Page 55 of Can't Fight the Moonlight

"But I have to ask again, what about surprises? If you control everything, then there's no room for an unexpected beautiful moment."

"Most surprises aren't that good."

"But they can be. I love surprise parties, gifts, random acts of kindness, like the one you did yesterday when you gave up your room to Patty. That really surprised me, in a good way."

He acknowledged her point with a tip of his head. "Okay, once in a while there's a good surprise. But then there are also broken heaters, high interest rates, employees who slack off or quit, earthquakes, tornadoes. In my mind, the bad surprises usually outweigh the good."

"Well, I prefer to be optimistic."

"Big surprise," he said with a laugh. "Were you a cheerleader in high school?"

"I was the mascot, which happened to be a lion. I spent a lot of my time sweating in that lion costume. But I'd make the other kids laugh, and that was fun."

"So, you were still cheering, just not in a short little skirt. Too bad for the boys."

She grinned. "I wore short little skirts plenty of other times."

"Did you have a high school boyfriend?"

"I had one every year. Dave, when I was a freshman—he lived on my block so we kind of grew up together. Once we got to high school, we started dating, but mostly because it was comfortable. Sophomore year, I was all about Brian. He was a soccer player and was super cute, but he never liked me as much as I liked him. We went to a dance together; that was about it. Junior year was lots of different guys but no one serious, and then senior year, it was Rick. We dated for almost the whole year. But he went out of state to college, and that was the end of that. What about you? Were you popular in high school?"

"Not even a little bit."

"I find that difficult to believe. Unless you turned into all this years later."

He grinned. "All this?"

"You know what you look like. Let's just say you're not ugly."

"Wow, high praise."

"So why no girlfriends in high school?"

He shrugged. "Who knows? I guess I wasn't a good date."

"This is why I think you have secrets. You get very vague when I ask about your past."

"And you get really chatty."

"I did tell you too much, didn't I?" She made a little face, then shrugged. "It's what I do. Unlike you, when people ask questions, I answer."

"Speaking of questions, I have another one for you."

"What's that?"

"Are you considering selling the inn?"

"I've been trying not to think about that. The inn is my dream."

"But?"

"There's no but."

"Isn't there? Isn't that why you got upset, Lizzie?"

She looked into his perceptive gaze and reluctantly nodded. "You're right. There's a part of me that wonders if I shouldn't look at the offer. The heating repair was quite high, and I was already in a bad spot. There have been a lot of unexpected expenses this year. I don't want to sell, but I also don't want to fail and have everyone who believed in me and trusted me with their money to lose, to be disappointed."

"Why not look at her offer?"

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