“Speaking of which,” he said with a pointed look, “leave the key behind. I don’t want to worry I’m going to get maced in the night.”

She couldn’t help but smile at that. “Well, you don’t have to worry about that now. You’re not a stranger.”

He made a dismissive sound. “Aren’t I?”

Her smile fell. “What?”

“Let’s not pretend.” He crossed his arms, a grim look on his face. “That’s exactly what we are to each other now.”

“Ash.”

“Goodbye, Kincaid.”

She stared at him for a long moment but knew there was no point in arguing about it. What was done was done. She turned with a swish of her hair, tossing the key on the table as she passed it, and walked out the door.

He was right. He was a stranger.

And she needed to keep it that way.

Four

Kincaid headed down the back stairwell of the bookstore building, the boards creaking beneath her as she tried to shake off her run-in with Ash. She’d already had a bad start to the morning, and a half-naked ghost from her past had only made it worse. Why did he have to be here, his very presence reminding her of the worst time in her life? And he was planning to stay for a while, based on those boxes. Her stomach turned.

Things were so much easier when Ash was traveling the world or living far away in New York. Then, she only had to hear about him through Grace and Charlie or see him on the back of his books and at the annual Christmas dinner. That made the pain easier to ignore. She could forget for a while that she was someone a person could walk away from without looking back, that she wasn’t worth staying and fighting for.

She and Ash had been among the few who’d survived the Long Acre shooting, but she’d lost him anyhow. Her best friend since grade school. Her person. Still alive but gone in all the important ways. Seeing him, especially the glimpses of the boy he used to be, made grief cut through her like a jagged knife. In one swift tragedy, she’d been left without the two people who were most important to her, Graham and Ash. Two boys she’d loved more than anything, in different ways and for different reasons.

Old memories tried to surface, but she forced them to the back of her mind. Maybe she should skip the stop at the coffee shop she’d planned and head straight to the wine store instead. Her phone buzzed in her purse. She perked up. Maybe that was the universe sending an I’m sorry for her shitty morning.

She lifted the phone, saw the number, and took a deep breath. Please, please, PLEASE say yes. “Hi, Alexis,” she said brightly. “Tell me the good news.”

Kincaid braced herself. This couldn’t go worse than the last one at least. Alexis, her former boss from her first real estate job, wasn’t going to take the tactic of the last business associate she’d contacted about the B and B. Billy Weathers, who owned a grocery store in town and who liked to invest in other local businesses, had said he’d consider investing if Kincaid joined him on his upcoming vacation to Vail so they could discuss it—in their shared suite. It’d taken everything she had not to pick up the computer monitor in his office and throw it at his big, ugly head. Her mother had moved out of town a decade ago, but still, the specter of her reputation haunted Kincaid.