“It wouldn’t be like that.”

“My answer’s no.” The idea of her loving Chase while messing around with him made him crazy. “I need to head out. Are you going to open that?” He indicated the envelope.

“I’d like to talk about us more.”

“No.” He’d dissected this as much as he could stand.

She gave him several long seconds to change his mind. He didn’t.

Her body language resigned, she ripped open the envelope and slid out the card. She read it, then slanted it toward him.

He stepped forward.

Ed had written down a number. Nothing else.

306.8752

“What does that mean?” Luke asked.

“I have no idea.”

While he looked at the number, his memory kept pulling him back to their kiss. “So the treasure hunt’s done for the day.”

“I’m afraid so. It’s done until we figure this out.”

He was already walking toward his truck. “If you think of something, text or call me. Don’t search for the next clue without me.”

“Luke?”

He paused.

“I like having you as my treasure hunt partner. You can trust me never to take off in search of the next clue without you.”

He turned his back on her and continued through the house. For the most part, he did trust her not to search for clues without him. However, he couldn’t trust her with more. He couldn’t trust her with himself.

Forty minutes later, Finley’s friends convened at Bridget’s house for an emergency meeting. Topic: Finley and Luke’s kiss.

Actually, Luke was the one who’d called it a kiss. It hadn’t been one kiss. It had been plural. Many kisses, which had added up to one explosive experience. It was astonishing and scary to realize that she was still capable of responding to kisses so powerfully.

The three of them sat on the plush living room rug, Bridget’s coffee table between them.

Finley finished explaining what had transpired. “Today’s kisses were worthy of banners and marching bands and twenty-one-gun salutes.”

“Let’s just hope,” Meadow muttered, “Luke doesn’t make you want to take one of those twenty-one guns and shoot him with it in a few months.”

“Don’t mind her.” Bridget rested her chin on her hand, smiling dreamily. “I’m swooning.”

“Just because you shared some fabulous kisses doesn’t mean you should revoke your decision to stay single,” Meadow pointed out.

“True,” Finley agreed. “It’s not so much the fabulousness of the kisses that’s making me doubt my choice. It’s more that the conviction that I once had about my singleness is draining away. I no longer have the sense of certainty and rightness I once had about it.”

“You know,” Bridget said, “it’s understandable that you were led to draw back from dating after Chase’s death. What happened to him was just so sudden and so . . . completely devastating.”