“Northeastern Michigan was nearly stripped of timber by the lumber industry during the 1800s,” he said. “What you’re seeing now is second- and third-growth forest. Some of it is pretty wild. Towns in this area are small and scattered.”

“How much farther?”

“Only a little over an hour, but the place is run-down, so I don’t want to get there after dark. There’s supposed to be a motel not far from here, but don’t expect the Ritz.”

Since she couldn’t imagine him worrying about the dark, she suspected he was stalling, and she curled deeper into the seat. The headlights of an occasional oncoming car flickered across his features, casting dangerous shadows beneath those male underwear model cheekbones. She felt a shiver of foreboding, so she closed her eyes and pretended she was alone.

She didn’t open them again until he pulled up in front of an eight-unit roadside motel made of white aluminum siding and fake brick. As he got out of the car to register, she thought about making sure he understood that she wanted a separate unit, but common sense intervened.

Sure enough, he returned from the office with two keys. His unit, she noticed, was at the opposite end from hers.

Early the next morning she awakened to door pounding and poodle barking. “Slytherins,” she grumbled. “This is getting to be a bad habit.”

“We’re leaving in half an hour,” Kevin called from the other side. “Get the lead out.”

“Hut, hut,” she muttered into her pillow.

She dragged herself into the cramped shower and even managed to run a comb through her hair. Lipstick, however, was beyond her. She felt as if she had a colossal hangover.

When she finally emerged, he was pacing near the car. The lemony patch of sunlight that splashed over him revealed a grim mouth and unfriendly expression. As Roo took advantage of the shrubbery, Kevin grabbed her suitcase and tossed it into the back of the car.

Today he’d decorated his muscles with an aqua Stars T-shirt and light gray shorts. They were ordinary clothes, but he wore them with the confidence of those who were born beautiful.

She fumbled in her purse for her sunglasses, then glared at him resentfully. “Don’t you ever turn it off?”

“Turn what off?”

“Your basic ugliness,” she muttered.

“Maybe I should just drop you off at a funny farm instead of taking you to Wind Lake.”

“Whatever. Is coffee too much to hope for?” She shoved on her glasses, but they didn’t do a whole lot to shut out the blinding glare of his irritating beauty.

“It’s in the car, but it took you so long to get ready that it’s probably cold by now.”

It was piping hot, and as they pulled back out onto the road, she took a long, slow sip.