Chase slammed the truck door and turned toward the house. What was the use in talking to him any further? They were done before they’d really started. A kiss? Some hand-holding? That wasn’t a relationship anyway. Why had she even deceived herself into believing that she could have something as real as Zeke?

Chase had been stupid.

She could feel him watching her as she walked up the drive, carrying the bag with her wet clothes. What had been campy, flirty fun half an hour ago had been doused with water colder than that of the dunking booth. Conrad was here, the script would be waiting, and she had to pull her shit together in order to get this role.

Her fledgling career sat on a high cliff, and one misstep would send her plunging to the rocks of doom beneath. There would be no recovery if she failed this time. And who would she be if she wasn’t Chase London the actress?

She’d talked a big game to her mother, things about finding her own path and going to school, but she knew those were stupid slippery straws that she could never grasp.

Chase had functioned in this “real” world of Cotter’s Creek pretty well, but she hadn’t needed to get an actual job, handle a not-so-big paycheck, stick to a budget, or worry about how to advance a career. No, this was a safe simulation, a mere taste of what true adulting was.

Behind her, Zeke shifted his truck into reverse and started rolling away from her. Part of her wanted to turn around and gesture him back, but the other part of her knew his words were true. She didn’t know who she was, and she couldn’t ask Zeke for anything more when she had no clue what her tomorrow looked like.

Chase fetched the key from the hidey-hole beneath the arm of the swing. Zeke had come up with that idea when they were repairing and hanging it. Clever man.

Her heart seized in her chest, but she ignored it because she had to. Zeke wasn’t coming back, telling her he would change his life for her . . . even though she had no clue what her life would look like. He wasn’t going to risk his heart for someone like her. He knew her track record, knew the life she’d led, probably even knew more about who she was than she did.

Who was she?

Or maybe a better question was, Who did she want to be?

Chase turned around and sat on the swing, kicking it into motion as Zeke’s headlights swept over her. She raised her hand, but she doubted he saw it. All of this felt so final. So wrong.

Still, she couldn’t stop it. This life she’d been leading here in Cotter’s Creek was temporary. It had always been a “just for now.”