The problem was, for the past few months he’d been thinking about it again. What would it be like to kiss Zoey Hartford, now that she was no longer a girl? And no longer married? Over the past few months, every time she’d bent over to pick something up in the shop, he’d paid more attention to the inviting curves of her backside than to whatever she was saying. It was a new sensation, and he had no idea what to do about it. One thing he did know is that he couldn’t tell his sister. Or Zoey. Their friendship was still too important to him. This attraction he was feeling was probably some odd phase—nothing more.

He turned in the seat to face Mary, knowing she’d use that weird twin connection to figure out if he was being honest or not. “Zoey got me through the worst year of my life by not tiptoeing around me like everyone else did after Becca died. She made me laugh when no one else was even trying.” He thought of the late-night texts she’d sent, often linking to obscure news stories about Bigfoot sightings, or a video of giant fish jumping out of a river and hitting some guy sitting in his boat. Random nonsense to take his mind off the sudden emptiness of his life. “Now she’s having a tough year, and I’m returning the favor.”

Mary wrinkled her nose, keeping her eyes on the road. “Great—now I feel guilty for not doing more for her myself since that asshat Chris made her sell the house. How is our unofficial triplet?”

That’s what their parents used to call Zoey when she was at their house as a child, which was often. When she was around, Mom said her kids went from twins to triplets.

“She’s having a rough day today. Hazel punched a boy at school.”

“Yikes.” Mary pulled to the curb in front of Mike’s house. “Did the boy deserve it?” He nodded and she chuckled. “Good for Hazel. I’ll have to give Zoey a call. You sure you don’t want to borrow our car instead of taking that hot rod of yours out before summer?”

“Nah.” He opened the passenger door. “Summer’s almost here, and it’s supposed to be dry for a few days.” He kept his dark green 1971 Mustang Mach 1 stored safely in his garage during the winter. Even in the summer, it only came out on sunny days.

Mike headed over to Zoey’s after dinner. Her dad’s old place was up on the hill above Rendezvous Falls. Rob Hartford had been an interesting guy. Blunt, but kind. Talented, but scattered in so many directions he’d never really capitalized on that talent. His tendency to get distracted left his property in a bit of a shambles.