Page 3 of Chocolate Cherry Cabin

“Are you...?” Hannah gestured vaguely in the direction of Louis’s new place.

“Am I your neighbor? Yeah.” He crossed his arms, watching her reaction, realizing he was echoing her body language. The familiar old standoff. Defensive mechanisms engaged.

Louis sighed. He’d stupidly thought this would be so much easier, due to the passing of time. Just walk in, smile, show her he wasn’t actually that bad of a human being, and convince her to be friends.

Then at some point she’d realize he was actually kind of handsome and nice to have around, and within a few years—or months—they’d be married.

In reality, he seemed to still be firmly inked in on her enemies list.

“Well then, welcome to the neighborhood,” she said with that Texas drawl that tickled his insides. It left him feeling warm even when she was miffed at him.

She gave what might have passed as a friendly smile among T. rexes, and turned to deal with her dangling lights.

Her dog, who had been creeping closer and closer, was finally leaning against Louis’s shin, and he bent to give him a vigorous ear rub. The animal grinned up at him, pink tongue lolling to the side, but then its ears perked up and it zipped off around the corner of the house.

Louis figured he should probably go. Hannah’s welcome was about as awesome-feeling as the moment she’d pulled his name out of Mr. Chen’s hat in biology class and locked herself in as his secret Santa. He’d known she had his name the moment she’d sagged in her seat, eyes closing.

She’d got him something good, though. Thoughtful. A pocket knife even nicer than the cheap T-shirt she’d bought for Calvin, her boyfriend. Louis had never been able to acknowledge the gift, though. She hadn’t fessed up to it, and he’d pretended he thought it was from one of his admirers.

Not wanting to head back to his house and cement in this awkward moment as the basis for their future relationship, as Hannah climbed the ladder, Louis fed her the string of lights so she could attach them to the eaves.

“How long have you been back in town?” he asked, wincing at her handiwork. The strand hung unevenly, and she hadn’t put the ladder in the right spot. She was having to reach farther out than was safe. He untangled a few knots while she worked above, doing his best to brace the wobbling ladder at the same time.

“A year,” she muttered.

“How’s Sweetheart Creek? Has it changed much? I noticed there’s an armadillo on the welcome sign now.”

“Yeah,” she said, after a moment of silence. “That’s Bill. Best to avoid him.”

Kind of like his hockey team’s PR squad, headed by Nuvella. Best to avoid her when possible.

“Other than that,” Hannah was saying, “it’s the same. Changed, but the same.”

“Kind of sums up life, right?” Louis said, squinting up at her.

He’d lived in the small town only a few years, but it had felt more like home than where he’d grown up in Colorado. He’d left hockey behind when he’d moved here as a teen, but the game had now brought him back, like the completion of a circle.

He’d been bitter moving away from the life he’d known, away from hockey, but attention from the local girls had been a salve to his teen ego. Moving to town as an athletic sixteen-year-old had been like walking into a tiger’s den, as fresh meat.

Louis had thought he would play the field, but then he’d met Hannah. Smart, quiet, kind. With big dreams for medical school. The longer she’d dated Calvin, the more that dream had seemed to fade, until all she talked about was marriage.

Louis hated that he’d called her complaisant. That he’d made it crystal clear to her that he believed she did things to please others and not herself. He’d hated it even more that she’d known the difference between complacent and complaisant, and that she’d known exactly what he’d been calling her in that moment. The word had hit her like an insult, taking her down a peg.

It still made him itch with discomfort.

But Calvin? Come on. She could have done so much better.

* * *

One thing that hadn’t changed about Louis was his looks. He was still handsome. More mature and manly, of course, but still good-looking enough to set her heart aflutter. She’d felt it the first time she’d met him, despite having just started dating Calvin. Because, really? Whose wouldn’t flutter? Louis was tall, hunky and smart. He had some Blackfoot or Ojibwe roots that had gifted him with glorious black hair and a strong nose that most men would be proud to have grace their silhouette.

The girls in her class had gone nuts over him. He’d been new and different, with adventures from the outside world. Louis would mysteriously vanish at lunchtime, never saying where he’d gone, just giving this slightly haunted half smile when anyone asked. He was instantly cool.

Initially, Hannah had thought he was a nice guy, but the moment he’d seen Calvin slide his arm possessively around her shoulders, he’d turned opinionated. He hadn’t seen that she was secure about her life and dreams, but had accused her of doing everything to please others.

What would a guy like him know, anyway? He thrived on chaos and on frustrating people, which was so completelynotwhat she was about. Anger burned through Hannah, igniting old memories and wounds.

With Louis feeding her the lights it had taken mere moments to attach the next length to the eaves. Having reached out as far as she could, she had to scamper down to shift the ladder.

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