Leaving the shelter, I move like an Olympic champion speed walker down the sidewalk, already late to meet the realtor a few blocks away. The stubby, worn buildings that make up Fox Ridge’s singular block of businesses cast a shadow that nips at my skin, and my cold fingertips struggle to type out a coherent text.
Eira
Cat? Where?
Lucas
English? Please?
He calls, but I can’t answer. Partially because I’m less than a minute away from my destination. Partially because he doesn’t know I’m in Fox Ridge, and I’m convinced I’d somehow blow the surprise. As if the second I answer, somebody in the empty street will yell out,Hey, did you know you’re in Fox Ridge?
Eira
Call you in a little bit.
Lucas
Please. I miss you.
He is going toshitwhen I pull up to the ranch this evening.
Smiling to myself, I look up at the blue skies and take a deep breath. I’m sure my family and friends will say I’m crazy for uprooting my life on a whim. But after I left Fox Ridge, I nabbed a page out of Lucas’s playbook and chose to trust in fate.
And the second I did that, things started falling into place.
He leaned into me outside the bar, filling the already warm summer air with a new, inescapable heat. “I’m so fucking attracted to you in every sense of the word.”
“Oh, darn.” I licked my lips. “What should we do about that?”
“Tonight? We should go back to my hotel room, and you should let me worship you.”
“And after tonight?”
His hand on the small of my back, adding to the mounting ache between my thighs, he ushered me toward the Uber. “We should trust in fate.”
“Whatever will be, will be, hey?” I slid into the seat with him hot on my heels. “That sounds like a debonair way of saying you don’t plan to call me after tonight.”
“Not at all, Doodlebug. I like to think fate gives us the tools—paint, brushes, canvas—and the vision. But it’s up to us to create it.”
“So, fate is like Bob Ross?” I side-eyed him, warming my palm against his.
He chuckled quietly. “A series of happy little accidents brought us to this moment, didn’t they?”
A break in the sidewalk catches the toe of my Chelsea boot, and all reminiscence shatters when I crash to the ground. There’s an instant pain in my knee and the heels of my hands, forcing me to sit and collect myself for a moment before I dare stand back up.
“Are you—” Lucas’s voice wraps around me. “Eira? What are you doing here?”
“Hey.” I smile up at him, blinking back tears. “Surprise.”
“Surprise is damn—” He doesn’t even let his own sentence leave his lips before they’re colliding with mine. In complete contradiction to my racing pulse, his kiss is slow and indulgent. It’s welcoming me home, with a languid swipe of his tongue between my parted lips. Pressing on his chest, my hand confirms the rapid thrum of his heart matches my own.
“I… I’m running late,” I mumble between kisses.
“For…”Kiss.“What?”Kiss.
With a hard swallow, I swipe my hand to the back of his neck, revelling in the goosebumps that arise.
“It was supposed to be a surprise…but I quit my job yesterday.” I mindlessly straighten the corduroy collar of his denim coat. “And when I was scrolling social media last night, an ad for a real estate agent in Fox Ridge popped up. Thirty minutes of rabbit-holing later, I was booking an apartment showing for today.”
