“Hey, Ethan, are you out here?” a male voice called.

They sprang apart.

Hannah didn’t know how to act or what to say to him. That kiss wasn’t supposed to happen. And yet she didn’t regret it.

“Ethan?” The familiar voice grew closer. And then Greg was standing in front of them. “There you are. Didn’t you hear me?”

“Uh…sorry,” Ethan said. “What did you need?”

Greg’s gaze moved between her and Ethan. “Did I interrupt something?” His eyes widened. “I did, didn’t I—”

“No.” Ethan shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “It was nothing. What did you need?”

“You’re positive?” Greg once more looked at both of them.

“Let’s go inside.” Not waiting for anyone to respond, Hannah started for the door.

It was nothing. The words pricked at her heart. Is that what he thought of their kiss? While she had been swept away, had he been unaffected?

Chapter Nineteen

What did she do now?

Pretend the kiss never happened?

The next morning, Hannah was a nervous ball of energy. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning, she’d convinced herself that it didn’t matter what he said about their kiss. The truth was that it’d been a mistake.

She’d been worked up over her scene with Agnes and not thinking straight, otherwise the kiss wouldn’t have happened. Because if she’d been thinking logically, she’d have realized that he was all wrong for her. He was a firefighter. He took risks—risks she couldn’t live with—risks that had killed her father.

But how did they rewind that moment and pretend it never happened? How did she forget the way it made her heart pitter-patter? How did she forget the sensation of floating above the earth?

She hadn’t gotten a thing done that morning, except pace and move decorations around her apartment, only to put them back the way she’d had them originally. Needing to calm down before she spoke to Ethan, she opted to do the one thing that always made her feel better—bake.

After a quick trip to the market for blueberries and cream cheese, she baked a batch of muffins. It wasn’t her best work but that hadn’t been the purpose of the exercise.

By the time she made it down to the bakery, it was nearing lunchtime, and Ethan was hard at work. He was in the kitchen removing the old floor tiles that had been ruined during the flood.

“Hi.” She paused in the doorway. “We need to talk.”

He straightened. “Uh-oh. Those four words never precede anything good.”

Her stomach shivered with nerves. How could he not know what she wanted to discuss? Was their kiss so easily dismissed?

She glanced down at the floor. “It’s about last night.” When she lifted her gaze, she noticed how his stance had grown rigid.

“I’m sorry about that.”

Was he apologizing for kissing her? Heat rushed to her cheeks at the memory of his lips pressed to hers. She dismissed the thought. Or was he apologizing for acknowledging that it had meant nothing to him?