“Don’t touch anything!” Jacob says loudly. “Grady is going to be there in five minutes.” I close my eyes and sit on the step in front of my house. “Did you call Beau?”

“No,” I say softly. “He’s on a date, and I don’t want to disturb him,” I say, ignoring the burning in my stomach and wondering if I can wake up and have a redo of this day. Actually, if I can have a redo of the past week, that would work also. I mean, not the whole week because I don’t want to take back the kiss. The kiss that I’ve been waiting for all my life, the kiss to end all first kisses. To say that I was in shock is an understatement … and then when he told me he’s wanted to do that for a long time? My heart went pitter-patter while my stomach did the wave as I tried to think of how to respond. I should have just come right out and told him that I have also wanted to kiss him for a long time, but instead, I stood in the middle of the dance floor just touching my lips. “It’s fine. Grady is going to be here, and we’ll handle things.”

“I’m so sorry I’m not there,” he says softly. “If you want, we can come back. I know Ethan would understand.”

“No,” I snap. “This is going to be good for Ethan to enjoy the mountains. He doesn’t need to be here for this shit.”

“Okay, but if you change your mind …” he says.

“Thank you, Jacob.” My voice is still low, and I’m trying not to sound or feel defeated, but at some point, you just have to say fuck this shit and move on. It’s becoming very clear to me that this is the line. Forget that my bar was trashed but now someone has broken the front windows of my house. I just got off the phone with the insurance agent, and he basically told me that I’m not covered with my bar since the alarm was tampered with, and I could have done it. “Not just for this but for—”

“No need to thank me. I’ll call you when I get the report from Grady,” he says and hangs up. I sit here on the step, looking out at the other houses around. I’ve been here for seven years, and none of my neighbors have ever smiled or waved at me. Let’s not forget how they go out of their way to come out and wave at Ethan when he gets here. But me? Nada.