Page 37 of Serenity Harbor

Not even a man who smelled like sin and kissed like salvation.

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“YOU’REMOVINGINwith the man? Seriously?”

Katrina had to hold the phone away from her ear a moment at Samantha’s shriek.

“It’s not like that,” Katrina answered, though she had a feeling Sam didn’t hear her. Her friend’s words confirmed the suspicion.

“How do you do it?” Sam asked, clear admiration in her voice, though Kat thought she detected something else there, too.

“Do what?”

“You’ve been in town less than a week, yet you’ve managed to get closer to Bowie than any of the rest of us could even dream.”

Katrina closed her eyes, wincing. Crap. She had totally forgotten that Sam had a bit of a crush on the town’s newcomer. That first day in the supermarket, she had all but put a “hands off” on him.

The memory of her mistake of a kiss suddenly flashed through her mind, surrounded by big flashing uh-oh lights. She could never tell Sam about that. Her friend would definitely see it as a betrayal. Yes, it was junior high of them, but they had an unspoken pact that anytime one of them showed interest in a guy, the other one would back down. No exceptions.

Maybe she shouldn’t move in. Maybe she ought to call Bowie right this moment and tell him she had changed her mind. All night long, she had gone back and forth, wondering the right thing to do.

Double what was already an exorbitant salary, though. How could she in good conscience say no to that?

“I barely know him, Sam. I’m helping him with Milo. That’s it.”

“What does your mom think?”

She didn’t want to think about her mother’s reaction. As she had predicted to Bowie, Charlene had been over the moon. Oh, she had made a big show of saying she would miss having Katrina in the house to talk to and how she hoped she knew what she was doing, but Kat hadn’t missed the anticipatory gleam in her eyes.

“She’s fine with it, especially after I promised her that Milo and I will still be around during the day all week leading up to the wedding to help her out with whatever she needs.”

As she hoped, Samantha allowed herself to be distracted from talking about Bowie. “I can’t believe it’s almost here. That’s why I called, actually. My mom wants to know if you can come in today for your last fitting. She’s all stressed that we’re down to the wire on your particular dress. It’s been a little tough to get this one fitted, with you being out of the country for the last year.”

While Linda’s taste in clothing was about twenty years out of date, she was an excellent seamstress who had made all of Kat’s and Sam’s dresses for school dances.

“Yes. I can come in anytime, as long as you don’t mind me bringing Milo.”

“I don’t mind at all, but I can’t promise the same about my mom. You know how she can be.”

“It shouldn’t take long, though, right? I’ll bring a DVD for him to watch or something.”

“Sounds good.” When Samantha spoke again, her voice had a wistful tone that worried Katrina. “When are you moving in with Bowie?”

“Today. Right now. I’m zipping up my suitcase as we speak.”

“I can’t believe you,” Sam said again. “At least I’ll have a good excuse now to drop by, right?”

“Sure,” she said. “But he works a lot. That’s the whole reason he hired me to live in, because of his long hours. It’s not like we’re going to be hanging out together in the hot tub all day.”

It was the wrong thing to say, on several levels—mostly because Katrina suddenly had an entirely too vivid image of that particular picture in her head, of hard muscles and sun-bronzed skin and Bowie with that sleepy, sexy look in his eyes again.

“Oh man,” Sam said, sounding breathless.

“What time works best for the fitting?” she asked, hoping to distract both of them.

“How about eleven? Then maybe we can grab lunch after—if you’re not too busy hanging out in the hot tub, anyway.”

“Sounds good.”

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