Page 5 of Blue Moon Love

She’d been my lifeline then, and she still was, which was why I’d never act on my feelings for her. I would never subject any woman to being with a Whitlock man, especially not Kenna.

After I paid, Tami Lynn handed me my bag and glanced out the window to the parking lot. “Is that Kane out there?”

“Sure is.”

My partner, Kane Kingston, was in the police SUV outside. I’d just run in to grab our dinner since we were on overtime and pulling a double shift.

“You tell Kane to tell Ruby to give her mama our love. We miss her ’round here.”

Kane had recently married Ruby Rhodes, whose mama Celeste had worked at the diner for years before being diagnosed with some health issues that caused her to have to retire.

“Will do, beautiful.” I grinned at Tami Lynn before heading out of the diner.

When I climbed inside, I handed Kane his bag filled with a burger and fries, and we pulled out of the parking lot. We were en route to Old Man Pratt’s field. He reported that ‘hooligans’ had knocked down his fence again. We went out there a couple of times a week. Sometimes he thought there was an intruder; other times, he was sure that his farm equipment had been tampered with, and more often than not, it was that there were kids trespassing on his field.

The truth was, he was lonely, although, he’d never admit that.

“Tami Lynn said to tell Ruby to give Celeste her love.”

“Will do.” Kane smiled as he put a handful of fries in his mouth. We’d been partners for years, and I’d known him growing up. He’d always been a good guy, funny, and smart, but over the past few months, he seemed happy. Really happy.

“Married life looks good on you,” I observed.

Kane’s smile widened. “I highly recommend it.”

Of course, he did. Kane was a newlywed. He’d married Ruby about a month ago. And he wasn’t the only one in town who was in the ball-and-chain club. Everywhere I looked, there were examples of happily married couples in Wishing Well. Over the past five years or so, it seemed everyone was settling down. As much as I wished that could be me, I knew it wasn’t in the cards. Not with my DNA. Fuck that.

I’d been born with a wandering eye. My dad was a womanizer, as was his dad before him and his dad before him. I came from a long line of heartbreakers.

Whitlock genes were strong. Like my dad, grandad, and great-grandad, I was tall, had brown hair, brown eyes, deep dimples, and an athletic frame I didn’t have to spend hours in the gym to achieve. I could charm the pants off of anyone. Literally. But unlike my paternal predecessors, I refused to use my powers of persuasion for evil.

“You just have to find the right lady,” Kane finished his thought.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to see the ‘right lady’ had texted me back. It was a photo of her flipping me the bird.

“One of your admirers?” Kane asked as we drove down the road.

I turned the phone to show him the photo. “The opposite.”

He saw the photo and laughed. “I like her.”

Yeah, so did I. I fucking loved her.

3

KENNA

“Always give a hundred percent…unless yer donatin’ blood.” ~ Archie “Witty” Whitlock

Another date. Another dud. And I’d had to drive all the way to Dallas for this dud. With traffic, it was a four-hour round trip.

I wanted to give up. Throw in the towel. Abort my mission. But if I did that, another birthday would come and go, and I would still be holding my V-card.

Never in my life would I have expected to relate to the cinematic greatness of Steve Carell in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, but I was beginning to think that was going to be my destiny.

When I got to the restaurant, I was lulled into a false sense that everything was going to be okay. For two hours, there was one green flag after another green flag flying. Andrew looked exactly like his photos. Green flag. He pulled out my chair for me. Green flag. He was friendly to the wait staff. Green flag. He asked questions and actually listened to my responses. Green flag. He was funny. Green flag. Smart. Green flag. Appropriately flirty. Green flag.

It wasn’t until the check came that he pulled the oh-shit-I-must-have-left-my-wallet-in-my-other-jacket move that I saw my first red flag. But things had been going so well that I gave him the benefit of the doubt and pulled out my card. In addition to procrastination, I also misplaced things on a regular basis. My mom liked to say that I’d forget my head if it weren’t attached to my body.

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