Slowly, she pulled the upper half of her body from the open window and turned to greet the embarrassment head-on.
Ryder Grant. Of course it is. Had they stayed friends in high school, she might have some hope to sweettalk her way out of this mess.
“What happened here?” Ryder’s deep, stern voice boomed as he approached. The man filled out his uniform in all the best ways. He’d always had the firm muscles, but the beard was new. It made him look . . .attractive. Attractive in that official Alaskan way.
Kinley ripped her gaze away, hating how tongue-tied she felt. She forced words out anyway. “There was a moose, probably Ernie.”
“Ernie?”
“The famous one.” Why was the namenoweluding her when she needed it most? “You know. Ted?”
“Ed.”
“Yeah. That one. He was standing in the middle of the road. I had to swerve to miss him—”
“Have you had anything to drink today?”
Of course that would be the first question Ryder Grant asked her after nearly a decade. His physical appeal slipped away by the second, making it easier for her to regain her ground. Kinley let out a laugh of exasperation, which was apparently the wrong thing to do. “No.”
“Nothing to drink?”
“I don’t drink.” Kinley had been witness to too many incidents involving soldiers and alcohol. It ruined careers and took lives. She’d never wanted any part of it.
Ryder turned a full, slow circle. When he faced her again, he said, “I don’t see any sign of Ed.” He removed his sunglasses, revealing startling intense eyes. Once upon a time, when she was fourteen, those brown eyes convinced her that Ryder was the perfect boy to give her first kiss to. Now, they unsettled her. “It’s not fair to blame the local moose. If you were on your phone—”
“I wasn’t.”
“The rebel Kinley James doesn’t text and drive?”
“I’m not that girl anymore.” The Army had changed a lot of things about her life for the better. Made her more responsible. Gave her purpose when before she had none other than escaping this suffocating town.
Kinley leaned against the hood of the car as she waited for Ryder to assess the scene. He’d always had that analytical edge to him that brought out his inner nerd. The trait the popular crowd stunted when he started hanging out with them. It was the part of him she liked the most.
The collision with the signpost replayed in her mind. The bumper tapping the wooden post. The rocking of the massive billboard. For several moments, Kinley’d held her breath.Please don’t fall over. Please don’t fall over.
Just when she thought the sign might survive and she dared to exit the car, ominous creaking echoed through the air.
She watched in horror as it teetered on the weakened post. The sign wobbled and stilled. Then wobbled again and dropped forward. The cracking of wood assaulted her ears, though Ed hardly shuffled more than a step at the offending noise. By some miracle, the sign fell forward down the hill and not backward onto the hood of the Buick.
The sign splintered down the center. If the thing weren’t bigger than the car, she might’ve tried to catch it before it fell. But that attempt would’ve left Kinley flattened like a pancake beneath the wreckage.
“You look like you swallowed sour milk,” said Ryder. He dropped into a squat at the post, studying it from every angle.
Kinley gave up guessing what he thought he might discover down there. It all seemed so obvious to her. “You’d look that way too if you took out the town sign and the police chief was the first one to find you.”
Ryder might’ve flashed a smile, though if he did, it didn’t last. He looked much too serious, and for reasons Kinley couldn’t quite put her finger on, that bothered her. What had Ryder’s life become since graduation day? He’d always wanted to be in law enforcement. He loved Sunset Ridge almost as much as the town loved him, so discovering he became the local police chief wasn’t surprising.
But that all-too-serious frown was.
“What’s the protocol here, Chief?” Kinley asked, dreading the answer. Another car passed by, slowing way down. At this rate, the entire town would know she was back within an hour. Ava would no doubt be extra salty to find out that way.
“I could write you a ticket for reckless driving.”
“You’re kidding.”
Ryder stretched back up to his feet. “Nope. The sign is twenty feet off the highway and up a small hill.”
Kinley felt the unexpected sting of tears early enough to ward them off as the memory flashed. The massive, antlered moose standing in the center of the road, staring at her car. Kinley profusely honking her horn. The beast unmoving. She was forced to swerve into the shallow ditch. In her panic, she floored the gas pedal instead of hitting the brake. The momentum launched her up the small knoll.
