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“Don’t worry, Em. I won’t forget anything.” I tapped my temple. “I’ve got the memory of an elephant.”

“Elephant? Why? Is it ’cause you have big ears?”

I scoffed. “Big ears? What are you talkin’ about? Expect tickle retaliation in your near future, mister.”

Emmett giggled merrily, and my heart soared at the sweetness of it. Two weeks into his monthlong stay and I swore he wasn’t the same kid I’d brought home with me while his mom adjusted to life post-rehab. He was lighter, less anxious. And while it was tempting to credit myself, I knew this town was the real hero.

Seriously.

Wood Hollow had to seem like a fairy-tale land to an impressionable seven-year-old, with trees that scraped blue skies, a glittering lake with colorful boats, places to fish and swim, parks with new jungle gyms, and friendly faces on Main Street.

He couldn’t believe that Log Cabin Diner actually looked like a log cabin and served the best pancakes he’d ever eaten. Or that Dexter’s Donuts sold jalapeño chorizo donuts. Emmett’s expression when the extraordinarily handsome shop owner explained that chorizo was sausage would probably go down as one of my favorite memories of the summer. Thankfully, Dex sold traditional flavors too, and Em was content to lick rainbow sprinkles from his glazed treat and laugh at the notion of anyone putting dinner food on a donut.

Em loved peeking in the windows at the new bakery, rummaging for toys or cheap candy at Fox’s Drug Store, ordering hot chocolates at Rise and Grind, and he couldn’t get enough of the ice cream selection at Swensen’s. Especially the fudge swirl.

And now I was thinking of the cop—excuse me, Police Chief La Rue.

It had only been forty-eight hours since he’d issued his warning for speeding on Belvedere—and for the record, I hadn’t been driving that fast. I suspected the chief was more curious about meeting the new guy in town and establishing authority. Not that he seemed like an asshole. Just the opposite.

Chief La Rue had been cool and better still, he’d been kind to Emmett.

He was steady, calm, and friendly—nothing like some of the police I’d run up against on my sister’s behalf. Not that I could blame some of them. Misty was a piece of work. I highly doubted La Rue and his officers dealt with her brand of miscreant. Excuse me, reformed miscreant. However, if he did, I’d expect the chief would treat her fairly and with a modicum of respect.

Maybe. What did I know?

Truth be told, I thought La Rue was hot as fuck. He was a silver fox with that salt-and-pepper hair, broad shoulders, thick biceps…in a fucking uniform. Like a living, breathing pay-per-view fantasy, featuring a tough police officer and the hoodlum he pulled over to teach a lesson. Only in my version, the cop would end up against my truck while I drilled his fine ass.

And no, I probably shouldn’t have noticed, but the police chief had a very fine ass indeed.

Not to worry, I was aware he was well off-limits.

Still…I’d liked him.

Hell, I liked almost everyone I’d met in Wood Hollow, and I hadn’t expected to. This place was my waiting zone, not my end game. I didn’t need friends, and I didn’t want any complications. I had enough of those.

But I liked my boss. Cooper was a fair man with a fuckton of experience in the logging industry. He worked hard and expected the same from his staff. He’d hired me to deal with lumber distribution at Mill Depot so he could stick to running the mill for the owner, who concentrated on expansion and pulling in big contracts when he wasn’t traveling with his hockey-star husband.

And that was another thing about this town. Wood Hollow might have seemed like a quintessential old town in the middle of a forest; however, it was progressive and inclusive. Hank and Cooper were both married to professional athletes who happened to be men. Trust me, I’d been looking for cracks in the veneer for a couple of months now, but I’d slowly come to the conclusion that I was lucky to have been hired here.

This was a big job in a new state, and the move had come at a tricky time for my family. Ultimately, I’d taken my mom’s advice.

“You can’t solve Misty’s problems, honey. You gotta let her work her own shit out. Em will be fine. We’ll make sure of it.”

I glanced at the wiggly kid in the back seat and hoped like hell that was true.

Emmett was a breath of fresh air, a lifeline on a sinking ship. Anointing him the family savior seemed an unfair burden to place on someone so small, but Em was blissfully unaware. He saw beauty in everyday things: tall trees, fast cars, fat wads of pink bubblegum, high flying baseballs, and⁠—

“Have you ever had a triple-scoop ice cream cone, Uncle Way?”

“Heck, yeah,” I replied, fighting a grin as I waited for the inevitable sales job.

“Really? I’ve never had one. What flavors?”

“I don’t recall offhand, but probably chocolate, chocolate chip, and chocolate-chocolate chip.”

Em giggled. “That’s too much chocolate.”

“No such thing, kiddo.”