“I’m not wearing this out.” I smoothed the front of the shirt and shook my head.
Then I pushed my boobs out. Ididlook pretty damn cute. “Does Zane ever go to the Bear Den?”
Rose grinned. “No. That man works himself to death. You won’t catch him relaxing at a bar. Have you seen him yet?”
They both knew about my crush. But that was old news.
“Yeah,” I cleared my throat. “As a matter of fact, I have.”
Kelly leaned forward on her bed, all thoughts of packing her apartment gone for the moment. “You did? Where?”
“Oh, I was on Main Street and ran into him. Then he, uh, helped me fix a plumbing issue at my parents’ house.”
Rose snickered. “Six months until wedding bells.”
Kelly pondered it for a moment. “They’re both stubborn as mules. I say within a year.”
I laughed and changed back into my regular clothes. “If that man wanted to date me, he had plenty of time to make that happen. Sometimes I don’t know what makes him tick.”
I glanced at Rose.
She’d wanted out of Red Oak Mountain just as badly as I had when we were younger, maybe more so. She’d had big ideas and restless energy, and just like me, her plans had stretched far beyond these hills.
And now here she was, back in town, and looking more settled than I’d ever seen her.
“Do you ever regret moving back here for Nash?” I asked. They’d been best friends for years before getting together.
Rose’s whole face transformed, going soft and gushy on me. “I don’t regret a thing.”
“But doesn’t Red Oak Mountain feel too small for you now that you’ve seen the world?”
That was my biggest fear. This town felt nostalgic to me right now, and for the first time in my life I felt a tiny desire to stay. But I didn’t know how much of that was me reeling fromthe divorce and layoff. I was pretty convinced I wasn’t thinking clearly these days.
Rose peered at me with wisdom beyond her years. “I just needed some time to grow up. Nash and I got together at exactly the right time in our lives. And Red Oak Mountain has everything I want. My friends are here. And my family. AndNash.”
She seemed so content now, all the restless angst that she used to carry with her gone.
“Do you think you would stay for Zane?”
I thought about what life would look like, and on this sunshiny day, it seemed like a damn fine life.
“If he wanted me, yeah. But I don’t see it happening between us.”
Then I added, “You know, instead of asking me on a date, he’s coming over to help fix my parents’ fence. That doesn’t sound like a man who’s looking for romance.”
Kelly just chuckled while she folded the jeans and t-shirt, placing them on top of my purse. “Some men move slower than others. You should wear this outfit without a bra when you fix that fence. He might just fall right on top of you. Sometimes you have to make the romance happen yourself.”
I shook my head, laughing as I reached back into the bag for the next item.
The afternoon light shifted through Kelly’s windows, and I felt, just for a moment, completely and unexpectedly at home.
Chapter 4
Zane
It was the kind of early spring morning that made you forget the dark winter entirely.
I showed up with the post driver loaded in my truck bed and a load of thick, wooden posts I’d milled from my own lumber, while I told myself for the hundredth time that this was just a neighborly thing.
