Page 34 of Just Can't Fall for the Enemy

“I think we should get going,” I told her, every inch of my body wanting exactly the opposite. “You have church in the morning, and I . . .” I had hundreds of clips to edit, most of which held secret glimpses of Sophie. But they would be nothing like this moment, here and now. “As much as I would like otherwise, we should take this slow. Do things right.”

She pulled back and looked at me.Reallylooked. “You mean that, don’t you?”

“I’m trying to.” My voice still sounded like a sick frog, so I cleared it again.

She smiled and stood, letting her fingers trail along my arms as she did. “You’re not who I thought you’d be, Tanner Carmichael. This version of you is irresistible.” She waited until the last second to break contact, and then there was just the cold air between us, the distance feeling like a hundred miles.

“Is it too late to change my mind?”I croaked.

She laughed—a glorious, happy sound I could have listened to forever. She took my hands and hoisted me onto my feet. “Come on. We still have two more days.”

The sobering reminder felt like tying an anvil to a cloud. Even as she said it, her smile faded a bit.

I swept the hair out of her face once more, grinning to see that it had gotten far messier in the past hour, or however long we’d been here. I cupped her face in my hands, lightly brushing her cheek with my thumb. She gave a cute little sigh, and her eyes fluttered slightly.

“If I promise not to leave town until I absolutely must,” I said softly, “will you answer the question I’ve been dying to know?”

“Now you’re dying?” She leaned in for a quick peck. “I had no idea you were so dramatic.”

“It’s a YouTuber thing. My question is this.” I paused. “If you could go anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, where would you go?”

She blinked. “That isn’t about Huckleberry Creek.”

“Indeed it is. It’s about Huckleberry Creek’s most important part.”

Her smile grew soft. “Four Seasons Park.”

Now it was my turn to be surprised. “Where your parents were married?”

She looked at me strangely. “How did you know that?”

Uh-oh. I’d promised not to tell Sophie about the video. “Carmen . . . told me.”

She chuckled wryly and slid into my embrace. “Of course she did. Well, ever since my parents passed, I’ve felt like something was missing. I just want to know if I’ll find it there by finishing what they began.” She looked up at me and cocked her head, but she couldn’t hide the shine of unshed tears in her eyes. “That probably doesn’t make sense.”

“It makes perfect sense. You have a beautiful soul, you know that?”

She snorted and wiped her eyes, looking around as if awakening from a dream. “Now don’t go accusing me of things like that. Are you ready to leave?”

Her question suddenly held double meaning. My schedule was a tight one. In three days, I was due to arrive in Columbus, Ohio, then a city in Michigan after that. I didn’t have a single day to spare. Yet I found that for the first time in years, I had absolutely no desire to leave. I wanted to stay—not for an extra day or even a week but forever.

It terrified me.

“No,” I said. “But we can go anyway.”

Fifteen

Kissing Tanner Carmichaelfelt like leaping off the rocks at the falls—my stomach dropping beneath me as I sailed through the air, knowing the ground would find me any second but enjoying the descent anyway.

Despite kissing the man I’d sworn to drive off, the world still turned. Carmen still went to work the next morning and left her usual blender mess in the kitchen. I went to church alone and listened while the organ played before the service, trying to sort through way too many thoughts. I even touched my lips once, remembering what his mouth felt like against mine, wondering if it was all real or some kind of cruel dream.

So when my phone buzzed with a new text, I opened it in record time.

I had fun last night,Tanner had texted.Thanks for helping me experience the best part of Huckleberry Creek.

I grinned. My overlook was the most scenic spot in a hundred miles, but I had a feeling he wasn’t talking about that. What did a YouTube star with a trail of smitten fans see in a forest ranger from Montana?

I grinned and typed a response.I had fun, too, even though you tried to poison me with weeds first.

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