Page 58 of Serenity Harbor

“She is, indeed.” Katrina was horrible at sewing. Maybeshecould take sewing lessons together with Gabi once they moved back to town for good.

“Hey, are you coming back to school this year?” Jazmyn asked. “Ty really, really,reallywants you to be his teacher whenhe’sin second grade.”

Her brother nodded his head with all the energy and enthusiasm of a bobblehead stuck to the dashboard of a pickup going down a bumpy mountain road. She had to smile. “Not this year, but maybe the one after that.”

He pouted with gratifying disappointment. “By then it will be too late! I’ll be in third grade. I won’tneeda second-grade teacher.”

She smiled. “Sorry, kiddo. I’m sure you’ll have a great teacher and a great year anyway.”

He didn’t look convinced, but Devin distracted her stepson by asking if he wanted to dance with her.

Katrina was chatting with McKenzie and Cole, shifting her weight in the beautiful but uncomfortable shoes and wishing she still had on her flip-flops, when Charlene hurried over with a hot guy in a well-tailored gray suit.

“Katrina, darling, you remember Jamie Caine, Aidan’s brother.”

How could any woman who had ever met Jamie Caine possibly forget him? “Of course. Hey, Jamie.”

Aidan’s brother, a former military pilot who now owned his own corporate charter business, gave his charmer of a grin and leaned in to kiss her cheek.

“You look stunning, as always,” he said, which made Charlene beam.

“I was just telling Jamie what a great dancer you are,” her mother said. “Two seconds later we saw you standing here alone. The opportunity was just too good to pass up.”

“No doubt,” she said drily, which made Jamie grin.

“May I have the pleasure?”

She wanted to tell him her feet hurt too much, but her mother was looking so pleased with herself that Katrina didn’t have the heart to disappoint her.

“Sure,” she answered and let him lead her out to the dance floor.

The band chose that moment to shift to a slow song, naturally. The year before, she would have considered this the luckiest night of her life, the chance to be this close to one of Haven Point’s sexiest and most eligible bachelors. Now she just wanted to kick off her shoes somewhere and eat a little more bacon-wrapped shrimp.

“How is my favorite elementary teacher?” Jamie asked. “Eliza tells me you’ve been teaching English in Colombia. That must be incredibly rewarding.”

One thing about Jamie, he knew how to make every woman he talked to feel like the most important one in the room.

“It is,” she answered. She launched into a story about a couple of her students, happy she could make him laugh in all the right places.

Why couldn’t she feel all the feels for somebody like Jamie? He was sexy and funny and gratifyingly attentive—but even as she flirted right back, she thought he could tell that her heart wasn’t in it.

The song was drawing to a close when she suddenly heard a loud “Kat. Kat.Kat.”

She turned just in time to see Milo barreling toward her. He didn’t slow his momentum, crashing into her at full speed and throwing his arms around her waist, which pushed her back into Jamie’s muscled chest. His arms tightened around her to steady her until she could regain her balance. “You made it! Hi, Milo.”

The boy hugged her tightly, resting his cheek against her, and Katrina’s chest was suddenly tight and achy with emotion. So much for keeping a professional distance.

Warning bells clanged in her head, but she could barely hear them over the pounding of her heart, especially when she spotted Bowie making his way through the crowd in search of his younger brother.

She had just been dancing with the biggest charmer in Haven Point and hadn’t been fazed at all. So why did her heartbeat suddenly skip and her breath catch in her chest at the sight of Bowie moving toward them in a coal-colored suit that showed off his slim hips and the breadth of his shoulders?

She couldn’t seem to take her gaze off him and was vaguely aware she felt a little light-headed, then realized that was probably because she was holding her breath.

Right. She wasn’t keeping much of a professional distance from him either.

“Ah. I see how it is,” Jamie murmured in her ear.

She turned to give him a slit-eyed look. “Whatever you think you see, you’re imagining things,” she snapped.

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