing ahead, spilled out of his brain. The next few seconds unfolded like a series of still shots, each moment captured clear in his mind as she turned. In each one, she transformed a little bit more from the girl he remembered to the woman before him. The woman he'd barely seen in a decade. Every blink was another shutter click, storing away mental images, cataloging the differences between then and now. She was still petite, but the compact body in his memory had added more than a few curves. The rich, brown waves of her hair were longer now, pulled back in a low tail at her nape.

But it was her. It was Lexi.

Joy burst like a barrage of flash bulbs in his brain. But there was something else there, too. A tightness in his chest he didn't expect. Like he couldn't quite catch his breath. An inability to look away from those melted chocolate eyes. Had they always been this deep and piercing? Her lips curved as she smiled that familiar, Lexi smile, and the thing in his chest loosened.

Before he could check himself, he'd closed the distance between them, scooping her into his arms, and lifting her off her feet in a fierce hug. "Damn, it's so good to see you!"

It took a second to register that she wasn't hugging him back. Realizing he'd overstepped some boundary they'd never had before, he set her down, finding himself strangely reluctant to release her, as if she'd disappear in a puff of smoke the moment he stopped touching her. Lexi Morales hadn't been a day-to-day part of his life since they'd graduated high school, but he'd never stopped thinking about her. Never stopped wondering how the hell they'd gone from easy, everyday friends, to the keep-up-on-social-media distance they had now.

As soon as her feet hit the floor, she took a step back, and he noticed that smile he'd missed so much was a little strained around the edges. "Hi, Zach."

Shit, should he apologize for invading her personal space? Not knowing what else to do, he shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from touching her again. "I didn't know you were in town."

Glancing at the line, she edged closer to the counter. "Only just. My mom broke her ankle."

Zach frowned. How had he not heard about that? He tried to keep up with Mama Morales since Lexi was more than a few hours away in Texas. "That's awful. Is she okay?"

"Yeah. But she can't manage on her own right now, so I'm here for a few weeks to help out." There was a flash of...something in her eyes before they shuttered.

Zach realized he'd seen that before, when she'd started to retreat at the end of high school. He hadn't known what to do with that back then. She'd never hidden what she was thinking or feeling before. It had always been one of the things he'd loved about her. He knew exactly where he stood with her. When she'd started pulling away, he'd thought it was a phase. She'd always been an intensely private person, so when she'd put up boundaries, he'd respected them instead of demanding she tell him what was going on. He'd thought she'd snap out of it. She hadn't. High school had ended, they'd gone to different schools, and somehow...they'd never found their way back to the friends they used to be. He'd been able to keep up with her on social media. Maybe that had made him feel like they were still closer than they actually were because he was painfully aware that he couldn't read her right now.

He didn't know where this standoffishness was coming from. Okay, maybe she hadn't responded the way he wanted when he'd reached out online. They'd both been busy with their respective lives. It happened. But maybe it was more than that. Did she have something going on that he ought to be concerned about? As far as he was concerned, they were still friends. If she needed support for something, he wanted to be there for her.

The line moved, and they took another step toward the register. "Is everything all right with you being here that long?"

The question seemed to take her aback. "What?"

"It's just, you seem less than thrilled about it."

Two spots of color bloomed in her cheeks. "It's not that. I love my mom. It's just a long time to be away from my life in Austin."

"And does that life include a significant other?" He hadn't seen her post anything about a guy on social media, but she didn't post about a lot of things.

Lexi snorted and sounded more like herself. "Like I have time for a boyfriend while I'm getting my business off the ground."

Zach felt an absurd sense of relief at the news. Why should it matter if she had a boyfriend or not? It wasn't like a guy would take her away from him. Life had done that already. And things had never been anything more than platonic between them.

"So it's work you're missing?" This was probably safer territory. They'd always been able to connect over photography.

"Well, it's hard to book jobs not knowing exactly when she'll be healed enough for me to get back."

He'd been lucky in his business. Byron Bridges had retired the year Zach graduated from college. Coming home to take over his studio had been a no-brainer. There'd been a built-in client-base, and as the only professional photographer in town, he tended to stay busy year-round. So busy, he didn't have time to pursue his other interests. But maybe, since Fate had sent Lexi back his way, he'd get a little reprieve. And maybe he could help her out along the way.

"Work with me while you're here." The words were out before he could think them through, but he wouldn't have taken them back. He missed working shoulder-to-shoulder with her in a dark room or on digital proofs. No one understood the lure of being behind the camera the way she did.

Those melted chocolate eyes blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"Since Byron retired, I'm the only gig in town, so I've got more business than I can handle. There's a waiting list, and there have been some jobs I've had to turn down because of time constraints. I know it's not growing your client list for Austin, but it'd surely keep some income flowing while you're here."

Why did she look so stunned at the offer? They were friends. Or damn it, they used to be. He wanted that back. Spending actual time together would give him the chance to reestablish their friendship in a way he couldn't online. He'd known he'd missed her, but he hadn't realized how much until he'd seen her again. He needed her to say yes to this.

"Your clients want to book you. Your skills. Your style."

"They want good pictures," he corrected. "Most aren't that fussy about who takes them, and you're every bit as good as I am. It'd be great to have someone to refer them to that isn't an hour or more away. You brought your gear, didn't you?"

The look of vague insult almost made him smile. "Of course I did."

"Then it's a win-win for us both." _Please, say yes._

She fidgeted, and he was sure she was trying to come up with some excuse. "Well, if you truly don't mind and don't think they'd mind, I'd certainly appreciate some referrals."

Zach held in his whoop of relief. "Of course I don't mind. What are friends for? I'd love to get to really catch up while you're here. It's been ages."

Again that...something flashed across her face, but she stepped up to the counter to place her order. By the time she'd finished chatting easily with the barista and paid, he'd already mentally rearranged things in his studio to accommodate another photographer and started a list of ways to remind her of all the reasons they'd been friends in the first place.

Grabbing the paper bag and tray of coffees, she turned toward him, smiling again. "I'd love to catch up while I'm here. But later. I promised Mom brownies and a mocha, and I already ran into Mrs. Landon on the green, so I've taken longer than I meant to."

Squashing the disappointment that they couldn't start that catching up now, he pasted on his own smile. "Of course. Give your mom my best. And come on by the studio tomorrow. I'll give you the grand tour. It'll be nice to share it."

"Looking forward to it." She lifted the bag in a sort of wave and headed out the door.

As he watched her go, Zach couldn't quite shake the feeling that she was running. With luck, he'd eventually suss out why.

# Chapter 2

Because she needed to burn off a little more nervous energy before she got back in her car, Lexi took the long way, skirting by the fountain. It actually ran now, which was more than could be said for it back when they were in high school. A tiny, foolish part of her wondered if that was why that long ago wish hadn't come true.

_I wish Zach would see me the way I see him._

He hadn't. Ever. The truth of that had been too painful for her to cope with, so she'd put distance between them, hoping time would heal the wound. Apparently, it had. Getting through that whole interaction had taken less acting than she'd expected. She _was_ legitimately happy to see Zach. He had, after all, been her closest friend for many years. She didn't hate him or wish him any ill will. She just wanted to turn off the feelings that had turned on for her their senior year and go back to only being buddies. Things had been so much simpler then.

For a fleeting moment, she considered dropping another coin in the fountain, updating her wish. Could you even do that? But ultimately, she let it alone. She'd spent all these years building up what it would be like to see him again. She'd always been so afraid to look him in the eye and see the knowledge of her feelings for him. Maybe to see that he thought it was sweet, or cute, or that she was just a little bit pathetic. And then she'd have to die from the abject mortification. But it had been...fine. Turned out Zach was still as clueless as he had ever been. Sure, she'd felt a little awkward, but not the dry-mouthed, tongue-tied, heart palpitations she'd expected. He was just...Zach. Perhaps it was time she admitted they were all grown up and she'd moved on.

_Thank God._

Clearly, he still thought they were friends, like he didn't even notice the distance she'd put between them. The contrast to her own perceptions was jarring. But maybe this was a good thing. Maybe she could put her old crap away and they could find their way back to being real friends while she was here. Wouldn't that be something? The idea of it had her smiling as she let herself into the little gray house with the bright turquoise front door.

"I was beginning to think you'd been kidnapped by a drug cartel."

Lexi glanced at the TV, where the protagonist of her mom's current favorite telenovela was engaged in a dramatic stare down with the son of the cartel's head. "Ricardo totally figured out Maria's undercover, didn't he?"

Her mom gestured expansively toward the screen, wincing a little as her movement shifted the ankle she had propped on a pillow. "Yes, but he doesn't know _why_ yet."

Crossing the small living room, Lexi set the coffee and brownies on the table in front of the sofa before sinking cross-legged to the floor. "She's going to have to trust him if she has a prayer of finding out what happened to her sister."

Eyes never leaving the show, her mom grabbed one of the mochas. "He might turn her over to his father." Her tone was caught somewhere between dread and excitement. Leandra Morales was a fan of the drama. As long as it stayed on the screen. In her own life, she just wouldn't have it, divorcing Lexi's father on the discovery of his infidelity, despite her Catholic upbringing. That had all happened when Lexi was fourteen, and was how she and her mother had landed in Wishful for a fresh start.

"Never gonna happen. He's been secretly in love with her from the beginning." Lexi actually had no idea if he was or not, but she'd watched enough telenovelas growing up that it seemed a safe bet.

On the screen, Maria's eyes glimmered as she insisted she could explain, that it was all for the sake of her little sister.

Lexi tapped a finger against the lid of her cup. "Called it!"

They lapsed into silence for the last few minutes of the episode, which ended with the star-crossed lovers in a passionate embrace. It was ridiculous and over the top, as most telenovelas were. And still her heart gave a little twinge. When was the last time she'd had somebody kiss her like that? Hell, when was the last time she'd been on a date at all? She'd done her share of dating in college, though nobody had been serious. Since then she'd been far more focused on finding a way to make a living with her art. There'd been a couple of guys she'd seen more than once, but nobody worth making the effort for a real relationship. In truth, she didn't think the right relationship would feel like work. So, either she simply hadn't found the right guy, or she was fooling herself.

Leandra clicked off the show and pounced on the brownie. "Now, tell me what took so long."

Lexi twitched her shoulders and bit into her own brownie. "It's Wishful. You know there's no such thing as coming back to town without having to chat with everybody and their brother."

"Which everybody did you run into?"

"Mrs. Landon. She's planning to bring a casserole over, by the way."

"That's nice of her. Who else?" Per usual, her mother's sharp eyes missed nothing.

Lexi wondered if maybe she had a blinking neon sign above her head. She kept her tone as casual as possible. "I saw Zach."

A delighted smile bloomed on Leandra's face. "Oh good! He always asks about you whenever I run into him. I know he's been wanting to see you." She didn't say it, but the implied question of why Lexi hadn't made an effort to see him on her previous visits home hung in the air between them.

Lexi knew better than to bite. And she knew that her mother wouldn't push. She'd never pushed Lexi to handle things with Zach any other way but how she wanted, even when it meant that Lexi had moved three states away. Not that she'd ever admitted he was the reason.

"Well, he'll be seeing a fair bit of me while I'm home. He's offered me a job. Sort of. He's got more business than he can handle—nice problem to have, right?—so he's going to make some referrals."

"That's wonderful, _mija,_ and a big relief to me. I didn't want to ask you to come for so long—"

"Don't be silly." She was all her mother had. No way was she shirking that responsibility. "Of course I was going to come. And we're lucky I have the flexibility to do exactly that."

But the relief of probably getting some kind of work while she was here couldn't be overstated.

"How do you feel about spending time with him again?" Leandra's eyes were full of far too much sympathy.

Lexi had never told her the whole story, but she'd always suspected her mom knew anyway. She'd worn her heart on her sleeve back then. Before she'd learned how to armor up and shove those more tender feelings in a deep, dark basement room of her heart.

"I don't know. It's good to see him." In those minutes she hadn't been freaking out, she'd drunk in the sight of him. The easy smile, those shoulders—broader now—that tapered down to narrow hips, the crinkles around his blue-gray eyes...

When she didn't continue, Leandra nudged her knee. "But?"

Lexi mentally shook herself, choosing her words carefully, so she didn't reveal too much. "We have a lot of history. Mostly good. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried it'll be a little weird." Then again, the weird was only ever on her side. She was the one who'd changed. Zach seemed just as blissfully unaware now as he had been in high school. There'd clearly been no epiphany on his part about why she'd up and almost disappeared.

Whatever. She was a successful adult, with a full life elsewhere, who was no longer crushing on her best friend. His obliviousness didn't matter.

"Friendships are like the tide. They ebb and flow. You've been at an ebb with Zach for a long time now. Maybe now the tide is turning."

"Maybe," Lexi conceded.

She just hoped she could keep her head above water.

Zach minutely adjusted the level of highlights in the image on the screen, but his attention wasn't on the smiling teenagers in the shot. Another glance at the clock confirmed it was nearly five. Lexi hadn't shown. He was starting to think maybe she wasn't going to. Maybe it just wasn't a good day for this. But if that were the case, why hadn't she let him know?

He could call her mom's house. It wasn't like he didn't still know that number by heart. But somehow it felt desperate to call her up to say, "Hey, where are you?" when they hadn't even set a formal time to meet. He wasn't desperate—not exactly—just...antsy. And he couldn't figure out why. There was some part of him that worried she'd disappear on him again. Or maybe that he'd imagined yesterday's encounter entirely, just because he'd missed her. Until he'd laid eyes on her, he hadn't realized how much. And that was...crazy. Right? Not the missing her part, but this sense he had of needing to hang on. Maybe it was just his subconscious prodding him not to let things go back to this polite distance they'd had the last several years. She'd pulled away so gradually, somehow he'd missed it. What kind of a dick did that make him that he hadn't noticed until it felt like it was too late to do anything about it?

_Well, I'm doing something about it now._

A chime sounded, indicating someone had opened the door. He sprang out of the chair and bolted for the reception area.

Lexi stood in the front office, a camera bag slung cross-body as she looked around at the gallery of photos on the wall. The sight of her was like the sun coming out, banishing the vague shadow that had hung over his day. He didn't bother trying to tame his grin.

"Hey! I was beginning to think you weren't going to be able to make it."

"Sorry. I had to go by Brides and Belles to pick up the latest alterations. Mom insists she doesn't need her ankle to do them, and neither Babette nor I could talk her out of it. Then it took a while to get her settled in her sewing room." She shoved her hands in the back pockets of her jeans, an old tell he recognized. He didn't want her to feel awkward here with him.

"No problem. I was just doing some editing. Come, have the grand tour. It'll only take about five minutes."

He led her back to the studio and watched her take everything in with those dark eyes that missed nothing.

"It looks so different from when we interned with Byron."

"After he retired, I had the guys come in to help me paint from top to bottom. And as soon as I could get rid of the early eighties era furniture, I did. I didn't need too much. I do way more on-location shoots than studio work."

They picked their way over the snaking cords of flash stands and around reflectors. "Same. It's how I could get away with not having a proper studio all this time. I never liked working with backdrops."

"They have their place, but there's no substitute for natural light." He showed her the prop room, full of everything from an assortment of chairs and artificial plants, to empty picture frames, to the buckets and baskets he often used for newborn shoots. And he took great delight in showing her the dark room.

She turned a circle in the small space. "You actually still do film?"

"Not as often as I'd like, but from time to time. There's just something about doing the development yourself, you know?"

"Oh yeah. I have fond memories of the time we spent in the dark room back in high school."

Coming from anybody else, that would've been a double entendre, but from Lexi it was nothing more than the truth. The dark room had been about confidences and confessions, and plenty of laughter. They'd had some of their best conversations there.

"Maybe you'd like to try your hand at it again, while you're here."

Her lips curved. "Maybe I would. For now, I'd like to see more of your portfolio. See the kind of thing your clients are expecting."

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

She nodded and followed him into his office. Zach pulled up his digital portfolio and nudged her into the seat, trying not to loom as she clicked through.

"I thought I'd know more people."

"You've been gone a long time. Things change, even here in Wishful."

Lexi twitched her shoulders and didn't look at him. "True enough."

Damn. He hadn't meant that as any kind of recrimination.

"Reed Campbell is getting married?"

Zach peered over her shoulder at the engagement photos he'd taken. "Got married last fall. Cecily is a blue blood from Connecticut, but we forgive her for being a Yankee since they're besotted with each other."

"It shows. She's lovely."

Lexi continued to scroll, commenting on others she recognized who'd gotten married or had kids. Eventually she sat back, a strange vulnerability to her expression. "It feels weird."

Zach leaned against the desk, crossing his arms. "What does?"

"I don't know. It's like they're all grown up, and I'm still playing at this adulting thing."

"There's no deadline on when or if those things happen. They're not for everybody."

She angled her head to study him, her full lips quirked in a sardonic smile that was a shade more of the Lexi he remembered. "You? Is there a prospective Mrs. Warren on the horizon?"

It was a casual and obvious question to ask, but he was oddly relieved to admit, "Nah. The dating pool here is shallow, as you well remember. I'm enjoying my life exactly as it is." And if he'd been feeling the pinch a bit with his friends starting to get married, that was natural. Wanting to change the subject, he slid off the desk. "So show me what you've been working on."

She logged into her online portfolio and they traded places. Where his stock-in-trade was traditional weddings, family shoots, and senior portraits, her work was far more artistic and varied. He clicked open a folder titled "Home." The gallery loaded, one image after another showing the coast in miniature. Zach opened the first thumbnail, a sunset shot of the iconic Biloxi lighthouse that had miraculously survived Hurricane Katrina.

"You went back."

"It was time," she said softly. "I went back on the ten-year anniversary."

The anniversary of when her family had lost everything. Their home in Bay Saint Louis had been entirely washed away. Without the money or will to rebuild, they'd relocated to Houston, Texas, crammed into a little apartment for a few years, before her parents split, and she and her mom had moved to Wishful. All these years later, few people outside Mississippi remembered that New Orleans hadn't been the only city hit. Even when it had happened, The Weather Channel had referred to the space between New Orleans and Mobile as "a land mass" rather than an actual state, for which they'd been mercilessly mocked by other networks. The fact of it was, the Mississippi Gulf Coast had been obliterated. Lexi clearly remembered. And yet the photographs she'd taken chronicled the things that had survived, what had been rebuilt.

He understood what that trip had meant to her. Facing that loss. "I'd have gone with you."

Her hand squeezed his shoulder before falling away again. "I know. I needed to do it alone."

Once they'd done everything together. Zach didn't understand where or why things had changed.

Not trusting himself to bring it up, he kept scrolling, admiring the breadth and scope of her talent. He was impressed, and a bit envious. "I'm a little jealous of all this."

"Why?"

"I'm good at what I do, and I enjoy it, but there's a sameness and expectation to traditional photography. What you've done here? This is art."

"I'm going to disagree that your traditional photography isn't art, but there's nothing stopping you from exploring other things, too."

"There's not much time for that with everything else on my plate. Bills to pay, and all that."

"Art doesn't always pay. Or hasn't yet, for me. Not a living wage, anyway. That's part of why I started my own studio. I have do the one to enable the other."

"I'm hoping I can do a little branching out and experimenting with you here."

Her lips curved. "Still into weather photography?"

Before Zach could reply, her phone rang. "Excuse me." Stepping back she answered, "Hey Mom," and wandered out of the room.

Zach kept clicking through her galleries. She'd done everything from landscapes to abstract macro studies and everything in between. And then he hit on the folder of boudoir shoots. It was a style of photography he'd never thought of doing. There was an unavoidable intimacy between subject and photographer, and he couldn't fathom it not being awkward with his friends and neighbors. But Lexi clearly had no issues on that front. The pictures were sexy and tasteful.

One particular sequence of black-and-white images captured his imagination. The model was clearly nude, but nothing could actually be seen. It was all sensual curves, the suggestion of intimacy. Tastefully erotic. He could almost feel the softness of that skin beneath his palms. The next shot captured the same model from behind, rising from tangled sheets. There was no lover in view, but her mussed hair implied a night of passion. The angle showed only her back and the top curve of her hip. In the next one she slipped on a cardigan long enough to cover the essentials. He could practically hear the whisper of fabric as it settled over her. The one after that, she stood at a window, her face turned away, but every line of her lovely body suggesting wistfulness, as if she were waiting for that imagined lover to come back. He clicked to the next, a waist-up shot where she was turned partly toward the camera, the gap in the sweater showing a tantalizing suggestion of breast as she glanced back over her shoulder. And his breath backed up in his lungs.

It was Lexi.

Had she done these herself? Or had that mystery lover implied by the composition been responsible? Why did the idea of that squeeze a fist in his chest? She was an adult. A single, incredibly attractive adult. Of course she'd had lovers.

"Sorry about that."

By some miracle, Zach managed not to fall out of his chair. But he didn't manage to school his face.

"What's wrong?"

_I've just been perving on my best friend._

"Nothing." Before she could circle the desk, he closed out of the folder and randomly selected something else. "Just admiring your work. You're really versatile."

_You're really beautiful. How did I never really notice that before?_ Those semi-erotic images of her were etched into his brain now. He couldn't unsee that, couldn't go back to seeing her as just Lexi.

She frowned at him as she crossed over, so he tried to change the subject and mentally started reciting the focal lengths of his entire collection of lenses to get his arousal under control. "Was everything okay with your mom?"

"Oh, yeah. She was just letting me know that Babette dropped over with dinner. I think she wanted me to know I don't have to be on duty for a while."

He closed the browser entirely and stood. "Does that mean you're free for the night?"

"I suppose it does."

"Then let's get some dinner and take a walk down memory lane."

Maybe by the end of it, he'd manage to shift her firmly back into the friend column.

# Chapter 3

"The first time I had a camera in my hands—a real camera—was out here, on a night much like tonight. Do you remember?"

Lexi didn't look at Zach in the driver's seat, her gaze trained instead on the small crowd milling around a bonfire on the banks of Hope Springs. "Of course I remember."

It had been her camera. A gift from her father that was supposed to be some kind of apology for not keeping it in his pants and destroying their family. Completely new in town, starting over _again,_ with two whole months before she began high school, her mom had dropped her at a similar bonfire, with a promise to come back for her after an hour.

_"I need you to try,_ mija _."_

Lexi could still remember the panic clawing up her throat at what felt like being thrown to the wolves, but she'd gotten out of the car, clutching the camera like a lifeline and a shield. And instead of walking up and introducing herself as her mother intended, she'd skirted the group, studying them through the viewfinder. She'd framed and tested shots, adjusted settings, eventually losing herself in the process and forgetting she didn't really want to be there.

And then Zach had walked over.

_"Can I try?"_

She'd eyed him with suspicion. The camera had been expensive. Who was this _gringo_ with the open face and easy smile? But he'd won her over with his relentless good humor and general _niceness_ , until she'd let him try the camera out, taking a picture of her.

"I still have that picture of you at home," he said, proving his thoughts were running along the same lines.

Now she did look over, something warm blooming in her chest at his sentimentality. "You're a lot better now than you were at fourteen."

"Yeah. But I think it's good to remember where we came from. C'mon. Everybody's waiting."

There was something odd to his tone and his expression, but she didn't manage to put her finger on what before he was climbing out of the car. She thought he was going to head on without her, but he stopped a few feet away and turned back, a hand outstretched as it had been that night all those years ago. Riding on nostalgia, Lexi slipped her camera bag over her head and placed her hand in his. Zach's fingers closed warm and sure around hers, and she tried not to read anything into it. There hadn't been more to it then and there wasn't now. He was just a physically affectionate guy. Always had been. But she was aware of every millimeter of his skin where it touched hers.

"Look who I found!" Zach dragged her into the light of the fire.

"Lexi!" A familiar brunette scrambled out of a camp chair and launched herself across the distance.

Laughing, Lexi absorbed the enthusiastic hug. "Hey, Avery! It's great to see you."

"Hail, hail, the gang is officially all here. Welcome home, _chica_." Leo Hamilton scooped her neatly off her feet.

His twin brother lifted an arm, with a grin she hadn't forgotten. "Eli, if you even think about putting me in a headlock and giving me a noogie, I swear to God, I will show you every bit of the self-defense I learned in college."

"Spoil-sport." But his blue eyes twinkled as he said it. "Welcome back."

She was passed from hug to hug. Jace Applewhite. His cousin, Jessie. Reed Campbell. And then came the introductions to the significant others. Avery's fiancé, Dillon was a rangy guy who somehow looked like a cowboy despite the khaki shorts and t-shirt. Lexi wanted to get a shot of that profile from beneath the brim of a Stetson. She recognized Reed's wife, Cecily, from the photos she'd seen in Zach's portfolio. She was even more stunning in person.

"It's so nice to meet you," Cecily gushed. "Zach's talked so much about you."

Lexi arched a brow and glanced at him. "He has?"

Zach only shrugged. "You feature prominently in most of my high school stories."

"They used to be joined at the hip," Jace said.

"Oh, did y'all date back then?" This came from a leggy blonde she didn't recognize.

"No." The word came out too fast, too sharp, and Lexi hoped they'd attribute the flush in her cheeks to heat from the fire. Fixing a smile on her face she managed a passable laugh. "That would've been ridiculous."

_"I thought you were joking."_

The long ago words echoed through her heart with a stab of pain just as fresh now as it had been when it happened.

_Over and done. Get it together._ Stuffing her emotions way down deep, she forced herself to relax and roll on with the conversation, facing the blonde. "You're clearly new since high school."

Jace slid an arm around her waist and beamed. "Lexi, I'd like you to meet Tara Honeycutt, the love of my life."

The pair of them oozed happiness and contentment, the kind that couldn't be faked for pictures. Jace had always been so damned nice, she couldn't resent that, even if she did feel a stab of envy. "Pleased to meet you, Tara." A diamond flashed in the firelight. "When is the big day?"

"Weekend after next. Will you be in town? You should absolutely come," Jace insisted.

"Of course, I'd be happy to come."

"Actually, I wanted to talk to y'all about that." Zach snagged a Coke from the cooler and popped the top. "Lexi's in town for a few weeks, so I wanted to see how y'all might feel about bringing her on to help with wedding photos."

Okay, this was not exactly what she'd imagined when Zach had offered referrals. She'd expected client meetings and formal presentations, not putting everybody involved on the spot, last-minute.

"I'm a groomsman," he explained. "I can cover all the posed shots, but you and I both know there's no substitute for an active photographer during the ceremony. I could make it work, but..."

"It wouldn't be the same," Lexi finished. She couldn't fathom trying to be _in_ a wedding _and_ shooting it.

"Oh, could you?" Tara shot an apologetic look at Zach. "I know you said you could handle it, but I've had reservations."

"Completely understandable," Zach soothed.

Good thing she'd packed for work, just in case. "I'd love to help. Just let me know where and when."

"Awesome!"

Avery offered her a beer. "So you're here for a few weeks? Are you back for the reunion?"

Lexi bought a moment, twisting off the cap and taking her first pull on the longneck. "The reunion?"

"You know, our ten-year class reunion," Leo prodded.

She'd done her best to block out the fact that it was even happening. The absolute last thing she wanted was to go back to high school, even for one night. Not even with these people she'd once been so close to. "No, I'm not in town for the reunion. I'm helping out my mom. She broke her ankle."

There were the predictable exclamations of concerns and offers to help, which Lexi neatly brushed off. It had been just her and her mom for so long, she wasn't accustomed to taking much in the way of help. Plus, it was a point of pride that they'd managed on their own after her father's infidelity.

"Still, it would be a shame for you not to come if you're still here," Avery insisted. "You'd get to see everybody from high school."

"I'm seeing everybody from high school I actually want to see right now," Lexi pointed out.

"Flattery will get you everywhere," Jessie declared, toasting with her own bottle. "But the point, dear girl, is dressing up."

"Dressing up?"

"The whole thing's ending with a grown-up prom. How cool is that as a way to flash back to the good ol' days?"

They all clearly had vastly different memories of high school than she did. Flashing back to the worst stretch of her teenage life was not how she wanted to spend an evening or even a minute. She'd done it often enough over the years without having a practical reenactment of the event.

"I'm not much one for dressing up." And she wasn't. The number of times she'd willingly worn a dress in her adult life for non-business purposes could be counted on one hand. She was a tomboy. Always had been. Jeans and Chucks and an assortment of vintage t-shirts were her uniform. What business did she have trying to be someone she wasn't? That hadn't ended well for her before.

"Seriously? Your mama is, like, the most talented seamstress in town, and you don't take advantage of that?" Avery asked.

Lexi's fingers tightened reflexively on the bottle in her hand. "Nope. She despairs of me, I promise. But it doesn't make me like dressing up any better."

Jessie opened her mouth, presumably to continue her campaign, but Zach interrupted. "Leave her be. She's never liked dances."

It was the truth as far as he knew, and her one attempt to change that had blown up in her face.

"How can you not like dancing?" Jessie asked.

"I like _dancing_ just fine. I just prefer to be comfortable while doing it. No pointy-toed shoes that break my feet. No panty hose. None of the torture device trappings that go along with dressing up."

Leo pulled out his phone and stabbed a few buttons. Music spilled out of a speaker by the cooler—something with a beat that made her hips twitch. "No time like the present."

More appreciative than she could express, Lexi tipped back the rest of her beer, then set the bottle aside. "You, Mr. Hamilton, are on."

Over the next few hours, Zach watched Lexi unwind, losing herself in music, memory, and more than a little bit of alcohol. Why not? He was driving, and he suspected she cut loose little enough in her day-to-day life. It was the reason he'd brought her, hoping to coax her into relaxing and remembering the easy friendship they'd all shared for years. That and he'd wanted to spend time with her. As if in one night he could make up for years of distance.

But the night hadn't done for him what he'd wanted. It hadn't reminded him that they were friends. Hadn't neatly nudged her back into that box and locked any kind of a door. Because he couldn't take his eyes off her. Couldn't stop soaking in the sound of her laughter and the way the firelight illuminated that gorgeous, bronzed skin. Skin his hands itched to touch, to see if she was as soft as those pictures had made her look. She'd let her hair down. The heavy mass of waves spilled down her back, bouncing as she swayed to the beat. What would they smell like? Feel like against his fingers? They'd danced together in packs, as friends were known to do. But he'd never danced with _her._ He found he wanted to.

So, of course, he kept his ass parked in a camp chair on the other side of the fire, well out of touching range, since he'd lost his damned mind.

"Earth to Zach."

He blinked, realizing Leo had been talking to him and he hadn't heard a word. "What?"

"Dude, what is up with you?"

"Nothing." _First line of defense, always denial._

"I'm calling bullshit on that." Leo looked across the fire to where Lexi danced with the other girls to somebody's Girl Power playlist in a sort of tipsy, tribal display of the modern feminine. "It's not exactly like old times, is it?"

Uncomfortable with where that question might lead, Zach jerked his shoulders. "We're not in high school anymore."

Leo lifted his beer. "That's for damned sure. You never looked at her like this in high school."

"Like what?" But he knew.

"Like you want to take a bite out of her. When did that happen?"

Zach rubbed a hand over his face, as if he could scrub the image of scraping his teeth down the long, lovely column of her throat out of his mind. Wonderful. Now he had new fantasies to add to the ones she'd inadvertently planted in his brain herself. But it hadn't just been the boudoir shots. Things had felt different the moment he'd laid eyes on her in The Daily Grind. "Hell if I know."

"What are you gonna do about it?"

"Do?" He skewered Leo with a look. "Not a damned thing. She's one of my best friends. I'm not going to fuck that up."

Leo studied him for a long moment, like he knew the truth—that Zach and Lexi hadn't been best friends for a long time. And maybe he did. Maybe they all knew what he hadn't been able to admit to himself.

"So you're just going to...what? Hope this goes away?"

Yeah, that'd be good. He'd go home, get a good night's sleep, and when he woke up tomorrow, he'd be sane again, and they could resume working together with that easy, uncomplicated friendship they'd always had. "Sure. Why not?"

Leo snorted. "Good luck with that, brother."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that there's a reason the opposite sexes rarely make it long-term as platonic friends. Somebody's feelings always change. Hell, I had a front-row seat to that most of my life with my brother and Autumn, and look where they ended up."

Married with a baby and blissfully happy.

"That's different." Everybody knew Judd and Autumn had been in love with each other since they were six years old.

"I'm just sayin'." Leo stood, finishing off his beer. "I need to be getting on. The work day will start way too soon."

"You good to drive?"

"Yeah. That was just my second over several hours. I'm good."

Zach rose too, thinking he should probably cut Lexi off before she had to face Mama Morales with a hangover. Nobody wanted that. She was belting out an enthusiastic, if slurred, rendition of "Titanium", using a wine cooler as a microphone.

"Okay, Miss Bulletproof. Time to go."

"Awwww." She broke into a spate of Spanish he didn't understand.

_Oh boy._ She only retreated to her first language when she was really tired, really emotional, or, apparently, well on her way to drunk.

"Your mama's gonna kill me."

Giggling, she held a finger up to her nose. Zach could only presume she'd been aiming for her lips, miming keeping a secret. He wondered if he'd be able to sneak her into the house and pour her into bed without Mama Morales finding out. Only one way to find out. He began herding her toward the car, a process encumbered by the fact that she kept running back to give everybody big, sloppy hugs.

"I missed y'all so much!"

Zach was glad she'd remembered that much, at least.

By the time he leaned over to buckle her safely in the passenger seat, he knew there wasn't a chance in hell of retrieving her car from the studio tonight. At least it gave him another excuse to see her tomorrow. But maybe after all this he wouldn't need excuses. Maybe they'd fall back into things the way he wanted.

Tipping forward, she pressed her face into his throat. "You smell good."

Zach froze, feeling half the blood in his body drain south at the feel of her lips against his skin. His fingers fumbled the seatbelt. Yeah, their old friendship was definitely not what he was wanting right now. Electing not to comment, he fastened the belt and shut her inside.

_Just get her home._

She hummed the whole way to some playlist in her head. It took him until he parked in her driveway to recognize what it was.

"Are you humming that mix CD I made you freshman year?"

She rolled her head toward him against the seat. "It's one of my favorites. You're one of my favorites. Always were."

"You're one of my favorites, too, Shutterbug. C'mon. Let's get you inside."

He told himself he only kept his arm tight around her because she was stumbling, but he was aware of every inch of her body moving against his on the way to the house. The door wasn't locked, for which he was grateful. A single light burned from the entryway table. Moving past it, he carefully navigated her down the hall to her old bedroom. When she started to giggle, he shushed her.

"Do you want to get us both in trouble?" he whispered.

Lexi pressed her face against his arm and shook with silent laughter.

They made it into her room without incident—a miracle. He reached for the desk lamp, relieved it was still exactly where it had been in high school. Depositing her into the chair and shrugging off her camera bag, he studied her flushed face. Oh yeah, he should have cut her off one or two sooner.

"Don't go anywhere. I'm gonna get you some water and aspirin."

The glasses were still in the cabinet above the dishwasher. He filled one and found the painkillers—they'd moved since high school—then returned to Lexi's room. It felt weird being here at night, in the dark, trying to be quiet while her mom slept down the hall. Like they were doing something illicit. Which was ridiculous. Naked thoughts notwithstanding, he was just putting his drunk friend to bed. Then he'd leave.

Lexi was trying to pull off her shoes when he came back.

"I've got that. Here, drink this."

She took the aspirin and guzzled down the water. When he was sure it was going to stay down, he bent to remove her shoes.

"Help me up," she demanded.

When he did, her hands went to the button of her jeans.

"What are you doing?" he croaked.

"Not sleeping in jeans, silly." Before he could protest further, she unzipped them and began wriggling them down those curvy hips.

_Oh dear God in heaven._

Her bikini briefs were black. Of course they were. They were seared into his brain before he could tear his eyes away to fix them on something, anything else. The erection he'd been fighting since the seatbelt came roaring to life.

"Need a hand, Zach."

She'd managed to get the jeans to her ankles but didn't seem to be coordinated enough to step out of them without falling over. Taking a firm grip on his control, he reached out to steady her while he gently worked her free of the denim. One foot.

"Okay, now the other," he ordered.

She braced a hand on his shoulder and began to lift her foot.

He didn't know how it happened. One second he was bent in front of her, detangling her from her jeans, the next they'd tumbled onto the bed, with him sprawled atop her, between her bare legs. And now he knew for sure that her skin absolutely was as soft as it looked.

Lexi didn't giggle. She didn't shove him off. She stared up at him, those melted chocolate eyes going darker and darker as they dropped to his mouth. He couldn't stop himself from mirroring the move, gaze tracing over her parted lips. They were full and rosy and _right there_. What would she taste like? He could feel her quickened breath against his skin, and every cell in his body screamed to close that tiny distance and kiss her.

On a sigh she closed her eyes. Beneath him, her body went lax.

"Lex?" he whispered.

Her only answer was a soft, wiffling snore.

He didn't know whether to curse or send up a prayer of thanks.

Moving as carefully as he could, Zach eased off her. He tugged off the jeans still dangling from one ankle and draped them over the chair. Then he folded her, burrito-style into the comforter on the bed. He couldn't resist stroking a hand over the hair spread over her pillow. Silk. At least now he knew that, too. But as he quietly turned out the light and let himself out of the house, he didn't think the knowing would do a damned thing to stop this inconvenient attraction.

# Chapter 4

"I'm so glad you're here to help me with this. I've been wanting to clear out this closet for ages, and I just can't ever seem to get to it."

Lexi had no idea what had possessed her mother to want to clean out the guest room closet today. Possibly it was subtle punishment for the mild hangover neither of them was acknowledging. Or maybe she really did just want to take advantage of having Lexi as free labor. Either way, Lexi dutifully returned to the closet, grabbing up another armful of clothes from the rack and hauling them out to the bed.

"I'm thinking a lot of this can just go straight to the donation pile. I don't think either of us has worn this stuff in going on a decade."

"But so much of it is in such good shape. I could change up some of the lines, add some embellishments, update the style..."

Lexi lifted her brows. "Mama, just because you _can_ remake this stuff doesn't necessarily mean you _should_."

She understood how hard it was for her mother to just let go of something that was still good, still useful. Leandra had grown up poor, the daughter of Puerto Rican parents who'd moved to Mississippi for a new start. New clothes had been a luxury, and her skill with a needle had meant she'd been able to update whatever they'd had. That same skill had been pressed into use in the years after Katrina, when they'd been rebuilding from nothing. But things weren't that dire anymore, and Lexi didn't want to see her mother pushing herself too hard outside her work for Brides and Belles.

"You're supposed to be resting, remember?"

"I am resting. You're doing all the heavy lifting."

Rolling her eyes, Lexi disappeared back into the closet for the next load. And she found it in the back, still draped in plastic. The Dress. The exquisite, perfect dress her mom had made for prom all those years ago that had never been worn. She could hardly bring herself to touch it. God, she'd wept over this dress and everything it had represented. Her one and only attempt to change things. At being brave and striking out into the unknown. And she'd been thoroughly smacked down by the Universe. Lesson learned. Risk all in business but never in matters of the heart. Maybe she needed that reminder as she and Zach worked their way back to friendship. Because friendship was the only thing that had ever been on the table.

Bracing herself, she grabbed the dress and carried it into the guest room. "Why is this still here?"

"It's a gorgeous dress. I couldn't see getting rid of it. I thought maybe you'd eventually want to wear it for something else."

It was gorgeous. Some of her mother's best work. But she could never wear it. "I don't live the kind of life that calls for formalwear, Mama."

Leandra clapped her hands in inspiration. "You could wear it to the class reunion! Babette told me there's a formal dance. Several of your former classmates have been into the store the past few weeks looking at dresses."

"I'm not going to the reunion."

"Oh, but why not? You'll be in town. I'd think you'd want to hang out with all of your friends."

"I can hang out with them without going to the reunion."

"It seems a shame to waste the opportunity to wear the dress."

"You and I both know this wouldn't fit me now. I'm not as small as I was in high school."

"But you could—"

"Mama!" Lexi sucked in a breath, immediately sorry for her harsh tone. "Please let it go."

Leandra held up her hands in a gesture of peace. "Okay."

Lexi couldn't quite look at her. "You know how much I appreciate what you put into this dress. I'm sorry I never got the chance to show off your handiwork."

"I know, _mija._ " The gentle understanding in her tone made Lexi want to burrow into her mother's arms to cry as she hadn't let herself do then.

The doorbell rang.

Lexi gently laid the dress on the bed. "I'll get it." Firmly locking away old hurts, she headed for the front door.

That old wound gave a throb when she found Zach on the front porch, hair still damp from a shower, looking clean and fresh and annoyingly hangover-free. But it was mostly drowned out by the quick burst of pleasure at seeing him again. She could endure the discomfort for this.

"Hi."

"Morning." His eyes skated over her, assessing.

With her messy bun and yoga pants, Lexi felt like something the cat dragged in. She resisted the urge to tug at the hem of her t-shirt or pat at her hair. There wasn't a damned thing to be done about her appearance and it didn't matter anyway.

"How's the head?"

"I've had worse. I guess I have you to thank for that." She had fuzzy memories of him getting her home, making her drink water and take some aspirin.

Something in his eyes darkened and for just an instant Lexi's chest went tight. Like she'd seen that look before in far more intimate circumstances. Which was utterly ridiculous. She must've dreamed it. Still, she couldn't stop the flush of heat that swept down her body or the yearning to sway into him.

His lips lifted. "What are friends for?"

She had to be imagining that strain around the edges of his smile. What would he have to feel awkward about?

He held out one of two to-go cups from The Daily Grind. "Here. This will help what's left of your headache."

Automatically, she took it, backing up to let him inside. "What is it?"

"Hangover cure. We don't ask Cassie what's in it. We just say please and thank you."

"In that case, thank you." She took a cautious sip, pleased when the dominant flavor was still coffee. "Who's the other one for?"

"Your mom. I know she's got a fondness for mochas."

"Zach Warren, is that you?" Leandra's voice echoed down the hallway.

He grinned and the weirdness of the moment passed. Lexi could feel them recalibrating, getting back on even keel again.

"Yes ma'am!"

"Come on back here and give me a hug."

Lexi tipped her head. "Guest room."

She followed him back, relieved to have a few moments to get herself under control.

Zach skirted the bed and bent to give her mom a solid squeeze. "Hey Mama Morales. It's great to see you. I come bearing gifts."

"Seeing your pretty face is gift enough." Leandra patted his cheek, eyes sparkling.

"Oh, well then I guess I'll drink this mocha myself."

"Mocha?" Her mother reached out with grabby hands, making him laugh. "You are a good boy, Zach."

"I certainly try." He glanced over the chaos. "What's going on here?"

"She's got me cleaning out the closet." Using the excuse of making a place for him to sit, Lexi shifted some clothes on top of the dress so he wouldn't see it. "Have a seat."

She didn't wait to see if he did, just went back into the closet and resumed her work. "So what actually brings you by this morning, other than a mission of coffee?"

"I thought we could discuss strategy for shooting Jace and Tara's wedding and then go get your car."

Right. Her car was still at his studio. She hadn't even thought of that yet this morning. Which just went to show how little her brain was firing.

"You were such a dear to put her to bed last night," Leandra said.

Lexi choked on her next sip of coffee. "Put me to bed?"

The tips of Zach's ears went red. "You, uh, weren't exactly steady on your feet."

Lexi opened her mouth to say...she had no idea what. She'd been drunk and he'd put her to bed. And her mother had apparently been awake to notice. Great. Figuring silence was the only acceptable response, she started to drink more coffee, then froze, the cup an inch from her mouth. She'd been in her t-shirt and _underwear_ when she woke up, wrapped in the comforter like a human burrito.

_Oh God, did he undress me?_

With reluctant horror, she met Zach's gaze. As if he could read her mind, he gave a small shake of his head. Lexi didn't know if that made it better or worse. There was a tightness in his jaw, a seriousness in his eyes she didn't know how to read.

They were just starting to get back to where they used to be, and she was glad of that. She'd missed him, more than she cared to admit. So she would put whatever that imagined look was out of her mind. It wasn't attraction. It couldn't be. Because that wasn't who they were to each other, and she didn't want to screw up their rekindling friendship by giving in to the seduction of hope.

Needing to get out of the room, away from her mother's far too observant eyes, Lexi straightened her shoulders. "Right, well, it seems we have some work to do. Mom, can we finish the closet later?"

"Of course, _mija._ I'll sort through what you've already pulled out."

"Great. Zach, give me fifteen minutes to shower and change clothes, then we'll go have a strategy session."

Without waiting for an answer, she strode out, hoping they didn't realize she was running.

"This is the official twenty-minute warning. Everybody finish getting dressed and get your butts down to the orchard for the ceremony. Got it?" Evan Applewhite spread a look over the assembled groomsmen who sprawled in various states of undress around the barn apartment at Applewhite Farms.

From his position by the window, Zach snapped a picture, capturing the mix of stern and repressed laughter.

"We've got it, Dad." Jace shrugged into his vest. "Any last words of wisdom?"

Evan crossed to his son, reaching up to straighten Jace's tie.

_Click._

"Never go to bed mad. She's always right. And don't ever take her for granted." He squeezed Jace's shoulders. "You already did the hard part. You found the right one."

"She's one in a million."

_Click._

"I better get out there before your mother starts to fret. See you on the other side."

Zach adjusted a few settings as Evan departed, relieved that he could simply relax and be a part of the wedding party, taking prep shots of the groom and groomsmen getting ready. Lexi was serving the same function over at the big farmhouse, where the bride and her attendants were dressing. She'd had a much earlier start to the day, going with the women to the salon, documenting hair and makeup, and the thousand other details that went along with properly capturing the bride on her wedding day. Zach could have done those shots, but there'd be an intimacy another woman could capture that he simply couldn't.

He'd never worked with a partner before. Not really. He had the occasional intern to help tote equipment or swap out lenses, but he hadn't ever had a true second shooter. Knowing she was here as backup dropped his stress level considerably. Thanks to Lexi, he wouldn't have to rely on timers or worry about any kind of prospective malfunction during the ceremony. He wouldn't have to stress about working with someone he didn't know well. Jace was one of his best friends. He didn't want to risk having anything but stellar shots of his wedding. Lexi would give him that.

Over the past week, they'd spent time together every day, talking wedding strategy, scouting the location, and even tag-teaming a couple of smaller shoots. Their working relationship was seamless, and they'd slipped back into their friendship like a favorite pair of jeans. In many ways, it was like she'd never left. It was easy to imagine that this is how things would have been if she hadn't.

Except she had left. He'd gotten used to being without her. Now that she was back, he couldn't quite seem to put her back in that Lexi-shaped hole in his life. Because favorite jeans or not, she wasn't just friend Lexi. She was woman Lexi. That unfamiliar attraction hadn't done anything but amp up in the days since the bonfire, and Zach had no idea what to do about it.

"Hey Warren, you're falling down on your job." Eli's taunting voice cut into his thoughts.

"What?" Zach blinked, focusing on the room-at-large.

Jace and his soon-to-be brother-in-law, Austin, were clearly in the middle of a Moment. Automatically, he lifted his camera and fired. In seventh grade and gawky with it, Austin was serving as best man. Zach knew the two had gotten tight over the past few years Jace and Tara had been dating, and he hoped he hadn't missed anything important.

Leo nudged his shoulder. "Maybe keep your head on the wedding instead of your pretty partner."

Despite his low voice, of course everybody heard.

"You've got a thing for Lexi?" Reed asked.

"You mean you didn't see him practically drooling over her last weekend at the bonfire?" Eli asked.

_Oh hell. Was I that obvious?_ "I'm not dignifying that with a response."

"Evading the question. That counts as confirmation," Reed said.

"Oh for the love of—We all need to get down to the orchard."

"Don't be so damned prickly," Eli said. "It's not like we didn't all expect this."

Zach paused on his way to the door. "You what?"

"You were best friends with one of the hottest girls in school," Jace pointed out. "We just couldn't figure out how you didn't notice that back then."

Eli clapped him on the shoulder. "So you're a slow bloomer. Better late than never, man."

Knowing any response he made would just garner more crap, Zach did the only thing he could. He flipped all of them off and headed out the door. Their good-natured laughter followed him down the stairs.

Down in the apple orchard, guests already filled the rows of white chairs bedecked with greenery and ribbons in the bride's colors. Zach knew Jace was related to more than fifty percent of those in attendance. He paused to shake some hands and have a few words on his way down to the front. Zach took the opportunity to scan the setup. He'd already gotten shots earlier in the day showcasing the white runner aisle set up between the flowering trees. Likewise, he'd documented the waiting reception in the bigger barn. All the prepwork was done. Now it was time for the main event.

Jace and Austin took their places up front. Was Jace nervous? Did you really get nervous when you knew it was right? Anybody seeing him and Tara together could see they were absolutely in sync and in love. It was a beautiful thing and one of the reasons Zach never got tired of shooting weddings. He loved seeing the hopes and dreams and new beginnings. But he'd have been lying if he didn't admit to a little bit of envy.

A whisper of movement in his periphery distracted Zach from the groom. Catching sight of Lexi moving along the outside of the bride's side, he forgot about everyone else in the area. He hadn't seen her since this morning. She'd changed for the wedding, bundling her hair into a neat, old-fashioned roll at her nape. She wore some kind of pantsuit and ballet flats she could easily move and crouch in, but it might as well have been satin and lace for how the sight of her sucker punched him in the gut.

_"You were best friends with one of the hottest girls in school. We just couldn't figure out how you didn't notice that back then."_

He was noticing now.

"It's time!" the wedding planner, Whitney Harrington, hissed.

Jerking his focus back to the matter at hand, Zach took his place to escort in one of Jace's grandmothers. Once family was seated, the bridesmaid processional began. Hannah Wheeler was first, followed by Avery; Jessie; Jace's sister, Livia; and concluding with Tara's baby sister, Ginny, who practically bounced with excitement all the way down the aisle. Lexi smoothly stepped in and out of the aisle, unobtrusively grabbing each shot.

When everyone stood in anticipation of the bridal march, Zach grabbed the camera he'd stashed in a potted fern before the ceremony. He wasn't looking at the back of the aisle. Instead he zeroed in on Jace, capturing his face when he saw his bride for the first time. Awe and joy and gratitude suffused his face, captured in a single tear rolling down one cheek.

_Click._

_Money shot._

"Dearly beloved—"

As the ceremony proper began, Zach split his attention between the pastor and Lexi. She moved like a ninja, silently slipping in and around the group clustered at the altar to document each step of the occasion. She pulled back when the vows began, swapping to a second camera with a longer lens to capture the moments without intruding.

Zach found himself watching her as his friends spoke words of promise and fidelity, and he knew that this simmer in his blood wasn't just some passing fancy. He wanted to hold Lexi. Wanted to slide his fingers into the heavy silk of her hair and lay his lips over hers. And he wanted to follow that with a whole host of other things that should have shocked him. Because this was _Lexi._ But having her come back into his life was like looking at an old photograph and seeing something he'd never noticed before. Some detail that changed the whole composition.

She looked over at him, catching his gaze. For just a beat, something passed between them. An awareness. He couldn't read her eyes at this distance, but he'd have sworn he could _feel_ the same knowledge in her—that they were both grown up now.

And as she looked away, lifting her camera to catch the first kiss, he thought maybe... _maybe_ , it wasn't just him.

# Chapter 5

In the normal course of things, Lexi found shooting weddings to be a lot of work. They were long, intense days, typically around a lot of high-stress people. She knew how to wade into that and still manage to make art out of those memories, and she was good at it, as her growing list of happy clients attested. But shooting Jace and Tara's wedding was different than what she did in Austin. Because she knew him. She knew most of the people standing up there with him and his bride. And that imbued the whole thing with more meaning.

This, she realized, was the value of doing this at home, for people she cared about instead of strangers. Did Zach even realize how lucky he was to get this privilege? Did he feel this way about what he did? Catching sight of him, camera in hand as he coaxed Tara and Jace through the cake cutting on the opposite side of the table, she knew that he did. And for that moment, she envied him. She envied what he'd fallen into here, what he'd made of it, and she found herself wishing she could be a permanent part of it.

He'd let her. He'd make a place for her, as he'd made a place for her in his friend group, all those years ago. But that was taking a temporary situation and turning it into something it wasn't. She was being very careful this go-round not to do anything but accept the status quo. And the status quo was pretty damned good. Reconnecting with Zach was healing that bruise on her heart. She had friends in Austin, but no one like him. No one like the rest of their zany crew. She already knew she wouldn't let the miles cut her off from them—from him—again when she went back. And it would be enough. It would have to be.

She was relieved when the toasts began. It meant she could get back to work, get out of her head.

The groom kicked things off, warming up the crowd with humor before turning to lace his fingers with Tara's. "It's amazing the little moments that can change your life. If I hadn't finished my take-home exam early. If I hadn't met my friends up at The Grind that day, I might not have met Tara. I can't even imagine what that life would have looked like, and I've wondered, would things have turned out the same if we'd met somewhere else? Somewhen else?"

Jace lifted his wife's hand to his lips. "I like to think we'd have ended up here no matter how we started."

Lexi took the shot, but her brain was still turning over what he'd said long after he'd ceded the mic to others. That was the ultimate question, wasn't it? She thought back all those years to that first bonfire. If she hadn't gone, if she hadn't met Zach that night and had the chance to bond with him over photography the rest of the summer, would they have become friends? Or would they have circled in parallel groups for the rest of high school? Would he have seen her at some other time and place and thought of her as a girl instead of as a friend? Or would things have turned out exactly the same?

Unsettled, and not at all sure which version of "What if?" she preferred, she lost herself in the focus needed for the work.

After the first dance, she finally got to relax her vigilance for a moment. She wandered over to the bar set up in the corner and asked for a bottle of water. Her throat was parched. She'd been working steadily for hours and her feet were aching. She couldn't wait for the end of the night, when she'd get to go home and take a long, hot bath before falling into bed and crashing.

"Helluva day."

Still guzzling down the water, she inclined her head to Zach as he ordered a beer. He'd shed his tux jacket and rolled up his sleeves. The top edge of what she recognized as a folded tie peeked out of one of the shallow vest pockets.

He held up his drink. "To teamwork."

She tapped her bottle to his. "Seems we make a good one."

"We always did." There was an intensity in his gaze as he looked at her that made her skin come alive. She wanted his hands on her.

_Don't be stupid_.

She finished the water and thought about asking for another. Was it getting hotter in here?

Zach took a sip of his beer and set it on a nearby table before lifting the camera she wore up and over her head. "Watch these for a minute, would you, Joe?"

"No problem."

Lexi narrowed her eyes. "What are you doing?"

He grabbed her hand and began towing her toward the dance floor. "In most circles I believe it is referred to as dancing."

But the song playing was slow and romantic, not one of the big group line dances. Which meant they'd be dancing _together_.

"Why?" By some miracle, she managed to keep the panic out of her voice. They didn't do this. Ever.

"Because it's what you do at weddings."

"Do you regularly dance at the weddings you work?" Was his way of doing this job so much different from hers?

"Sure. I've gotten some great shots from the middle of the line dancing. And believe me, you haven't lived until you've seen the Casserole Patrol doing The Whip and Nae Nae."

The notion of Wishful's favorite trio of busybodies—who had to be in their seventies or eighties by now—taking over the dance floor distracted her for long enough that Zach managed to spin her into his arms, fitting her against him without a struggle. She'd been pressed up against him before. He was an affectionate guy. A hugger. But this was different. He was different, somehow. More...focused on her. Which was utterly ridiculous. But she was so very aware of every part of him touching every part of her as he smoothly moved them to the rhythm of the song. She wanted to sink into him and revel in the feeling of having his arms around her. Not daring to give in, she did her best impression of a fence post.

"Relax. We've covered all the important stuff. It's smooth sailing until the bouquet and garter toss and the going away shots."

"I don't know how to relax at a wedding. I'm always working." It wasn't a lie. She took her job seriously, and she couldn't imagine what her clients would think if she suddenly took to the floor.

"When was the last time you were just a guest?"

"Some of my friends from college got married in the last few years. But I shot their weddings, too. I can't actually remember the last time I was just a guest."

He studied her. "Tell me something. Do you actually do anything besides work out in Texas?"

"Of course I do." Though she was hard-pressed to remember what, right this second. Or rather, he was hard pressed. Had she realized how leanly-muscled his body was before? What did he look like beneath the starched shirt and dress pants?

"What's keeping you out there?"

She had a hard time focusing on the question. "What? My business is there."

"Your new business that you're still working to establish. You could do that somewhere else."

Lexi bristled. Was he criticizing her slow start? Did he think she was a failure? "And lose the money for breaking my lease and all the time I've put into building my reputation?"

Zach's thumb stroked over the back of her hand in a gesture he probably meant as soothing but tied her guts in knots.

"You can do your art anywhere. If you were talking about friends or how much you love it in Texas or the theoretical guy you've already said you don't have time for, that'd be something else. But you didn't say any of that."

She stiffened, more because he'd hit too close to the truth of her bare-bones existence. "What are you getting at?"

"I'm just saying, you're not so enmeshed out there that you couldn't decide to make a change." His eyes were so very intense as he looked down at her.

She forgot about the insult as she really focused in on what he was saying, her heart starting to pound. "What kind of a change?"

"Do you ever think about coming home?"

_All the time since I got back._ "No."

"You could, you know. Your mom would be over the moon."

Her mom. Was this really about her mother? He wasn't wrong. Lexi knew her mom missed her. But Leandra understood why she'd built her life so far away, even if they'd never overtly discussed it.

"My life isn't here, Zach."

His hand squeezed hers and there was a weight to his voice as he murmured, "It could be."

She couldn't even let herself think about this. The idea of it was too seductive, too appealing. He was too much of both, and he wasn't even aware of it. "Where is this coming from?"

"It's been so great having you back here. I didn't realize how much I missed you, and now I can't imagine you not here again."

Lexi didn't know what to say to that.

He looked down at her, into her, as they circled the floor. His eyes darkened again with that look she couldn't read, and he shifted his hold on her, drawing her closer. Her heart stuttered. Part of her wanted to relax into him. To slide her hand across his shoulder and up his nape, into his hair. But that wasn't what this was.

"What happened to us, Lex?"

_You broke my heart and didn't even know it._

She swallowed. "The same thing that happens to everybody eventually. We grew up, grew apart."

"I don't want to be apart."

He didn't—couldn't—mean that how it sounded.

Except...his gaze dropped to her mouth and he was bending his head.

_Ay Dios mio, is he going to kiss me?_

Her pulse went slow and thick, and time turned elastic as he slowly, inexorably began to close the distance between them.

The "Cha Cha Slide" began to blare.

Lexi jolted reflexively back as the moment shattered. "I need to get back to work. Thanks for the dance."

Pulling free of his arms, she made a beeline for her camera and didn't even care if he thought she was running away.

She couldn't face him. Couldn't face what had maybe almost happened. It was better this way. She would just have gotten everything wrong again and ruined what they were managing to rebuild. He was too important to take that risk.

In the two weeks since Lexi had bolted away from him like a scalded cat, Zach had agonized, thinking about that almost kiss and wondering exactly how long it would take for things to go back to normal between them. Trying to kiss her had been an obvious mistake. She hadn't avoided him, but she hadn't been herself either. There was a tension between them, and Zach hated himself a little for putting it there. She'd opted to pretend he hadn't tried to kiss her, and as much as that sucked, he'd gone with it, keeping his hands to himself and putting all his efforts into being the friends they'd always been. As much as he regretted that she wasn't on the same page, he figured it was worth some discomfort on his part to keep her in his life. The attraction would go away eventually. He hoped.

Not that it showed any indication of waning as he sat beside her in the studio, reviewing wedding proofs on the double monitors at his desk.

"If we can, I'd like to be able to take a flash drive of previews to Jace tonight when I meet him and the guys for dinner."

"We should be able to get that far. I suppose that's a downside to two shooters at a wedding. Double the pictures to go through after the fact."

They'd both individually culled their raw files, cutting out the blurry, the poorly composed, or any other shots that didn't pass muster. There would still be paring down to the best of the best and a ton of editing to do, cleaning up and refining each one to maximum perfection. They'd already been through the ceremony and the staged shots of the wedding party and the family.

"I'd say the end results are well worth it. Between the two of us, we caught some moments I couldn't usually get on my own. Jace and Tara are going to be ecstatic."

"I certainly hope so." Lexi reached across him, clicking to add some gorgeous detail shots of Tara's dress and shoes to their folder of keepers. She didn't flinch away from him this time, and he called it a win.

"I wouldn't have thought to use this composition. I mean, I usually try to get shots of the dress before the bride puts it on, but they never turn out like this. This is art."

"It probably helps that my mother is who she is. Much as I am not a girly girl, I was raised to appreciate design. I know what goes into a dress like this, so it's natural for me to want to highlight the craftsmanship."

"It shows. You should come tonight." The invitation was out before he could think better of it, so he barreled on, determined to reinforce the just friends thing. "It's Trivia Night at Los Pantalones. You love trivia."

"Uh, no. I'm not going to be the pink wheel."

"The pink wheel? You've never liked pink in your life." This he knew with unarguable certainty.

"It seemed as good a term as any for the token girl. No, y'all can enjoy your rituals of masculinity unencumbered. Besides, Mom and I have a date for pizza and our annual viewing of _Runaway Bride_ , so I need to be getting on in a little bit to go by Speakeasy to pick up dinner."

_Probably for the best._

"I think that's the last of the prep shots. Time to start on the reception." She popped out her memory card.

Zach inserted his last one. "I haven't done as much culling as I'd like from this one. I focused on getting through all the wedding party shots so I'd be able to go ahead and give them a few to share while we get to the rest."

They made their way through the cake cutting and the obligatory smashing of cake in Jace's face. Tara's expression of satisfaction made Zach snicker because he knew what was coming.

"I think the one where he streaks icing down her nose and she's laughing is my favorite of this bunch," Lexi said.

"Same."

He dragged more images into the edit folder and moved on to the shots of the speeches and various crowd reactions. When the picture of Lexi came on screen, he regretted not finishing his own cull in private. He'd caught her in an unguarded moment. A few tendrils of hair had escaped from the roll at her nape to frame her exquisite face. Her expression was soft and yearning as she looked at...well, he didn't know what. Or who. But it was how he wished she'd look at him. It was a shot that said as much about the photographer as the subject. Zach felt exposed, sitting beside her, waiting for her to say something. With half a brain he prepared to deflect her questions, to minimize what filled the high-resolution screen as nothing less than a lucky shot.

But as the silence drew out, he sensed he wasn't the only one feeling vulnerable. What did she see when she looked at this? And suddenly he had to know, even if it eroded some of the carefully rebuilt parameters of their friendship.

"What were you thinking about in that moment?"

Lexi was quiet so long, he thought maybe she wasn't going to answer.

"It was during Jace's speech, when he was talking about the little moments that change everything." Her voice was low and thick with some unnamed emotion. "I was wondering how things would have turned out if we hadn't met out at Hope Springs that summer before high school. If we'd still have ended up friends. Or..."

"Or?" he prompted.

She shrugged, eyes dropping from the screen. "Doesn't matter."

But it did matter. Zach was certain of it. "Or what, Lex?"

She still didn't look at him, and he fought the urge to reach out and cup her cheek, to tip her face toward his so he could see what was in her eyes. If he was wrong, that would tip his hand and destroy the fragile balance they'd re-established. But he couldn't stay silent, couldn't just let it go.

"If we'd have ended up friends or something else?"

Other than the subtle quickening of her breath, Lexi stayed utterly still. Like a trapped animal that thought if it didn't move, it would be safe from the threat. Zach hardly dared to breathe. He didn't want to scare her. Didn't want to be categorized as a threat. But maybe these new feelings he'd developed were a threat—to their friendship, at least. To the status quo of what they'd always been. But he'd been thinking so much about that something else, and he didn't know how to turn that off.

_Please. Please just give me the slightest sign that you feel something, too._

He started to reach out, to lay a hand over hers, but the bell from out front jangled. Lexi jerked as if she'd been hit with an electric shock, her chair shooting across the room to bump against the wall. Away from him. It sliced him, that panicked retreat.

Zach supposed that was answer enough.

Quashing his disappointment, he put away the thousand questions he wanted to ask and went to be a responsible business owner.

# Chapter 6

Lexi stayed where she was, heart hammering.

He knew. Oh _Dios,_ he _knew._ Or at the very least suspected.

She shouldn't have said anything. Or she should've made something up to put him off. But she'd been so struck by the shot, by the look on her own face. Because no one but Zach could have taken that picture. And she'd wondered, for the briefest of moments, whether he felt something, too.

A braver woman would have faced him. Would have put the question right on out there, just to let the pressure of not knowing dissipate. But once it was voiced, there was no taking it back. An axe blade hovered over the thin barrier between keeping things as they'd always been and possible disaster. If it fell, who knew where the pieces would land?

Lexi wasn't brave. Not when it came to him. So she'd said nothing and now...and now someone had given her a blessed reprieve from having to face this. Maybe she could put it off. Buy herself another day. Maybe he'd drop it, at least until she had some kind of an answer that would preserve the friendship she valued so much.

When she was certain her face wasn't on fire and she had a reasonable handle on her emotions, she followed low voices out front.

"Holy shit, dude." Zach's exclamation caused a hitch in her step.

Eli sat in one of the chairs in the reception area, a little black box open on the table between them to reveal a diamond ring winking in the light.

Lexi went brows up and mustered up some snark. "Well, this is unexpected. I hope you and Zach will be very happy together."

Eli snorted. "It's for Jessie. Now that Jace's wedding is over, I can ask her without distracting from his big day."

"Wow. That's great, man. But why didn't you just tell us all at guys' night?" Zach asked.

"Because I want to hire the two of you to shoot the proposal as it happens. She's not gonna be expecting it, and I know she'd love to have that moment immortalized."

Surprised and touched by his thoughtfulness and sentimentality, Lexi moved to join them. "I've done a few of those kinds of shoots in Texas. It's a lot of fun. There's an element of being a spy, trying to blend in with the crowd so as not to draw attention to the camera. But that'd be harder to pull off here since she knows both of us."

"Not if you're both supposed to be there anyway. I'm going to propose at the reunion."

"Awesome!" Zach exclaimed. "Of course, we'd be happy to shoot it. Have you sorted out the details yet?"

Lexi stiffened. She'd already made her position on this clear at the bonfire. Had he forgotten or did he just not think she was serious? And since when did he get the right to answer for her? She wasn't his employee. She wasn't his partner. She was, at best, a consultant, while she was in town, and they'd agreed she got right of refusal on any jobs that came her way.

The roaring in her ears blocked out the next stretch of their conversation. The next thing she knew, Eli was rising, offering his hand to Zach and getting pulled into a back-slapping hug. Lexi held her tongue, offering him a hug and congratulations herself. Her beef wasn't with him, and it could wait until he was gone.

"See you at Los Pantalones later, Zach."

"Yeah. See you there."

As the door shut, Lexi braced herself for a return to the question he'd asked before they were interrupted.

Zach turned to her, grinning. "Man, this is so awesome. Eli and Jessie engaged. Who would've called that in high school?"

She sent up a brief prayer of thanks that Eli had distracted him. But she knew it wouldn't last. "I'm happy for them, truly. But I won't be there to shoot it. I don't appreciate you speaking for me without asking."

His grin faded. "I'm sorry for not asking first, but I figured you'd want in on this. They're our friends."

"Yes, they are. But I've already said I won't be going to the reunion."

"Why? I mean, I know dances aren't your thing, really, but surely you want to be there for this."

_Not my thing._

And this was the crux of the problem. As well as Zach knew her, as much as he understood her, he'd never recognized this. He'd been content to make assumptions and take her desperate agreement back then at face value. He had absolutely no idea what he was actually asking her to do, what demons he expected her to face. Oddly, that settled her a little. Whatever he knew or suspected about her feelings, it wasn't about that particular humiliation.

"I would literally rather face a firing squad than go to the class reunion prom." She meant it. Aside from the fact that she hated small-talk and had zero desire to reconnect with high school classmates other than their core group of friends—which she'd already done, thanks very much—she couldn't face the reminder of her mistake.

"Why?" His baffled expression clued her in that her reaction was totally out of proportion to what he thought was going on.

But she couldn't seem to stop herself. She felt exposed, as if any moment now, the final flimsy shield she carried would be yanked away and he'd see everything she'd fought so hard to hide. She needed to get the hell out of here, away from him, before he circled back around to try to pick up where they'd left off.

"It doesn't matter why. I'll take on almost any other shoot, but don't ask me to do that." Her voice shook, and she hated herself for that betrayal of emotion.

Zach's head kicked back at her vehmence, but he looked concerned instead of angry. "Okay. That's fine. I'll sort it out. I'm not going to push you to do something you don't want to do. I didn't mean to upset you."

He took a step toward her and she took an automatic step in retreat. If he touched her right now—well, she didn't know what she'd do. Break down? Throw herself at him? Some mortifying combination of the two?

She ignored the flash of hurt and surprise that flickered over his face. She could only handle one person's hurt at a time, and right now, hers took precedence.

"I need to go pick up the pizza."

"What? Now?"

"Yeah." Grateful her keys and wallet were in her pocket, she headed for the door. "Have fun at guys' night. I'll see you tomorrow."

For a moment, she worried he'd stop her, insist they hash this out.

But he only murmured, "See you tomorrow," as the door closed behind her.

"To the end of an era!" Leo raised his margarita. "I never thought my brother would go before me."

"Yeah, well, I haven't gotten to ask her yet," Eli muttered. "Keep your voice down."

They all cast furtive glances around, making sure none of the town's noted gossips were in hearing distance.

Reed scooped up a nacho. "What's the plan there?"

"Gonna do it at the reunion."

"Yeah?" Jace grinned. "Jess is gonna love that. You know she loves being the center of attention."

"That I do. And she'll be happy to be dressed up all fancy and to be able to announce it to everybody fast and efficiently. I expect she'll be the belle of the metaphoric ball, showing off the ring the rest of the night. Zach and Lexi are gonna shoot the whole thing."

Zach shifted in his seat. "Actually, it will just be me. Lexi isn't coming."

Eli went brows up, setting his beer back down. "Oh, will she be back in Texas by then? She's been around so much the last few weeks, I kinda forgot she was leaving."

"Is that why you've been such a broody son of a bitch since you got here?" Leo asked.

"I am not a broody son of a bitch." Well, okay, maybe he'd been in a little bit of a funk, but he was just worried about Lexi. Worried, too, that he'd irrevocably screwed things up between them by trying to kiss her at the wedding and then forcing the issue this afternoon. How many times would she run away from him before she just stayed gone? "And no, she won't be back in Texas then." God, he hoped not. The idea that she'd leave again before he could fix this left him feeling cold and clammy. "But she's dead serious about not going to the reunion. Like seriously upset at the idea, and I don't understand why. I mean, I know she hates dances, but this seems way outside that." Her whole response to the idea seemed entirely out of line with the situation.

"Does she actually hate dances?" Jace asked.

"She never wanted to go back in high school. Didn't like all the dressing up and fuss."

Eli sliced into his carnitas and forked up a chunk of fragrant pork. "Did she even go to prom? I don't remember that far back."

"No, she didn't." It was one of the few high school memories she hadn't featured prominently in for Zach.

"Not even with a gaggle of girls?" Eli asked.

"What gaggle of girls? She didn't have that many girlfriends and those she did have all had dates," Zach pointed out. "Remember, she was mostly one of the guys."

"But she went to some of the other dances during high school. I remember her being part of the pack for homecoming and stuff," Reed said.

"Yeah. I don't know. Prom was different somehow. Was there some kind of thing that happened around all that that I missed?" At the time, Zach would have laid money on the fact that he knew everything there was to know about Lexi Morales. But thinking back, that was when she'd begun pulling away. He'd attributed it to excitement about the future and going off to college, but maybe there'd been more to it.

"Did anybody even ask her to the dance?" Leo asked.

Zach thought back, trying to remember. "I don't think so. Or nobody she wanted to go with. You remember how she didn't believe in things like dances. She liked to go off on all those feminist rants."

"I always kinda thought the lady protested too much about that stuff," Reed admitted.

Zach frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean...maybe she made a big deal about not believing in all that because the person she wanted to go with didn't ask."

"Who did she want to ask her?" Leo asked.

Zach realized he had no idea. They'd talked about everything, he'd thought. But never much about who she was interested in. "She never told me who she really wanted to go with. She asked me as a joke, and we both had a good laugh over it."

Four pairs of eyes pinned him in place against the booth.

"What?"

Leo leaned closer. "Lexi asked you to prom?"

"Yeah, just joking around."

His friends exchanged a look that clearly said, _You're a dumbass._

"Dude, are you sure she was joking?" Reed asked.

"Of course I am. She flat out said she was."

Leo braced his elbows on the table. "Did she say that before or after you assumed it was a joke?"

Zach opened his mouth to answer, then stopped, trying to remember. She'd asked him in passing in January—part of a casual conversation about prom. He'd said yes in the same off-hand manner, assuming she was just kidding around. Months later, the week of prom, she'd brought it up again, saying they should sort out transportation and dinner plans, and he'd felt his stomach bottom out in panic because he'd asked someone else. "I thought you were joking! I'm going with Isabelle Carpenter."

She'd grinned that Lexi grin at him and punched him in the shoulder, "Of course I was joking. You know how much I hate dances. But oh my God, the look on your face. Priceless." And she'd laughed.

So had he. And that had been the end of it.

He'd gone to prom and she hadn't, and he'd never given it another thought.

But thinking back to that split second before she'd grinned, there'd been something else in her expression. He'd been so incredibly relieved when she'd said she was joking, he hadn't thought too much about it. But what if the laughter had been a lie to cover up her real feelings on the matter? What if she'd asked him to prom for real? And not as a friend, but as an actual date?

For half a second his heart leapt. Maybe she did feel the same. Maybe she did want more. Then his blood iced. "Oh God. Y'all, what if I was wrong?"

Leo sipped more margarita. "Well, I think that'd go a long way to explaining why she kinda dropped off the face of the earth after graduation. Because if she wasn't kidding, then whether you meant it or not, that was pretty cold."

Zach felt sick. " _...friends or something else?"_ He thought about how she'd backed away from him in the studio rather than facing his question. That had felt like a punch in the gut, but this... Was it possible he'd screwed up that bad? Could she have been trying to change things between them back then and he'd _laughed?_ Oh hell, he hoped not. Because he didn't know how he could face the idea that his cluelessness had hurt his best friend in the whole world.

Digging out his wallet, he threw a few bills on the table and rose. "I've gotta go. I need to talk to Lexi."

# Chapter 7

"I never get tired of this movie," Leandra sighed.

From her position curled up at the end of the sofa, Lexi managed a smile. "You never get tired of Richard Gere."

"I like his tight butt."

"Mama!"

"Well I do!" she exclaimed, in a dead-on mimic of the heroine's grandmother.

It was an old refrain, one they echoed every time they watched _Runaway Bride_.

Her mom hit the stop button as the credits rolled. "You didn't eat much pizza."

"I wasn't that hungry." She'd nibbled her way through a slice and a half, barely able to focus on the movie.

"You seem a little down, _mija_. What's going on? Did something happen with Zach?"

Not _Did you have a fight with Zach_ , but _Did something happen?_

How much did her mother know or suspect about how things had gone down all those years ago? Did Lexi really want to peel the scab off that wound to tell her all of it? That sounded about as appealing as being poked in the eye with a stick.

"Nothing I want to talk about."

Leandra sighed. "Things are not so simple between you anymore, are they?"

Lexi laid her cheek against her up-drawn knees. "I don't know if things with Zach were ever really simple."

Her mother was silent for a long moment. "Come on." She reached for her crutches and shoved up from the sofa. "I want to show you something."

Relieved she wasn't going to force the issue, Lexi uncurled from the sofa and followed her down the hall, surprised when they turned into her room. At the door, Leandra paused and flipped on the light, then moved on inside so Lexi could enter.

The dress hung on the back of her closet door, out of the protective plastic, the beadwork glittering and gorgeous in the light. The sight of it squeezed her heart. In so many ways, this dress encapsulated her failed hopes. A part of her wanted to get rid of it. Donate it somewhere or send it up to Brides and Belles for them to sell so that _someone_ was able to wear and enjoy it. But that seemed a betrayal. It was still gorgeous, and her mother had poured her heart and soul into making it. For her.

"I let it out for you."

Lexi blinked. "What?"

"I didn't think you were ready to give up on it. Or him."

She whipped her head around, her mouth falling open. "You knew?"

"That you asked for this dress because you wanted Zach to notice you? Yes. You've a tender heart, _mija_ , and no one knows it better than me. I don't know all the details. I don't need to. It was obvious things didn't work out as you'd hoped, and that whatever happened—or didn't happen—changed everything. I know you've spent a lot of years avoiding the hurt from that."

It sounded cowardly when she said it out loud. Which was probably why Lexi had never said it.

"You've never called me out on it."

"What good would that have done? You weren't going to face him before you were ready."

Lexi snorted a humorless laugh. "I wasn't ready this time either."

"You did it anyway. And it's been good for you—both of you—to remember what was. But I'm not blind. I've seen things changing between you and Zach since you've been back. So have you. You wouldn't be so wound up about it if you didn't. The fact is, if you can free yourself of the past, put it behind you, you'd be free to explore what _is_ , right here and now. Stop holding on to what happened and what didn't happen back then, and letting that guide your life. Stop letting that hold you back from what _could_ happen, if you would just take another chance."

Did she have it in her to do that? To put herself out there again? It wasn't like before. So many times these past weeks, she'd caught Zach looking at her, and she'd stepped back, telling herself it wasn't attraction, that she'd imagined it. But he'd tried to kiss her at the wedding. She hadn't imagined that.

What if she hadn't run from him then? What if she hadn't run from him and his question this afternoon? He didn't know the truth of her humiliation. And maybe he never had to know. Maybe she really could put this whole thing behind her and take this step _toward_ Zach instead of away. It was what she'd wanted all along. If she could be brave, maybe things could be different this time.

Lexi wrapped her arms around her middle, anxious but a little bit hopeful, too. "I don't even know what taking that chance would look like."

Leandra cut her eyes toward the dress. "I think it looks like that. I think it looks like you going to that reunion and letting him see you as you've wanted to be seen. Go ahead, try it on. Let's see if I got it right."

Unable to resist the siren song of peau de soie, Lexi stripped down, unzipping the dress and slipping it off the hanger. She stepped into it, drawing it up and over her hips, feeling the heavy satin settle against her like water. Zipping it took a little contortion, but she managed, then she simply stared at herself in the full-length mirror. Because it fit like a glove. Exactly as it had been made to do.

She reached a hand toward her reflection. "It's perfect."

"Some of my finest work."

Lexi ran her hands softly over the skirt, where it molded to her curves. "It makes me feel like Cinderella." A very sexy, siren version, in this rich red that made her skin glow. Which was so far from how she usually felt, it was almost like stepping into another skin.

Leandra grinned. "Does that make me the fairy godmother?"

"You're certainly magic when it comes to a needle and thread. Thank you for this. Again."

"You're welcome, _mija._ But you're not Cinderella. You don't have to wait for a fairy to give you a pumpkin coach and permission to go after what you want. The power to grant your own wish has been yours all along. You only have to reach for it."

In this dress, Lexi was almost certain she could do it. In this dress, she felt brave and beautiful.

Maybe she'd go to the reunion. Maybe she'd kiss the bejeesus out of Zach. That would get the point across without room for misinterpretation. It would change things. But her mom was right. Things had already changed between them. It was time she stopped running away from that.

The doorbell rang. Lexi glanced at the clock. Zach would still be at guys' night. Which was good. Despite the peptalk and her newfound resolve, she wasn't quite ready to face him yet. It was probably another casserole. They'd been rolling in with regularity since word got out about her mom's ankle.

"I'll get it." Lexi picked up her skirts and swept down the hallway. She loved how the dress swished around her and how the bodice wrapped her body. A little giddy at the idea of surprising this unsuspecting, casserole-bearing neighbor, she opened the door.

It wasn't a casserole.

Zach stood under the front porch light, a worried frown bowing his lips. "Hey, I..." His words trailed off to nothing as he took her in.

Lexi felt naked. She wasn't ready to face this, for him and her and this dress that symbolized everything that went wrong to be in the same place at the same time. She had no armor, no time to prepare.

But he was really _looking_ at her. Her brain snapped a burst of pictures, one after another, capturing every nuance of his expression, as his mouth dropped open and his eyes traced her from head to toe and back up again, lingering at her hips and breasts. It felt like a caress, like those hands that had led her with such confidence in a dance were cupping and molding her flesh. Lexi couldn't stop the shiver of arousal that raced down her spine.

When his gaze came back to hers, it was full of unadulterated lust, and his voice was low and full of gravel. "You look stunning."

Lexi's limbs went soft and pliant. Her nipples pearled beneath her bodice and a flush of heat swept along her skin, settling low in her belly, as she let herself enjoy his very male reaction. This wasn't what she'd planned, but maybe it was Fate intervening. Why else would he have just showed up on her porch?

Before she could take that step toward him, Zach shook himself, visibly sobering. "I wanted to talk to you."

His words and that oh-so-serious expression dashed her arousal. She curled her fingers around the doorknob, as if it could anchor her. "Can't it wait? I'm tired." And that was the absolute truth. She was so, so exhausted from fighting this internal war with herself over him.

"No, I don't think it can. It's waited ten years, and I think that's more than long enough."

With creeping dread, she held tighter to the door as her mouth went dry. "What's waited ten years?"

But he was still staring at the dress. "I thought you weren't going to the reunion."

"I'm not." The words fell from her lips automatically, as if she hadn't just made a new plan. Because she had a hideous suspicion where this was headed and she didn't know how to stop it.

"Then what is this?" He waved a hand encompassing her appearance.

"Just a dress Mom let out for me. I was seeing if it fit."

"It looks absolutely made for you."

"It should. It was." As soon as the words tumbled out of her mouth, Lexi wished them back.

The lust was gone when he lifted his eyes to hers. And there it was. That potent mix of accusation, betrayal, and confusion, all wiping out the attraction that had so recently warmed her. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why didn't I tell you what?" But the words were an empty delay tactic. She knew what.

"That this was for prom. That when you asked me, you were serious."

She wished the floor would just open up and swallow her so they didn't have to have this conversation. She hadn't ever wanted to have this conversation. So she said nothing, just squeezed the living daylights out of the doorknob and tried not to shake.

"Why did you let me think you'd been joking?"

Lexi closed her eyes, her chest clamping so tight she could barely breathe. The secret she'd held so close, spent all this time and effort to protect, sacrificed the better part of their friendship to keep hidden, had been ripped away and laid bare. The fragile, new dream she'd just spun shattered into dust, and her nascent hope that things could be different this time died a swift death. He'd ruined all of it by finally figuring this out. Now. When it was so far beyond too late.

"Why, Lexi?"

Knowing silence couldn't be her only response, she opened her eyes and jerked her shoulders, fighting for a tone of no-big-deal and failing. "You said it first. What was I supposed to say?"

"Something along the lines of 'Hey dumbass, you already agreed to be my date first.'"

"And ruin Isabelle's prom?"

"Isabelle didn't matter. You did. You do."

The earnestness in his tone lit a flame inside her, burning through her mortification to ignite temper. If he was going to push this, then by damn, she was going to finally, _finally_ be honest about how much he'd hurt her.

"How can you expect me to believe that? The very idea of going on an actual date with me was so far fetched it had to be a joke to you." Saying it out loud was like wrenching open a door that had been jammed, not quite shut, for years. All the pain and humiliation that had leaked out at a trickle suddenly crashed over her in a wave, leaving her feeling exposed and raw.

Zach's face was stricken. "Lex, I—It wasn't like that. I didn't mean..."

"It doesn't matter what you intended." She was tired of this. Oh, so tired. Of the lies and the pretending, and the fighting with herself. "On purpose or not, you hurt me." Unable to watch the pity come into his eyes, she fixed her gaze somewhere around his left ear. "And now I need you to go."

"Go? But we're not finished wi—"

"We are finished. I can't do this anymore. I'll finish editing my shots for the wedding and send them. Then I'm going back to Austin."

She started to shut the door, but he shoved his foot over the threshold, his eyes panicked. "You can't just leave like this."

"I can, and I will. I'm done. I'm just done. Go home, Zach."

Forcefully nudging his foot back, she shut the door in his face.

"Shit, dude. That's bad." Leo punctuated the statement by finishing off the beer he'd been nursing while Zach spilled out the whole, sorry tale.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious. You think I don't know that? I don't even know how to apologize for being so unbelievably clueless."

"I don't think you can. That's a whole lot of old hurt she's been living with."

Zach glared at him. "Not helping. There's a distinct possibility she's done with me. On every level. Forever." The very idea of it made him want to put his fist through a wall. Or maybe his own face. He scrubbed both hands through his hair. "I hurt her. Like really fucking hurt her."

He was never going to get her face out of his head. That twist of unvarnished grief and pain when she'd finally dropped the mask and stopped hiding. The image was burned indelibly into his brain.

"Yup." Leo's easy agreement made him want to scowl.

"I get it now. I understand what I did back then. I see how that was hurtful, and made her pull away and...basically everything that happened after because, yeah, it was shitty. I own all of that. But I don't understand why this is so fresh and raw. Why is she so upset about this _now?_ "

With a head shake that clearly said I-pity-how-utterly-stupid-you are, Leo kicked his feet up on the wooden door balanced over two milk crates that served as his coffeetable. "So let's review, shall we? You were an oblivious dumbass in high school and didn't get that your best girlfriend was trying to change things. You thought it was a joke, and she went with that rather than admit the truth. Why do you think she did that?"

"Because it would have changed things. Because she was embarrassed."

"Right on both counts. So she grabs for the explanation that it was a joke to save face, pulls back, spends a fucking decade more or less avoiding you. Suddenly, she's back here, and you're picking back up with your friendship as if nothing happened."

Zack thought about the weeks she'd been back, about that initial reticence that seemed to fade as they got comfortable with each other again. Her standoffishness made sense now.

"Except this time," Leo continued, "it's you who wants to change things. You're not satisfied with the status quo, and you ultimately decide to pursue her. How did that go for you?"

He considered all those steps, big and small, he'd taken toward something more. At each and every point, she'd stepped back, emotionally and literally. "She balked."

"Why?"

Zach didn't think it was out of disinterest. "She's scared."

Leo nodded. "Yes. Why?"

"Because it would change things. Because we can't uncross that line."

"Has she said that?"

"No. But it's why I've hesitated." And it was hard not to question every move he'd made, wondering if there'd been a better way.

Leo nodded again, looking for all the world like he was pleased a difficult student was finally getting a clue. "Right, so you pursue, she balks. And you finally work your way around to realizing your dumbassery from high school. And what do you do? You immediately go to confront her about it. No stopping to think what bringing up this obviously painful thing directly to her was going to do. No considering how bringing up this old, no doubt embarrassing event was going to impact her. All _you_ could think about was getting to the bottom of the why. When all this time she's put all this effort into avoiding you, avoiding this topic because _she didn't want to talk about it_."

"But—"

Leo's face hardened. "No, stop with the buts. There's no justifying you being a fresh dumbass. You want to know why she's acting like this all just happened? Because you embarrassed her. You dragged this thing I have no doubt she's spent _years_ trying to forget out into the open, destroyed the cover story you've both been living with for a decade, and put her on the spot, expecting some kind of an explanation that demands a vulnerability from her that you, frankly, haven't earned. That's not even fresh dumbassery. That's composted dumbassery over years that has fertilized the earth for a truly bumper crop of stupid. Instead of approaching this whole thing from a place of vulnerability yourself, where you put _yourself_ and what you feel out there, you cornered her about her feelings."

Defensive, Zach rose to pace. "What the hell was I supposed to do?"

"Admit you're in love with her for a start."

His knees wobbled as he rounded on his friend. "In love with her?"

"What is it you feel when you think about her going back to Austin?"

Zach's chest went tight with panic as desperation clawed up his throat. Fuck no, she couldn't go back to Austin. Not like this. Not with everything completely messed up between them. He didn't want her to go back at all. He'd been fighting that nagging sensation that he was going to lose her from the moment he'd seen her again in The Grind. Because she was the piece he hadn't known had really been missing.

"Shit."

Whatever was on his face apparently confirmed Leo's theory because he kept on rolling. "Right, so you're in love with her, and you corner her about what may be one of her greatest sources of humiliation ever. You don't just point out the white elephant, you parade that shit around in a fucking tutu, and it's everything she's been afraid of all this time because now you _know_. And everything's changed and your friendship is fucked up and it's not even because there was kissing. What is it you think she's going to do in response to all of this?"

"Run." Because that was her M.O. It had been her response to all of this from the beginning.

That was when it sank in exactly how deeply and truly he'd screwed up with the woman he loved. The woman he'd maybe always loved but had been too stupid to see it.

Lexi was going to run and not let him anywhere near her to fix it. And she didn't have the burden of a show of friendship to maintain this time. She could and would go back to Texas and cut herself off, for good.

"Oh, God. Oh, shit. Fuck. How can I possibly fix this?" Shoving both hands into his hair, he paced a tight circle. "This is bad. This is so damned bad."

Leo stepped into his path, gripping him hard by the shoulders. "Pull yourself together, dude. Yeah, this shit is bad, but it's gonna be okay."

Zach lifted his head. "How?"

Leo grinned. "Because I have a plan. And it doesn't involve elephants."

# Chapter 8

When Lexi had made her dramatic, mortified proclamation last night, she hadn't considered exactly how that would impact work. There were more jobs on the books than just finishing up with the wedding shots. Like it or not, she'd made a commitment to Zach that involved other people—his clients—and that meant she actually had to interact with him. Whatever her personal humiliation, she wouldn't do anything to endanger his business. That wasn't who she was. So she would put on her big girl panties and do the right thing. Maybe after another cup of coffee to fortify herself.

But the additional caffeine did nothing to stem the creeping dread as the morning ticked by and she tried to decide what to wear to armor up for seeing him. How could she even look him in the face after last night? She didn't think she could bear to see the shattered pieces of their friendship. To know that, in the end, she'd done that to them. She'd hurt him with her lashing out. In the moment, she'd wanted him to feel as raw and wounded as she had all this time. But getting it all out there, venting her spleen, hadn't been as cathartic as she'd imagined. She didn't feel free or relieved. She just felt miserable.

Her phone pinged. Grateful for any excuse to put off going into the studio, Lexi grabbed it, going still when she saw the text was from Zach. Anxiety curdled in her gut as she opened it.

Zach: **I've set up cloud access to the studio calendar. Your shoots for the week and all the relevant details can be accessed through this link.**

The next text was the calendar link.

Lexi waited for another five minutes, but he didn't say anything else.

It seemed she was off the hook for having to see him. He'd just given her the perfect way to avoid him for the rest of her stay in Wishful.

It should have been a relief. There'd be no dreaded second confrontation or awkward dancing around things she didn't want to talk about. But it was cold comfort.

He didn't want to see _her_ either.

That hurt, more than she'd imagined it might. Maybe because she'd never imagined a scenario where Zach didn't want to see her. That had been the one constant in all the years they'd known each other. He'd always, always wanted to see her, even when she'd been standoffish and distant.

This was so much worse.

It felt wrong to leave things like they were. But she took the reprieve, hoping she'd manage to find some way to say...something to him once they'd both calmed down.

In the five days that followed, the opportunity never presented itself. There'd been no co-shoots scheduled. As the week rolled on, she dropped into the studio several times, thinking to rip the bandaid off. Zach was never there. Not for the newborn shoot. Not for the senior portraits. Not even when she turned in the shots for Hank and Lorna van Buren's fortieth anniversary. He was, it seemed, as determined to avoid her now as she had been since high school. Had it hurt him this much when she'd done it? When he didn't know the why of it?

She hadn't realized, until the second day passed and she'd heard nothing, that deep down she'd still believed that somehow it would all be okay. She'd let go of that hope a few hours ago and started packing. The town where hope sprang eternal was no place for the likes of her.

Lexi caught herself staring at the pile of folded clothes next to her suitcase, wondering how much time she'd lost to just standing there, doing nothing. She been doing that a lot lately.

Thank God she headed back to Austin tomorrow. Her mother was on the mend and officially off crutches, so her reason for being in Wishful was coming to an end. She'd be slinking out of town like the coward she was, without seeing the rest of her friends. She had no idea what Zach might have told them, and it hadn't seemed worth the risk of facing him again to go to the reunion tonight for the chance to say goodbye. That felt just as shitty as the rest of this situation. But surely, once she got back home, to her own studio, to her routine, she'd stop feeling this hole in her gut.

"Phone, _mija!"_

_Who would call me here?_

Abandoning her packing, she met her mother in the hall to take the handset. "Hello?"

"Lexi? Oh, thank God you're still here. It's Eli." He sounded rattled. Eli Hamilton was never rattled.

Tensing, she curled her fingers tighter around the receiver. "What's wrong?" A low throb of what might have been bass underscored the momentary silence.

"Zach's not coming and I don't have a photographer for the proposal."

Disbelief was quickly chased by worry. Zach should have been at the reunion. "What the hell? Why?"

"I don't know why. But I'm up shit creek here, Lexi." Eli rolled on, talking about plans for the shoot, but Lexi didn't really hear him.

This didn't sound like Zach. At all. He didn't bail on friends. She interrupted Eli's detailed recitation of what they'd set up. "Did you actually talk to him? This is not some situation where he just didn't show and might be dead in a ditch somewhere?" A myriad of scenarios ran through her mind, each one more gruesome than the last.

"I just got off the phone with him. He's fine. Well, I mean, there's been something wrong all week, and damned if I know what it is, but he's not pinned under his truck or anything. All I know is he says he's not coming, and he's on my shit list for life, and I need your help."

Letting go of the anxiety that had gripped her system at the idea that Zach was hurt or in trouble, Lexi let out a slow breath. "I don't—"

"I know. I know you don't want to come, but I'm desperate. I'm in the damned bathroom to make this call. I'm begging you, please come. Please do the shoot so we have better than crappy cell phone pictures to remember this by for the rest of our lives."

She closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose, as if that would somehow stop the headache that spiked behind her eyes at the idea of doing this. If possible, she wanted to go to the reunion even less now than she did before. But Eli and Jessie were her friends. And this was probably her fault.

Lexi took a bracing breath. "Okay. I'll do it. What, exactly, is the plan?"

She was already moving to gather gear as he talked, describing positioning and the pre-arranged signal he'd set up with Zach. By the time he'd finished, she had her camera bag packed.

"Okay, I'm on my way."

"Thanks, Lexi. We owe you." The relief in Eli's voice was palpable.

"Be there as soon as I can." Tossing the cordless phone on her bed, she shouldered her bag.

Leandra appeared in the doorway. "Where are you going?"

"To the reunion, apparently."

Her mother's eyes brightened and she clapped her hands together. "Aren't you glad you didn't get rid of the dress?"

"I'm not wearing the dress." As soon as she said it, Leandra's face fell, and Lexi felt like a jerk. Wanting to soften the blow, she added, "This is work, not play. I'm not staying."

Her mother's expression turned mulish. "You'll stick out like a sore thumb if you don't. Everyone else will be dressed up."

She'd prefer to be all in black to blend into dark corners and avoid notice, but her mother made a good point. If she did catch anyone's attention, she'd have less to explain if she wore the proper attire. And at least she'd get to wear the dress once, even if it was while working. It would make her mom happy.

Dropping the bag, she headed for the closet. "How fast can you do my hair?"

Zach was going to sweat through his tux. He tugged at his bowtie, wishing he could breathe. Nerves skittered down his spine as he kept watch on the door to the high school gym. No Lexi. Just as there'd been no Lexi for the past half hour. Despite Eli's assurances that she'd promised to come, Zach wasn't at all sure she'd show. And if she did, would she be wearing the dress? Half his plan hinged on Mama Morales refusing to let her out of the house without it. God love the woman for being on his side. He'd taken a risk calling her up and asking for her help. But Lexi's mom was, at heart, a romantic and had spent years expecting something more to happen between him and Lexi. Evidently, he was the last one to get on board. He just hoped he wasn't too late.

Staying away and giving her space this week had damn near killed him. He'd wanted to talk to her, to apologize again, to hash all this shit out until everything was right again. But rushing in and opening his mouth had gotten him into this mess, and Leo had insisted this plan was solid. If it wasn't he might just have to lie down in the driveway behind Lexi's car to keep her from leaving town and pray she didn't decide to run him over.

He fidgeted in his dress shoes, thinking Lexi had a point about formalwear. Comfortable it was not.

All around him, people talked and laughed and danced. The gym was decked out in all the cheesetastic glory of their Fairy Tale themed prom from a decade ago. Crepe paper streamers and twinkle lights criss-crossed the room. In one corner, a Cinderella's coach picture station had been set up. The biggest difference from then and now was that the punch tonight was spiked on purpose.

He tried to remember what that night with Isabelle had been like and couldn't. It had just been another night. Not bad, not good, not memorable. She was here somewhere with her husband. They hadn't shared more than a smile and a few words of conversation.

What would it have been like if he'd brought Lexi? He should have brought her back then. He'd have remembered everything, down to the way she'd done her hair and the jokes she'd have told over dinner. He always remembered things with Lexi.

He wanted to remember tonight as the night they finally got on the same page. The night he finally kissed her. But that wasn't going to happen if she didn't show up.

Frustrated, impatient, Zach scrubbed a hand over his face.

This was a terrible idea. Why the hell had he listened to Leo? How could he put the fate of his chances with the woman he loved in the hands of someone else? He was, as he'd repeatedly been reminded, a dumbass. The whole thing was going to blow up, and Lexi was going to walk out of his life forever.

As a vise tightened around his chest, he looked back at the door. And there she was, as if conjured by his desperation.

She hesitated at the entrance to the gym, a vision in crimson. His brain snapped that mental picture and filed it away, titled _Lady In Red._ The rich, dark waves of her hair were swept up in some kind of complicated updo that left her long, lovely neck bare. Something sparkly circled her throat, dipping toward the cleavage on perfect display in the bodice of the dress. He'd seen her in it the other night and been sucker punched, but this—with the shoes and the hair and the whole package— she was so damned beautiful she stole his breath. Then he smiled as he noticed the camera bag slung over one shoulder. No pitiful clutch for his girl. It was so _Lexi_ , and he ached with longing to touch her, to hold her, to see her smile again.

She definitely wasn't smiling now. In fact, she looked vaguely like she wanted to vomit, which kind of put a damper on this Cinderella at the ball moment. Okay maybe that was a bad analogy. Cinderella ran from her prince. Zach felt a clutch in his chest as he remembered Lexi had done plenty of that already.

As she so often did, she skirted the crowd, speaking to no one as she headed toward one of the tables around the perimeter to set up her camera gear. Fresh nerves beat a tattoo in his chest as he forced his feet into motion and crossed the room to greet her. It was maybe the most important thing he'd ever done in his life. He had to get it right this time.

"You look beautiful."

Lexi whirled, her hands lifting in a defensive stance. Not an excellent beginning.

"What are you doing here? Eli said you bailed."

"I didn't, but I didn't think you'd come if I asked you, and I thought you might if he did."

After a beat of hesitation, she started dismantling the camera she'd pulled out.

Panic shot through him. "Lexi, wait. Don't leave. Please. I brought you this." He thrust out the plastic box with the corsage he'd bought her, wondering if she could see it shaking.

Her gaze moved from it to him and back to it. "What is this, Zach?"

"An apology. An olive branch." A poor one judging by how her lips compressed into a thin line. Shit, he'd thought it was sweet.

She was shutting down, closing off. With a shake of her head, she turned back to her bag. "I didn't want to come here. I don't want or need a pity date."

_Damn it._ "That's not what this is. I didn't mean—" Hell, he was messing this up. Again. Would he never manage to say the right thing to her?

"I don't think we have anything left to say to each other about this."

Okay, so he was going to have to play hardball. Just spit it out, however it came out, and risk botching it rather than not saying it at all. He set the box on the table and stepped closer, not touching, but making it hard for her to get past him. "Maybe you don't. But I do. You're angry and hurt, and you have every right to be. I should have realized how you felt. I should have seen that you were serious when you asked me."

Even in the poor light, he could see the flush in her cheeks and sense that she was about to run again. So he took the chance and boxed her in. "I'm sorry I was a dumbass in high school. I'm sorry for not realizing how you felt. And I'm sorry for not realizing how _I_ felt until you came back into my life."

Her eyes snapped up to his, her mouth pulled into a wary frown. "What are you talking about?"

He risked moving another inch closer. "I get why you were casual about how you asked me. You were scared to death to do anything to damage our friendship. You wanted to test the waters without rocking the boat. I get all that now because it's exactly how I've felt since you came back."

The flare of guarded hope in her eyes gave him the courage to push. "You were my best friend, Lex. The person who gets me best in the world, and I've missed the hell out of you. But it's more than that. From the moment I saw you again, standing in The Grind, you just knocked me flat. I don't know what changed or why, but I haven't been able to fit you back in that best friend box I've been walking around with for years. And obviously with everything that's happened, that ship has sailed. We're never going to be what we were before. But I think we can be something else. I want us to be something else."

For long, weighted moments, she stared up at him, and Zach hardly dared to breathe. But he hoped. He hoped more than he'd ever hoped for anything before.

Lexi sucked in a shaky breath and swallowed. "And what is that?"

Lifting his hands to cup her face, he felt her tremble. "More." And at long last, he lowered his lips to hers.

Zach was kissing her. Really kissing her, his lips a soft, insistent brush against hers, like she'd wanted all those years ago. And Lexi was too shocked to kiss him back. Too shocked to do anything but stand there as he cradled her face in his hands and changed everything. Was this really happening? Was she actually awake?

Lexi felt him tense and pull back. His eyes searched her face, and for a moment she could only stare up at him in dazed shock. In the end, it was the raw vulnerability she saw in his face, the same one she'd felt so often around him, that galvanized her. Curling her hands in his lapels, she pulled him back, fastening her mouth to his.

And she let go. Releasing all the longing, all the want, all the need that she'd repressed and ignored for years. She kissed Zach the way she'd always wanted to kiss him. No barriers, no worries, no tentative testing of the waters. She kissed him as if she'd never get another chance.

His arms slid around her, hauling her close as he angled his head and took the kiss deeper. Her heart thundered against her chest and every inch of her crackled with nerves and joy and relief. Because she wasn't in this alone. It had taken ten years, but she'd finally, _finally_ gotten her wish. He'd finally seen her as she saw him. Lexi didn't know what to do with that other than hang on to the moment, hang on to him.

It was the cheering that pulled her back. Confused, embarrassed, she realized they weren't alone, but standing in the high school gym, surrounded by most of their classmates. A few dozen feet away, she spotted Jace and Tara, Reed and Cecily, and the Hamilton twins. Eli was grinning from ear to ear and Leo offered up a wolf whistle and a fist pump.

"Oh _Dios_." Lexi ducked her head, cuddling into Zach.

Tucking her close, he rested his brow against hers. "Ignore them."

"They're making it very hard to do that."

The cheering was still ongoing.

"We can kill them later. Just stay. Stay and be my date to Reunion Prom. Let me give you tonight to make up for being an idiot. Please."

She hadn't thought he could fix it. There was no going back and changing the past. But everything about tonight was as close to a do-over as they could manage, all the way down to the reunion prom theme and the corsage he'd bought her. Not a pity date, as she'd originally thought. A new beginning.

So she smiled up at him and tried not to let the happy tears spill over. "Okay."

Zach tied the corsage to her wrist and lifted her hand to his lips.

Lexi felt a little flutter in her belly. "You matched my dress."

"I had help."

"Who?"

He offered up a sheepish smile. "Your mom."

Lexi's mouth dropped open. "You talked to my _mother_ about all this?"

"I told her what you weren't ready to hear yet. That I'd messed up, I'm crazy about you, and I needed help to fix it."

She thought about her mother's insistence she couldn't leave the house without the dress. "She was in on the whole thing?"

"Yep. Turns out your mama's been shipping us for years."

"I don't even know what to think about that."

"I'm gonna go with grateful." When he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side, Lexi didn't hesitate. She finally didn't have to, and it felt glorious.

"There will be squee about this. You know that, right?"

"Mama Morales can hug my neck as much as she wants. I'll be hugging hers right back."

Their friends converged.

"So, y'all good now?" Eli demanded.

Jessie popped him on the shoulder. "Hush it!"

Lexi had no idea what to say. How much had Zach told them? Then again, did it matter? They'd just been making out in front of everyone.

Leo stuck his hand out to Reed. "Called it. Pay up."

"You bet on us?" Lexi demanded.

Reed, at least, had the good grace to look sheepish. "I mean...this is a surprise to no one. We set up a pool back in high school about how long it would take y'all to get together."

Cecily sighed. "Of course you did."

Zach stiffened. "You did what?"

"Dude, it's not our fault you're an idiot," Jace insisted.

Tara slapped a hand over his mouth. "Excuse him. Apparently I can't take him out in public."

Shaking her head in amusement, Avery sidled up. "I, for one, want to know where you got that dress. It's absolutely fabulous."

"My mother made it."

"She _made_ it?" Jessie asked. "Oh my Lord, that's amazing."

The girls converged, and Lexi found herself dragged into a conversation about fashion. She thanked God for her mother—not only for the dress itself, but for having educated Lexi so she could keep up with the discussion. With half an ear, she listened to the guys continue to rib Zach. And it was all so...high school. Except better than high school had ever been.

"So when are you moving back to Wishful for good?" Jessie asked.

"When am I—oh."

Conversation around them died when she didn't have an immediate answer. How could she? Her bags were nearly packed to go home to Austin tomorrow. She and Zach hadn't discussed anything about the future. Her job, her studio, was still in Texas. How could she change her entire life to chase this new relationship with him? And yet...how could she not?

"Contrary to popular belief, we did not manage to have a complete telepathic conversation about that while I was kissing her," Zach said. "One thing at a time. Right now, I want to dance with my date. Excuse us."

He cut neatly through the group and escorted her out to the dance floor as "Save The Best For Last" began to pour out of the speakers.

Lexi's tongue seemed glued to the roof of her mouth. What could she say? How could she have forgotten all those details?

"It's okay, Lex. We don't have to figure out everything right this second. It's enough that we're here, together, dancing."

"I was supposed to go home tomorrow."

He tensed against her, then relaxed again. "Well, I'm hoping you'll give it at least a few more days. But either way, I know you've got a lot of things to think about and moving back here would be a huge decision. I'm not gonna rush you on that."

Lexi's muscles loosened. He wasn't going to push. Wasn't going to demand. This was all so new, and neither of them wanted to mess it up.

"But—"

_Oh Dios._

"I do want to put it out there that I have loved working with you these past few weeks. And I know you've worked hard to establish your own studio in Austin, but I would be a hundred percent on board with bringing you on as a full partner in mine. Permanently."

Lexi stared up at him. "You'd make me a partner in the business you built?"

"We're good together. On every level. Of course, I want you here for me. But I'd have made the offer even if you'd wanted to move home and we'd still just been friends."

He'd make a place for her, as he'd done all those years ago.

Lexi's heart swelled. Oh, how she loved this man. "You make it easy."

His lips quirked into a grin. "That is the idea. Make you an offer you can't refuse."

"I don't think I could ever refuse you. So yes."

Zach blinked, the grin sliding into shock. "Really? That's it? You don't want to look over the books or talk about business plans or..."

"I want to be with you. I've seen for myself that you've built a successful business. And you were right at the wedding. I don't have much of a personal life in Texas. Everything I want is here, with you. So yeah. I accept partnership and everything it entails."

With a whoop, he scooped her off her feet and twirled. "Hot damn! I can't wait."

Wrapping her arms around his shoulders she brushed her lips to his. "Neither can I."

# Epilogue

Thunder rumbled in the distance as the late August storm rolled on through town. Sheets of water fell from the sky, obscuring everything but what lay a dozen feet in front of Zach's headlights. It was a filthy night to be out, and he couldn't have been happier. He didn't even need the computer to tell him that he'd nailed the shots of the storm rolling in over Hope Springs. He'd captured quite the light show before the heavens opened up, drenching him to the skin. Worth it. His gear was protected and he'd gotten exactly the kind of shoot he'd been hoping for. He couldn't wait to show Lexi.

He was grinning from ear to ear as he pulled up in front of the house and saw her car. It would be their house, as soon as he talked her into moving in with him. She hadn't said yes yet, but Zach knew it was only a matter of time. They'd taken everything slow on the personal front since things had moved at warp speed on the business side. But their partnership at work had continued without a hitch. Clients loved having options, and wedding season had been a comparative breeze. He'd loved every minute of having her back in Wishful.

Scooping up his bag, he made the dash to the front porch, feeling fresh water snaking down his spine beneath clothes gone clammy in the air conditioning of the truck. Shaking off like a dog, he turned the knob and stepped inside.

"Honey, I'm home!" He toed off his sopping-wet shoes and stripped off his jacket, hanging it on a peg by the door.

Strains of low jazz drifted from somewhere else in the house, and Zach smiled to himself, imagining her in the kitchen with a glass of wine as she fussed with dinner. Eager to show her his work, he grabbed the camera bag and padded barefoot into the living room.

He noticed the boxes first. A small stack of them labeled in Lexi's bold scrawl were stacked along one wall. A black-and-white photo of a graffiti arrow was taped to the front, pointing toward the kitchen. Dropping the bag unceremoniously into a chair, he followed instructions. In the kitchen, candles flickered in a neat arrangement around a champagne bucket. A bottle of bubbly nested in the ice. Leaning against the front was another black-and-white shot, this one of Lexi, big, dark eyes full of secrets and mischief. One finger pointed toward the hall. Was that significant?

Turning in that direction, he saw that a wire had been strung along the formerly empty hall wall. It had been turned into a sort of gallery, with a whole string of black-and-white shots hung by clothes pins, exactly as they would be in a dark room. Grabbing up the champagne and the waiting glasses, he followed the instructions, making his slow way down the hall.

The first shot was Lexi walking away from the camera, one shoulder bared as her shirt slid toward the floor. His heart skipped a beat before picking up to a gallop as he recognized her signature boudoir style. The next image honed in on the smooth muscle of her bare back as she eased down the straps of her bra. Zach's mouth went dry. She'd created a striptease in pictures. He moved on to the next picture and his toe bumped something on the floor. Looking down, he saw the black bra. In his hall floor. A little ways further up were jeans.

_Holy. Shit._

A part of him wanted to rush straight into the bedroom, but she'd set up something special, and he was going to take his time appreciating her presentation. The sequence continued, each image firing his blood more than the last, until he ended at the closed bedroom door with a print of her looking over her bare shoulder with a come hither expression and a key hanging from a ring on one finger. From his bed.

Heart thundering, he hesitated outside the door, wrangling his own arousal until he thought he had some control. They hadn't crossed this line yet. He'd waited, letting her set the pace, knowing she'd let him know when she was ready.

She'd picked a hell of a way to announce it.

Zach turned the knob, opening the door.

More candles flickered in the darkness beyond, illuminating the real-life version of the picture on the door. Lexi was stunning, her hair tumbled, her cheeks flushed as she waited in the center of the bed, her pose the only thing offering any modesty.

"A-plus for presentation." His voice came out like gravel. "I want to know how you pulled this off. But later."

Her lips quirked. "You've been so patient, I wanted to say yes with a little flair."

"I'd say this is a lot of flair. Which question would this be a yes to?"

She snorted faintly. "That's not obvious?"

He knew which yes he was thinking, but he'd messed up so many times with her, he didn't want to risk it. "In my defense, all the blood left my brain somewhere around the beginning of the hallway. Maybe you should spell it out for me. In small words instead of just visual aids."

"All the yeses. To crossing this line. To moving in. To everything. I love you, Zach. I think I always have." She held out a hand to him, a real-life siren with acres of soft, golden skin. "Be with me."

She was everything he'd ever wanted, and he knew that for the rest of their lives, this image would be burned into the gallery of his brain. Yet another first in an endless line of firsts, with the woman he knew would be his last.

"Did I mention I love you, too?"

Her eyes shimmered with emotion. "I don't believe you did."

"Maybe I'd just better show you." Smile spreading slow, he set aside the champagne and shut the door.

**Want More Wishful?**

Have you blown through the entire series? Don't worry. There's more to come. In the meantime, have you checked out my spinoff series, _Wishing For A Hero?_ This series is a slightly darker take on the Wishful you know and love, with a string of light romantic suspense stories that kicks off with Leo and Eli's brother Judd and his best friend Autumn. Keep turning the pages for a sneak peek!

> **He has one mission**
> 
> * * *
> 
> Since they were children, career cop Judd Hamilton has built his life around taking care of his best friend, Autumn Buchanan. While he might once have dreamed of a different future for them, everything changed the day her father tried to kill them both. Determined to keep her safe, Judd put his feelings aside and turned his focus to protecting her, always.
> 
> * * *
> 
> **She leads a double life**
> 
> * * *
> 
> Nobody in their small town would ever dream that Autumn, Wishful's friendly librarian, is really successful erotic romantic suspense author, Rumor Fairchild. No one knows that the swoon-worthy hero of her series is based on her best friend, Judd. He's been fulfilling her rescue fantasies for years, and now she's ready to catapult them out of the friend zone to make her real life romance come true.
> 
> * * *
> 
> **Their nightmare returns**
> 
> * * *
> 
> But when the past comes full circle and Autumn's father returns to Wishful, even the power of Judd's badge isn't enough to keep her safe from the madman. If he wants the chance at a future with the one girl he's always loved, Judd may have to toss everything he's worked for aside to do the one job that matters.

Grab your copy of _Make You Feel My Love, _Wishing For A Hero #1 today!

# Make You Feel My Love

## Wishing For A Hero, Book #1

> **Will danger catapult these lifelong friends to lovers?**
> 
> * * *
> 
> Autumn Buchanan has loved Judd all her life. Best friends since they were children, he's been fulfilling her rescue fantasies for years. But years ago, her dreams of more ended in blood and a nightmare that nearly cost them both their lives. 
> 
> * * *
> 
> Now she's ready to take the leap and profess all to the friend who's stood by her through thick and thin. But before she can make her confession, their nightmare returns and secrets are revealed that threaten the very fabric of their lifelong friendship.

**Chapter One**

* * *

_D ear God, if I'd wanted to break up elementary school fights, I would've become a teacher._

Headed into the second leg of a double shift, Officer Judd Hamilton tried his best to clamp down on the irritation. He had, after all, volunteered to organize FountainFest safety for the police department. And if that meant keeping Jim Vernon and Neil Faber from coming to blows over who got to kick off the 1-mile Fun Run, then that's what he'd do.

Beyond the two geezers, he caught a glimpse of his girlfriend, Mary Alice, smiling at him. Her group of third graders was obviously excited about the race but behaved themselves. Unlike these two. He really wished he could put the pair of them in time out.

Instead, he tried his best to channel the calm, reasonable tone he'd heard Mary Alice use on her class. "Look, gentleman, I respect the fact that you were both told you could fire the starter pistol. I know it's a big honor—" _for the three seconds it will take for everyone to forget you were ever there,_ "and neither of you wants to be disappointed, but let's have a little bit of perspective and festival goodwill, okay?"

"I'm not giving up my place!" Jim bounced like a banty rooster.

Neil's age-spotted hands curled to fists. "Why you old—"

Judd inserted himself bodily between them. "Y'all simmer down, or neither of you is doing anything." His over-tired mind raced, looking for a solution that didn't involve him plunking both of them in a cell for the duration of the festival. Somebody somewhere had to have some more blanks. "Look, if we can come up with a second starter pistol, you could both take the shot starting the race simultaneously. Equals. Is that acceptable?"

"I don't know..." Jim waffled.

Recognizing an opening when he saw one, Judd pushed. "Wouldn't it look good to the townspeople to see the presidents of the Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs joint officiating?"

Neil crossed his arms, rocking back on orthopedic-sneakered feet. "Well, I suppose that might be okay."

"As long as we both get to have our banners," Jim insisted.

"One on each side of the starting line," Judd promised.

"I can live with that," Neil allowed.

"Good. Great. Y'all do that. Banners in place on those barricades, and y'all get in position. The race should be starting in fifteen minutes."

_Lord have mercy._ Was all this extra crap _really_ worth enduring for the chance to be Chief of Police?

Of course it was. Because being Chief wasn't the end goal. It was just a means to an end.

He waited until the combatants scurried off to their respective civic groups, then radioed to find some blanks. Couldn't very well have civilians firing actual shots, when town was crawling with pedestrians for the first annual Wishful FountainFest. Looking at the throngs of people, Judd couldn't help but wish their city planner wasn't quite so good at her job. The department didn't have the manpower to adequately police this many people.

_Should've called in some of the off-duty deputies from the county._

But the departmental budget couldn't afford that either. Still, he'd seen at least two of the deputies in the crowd. Men he trusted, who could handle themselves. If anything went down, they'd lend a hand. Not that anything was _likely_ to happen, but Judd had plenty of personal experience that made him less complacent than most.

As soon as the starter pistol situation was taken care of, Judd walked over to Mary Alice. Her sunny hair was pulled through the back of a FountainFest ball cap, and she was dressed to run in a t-shirt and shorts that showed off her toned legs. The sight gave him a bit of a jolt. He was so used to her conservative, elementary school attire, he often forgot what was underneath. Which was a terrifying sign of exactly how much he'd been working these last few months.

_Need to rectify that._

"Kyle, pull your shorts up. Does anybody have to go to the bathroom before we get started?"

"Everything under control here?" Judd asked.

She looked up, blue eyes twinkling. "As in control as it ever is."

"At least they're better behaved than the race officials," he observed.

"You get whatever that was sorted?" Her gaze slipped past his shoulder. "Danielle, stop picking your nose."

"Barely. Race will be starting in just a bit." A jaw-splitting yawn interrupted the statement.

She gave his arm a sympathetic squeeze. "Hang in there. Once this double is over, you'll be off for four whole days."

"Thank God." The prospect of eight straight on a horizontal surface was more appealing than Venus herself.

With a quick glance at her charges, Mary Alice stepped into him, rising on her toes. Judd still had to lean down so she could whisper in his ear. "Maybe after you've slept, we could spend some quality time together. Do a little catching up."

He hummed a noncommittal noise, wondering why he couldn't drum up any enthusiasm about getting reacquainted with those legs of hers. It was the double shift. Had to be. A flash of red hair distracted him from the suggestion of what they could do with some of that quality time.

Autumn Buchanan, his oldest, dearest friend, cut through the crowd with Boudreaux, Judd's massive bloodhound-mastiff mix, trotting beside her on a leash. While he'd been on nights the last week, she'd been dogsitting. Livia Applewhite, the children's librarian and one of her closest girlfriends, trailed in her wake. Judd straightened, eyes zeroing in on the number pinned to Autumn's chest.

"Good morning, y'all!" She immediately launched into cheery greetings to the children she and Livia knew from the library, introducing them to Boudreaux. The dog sat, patiently enduring the kids' adoration, his big tail slowly sweeping the sidewalk.

"Are y'all looking forward to the race?" Livia asked.

As she drew the children into excited conversation, Autumn stepped forward, extending the to-go cup in her hand. "I come on a mission of mercy. A Zombie Killer from The Grind. Extra shot of caramel, just how you like it. Figured you'd be dragging about now. Plus, Boudreaux's missing his daddy."

Judd automatically took the cup in one hand, and gave his dog a head rub with the other, but he couldn't tear his eyes off of Autumn. "Thanks. What are you wearing?"

She glanced down at her shorts and fitted tank top, which displayed miles of lean, toned legs and arms that he forced himself to ignore. "I realize you're on a double, but if you're so tired you don't recognize running gear, I'm not sure you should be on duty."

"I'm talking about the race number."

She deliberately widened her green eyes at him. "It's called _participation_."

"You're not running." With a struggle, he managed to make it a question rather than an order.

"I am, actually. Livia, Riley, and I are doing it together."

Frustration whipped through him. "You aren't supposed to exert yourself. Dr. Webb said—"

"That exercise is _good_ for my heart."

"He meant yoga or swimming." Hadn't he? Nice non-competitive stuff that wouldn't get her heart rate or blood pressure up. Nothing that might aggravate her heart condition.

"It's a one mile _fun run,_ not a triathlon. Besides, Boudreaux is looking forward to some exercise. Aren't you, boy?" She scratched behind his ears, and Boudreaux pressed into her touch, eyes rolling back in bliss.

_Missing his daddy, my ass._

"Boudreaux's idea of exercise is walking from the sofa down to the end of my dock."

"Which should be proof enough that I won't be over exerting myself. Stop worrying, Grandpa."

That was like ordering him not to breathe. He couldn't just turn off twenty-five years of protective instincts. Not when he could still so clearly see her lying in that hospital bed, hooked up to half a dozen monitors and machines.

Someone's voice boomed over a bullhorn. "Everybody participating in the Fun Run please take your position behind the starting line. The race will begin in five minutes."

Livia craned her neck to look over the crowd. "We should go find Riley."

"Gotta go." Autumn was already turning away before he could think of any other rational arguments against her running in this race. "Drink the coffee, Judd. You'll feel better. Bye, Mary Alice!"

Beside him, Mary Alice lifted her hand in a wave. "She'll be fine."

Judd grunted a response and scanned the course to see what medical personnel were on duty, in case something went wrong. The First Aid tent was about thirty yards away, on one corner of the town green. They were more expecting scraped knees and sprains, but a defibrillator would be there. And he had his own EMT training to fall back on in an emergency.

None of it made him feel any better, but short of bodily stopping her from participating, it was the best he could do. Not that she'd had any incidents in years, and her last check-up with her cardiologist, three months before, had given her an all clear.

Judd blinked, realizing Mary Alice had been talking to him. "Sorry. What?"

A flicker of exasperation passed over her pretty face. "I asked if you'd be up in time tomorrow for us to go to your family's Sunday brunch?"

"Yeah, sure. Mom's been fussing she hasn't seen me." It'd be good to see his family. Plus, he needed to firm up plans to go shopping with Autumn for his brothers' birthday. No one was better at coming up with the best gag gifts for the twins than she was.

"No one outside the department has seen you since you went on nights a month ago."

"Part of the job." He shrugged. "Race is about to start. Y'all have fun and be careful."

He bent to give her an absent kiss and hit her cheek when she turned at the last moment.

Okay, so she was annoyed. He'd work on smoothing that over once this shift was done and he'd slept. He headed further up the street, judging the best spot to keep an eye out for Autumn. Just in case. The race course ran the length of the green, down Main Street, onto Franklin Street before looping back on Market Street to finish on the opposite side of the green. If she had issues, it would be on the tail end of the course. He positioned himself on the far corner of the green at Main and Spring Streets to watch the start.

At 6'3", Judd could see over most of the crowd, so when the starter pistols went off—in tandem, thank God—he kept an eagle eye on the surge of people flowing down Main Street. With her bright flash of hair, Autumn was easy to pick out. She, Riley, and Livia were in a tight cluster, with Boudreaux trotting ahead. None of them was going faster than a jog. He could tell Autumn was even talking and laughing as they went. The tightness in his chest eased a fraction.

Mitch Campbell, one of Judd's poker buddies, stepped up to the curb to watch the girls. "I don't think Boudreaux quite knows what to think about all these people."

"We both know he'd follow Autumn anywhere."

"Didn't know she was running."

"Neither did I," Judd grumbled. But at least she was being smart about it. No outright sprinting. And honestly, Autumn was never reckless with her health. She just seemed to worry about it a lot less than he did.

"Not sure you can call what they're doing running," Mitch observed as they disappeared from view.

Judd turned to make his way to the opposite corner, across from Sweet Magnolias Bakery, aware of Mitch falling into step beside him.

"Man, you look like warmed over death this morning."

"Thanks for that. Coffee hasn't kicked in." He drained it on the walk, feeling a rush of gratitude that Autumn had thought of it. With all his herding of people this morning, there hadn't been time to go by The Daily Grind himself.

"You gonna make it to poker night next week, now you're finally off nights?"

"That's the plan. But I've gotta work on digging myself out of the doghouse with Mary Alice. I've been working my ass off and neglecting her lately." Longer than lately, if he was honest with himself.

"Man, buy her something shiny. Never met a woman who couldn't be appeased with jewelry and flowers."

"Jewelry's never been my style."

"Even better," Mitch declared, thumping him on the back. "She won't expect it and it'll be a surprise."

"You sure?" Didn't gifts of jewelry come with certain expectations?

"Absolutely. Go by Sanderson's and ask Rosanna about the doghouse special. She's got a good selection of options."

Judd spared Mitch a glance. "You sound like you have a lot of experience with this."

"Well, I'm still friends with all my exes."

_There._

Autumn came into view, moving with the same unhurried jog she'd had at the start. Boudreaux trotted obediently beside her, periodically looking up at her in complete adoration. Her cheeks were flushed from exertion, but not alarmingly so. She was okay, exactly as she'd said she'd be. The tension in his muscles drained out, and Judd could practically hear her in his head, _See there, Grandpa._

Turning back to Mitch, he picked up the thread of conversation. "But they're exes."

"Only because I got out before any of them got too serious. Talk to Rosanna. She won't steer you wrong."

What the hell? It couldn't hurt.

"We need a plan of attack."

Autumn looked with affectionate forbearance across the table at her best friend and thought of how many times in the past twenty-five years he'd said exactly that. "It's shopping for birthday presents, Judd, not a war."

"Same difference. There are _people_." His sharp blue eyes narrowed on the word.

She smiled into her coffee. "You're just grumpy because you haven't recovered from FountainFest and all those extra shifts you've been pulling."

"Hell yes. Ergo, I want to get through this whole process as quickly as possible." He inhaled a quarter of his tall stack of pancakes in about three bites, as if to prove the point.

"We _could_ have done this sooner if you weren't working all the time," she chided.

"Couldn't be helped. Chief Curry's been leaning on me pretty heavy lately."

"Which is exactly what you wanted."

Judd shrugged. "I figured the decision about the replacement Chief would've been made by now. Nobody thought this would drag on for over a year. Either way, this is the time we've got, and gag gifts must be procured. It's tradition."

Curmudgeon or not, Judd Hamilton was reliable as the rising sun. Since the pair of them were old enough to ride their bikes downtown, they'd established an annual tradition of finding the best possible gag gifts for his twin brothers. As she'd been an honorary Hamilton for more than a decade, she took great pleasure in punking Leo and Eli.

As they polished off their breakfast and Judd wrote out a list of stops like he was planning a tactical assault, Mama Pearl brought their check. Autumn started to reach for it, but Judd's hand shot out and snagged it.

"What are you doing?"

He was already digging out his wallet. "Buying breakfast."

Autumn bristled. "I can buy my own breakfast."

"You've been working on half-time hours since spring. I've been working overtime. I'm buying breakfast."

"Don't be an ass."

"I'm an ass for buying my oldest friend breakfast?" He fixed her with that cop stare that was meant to intimidate but instead heated things that had no business heating.

Autumn shifted in her seat, crossing her legs to get more comfortable and bumping his instead. A zing of awareness shot from her kneecap further north, and she repressed the urge to curse, focusing instead on keeping every nuance of her expression dialed to annoyed rather than attracted. God knew, she had plenty of practice.

Before she could come up with an answer that wasn't some shade of "I don't need you to take care of me"—which would just piss him off—Mama Pearl came back.

She gave a hmmph that conveyed a wealth of opinion over their stalemate before handing Autumn a thick envelope. "Omar sent this out. You won the pool on Tucker and Corinne."

Judd tossed down his napkin. "Of course you did. How many does this make?"

"Seventeen," Autumn said sweetly, plucking the check from his hand and pulling three fives from the envelope to pass back to Mama Pearl.

He stared at her. "Seriously?"

"What can I say? I'm lucky when it comes to betting on love." Which was an enormous crock of shit. She'd never been brave enough to gamble with him. Until today.

"She is the reigning champion," Mama Pearl confirmed, before ambling off to get her change.

"What's your secret?" Judd asked.

"Secret?"

"Why is it you're so good at picking who's going to end up with who and when?"

He absolutely wouldn't like the answer to that. Reminding Judd that she was adept at reading people's body language because she'd grown up in a household where understanding that meant the difference between surviving her father's crazy pseudo-religious delusions and getting the belt—or worse—would ruin the mood of the day. He'd gotten her out years ago. That was the important thing. Besides, it was a lot more fun using her skills for love instead of survival.

Now her brain was occupied with broaching a far more terrifying topic. How exactly _did_ you tell your best friend you're in love with him?

"Maybe it's all those romance novels. It's made me extra sensitive to spotting the signs. And anyway, betting on love sure as hell beats editing dissertations for foreign students in terms of supplementing my income."

His lips quirked in that rare devil-may-care grin that made her heart stutter. "You've actually made enough on this to supplement your income?"

It wasn't the only supplement to her income, but it was the only one he needed to know about. She made a show of fanning the remaining cash in the envelope. "I just got handed all my shopping money. For the twins and for a splurge."

"Then I guess we'd better go spend it."

Per tradition, stop number one was the fountain in the middle of the town green. Constructed just after the Civil War, the fountain had earned some local notoriety over the past century and a half. It was, after all, why the town was named Wishful. Usually Autumn tossed in her coin and made a less selfish wish—there were plenty of other people who could use a little bit of magic. But if she was really going through with this, she needed all the help she could get. She'd even saved a silver dollar specially for the occasion. The coin lay against her sweaty palm. She stared down at the smooth surface of the water, trying to slow her heart and think of the right way to phrase the wish.

"You okay, Firefly?"

The childhood nickname pulled her back to the past, to the first time they'd stood here and the wish she'd made then. The casual stroke down her back kept her in the now.

"You know, when we were twelve and you brought me here that first time, I didn't believe in wishes. Didn't see the point. But you gave me a quarter and told me to make a wish anyway. For anything I wanted. Do you know what I wished for?"

"What?"

She lifted her gaze to his face. "I wished for a new family. And you gave me yours. I can never repay you for that."

"We're not keeping a balance sheet, Autumn. It's not something you owe us for."

No. That had been a gift without price. And if she did this. If she changed things, his friendship wasn't the only thing she risked.

_Be brave. Be like the strong heroines you write about._

Eyes on his, she fisted the silver dollar and made her wish. _I wish for the courage and strength of heart to do what needs to be done, say what needs to be said._

She didn't look as she tossed the coin. Didn't even glance over at the solid _thunk_ in the water. She could only watch him. For twenty-five years, he'd been her strength, her shield, her confidant. And she was about to see if he'd be more.

"Judd, there's something I need to—"

"Autumn!"

The sound of her name had the words clogging like a logjam in her throat as she turned to see who had such craptastic timing.

"Mark?"

A history professor at Wachoxee County Community College, Mark Caulfield had been stopping in at the library once or twice a week for a couple of years. He was charming, erudite, and a little shy. Lanky, with a penchant for tweed—a less attractive Jude Law type. Livia had been making bets for months about when Mark would get up the nerve to ask Autumn out. He always seemed to stop just short of crossing the line from flirtation to action. Which was perfectly fine with Autumn. She enjoyed their flirtation, enjoyed the lack of pressure to actually commit to anything else. And here he was with flowers in his hand when she was about to confess her love to Judd.

_Crap on a cracker._

"Good morning, lovely lady." With a sheepish smile, he held a bouquet of bright yellow tulips out.

Autumn reached to take the flowers automatically, though a part of her instinctively recoiled. She couldn't stop the flinch as her hand curled around the stems. "What's this?"

"I saw these and they made me think of you. A little spot of sunshine. I went by the library to deliver them. Livia told me you were out shopping, so I took a chance that I could catch you."

Autumn made a mental note to murder her friend. She forced a smile and focused on the gesture rather than the flowers themselves. There was no possible way Mark could've known she loathed yellow tulips. They'd been her mother's favorite flower. "They're lovely."

She waited, watching splotches of color rise to Mark's cheeks as he shifted from foot to foot. _Please don't let today be the day he finally asks._

Mark finally seemed to register Judd's presence, which said a lot about the man's focus on her, as Judd had been looming behind her like a guard dog since the moment Mark had shown up.

"Hi. Mark Caulfield." He offered his hand.

Judd stepped forward to take it. "Judd Hamilton."

"And you're—"

"The best friend," Judd supplied. His gaze swept Mark from head to toe and clearly found him lacking. Not that anyone who wasn't well-versed in the microexpressions of Judd would notice.

"Ah," Mark said.

The silence spun out. One beat, then two.

Ordinarily, Autumn would've jumped into the breach, tried to put Mark more at ease with the scripted niceties used by all women in the South. But she wanted—needed—him to go away. So she said nothing, employing the same tactics she knew Judd used in interrogation, hoping Mark would be so acutely uncomfortable, he'd lose his nerve.

"Well, I—you're in the middle of something. I just wanted to give you the flowers. I'll let you get back to your shopping now."

"Thanks."

"I guess I'll see you when those interlibrary loans come in."

"I'll be sure to let you know," she promised.

Mark gave a little wave and shrugged his messenger bag higher on his shoulder, heading back across the green.

Autumn turned back toward Judd. She felt the weight of his gaze—those eyes that always saw too much and not enough.

"Do you want me to take them?" He knew. Of course, he knew what these would mean to her. It was just one of the many reasons she loved him.

"No. They're just...flowers. I can deal. Just...just tell me when he's gone so I can find somewhere to dispose of them."

Mark's interruption had seriously thrown Autumn off her game. Because the moment to speak had passed, she didn't resist when Judd took her arm. "C'mon. Let's walk."

"Let's swing by Brides and Belles. I'll give them to Babette. Someone might as well enjoy them."

"Sure. I've got something to pick up in that area anyway."

Dimly, Autumn wondered where, but was too rattled to ask. She'd find out soon enough.

She felt better once the flowers were out of her hands. Steadier. She joined Judd back out on the sidewalk. "Okay, List Master, where is our first stop? You said you had something to pick up over here."

"This way." He headed down the block. As she fell into step beside him, he said, "Hey what was it you were going to say earlier? Before we were interrupted. You seemed pretty serious."

"I was. I..." Autumn trailed off, staring blankly at the display window he'd stopped in front of. "What are we doing here?"

"Oh, I've just got to run in and pick up something for Mary Alice."

"Here?" They were standing outside Sanderson's Jewelers.

"Yeah, I've got something on order. Want to come in and see?"

Autumn's mind ground to a screeching halt, as everything she'd been about to say simply blanked. Judd Hamilton did not buy jewelry. At no point in their twenty-five years of friendship had he ever given something sparkly to one of his girlfriends. He'd never even gotten any cheesetastic jewelry for his mom on Mother's Day. And he had something on order for Mary Alice.

There was only one thing it could possibly be.

Something burst inside her, a white hot nova of shock sweeping through her body, reverberating through her chest. For long seconds, she waited for the pain to take her to her knees. But there was no physical pain. She wasn't dying this time, even though she was losing him now as surely as she'd nearly lost him years ago to a bullet meant for her. And for a moment she regretted that the surgeons had repaired her heart. Because that meant she had to live through this, watching him build a life with someone else, knowing she'd never even been in the running.

She drew on every shred of control she had to smile at him. Because she loved him and she wanted him to be happy.

"No. That's what I wanted to tell you. I'm going to have to bail on our tradition. I'm supposed to meet Mitzi to help finish up a grant for the library. With all the budget cuts, I really can't afford to tell her no, even though it's technically my day off. There's a deadline." The lie rolled off her tongue with surprising ease.

His expression clouded. "Well shit. Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"She just emailed me this morning, and I thought we could at least do breakfast. But I need to get on. You go ahead and finish your shopping. I'll see you later, okay?"

Worry was written all over his face as he studied her.

_Please. Please let me go right now._

"Yeah, okay."

Because she felt the weight of his gaze on her, she didn't run, though every instinct urged her to flee. She kept her strides even and unhurried, though she was starting to shake. She kept her head held high, though she wanted to scream. She'd survived more than her fair share over the years. She'd find a way to survive this.

But as she passed the cursed fountain, she wondered how she'd survive it without him.

Grab your copy of _Make You Feel My Love _today!

# Other Books By Kait Nolan

**A complete and up-to-date list of all my books can be found at<https://kaitnolan.com>.**

**The Misfit Inn Series**

**Small Town Family Romance**

  * _When You Got A Good Thing _(Kennedy and Xander)
  * _Til There Was You_ (Misty and Denver)
  * _Those Sweet Words _(Pru and Flynn)
  * _Stay A Little Longer _(Athena and Logan)
  * _Bring It On Home _(Maggie and Porter)

**Rescue My Heart Series**

**Small Town Military Romance**

  * _Baby It's Cold Outside_ (Ivy and Harrison)
  * _What I Like About You_ (Laurel and Sebastian)

**Wishful Series**

**Small Town Southern Romance**

  * _Once Upon A Coffee _(Avery and Dillon)
  * _To Get Me To You _(Cam and Norah)
  * _Know Me Well _(Liam and Riley)
  * _Be Careful, It's My Heart _(Brody and Tyler)
  * _Just For This Moment_ (Myles and Piper)
  * _Wish I Might_ (Reed and Cecily)
  * _Turn My World Around_ (Tucker and Corinne)
  * _Dance Me A Dream _(Jace and Tara)
  * _See You Again _(Trey and Sandy)
  * _The Christmas Fountain _(Chad and Mary Alice)
  * _You Were Meant For Me _(Mitch and Tess)
  * _A Lot Like Christmas_ (Ryan and Hannah)
  * _Dancing Away With My Heart_ (Zach and Lexi)

**Wishing For a Hero Series (A Wishful Spinoff Series)**

**Small Town Romantic Suspense**

  * _Make You Feel My Love _(Judd and Autumn)
  * _Watch Over Me_ (Nash and Rowan)
  * _Can't Take My Eyes Off You_ (Ethan and Miranda)
  * _Burn For You _(Sean and Delaney)

**Meet Cute Romance**

**Small Town Short Romance**

  * _Once Upon A Snow Day_
  * _Once Upon A New Year's Eve_
  * _Once Upon An Heirloom_
  * _Once Upon A Coffee_
  * _Once Upon A Campfire_
  * _Once Upon A Rescue_

**Summer Camp**

**Contemporary Romance**

  * _Once Upon A Campfire_
  * _Second Chance Summer_

# Acknowledgments

As ever, to my fantabulous editor, Susan Bischoff of The Forge Book Finishers, I couldn't do it without you. I'm happy this one gave you joy kittens.

To the members of my Squee Squad, my ever faithful and enthusiastic cheerleaders. You're the reason I do what I do.

And to Ben, for being a dumbass in high school and giving me story fodder all these years later.

# About Kait

Kait is a Mississippi native, who often swears like a sailor, calls everyone sugar, honey, or darlin', and can wield a bless your heart like a saber or a Snuggie, depending on requirements.

You can find more information on this RITA ® Award-winning author and her books on her website <http://kaitnolan.com>. While you're there, sign up for her newsletter so you don't miss out on news about new releases: https://kaitnolan.com/newsletter/
