1
SADIE
Dodgingfamily dinner undetected was tricky enough without a giant moose posing as a roadblock. Sadie Evans’ heart pounded against her rib cage as she froze in place. The sheer size of the four-legged obstacle with massive antlers was intimidating enough. But put said beast a mere seven or eight feet in front of her sandaled feet, and she only had space enough in her panicked brain to hope the moose didn’t decide to toss her around like a ragdoll.
“Ed, this isreallybad timing,” she hissed. To be fair, had she known the notorious beast was lurking around the corner of her parents’ house, she would’ve risked alerting her nosy sister and gone the other way. There was only a fifty-fifty chance that Haylee was waking her daughter from a nap right now and would spy Sadie’s escape out her bedroom window. She’d gladly take those odds if she still had the choice.
With his eyes locked on Sadie, Ed reached his mouth up to a tree branch and took a leisurely bite. As if taking his time deciding what he was going to do about her.
Born and raised in Alaska, Sadie had encountered her share of moose. But the only time she’d ever been this close to one was at the Anchorage Zoo. And that one time a moose walked up to her bedroom window in her first-floor apartment and peered in. But there’d been no fear of being charged in either of those scenarios.
“The trees across the street taste better,” she said to the animal, knowing it was impossible Ed understood her, but hoping for a miracle anyway. She needed to leave before Conner Michaelson arrived, and she preferred to do that in one piece rather than as a trampled pile of broken bones stuffed into an ambulance.
Family dinner was a weekly event. It was an unspoken rule that unless you had a very good reason not to be seated at the table at six p.m. sharp, you better be there. Sadie couldn’t exactly tell her mom—or anyone else for that matter—that the reason she was skipping out was to dodge Conner. She’d never intended to crush on her oldest brother’s best friend. Marc wouldkillher if he found out. It was easier to avoid Conner in such intimate settings and therefore not risk giving away her stupid feelings.
Plus, she was on a dating hiatus for the foreseeable future. Although, the dim-witted butterflies in her stomach that fluttered every time the unfairly, ridiculously attractive veterinarian entered her orbit apparently hadn’t gotten the message.
“I’m just going to back up,” she said to Ed. “I’m not bothering you, okay?”
At her first cautious step backward, the moose chomped a little slower, his ears flickering up and down once.
Sadie stilled, knowing better than to believe she wasn’t in danger. One wrong move and Ed might lunge at her. Flatten her like a pancake with very little effort. She’d come too far these past ten months. Made too much progress. It’d be really inconvenient and crappy to be taken out now by the local celebrity moose. “Oh, the irony,” she mumbled under her breath.
Sadie managed three agonizingly slow steps backward before Ed stopped eating, seemingly assessing the threat she posed to him. Silly moose. She was only a woman. A buck thirty-five—okay, thirty-eightbecause strawberry cheesecake ice cream was life—compared to his fourteen-hundred-pound frame. She posed exactly zero threats. Why didn’t he get that?
“Hey, it’s all good, Ed. I’ll, uh, get you some blueberries, okay? You like blueberries.” Locals were not supposed to feed the moose. She’d been told that only a hundred times growing up. She could practically hear Mrs. Nelson’s voice in her head.They could become dependent on human food sources and stop fending for themselves.But loads of people in Sunset Ridge slipped Ed a treat a time or two. The moose was still plenty independent.
In fact, he never seemed to show up unless someone was about to fall in love. Or so the legend went.
“Do you know something I don’t?” she whispered to Ed as she braved one more step backward. “Because I can’t fall in love with Conner. You know Marc wouldkillme dead. Deader than dead.” Even with the moose’s attention fixated on her, she was more afraid of her older brother’s wrath should he ever catch wind of her silly crush on his business partner. Never mind that she had less than zero intention of ever acting on it.
Of all the relationships she was working tirelessly to rebuild after being a crummy human being for most of her teenage years through her early twenties, Marc was the only one putting up one hundred and ten percent resistance. He was the oldest. The one who thought he knew everything about everyone. Had everyone figured out. Heknewirresponsible, reckless Sadie was incapable of change. His mind was made up.
Luckily, Sadie’s stubborn persistence could outlive them both.
She just had to overcome this stupid crush thing.Thenshe could prove to Marc that she had matured and turned a new leaf. Until she knew of a better way to stop her pulse from doubling every time Conner appeared, avoidance was her best option.
“I really need to go,Ed.”
She waited, feet rooted in place, as Ed finished chomping on the snack between his lips. She was really regretting her footwear choice. Leave it to Sadie to pick thecuteoption instead of the practical one. If she tried to sneak back the way she came and was forced to run, she’d fall flat on her face for sure. Her wedge sandals were not made for outrunning certain death.
When the last of the leaves disappeared from the moose’s lips, he took two threatening steps forward. Sadie squeaked and flattened herself against the logs of the house. As he dug a hoof into the ground and snorted, she squeezed her eyes shut and braced for the worst.
This was it.
Death by the moose everyone in Sunset Ridge adored.
“Sadie?”
She slowly opened one eye, expecting to see the snout of a moose in her face. But Ed wasn’t staring her down.
“Sadie, is that you?” a familiar voice called. A voice she really wished she hadn’t memorized, even if it was completely accidental. It wasn’t fair that Conner Michaelson not only looked like an Adonis, but sounded like one too. Now, her heart raced for an entirely different reason.
She opened the other eye and discovered the moose had vanished and the new local veterinarian was standing in his place. Darn the man and his friendly smile that could instantly turn any woman with a beating heart to goo. “Conner, hey.”
“What are you doing?” he asked with too much curiosity. It would be so much easier if he treated her like she was invisible. But he was too kind for that. In the short three months he’d been in Sunset Ridge, he’d shown each and every member of the Evans family gratitude and interest. He knew everyone by name and remembered things people said at the dinner table from week to week.
Sadie wished she had that super power. It would come in handy during the remaking of herself into a better person. “There was a moose,” she finally said as her senses came back to her, reminding her the beast could be nearby and ready to trample them both. If Ed injured the new vet everyone in Sunset Ridge adored, Marc would no doubt blame her for it.
