Page 82 of Serenity Harbor

“I appreciate the advice, but I’m not looking for any guy, charming smile or not.”

“Don’t say that too loudly. Your priorities might shift a year from now, after things are settled with Gabi. You might change your mind about what you want.”

“Maybe,” she said in what she hoped was a noncommittal voice.

At that moment, Sam’s tinkling laugh rippled out over the grass, and she couldn’t prevent her gaze from finding her friend once again—and the man Sam apparently found so amusing.

When she shifted back to Wynona, she found her sister studying her with an intent, probing look that made her feel exposed and vulnerable, like a suspect in an interrogation room.

“Or maybe you’ve already figured out what you want,” Wyn said.

She didn’t dare look at her sister. Wyn knew her better than anyone. She must have seen the truth Katrina didn’t even want to admit to herself.

She was in love with Bowie.

Despite her best efforts to keep him at arm’s length, somehow he had pushed his way into her heart.

She was saved from having to respond by Milo, who wandered over to her and made the ASL sign for thirsty.

“You want a drink? Mine is almost empty. Let’s go get something for both of us, buddy.”

She took his hand and walked with him to the refreshment table, away from her sister’s sudden scrutiny and the difficult truth she didn’t want to face.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“YOUMUSTBEsuper good with computers,” Samantha Fremont said, toying with the straw in her drink.

“Fairly good,” Bowie said modestly.

“I sure wish I could figure out the accounting software we’re using at the store. Maybe you could come in sometime and show me what I’m doing wrong.”

He gave a noncommittal answer—what did he know about small business accounting software?—and turned the subject by asking her about some of the other businesses in town.

Bowie liked Samantha. She was sweet and funny and so earnest as she asked him about his job, how long he’d worked for Caine Tech, what he did there, how he liked it.

During the ten minutes of their conversation, he had managed to shove his tongue firmly in his cheek and answered that he liked it fine and had been there a long time.

He didn’t quite have the heart to tell her he was one of the cofounders of the company and had been with Aidan and Ben from the beginning—and was responsible for bringing to market some of the company’s most innovative products.

A mere few weeks ago, he might have been interested enough in her to ask her out—eventually, maybe, once his life settled down a bit and he could breathe again.

That was before he’d been kicked in the chest by a certain teacher with blue eyes and wheat-colored hair and a mouth that tasted like strawberries and cream and heaven.

He searched for Katrina, almost without realizing it, and found her at the swingset, alternating between pushing Milo and doing the same for Andie Montgomery’s kid Will.

As he watched Will pump his legs in and out and Milo try to figure out the movement, among much laughter and explaining from Katrina and Will, Bo felt that same jolt in his chest again, a breathless, restless, staggering ache he had never felt before.

He was in love with her.

The truth just about knocked him over, as if Milo had just kickedhim.

He didn’t know how he knew, since it was an emotion he was completely unfamiliar with, but somehow the truth of it settled over him like the twilight stretching across the lake.

He loved Katrina Bailey. Her strength, her dedication, her compassion. The sweet way she cared for his brother. Her determination to rescue a girl she had come to care about.

Now what the hell was he supposed to do?

“Are you okay?” Samantha asked. “You’re looking a little pale and you were suddenly miles away.”

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