After that, I made an excuse and retreated to the cottage. When my phone pinged with a notification, I began to dismiss it, but then froze. Heart in my throat, I clicked on the tab. A photo popped up of me standing outside the firehouse with a box in my hands. The image had been taken from a sideview angle and showed Liam opposite me, scowling. My hands trembled. The photograph had been uploaded to social media by a popular tabloid and was accompanied by a headline speculating on what I might be doing in a ski-resort township with a hunky local man.

I stared at it in horror. How did they know I was here? And how had they gotten that photograph? I hadn’t noticed anybody taking it, and I was usually pretty good at spotting paparazzi. Clearly, someone had slipped beneath my radar. But had a local or a tourist taken it and simply sold it to the tabloid, or had one of their photographers actually followed me to Destiny Falls?

I shivered, feeling suddenly cold. In L.A., something like this would barely cause a raised eyebrow, but here it sent off all kinds of warning sirens. Or was I just overreacting because I was feeling raw after my run-ins with Liam and Nate? I gritted my teeth. At least they didn’t have Liam’s name.

I crawled into bed and curled into a ball, trying to get myself under control. After all, I hadn’t cried when Nate confronted me or when Grace showed me kindness. But unfortunately, the dam had broken, and the tears began to flow.

Chapter Eight

LIAM

A Lorde song came on the radio today and I started singing, expecting you to chime in, but you didn’t. That’s when I remembered you were gone. - Unsent text message from Liam to Kennedy

On Thursday, I arrived at work to discover my traitorous coworkers had eaten Kennedy’s brownies. That put me in a foul mood, but it was nothing compared to leaving the station at the end of the shift to find her waiting, once again, with a box of baked goods. Donuts, this time.

On Friday, she brought a packet of the expensive coffee beans I liked.

On Saturday, she was standing in line at Taste of Destiny when I went in with Asher for breakfast. We ducked out as soon as we spotted her, but the damage was done, and she was all I could think of for the rest of the day.

Sunday brought blessed peace. I went up the trails with Connor, well and truly out of range of anywhere Kennedy might pin me down. My brother worked as a park ranger and needed to empty some traps and clear fallen logs from the trail, so I loaned an extra set of hands. I fell into bed that night exhausted but satisfied.