I parked the Jeep alongside the old bathhouse and got out, hauling my backpack with me. The snow barely gave way under my boots as I trekked above where the bathhouse perched precariously over the north end of the pool and down the other side.

The structure was still sound, as far as an 1880s piece of ruin left to time could be. Dad had reinforced it the summer Xander broke his wrist after we built a tire swing under it, and the supports still looked good.

The tire swing had not survived Xander’s misadventure.

Willow’s 4Runner crested the ridge from the west, and my stomach tensed in anticipation. A month. I’d been home a month, and I’d gone from vowing to never see her, to never touching her, to…I didn’t even know. She was Willow, and even though I knew this was a shit idea, I couldn’t stop myself. I never could when it came to her.

She was the exception to everything.

“Hey!” She grinned as she shut the door to her car, toting her own bag over her shoulder.

“Nice wheel.” I pointed to her front left.

“You like that?” She posed like a car model. “It’s brand-new from the manufacturer and looks exactly like the other three already installed. But wait, there’s more! It comes with four new tires, since its friend on the back right was also flattened while avoiding a deer. All for the price of I-think-I-just-put-Keith-Mayberry’s-kid-through-college!” She ended with a flashy grin, and I laughed.

I never knew how she did it, but she could flip my moods with a twist of her lips. Lips I knew the taste and texture of. Lips that had fueled way too many dreams lately. All because I had the self-control of a teenager when she came near.

Or maybe it was because I’d wanted her since I was a teenager.

“Let’s get in. It’s freezing out here.”

She nodded, and we climbed down the stone-ringed embankment until we reached the heavy, flat stones that bordered the north and west ends of the pool. We dropped our bags, and I busied myself with getting my towels out and stripping down, mostly to keep from watching Willow strip down.

I laid out one towel to step on and folded the other for when I got out, then started dropping clothing until I was in nothing but the black swim trunks I’d worn under my pants. “See you in there!” I called out and jumped, careful not to cannonball, because I wasn’t fifteen anymore.

The water engulfed me in heat, and I lingered but didn’t hit the bottom before I swam back up. I broke the surface, and the drops of water on my face immediately chilled.

“How is it?” Willow asked from the edge.

I turned around and nearly swallowed my tongue.