“So you do actually stick people with these needles?” Conrad asked Hannah, pulling his sleeve down and rubbing his elbow where Hannah had just done a basic massage with some of the oil she’d brought from Seattle.

“Yep.” She held up one of the acupuncture needles. “They’re small. You don’t feel them like you do the needles used for cortisone or flu shots,” she said with a smile, thinking back to the conversation at Dottie’s.

“Can I touch it?” Conrad asked.

She handed it over and watched as the man tested the tip of the needle against his thumb.

She’d shown Albert a stretch for his knee at the grocery store yesterday and Frank some range of motion exercises for his neck when he’d stopped her in the bakery. Both men had asked more about the acupuncture so she’d decided to bring some of the needles into the Come Again tonight, knowing at least a couple of the guys would show up. They’d hinted—okay, they’d flat-out told her—that this would be a great place to tell everyone more about what she did because Dr. Ames didn’t come in after hours.

Apparently this after hours’ thing, where Derek served coffee and soda to the crowd that hung out after his usual closing time, was catching on. It had started with Peyton Wells coming in to study while Derek, Mitch and Andi—lifelong friends and now partners in the best contracting company in the area—worked on expanding the bar for the Come Again’s upcoming brick oven pizza business. Now there were a handful of people who showed up with laptops and plugged in after hours, working away in the only public spot in Sapphire Falls open past midnight.

But meeting here made it easy to avoid Dr. Ames. Reportedly, Kyle went to bed around ten p.m. every night in case someone needed him in the middle of the night. And it didn’t surprise her a bit that everyone in town knew Kyle’s habits and routines. For one, his patterns would be easy to keep track of. For another, he probably flat-out told everyone who depended on him—which was everyone—where and when to find him.

Though, as she talked to the men about their aches and pains, Hannah was becoming convinced these underground consultations with her were not because Kyle wouldn’t like the idea of her treating his patients with acupuncture and teaching them self-help techniques. The men just liked the challenge of trying to keep a secret from him. Much like the fried green tomatoes. There was no way these men actually thought Kyle wouldn’t find out about these clandestine meetings in Kyle’s best friend’s bar.

So she was going along with it. Because the men were clearly entertained and because she did believe she was helping them.

“Here, let me show you.” She took the needle back from Conrad and watched as Frank leaned in closer from the table next to them. “Kade, let me have your arm.”

Kade kept typing, completely oblivious to her conversation with Conrad.

She nudged his foot under the table, and he blinked up at her. “Can I use your arm to show Conrad how the needles go in?”

Kade looked at the other man as if just realizing he was there. “Um.”

“I do acupuncture on Kade’s arms to help prevent carpal tunnel from all the typing,” she said, giving her friend a frown. He couldn’t act tentative or the other men would also hesitate. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I showed you on one of the points we often treat.”

Conrad narrowed his eyes at Kade. “Does it help?”

“It does,” Kade told him.

“Does it hurt?”

Kade gave Hannah a look. “My work flow, yes.” He’d told her he was at a sticky point in the book and really wanted to get through the chapter tonight.

Conrad frowned. “Just stick out your arm, boy.”

He did. With another heavy sigh. Hannah gave him a sweet smile that she knew did nothing to soothe his irritation. She palpated along his forearm to find the spot she knew helped him most and carefully inserted the needle.

Conrad pulled back slightly, his eyes wide. “Are you okay?” he asked Kade.

“Mostly.”

“What’s not okay?” Frank asked, leaning in, clearly fascinated.

“I’m annoyed,” Kade said. “Acupuncture doesn’t help with that.”

“That’s not true,” Conrad said. “I read something yesterday that said that acupuncture can help with mood and mental health.”

Hannah looked up at the older man with what she was sure was clear shock. “You read about it?”

“Sure did,” Conrad told her. “Google you know.”

She nodded. “That’s…great.” She was surprised, but delighted that he’d been interested enough to look it up.

“Well, be careful about what you’re reading,” Kade said. “You want to be sure it’s from a trustworthy site. There’s a lot of crap out there. If you have questions you need to talk to Hannah. Don’t avoid it because of something you read. Just let her explain whatever you’re worried about.”

Hannah turned her shocked expression toward Kade this time. She knew that he believed in what she did, but she wasn’t sure she’d ever heard him defend it before. Of course in Seattle they rarely ran into anyone with whom her practice needed to be defended.

“Oh, I’m not worried,” Conrad said. “I trust Hannah. We were just talking at the diner about whether or not acupuncture could help with,” he glanced at Frank, then Hannah, then said, “certain issues. We were looking it up and I got interested in some of the reading.”

“Which issues?” Kade asked.

“Just some more personal things,” Frank said. “Other than pain and stiffness.”

Conrad snorted. “Well, kind of stiffness.”

Hannah lifted a brow. “Erections?” she asked directly. “You all were talking about acupuncture and sex?” Of course they had been. After that first morning with Kyle in the diner, she probably should have seen this coming.

“And where you’d have to stick those needles,” Frank added.

Kade nodded. “That is a very good question to ask.”

And Hannah grinned. She couldn’t help it. This all made her feel good. Even if the older men of Sapphire Falls acted like twelve-and thirteen-year-old boys, she loved that they were interested in and talking about acupuncture in any capacity. She really did believe that there was a place for alternative medicine and healing in the lives of the people here.

She’d been cutting through the square the day before yesterday, when Ty Bennett had stopped her to say that his lower back had been feeling amazing since the quick acupuncture treatment she’d done on him when she’d been at the house to see Kade. Ty, an Olympic triathlete, had apparently had acupuncture treatments in the past. When he’d learned from Kade that Hannah was a practitioner, he’d even offered to knock money off of Kade’s rent if her friend could get Hannah to work on him. As if seeing Ty Bennett without a shirt and having a chance to massage the well-defined back muscles of a world-class swimmer wasn’t payment enough. There were definite perks to her job.

Albert had shown her how he could walk up and down aisle three in the grocery store, carrying a gallon of milk in each hand, without limping on his usually sore hip after she’d taught him how to use a tennis ball to work out a tight spot. Martha Biggley had called Alice to tell her that Martha’s arthritis was so much better since she’d started using the peppermint oil Hannah had given her. Hannah had even had a chance to do an acupuncture treatment on Ruby that morning, when Ruby had complained of a terrible headache. Ruby had gotten up from the bed in Alice’s guestroom reportedly feeling ninety-percent better.

Hannah couldn’t deny that it all made her feel incredibly fulfilled. She loved helping people alleviate pain, and yes, there was definitely something special about doing it for people she knew and loved.

But it was also bittersweet. This was part of the dream she and Kyle had shared. Helping and healing their hometown. Treating people over the past few days had been rewarding and depressing at the same time. It was like getting a taste of your favorite dessert and then being told you couldn’t ever have it again.

“And then you leave them in for a little while?” Albert asked, eyeing the needle in Kade’s arm with more curiosity than skepticism.

“Right. It depends on what we’re treating,” Hannah told him.

“And you move them around?”

“Sometimes. A little bit. But mostly you just lie quietly with them in. Most people feel no discomfort and if they do, it’s very mild.”

Conrad scoffed at that. “I’m hardly worried about it hurting. You know what I did to this knee in the first place?”

She did. He’d told her twice already. “Yeah, jumping off a tractor and landing in the back of a truck probably wouldn’t be good for anyone’s knee.”

“And that was when I was sixty-eight,” Conrad said. “I screwed this thing up jumping off a horse when I was a kid, and then again when I was working for the railroad and jumped out of a moving car.”

“You need to stop jumping off of things,” Kade told him dryly.

Conrad laughed. “Probably.”

“Heads up, everybody.” They all looked up to see Derek standing by the table. “Dr. Ames is on his way in.”

“How far away is he?” Conrad asked, his expression one of a little kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Probably pulling into the parking lot now,” Derek said.

“You could have given us a little warning,” Frank said with a frown.

“Yeah, I could have, but it’s way more fun to watch Dr. Ames wonder why you’re all here so late and you try to act natural,” Derek said.

“It’s because of you,” Frank said to Hannah. “Gotta be.”

“What’s because of me?” she asked. All she could think was crap. She’d been avoiding Kyle for four days now. She had a perfect record. She’d heard all about him, and how amazing he was, everywhere she went. But she hadn’t seen him. She wondered if she could sneak out the back door.

“Doc coming down here so late at night,” Frank said.

“He and Derek are friends,” Hannah reminded them.

Derek laughed. “Yeah, he’s not coming down here because of me.”

“Maybe he wants to see his sister,” Hannah said, nodding toward Riley Ames, Kyle’s little sister, who was hunched over her laptop at a corner table.

Derek shook his head. “Nope. Sorry. This one’s all on you.”

Crap.

“We should just get out of here,” Frank said. “He’ll be suspicious when he sees us here so late.”

“No time to leave,” Conrad said, glancing toward the door. “He’ll be here any second.”

Hannah reached over and removed the needle from Kade’s arm. He rubbed the spot then straightened and focused on his computer screen again. Which was not an act for Kyle’s sake. Unlike Conrad and Frank, making a big commotion while getting up and changing tables so they were farther from Hannah.

“Oh good, you’re done with Conrad.” This came from Tessa Sheridan, who had just come over to their table. Tess was another lifelong Sapphire Falls resident and the fiancée of the Come Again’s owner, Bryan Murray. “I was going to have you take a look at my foot. I have some plantar fasciitis and was wondering if you thought acupuncture could help.”

“It definitely could,” Hannah said.

Tessa brightened. She started to pull a chair closer, but Frank hissed, “Not now. You can’t talk about her needles with Kyle here.”

“Why not?” Tess asked him. “I have to sneak around behind his back too?”

“Definitely,” Frank said. “All this hocus-pocus stuff will make Dr. A nervous.”

Tess grinned. “Why do you think that?”

“Dr. A is as straightlaced as they come,” Frank said.

Well, that was true. “It’s not hocus-pocus,” Hannah felt the need to protest.

“He’ll think it is,” Conrad said. “It’s better that we just keep this on the down low.”

Hannah wasn’t sure if it was the almost-eighty-year-old using the phrase “on the down low” or how adamant he and Frank both were about keeping up this game of don’t-get-caught-by-Dr.-Ames, but she couldn’t help but grin. They both looked like they were having so much fun, she just couldn’t take it away from them. She winked at Tess. “Maybe we could meet sometime tomorrow. Maybe around ten? At the bakery?”

Tess nodded. “And we’ll probably have to get muffins and coffee to keep up our cover, right?”

“Absolutely,” Hannah agreed.

“Got it.” Tess glanced around. “I’d better get back to the back then. I don’t want to tip Kyle off that anything funny is going on here.”

Frank and Conrad nodded in agreement.

Tess slipped behind the bar and through the swinging door to the kitchen, just as the door to the Come Again opened.

* * *

Is Hannah there?

Kyle sent the text to Derek as he stomped out to his truck. He hadn’t seen her in four days. He wouldn’t typically care—okay, he shouldn’t care—except that he was supposed to be making her miss Sapphire Falls. How the fuck could he do that without seeing her?

She’d been doing what she’d said she would do—lying low at her grandma’s. He knew from Alice that Hannah had been there every day, all day. They’d played cards, baked, and talked. Alice seemed thrilled. Which was great. But he already knew that Hannah had missed her grandma. How could she not? It was the town, the life here that she also had to miss. And him, dammit. And he’d explained why it was important that she get out and see people and do things so that Alice felt she’d given Sapphire Falls a fair chance.

Thought you said not to text you about where she is anymore, was Derek’s reply.

Kyle started his truck. He was stuck with this guy as his best friend? Where was Scott when Kyle needed him? Oh, yeah, wrapped up in love—and his bed sheets—with Peyton Wells. And good for Scott. He’d wanted Peyton for a long time.

But he’d chosen a really crappy time to finally make it happen.

Kyle texted Derek back. You better hope you don’t come down with some terrible disease anytime soon.

I feel great. Never better.

It wouldn’t take much for me to start a rumor that links you and ED in the same sentence.

ED? I’m not familiar with that.

Erectile Dysfunction.

I know what it is. I’m just not familiar with it myself. If you know what I mean.

Kyle ground his teeth. Is. She. There?

Just remember, you told me not to tell you this stuff. And yes.

Kyle shifted into drive. It was after closing time, but Derek had been letting a few people hang around after it got quiet in the bar, and according to the rumor mill, Michael Kade was one of them. Kyle could only assume that, since Hannah was nowhere else in town, she was there with him.

Kyle sighed. If he walked through that front door, he was going to have to tell Derek about this plan to make Hannah miss Sapphire Falls. And Derek would assume that Kyle also wanted her to miss Kyle. And Derek would be right. The most annoying thing about Derek was that he had a scarily accurate bullshit meter. Kyle couldn’t lie to him. Not that Kyle ever had much need to lie to him.

Until now.

And only because Derek would tell him that this was a really stupid idea and a dangerous game. And he would be right about that too. And Kyle really hated when Derek was right about something that Kyle was wrong about. And he had definitely been wrong thinking he could get by with kissing Hannah even once and not want it over and over again. Forever.

And he’d kissed her three times. Already.

Fuck.

Kyle pointed his truck for the Come Again anyway.

Sure enough, Hannah was at a table on the far side of the bar. With Michael Fucking Kade.

She saw Kyle the second he stepped through the door. He gave her a simple eyebrow raise. She rolled her eyes. So Kyle decided to plant his butt at the bar.

It wasn’t like he could avoid Derek anyway. And maybe he’d just wait and see what Hannah did with him here. He’d been working, of course, the last few days. But he hadn’t run into her at the diner or the bakery or the gas station. He’d stopped by Alice’s each evening after work as well, but Hannah had already left by the time he got there and didn’t come back during the hour or so he’d hung out. But she also wasn’t at Ty’s when he’d stopped over there. Not in the hallways or the bathroom or the kitchen or even in her room, at least according to the ever-helpful Chase. He hadn’t seen her, or so he’d reported.

So that left only one conclusion. She was avoiding Kyle. And he thought he’d been pretty clear that she wasn’t supposed to do that.

“She’s been in town less than a week and you’re already up to your ass in trouble?” Derek asked, pushing a cup of black coffee across the bar to Kyle.

“I’d appreciate it if you could act even a little surprised,” Kyle muttered.

Derek scoffed at that. “I don’t blow sunshine up your ass. That’s one of the things you love about me.”

Kyle scoffed at that. It was true, of course, but he tried to keep from telling Derek he was right as much as possible.

“I wouldn’t exactly call this trouble. I know what I’m doing.”

“You’re coming up with excuses to torture and kiss Hannah McIntire,” Derek said.

Kyle couldn’t stop his grin. “You heard about the kissing?”

Derek gave him a don’t-be-a-dumbass look. “You did it in a big picture window on Main.”

Kyle nodded, suddenly feeling a little better. “That’s the point. I did it that way on purpose. As part of my plan.” He wanted to be sure his friend knew that he was on top of this. “The whole town is supposed to know and talk about it.”

“To remind her that you can’t do anything here without everyone knowing your business?”

“So it gets back to Alice, so she knows I’m doing my part to make Hannah stay.”

“You want Hannah to stay?”

Well, that wasn’t the right question. Or at least not the question he wanted to answer. “I want Alice to think I want Hannah to stay.”

Derek nodded. “Because Alice wants her to stay.”

“And because Alice needs to get over that.”

“Got it.”

And Kyle had a feeling that Derek really did. His friend was laid-back and no fuss, but he was insightful as hell.

“And how do you want Hannah to feel about all of this?” Derek asked a beat later.

“I want… I want her to want to stay,” Kyle said, honestly. “Of course. I think everyone who comes to Sapphire Falls should want to stay.”

“You know,” Derek said with the tone of voice that indicated he’d been thinking about something and was about to impart his version of wisdom.

Kyle steeled himself. Because sometimes Derek really nailed it.

“I’m pretty sure Hannah knew when she decided to stay in Seattle that you were never going to go out there to be with her.”

Kyle frowned. No, he’d never had any desire to go to, or live, in Seattle. Not that she’d asked. And he’d been way too pissed and hurt to think about going after her. He shifted on his seat. “So?”

“So maybe she was trying to just make a clean break. Maybe she knew that coming back here, or even having you ask her to come back here, would have been too hard to say no to. And maybe, if you weren’t willing to go after her, maybe she thought that what you guys had wasn’t really true love.”

Kyle felt his scowl deepen. “You’re an expert in love? The guy who thinks spending a major holiday with a woman is a deep commitment?”

Unfazed, Derek shrugged. “Look, Hannah was the perfect woman for you. I’ll give you that. But…maybe that was the problem.”

“Meaning?” Kyle asked, wondering why he was encouraging this.

“Meaning, on paper, you and Hannah were the perfect match. And that’s how you both always did things…on paper. You write them down and cross them off. You had your whole life plan laid out, but in the “marriage and family” space, you needed a name. You saw Hannah’s perfect hair and matching everything and her daily planner, and you immediately put her in that blank. And then, when things veered off course a little, you crossed her off.”

Kyle didn’t reply. He gritted his teeth, though. Because he was coming off as an ass here, and he didn’t like that.

“And I don’t think you can be pissed that she might have crossed you off her list too,” Derek said.

Kyle felt surprise ripple through him. Hannah had crossed him off her list when things hadn’t gone according to the plan? Her plan had changed, and she knew that he wouldn’t change with it, so she’d found a new name to write in the “marriage and family” space?

Dammit. He really hated that this woman was making him continue to question things.

He glanced over to where Hannah and Michael were sitting together. They were each working on their laptops, across the table from one another. They weren’t talking. They weren’t even touching. The guy was sitting right there and he wasn’t looking at her, wasn’t asking her what she was reading online that was making her frown, wasn’t watching as she lifted her coffee cup and dipped the tip of her tongue into the whipped cream on top. He didn’t even have his leg pressed up against hers under the table.

What a fucking idiot. Supposedly they weren’t a thing, but that meant Michael Kade was a complete dumbass.

“You know, you were very insightful with Scott about Peyton the other night,” Kyle said, swinging back to face Derek.

Derek nodded. “I’m awesome.”

“That wasn’t the word I was thinking of.”

Derek tipped his head. “You two are just annoyed that I notice things that you don’t.”

“Why don’t you quit noticing things about our girls?”

The second he said it, Kyle knew he was in trouble.

“Our girls, huh?” Derek said with a smirk. “Does Michael Fucking Kade know?”

Kyle hadn’t even known until that moment.

No, that wasn’t true. He’d known. On some level. Always. Fuck.

“Shut up,” Kyle told Derek.

But Derek’s grin said there was no way this was over. “Speaking of your girls, did you notice who’s in the corner?” he asked, jutting his chin.

Kyle looked in that direction. He hadn’t noticed anyone but Hannah. And what’s-his-fucking-name.

He saw who Derek was referring too instantly then, though. And he groaned. It was his little sister, Riley. Peyton was also here, sitting with her friend Heather. And, for some reason, Conrad and Frank sat at a fourth table, drinking coffee.

“What’s Riley doing here?” he asked. She was bent over her computer, tapping away earnestly. “She hacking the bank or something?”

His sister back in Sapphire Falls was just what he needed. He’d seen her for about ten seconds at their mom’s house the other day, but she’d looked at him, said, “I don’t want to hear it,” and had disappeared into the basement where she’d spent most of her teens, gaming and online. So they hadn’t really talked, and that was fine. They’d talk eventually. And she still wouldn’t want to hear it.

He couldn’t have been more opposite of someone than he was his own sister. Of course, most of that was because Riley had done everything in her power to be the opposite of her good-grades, good-kid, good-attitude older brother. She was the other Sapphire Falls girl who didn’t care about his opinions or feelings. Riley had always been way smarter than everyone around her. She’d been into computers from a young age and had oscillated between wanting to be a graphic designer and a video game developer. She’d headed for California the second she was done with high school and had eventually ended up in cyber security.

And then she’d ended up in jail.

She’d hacked some big Fortune 500 company and had gotten caught. She’d been released when they’d proven that she’d been set up and hadn’t known what she was doing. But she was now having a hard time getting a job in anything related to security. What a shock.

Derek chuckled. “She doesn’t have to hack them. She could walk in there, bat her big blue eyes and get Jonathan to open the safe for her.”

Jonathan was the bank vice president now that his grandfather had retired and his dad had moved up to president. He was young. And Riley had a way with men. Kyle knew it was her flame-red hair and her tattoos and her piercings and her sassy attitude. Because Derek had told him that’s what it was. Because Derek loved rubbing in the fact that Kyle’s little sister was hot.

Now she had a record—kind of. That would probably really do it for the guys around here. Riley wasn’t a typical Sapphire Falls girl, that was for sure. It came from trying to not be known only as Kyle Ames’s little sister. But it drove Kyle nuts. He did not get the attraction to the troublemakers.

His gaze flickered over Peyton. Peyton was trouble with a capital T, and had his friend Scott all wound up. Peyton was beautiful and definitely had a sweet streak to go with her troublemaking tendencies, though. He liked Peyton. But he could never be involved with her. She was way too unpredictable.

Nope, Kyle didn’t get it. His eyes landed on Hannah again. He definitely went for the good girls, the girl-next-door type. The Hannah type. She’d been a good student, a leader, driven, steady, all of the things he was.

They’d been two peas in a pod.

Until she’d done the most unpredictable thing of his life. He wasn’t sure anyone had ever surprised him as much as Hannah had.

Shouldn’t that have cured him of his attraction? Steady, man-with-a-plan, never-waver, never-falter Kyle Ames shouldn’t still want the woman who had pulled his very carefully, tightly woven rug out from under him.

But seriously, how could Michael Kade just sit right there and not even look at her?

“Chin up, Doc,” Derek said. “You’re not the most whipped guy in town.”

Kyle looked over his shoulder where Derek was focused and saw Scott had arrived. Well, Peyton was here. Scott was never too far away from wherever she was. Unless he’d been shot. And clearly it had taken him only a few days to get back in the habit.

Scott barely spared them a glance as he met Peyton halfway across the room. They talked briefly, and then Scott turned back to join them at the bar. With a big, stupid, in-love grin.

But what really hit Kyle in the chest, was Peyton’s big, stupid, in-love grin.

So, she’d finally come around. The troublemaker had fallen for the cop.

Scott took a seat at the bar across from Derek and next to Kyle. Derek pushed a cup toward Scott.

“Is that cinnamon?” Scott asked, looking up at his friend.

“Nutmeg, actually,” Derek said, “though I’m not sure you, or I, could really tell the difference.”

“So, this would be a…” Scott trailed off, intending Derek to fill in the blank.

“You don’t know what cappuccino is?” Kyle asked. “Really?”

He didn’t know why he was feeling surly, but he was. Maybe it was his best friend being annoyingly in love. Maybe it was his little sister being back in town and not acting even slightly remorseful about the things that had gone down in California. And not wanting Kyle’s advice or help. But he knew it wasn’t either of those things, really. Not that they were helping his mood, but his surliness definitely came from Hannah. Or more specifically, not seeing Hannah for the past four days. Which was idiotic. He hadn’t seen Hannah for the past three years, and he’d managed to be happy and go through his life like a normal, patient, friendly guy. Just a few days ago he’d been determined to simply avoid her as much as possible while she was in town. Now he was crabby because he hadn’t seen her?

“I just wanted to be sure that my friend who’s a bartender is actually making cappuccinos and then sprinkling shit on top,” Scott said, picking the cup up and taking a sip. “Not bad,” he said after he’d swallowed.

Kyle picked up his cup of black coffee. “Spoken by the guy who uses flavored creamer,” he muttered. Scott’s penchant for vanilla creamer was funny. Usually. Tonight, even that annoyed him.

Scott laughed and looked at Derek. “Maybe Doc here needs something stronger than coffee.”

“Bar’s closed,” Derek said. “Coffee, tea, cappuccino, soda, water.”

“Yeah, what exactly is going on here?” Scott asked, swiveling to take in the room again. “Frank and Conrad are out kind of late, aren’t they?”

“They’re here getting advice from Hannah,” Derek said with that stupid grin that made Kyle want to deck him.

Kyle focused on his coffee. The two older guys had come in because of Hannah? Well, so what? And so what if, apparently, after Kyle had left the diner the other day, feeling cocky and sure that he was going to get his way on everything, she’d told the guys more about her massage therapy and acupuncture practice and had given them her cell number? And so what if Frank and Conrad had decided that they wanted to have a pretty girl stick needles in them?

Oh yeah, he’d heard all about it. From the other guys who had been there, from Dottie, from Vi, from some of the people that all of those people had told. The person he hadn’t heard it from was Hannah. Which was the most annoying of all.

“What’s up with that?” Scott asked Derek.

“They came in because they heard Hannah’s been in here the past couple of nights. They wanted to ask her some questions but didn’t want Dr. Ames to find out.”

Hannah had been in here the past couple of nights? Kyle gritted his teeth. It was amazing the things that Derek did and didn’t listen to. But Kyle wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of reacting to the news that Derek had kept that information from him.

Scott looked at Kyle again. “And yet, Dr. Ames is right here.”

“Yep,” Derek said. “Here he is. Weird, when he has rounds at the hospital bright and early in,” Derek glanced at the clock on the wall, “a little over six hours from now.”

Scott turned toward Kyle and rested his elbow on the bar. “Yeah, that is weird.”

Kyle drank more coffee. He was going to need it tomorrow. And it kept him from giving anything away in his expression.

“But I guess if someone’s in town trying to take some of your business away, you’d probably want to keep tabs,” Derek said.

“Hannah’s trying to take some of Kyle’s business?” Scott asked.

She wasn’t trying to take his business. She’d have to freaking stay here to actually do anything for anyone long-term anyway. And he wasn’t annoyed by her giving the guys advice or by the guys letting their curiosity convince them to give something new a try. He was annoyed because she wasn’t giving them physical therapy advice.

He couldn’t dictate what kind of advice she gave people, of course. He did believe there was a place for massage therapy in pain management, but he wasn’t as gung ho about someone sticking needles into his patients. Still, that was their choice. And he trusted that Hannah was as good at that as she always had been at everything else. Which was interesting—he trusted her.

Still, the whole not-physical-therapy thing did annoy him. A lot. Yes, massage and acupuncture were probably good adjunct treatments to physical therapy. Yes, the guys had both tried physical therapy and could do that anytime. Acupuncture was a little less common around here and was something new to try. It wasn’t going to hurt them and it wasn’t going to hurt Kyle’s business.

It still bugged him.

Because Hannah was supposed to be a physical therapist. Next door to him during the day. And next to him in bed at night.

But she’d chosen another city, another lifestyle and, apparently, another profession. Pretty much rejecting everything she’d always planned with him.

Yeah, it bugged him. To put it mildly.

“Well, it didn’t really start out that way,” Derek said, leaning on the bar with both forearms. “It’s actually kind of a funny story.”

“It’s really not that funny,” Kyle said.

“Well, it’s probably in how the story is told,” Derek said.

“He has a point,” Scott agreed.

“It was Kyle’s idea that they talk to her,” Derek said.

“Shut up, Derek.”

But they all knew there was no way Derek was going to shut up. “Kyle wanted to show her that it’s really nice to be involved in taking care of the people in your hometown. You know, kind of rub it in that she didn’t come home to practice like she’d promised. But he wanted her to talk to them as a physical therapist.”

“Because she is a physical therapist, right?” Scott asked.

“Yeah, but Hannah’s not talking to them about physical therapy. She’s telling them all about acupuncture and massage and immersion therapy and stuff,” Derek told him.

“Immersion therapy?” Scott repeated.

“Oh, you’ll have to have Hannah explain it. She gets really excited talking about it,” Derek said with a smirk.

Kyle rolled his eyes. Obviously, Hannah and Derek had been talking about her new passion. That didn’t bother him. Exactly. Though he hadn’t seen her really excited about anything. And he wanted to. Hell, he’d like for her to talk to him about anything at this point. And this mild sense of desperation was making him nuts.

Derek went on, “She’s very anti-pain medication and, well, pills in general, it seems. So she’s telling our old guys with arthritis and gout all about how to change their diets and to use meditation and massage and other stuff instead. Which, of course, kind of rubs our doc the wrong way. Pun totally intended.”

Her advice to the other men did not rub him the wrong way. Her not talking to Kyle—about her life and career and practice, or about anything at all—was rubbing him the wrong way.

Scott seemed to be thinking about all of that. “So,” he said to Kyle. “She came to town, you sent people to talk to her to show her what she’s been missing, and now she’s telling them the opposite of what you’ve been telling them. And on top of that, they’re sneaking around and meeting her after hours to avoid you.”

Kyle just lifted his cup. He really wanted to lift his middle finger. But that wouldn’t faze either of these guys anyway.

It wasn’t the advice that she was giving—exactly. Then again, it was kind of a moot point. Where would these people go for immersion therapy? And yeah, okay, he was going to look that up. He knew the basics, but being the primary care physician in a small town of mostly farmers and manual laborers, he read a lot about arthritis and traumatic amputation and the flu and infections and other things that affected the general population. Immersion therapy and meditation and acupuncture were not in his wheelhouse. And he didn’t like that either. She wasn’t talking to him, but he also knew nothing about what she was talking to everyone else about. He didn’t like feeling left out of her life.

And that was the stupidest thing of all. He’d been left out of her life for three years now.

Of course, he’d never liked it.

“Pretty much,” was Derek’s response to Scott’s summary.

Scott laughed. “How long is she back?”

“Her grandma is having her hip replaced, so she’s here to help with her rehab. I guess she’ll be here for, what, about six weeks or so, Doc?”

Kyle nodded. “Or so.”

“And Riley’s back, too?” Scott asked. “When did that happen?”

Kyle felt his scowl increase. Speaking of women who were keeping him out of their lives and away from any details about those lives.

“A few days ago too,” Derek said. “She’s staying with her parents while she gets back on her feet.”

“I heard all the charges were dropped,” Scott said. It was no secret that Riley had been in jail, but Kyle had asked Scott about some of the legal things surrounding Riley’s arrest and release, so Scott knew even more than most. He had connections across the country because of his work with a task force battling sex trafficking along the major interstates that went through the Midwest, so he’d made some calls and gotten Kyle a few extra details.

“They were, but it’s hard to get a job in the computer world after something like that,” Derek said.

“But she didn’t do anything wrong,” Scott said.

“Well, she did—it just wasn’t her fault,” Derek said. “She was set up.” He grinned. “But everyone now knows that she’s capable of hacking the biggest, most secure companies. Her skills make potential employers nervous in spite of her intentions.”

“Got it,” Scott said.

“So, she can’t get a job,” Kyle said flatly. He was far less impressed with it all than Derek seemed to be. “Which means she can’t pay her rent or buy food or, you know, take care of herself, so she’s back—living with my parents and doing web design until she can find something else.”

“And she hates every minute of it,” Derek added. “Well, except hanging out in here, because her family isn’t here being judgmental and giving her unsolicited advice. Until now, of course.” He gave Kyle a look. “But Dr. Ames just couldn’t stay away. I just haven’t figured out which girl he’s here for.”

Riley hated every minute of being back in Sapphire Falls too? Great. Two of the most important females in his life were back in town, both hated being back in the town he loved, and were shutting him out. Perfect.

“Both,” Kyle muttered, pushing his cup toward Derek for a refill.

“You could leave,” Derek suggested, pouring the coffee.

Kyle didn’t reply. He could. But that would mean not being in the same place Hannah was, and now that he’d managed to get in the same place as her, he didn’t want to leave. Which was so pathetic, he almost couldn’t choke down his first drink of the blessedly strong brew.

“You know,” Derek said, wiping up a wet ring on the top of the bar. “I’ve decided that your plan with Hannah makes total sense.”

“Does it?” Kyle liked hearing that. A lot. Because he was thinking he’d made a huge mistake. Already.

“Sure. This way you can flirt with her—which you never would have been able to avoid anyway. You can also kiss her—which you also probably wouldn’t have been able to avoid. You can even sleep with her—which God knows you need. And you stay on Alice’s good side the whole time. And you avoid heartbreak at the end because you know what’s coming. You have a plan. That’s all you really need.”

“Right,” Kyle agreed with feeling. Derek wasn’t wrong. A plan was always good. But there was something Derek had mentioned that Kyle wanted to go into a little further. Or a lot further. “You think I should sleep with her?”

Derek shrugged. “I haven’t known anyone who needs to get laid more than you do, man. And this is the woman who’s basically kept you from getting seriously laid for three years. Might as well do what you can with her while she’s here.”

“I’ve gotten la—I’ve had sex in the past three years,” Kyle said. Getting laid was such a crude term for it. He liked to think that he was a nicer guy than that.

“Yes, but you haven’t gotten seriously laid,” Derek said.

“What’s the difference?” Scott asked.

Kyle really wished he hadn’t. Because he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear this. But there was no way he could walk away now.

“Seriously laid is that holy-shit-now-that-was-fucking-amazing sex. The kind that makes you feel satisfied to your fucking bones,” Derek said, with an enthusiasm that was unusual for him. “The kind that can tide you over for a long time because you know it’s gonna be tough to get anything that good again.”

Kyle lifted a brow and glanced at Scott. Derek was full of shit. But Kyle found Scott nodding.

“Yep, I get it,” Scott said. “The kind that makes you feel like you’re totally wrung out. And at the same time makes you willing to give up food, water, and air to keep getting it.”

Kyle looked back to Derek. Derek was nodding at Scott’s words.

Okay, so Scott was in love. But Derek? “You’ve had this kind of sex?” he asked Derek. “You’ve been seriously laid?”

Derek nodded. “A couple of times. But the keyword is seriously. You have to be seriously into the girl.”

“And that’s happened to you a couple of times?” Kyle asked. He couldn’t think of a girl that he thought Derek had been serious about.

“Well, I do serious differently than you and Scott,” Derek said. “But yeah, I’ve been into a couple more than most. And that sex is unbelievable.”

Scott nodded. “I’d never had it until Peyton. But yeah.”

Kyle shook his head. “I’ve had that. With Hannah.”

Derek laughed at that. Then he realized Kyle wasn’t laughing. “Oh. Well, okay, maybe.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Kyle asked.

Derek looked at Scott, but the cop shook his head as if to say you’re on your own. Derek sighed. “You haven’t had that with Hannah, man.”

Kyle scowled at him. “Excuse me? I was going to marry her.”

“Right. Because she’s organized and neat and on time and shit.”

Kyle quickly went through all the cons to punching his best friend and the Come Again’s manager. There were several. But he wasn’t sure he cared. “There was more to it,” he said tightly.

“I know you think so,” Derek agreed. “But you and Hannah weren’t ever…passionate. Like, I never saw you watching her the way Scott watches Peyton.”

Kyle looked over at Scott. Who was, at that very moment, watching Peyton across the room and looking very much like a guy who was imagining her naked. He’d never looked at Hannah like that? Come on.

Then he really made himself think about it. When he’d looked at Hannah, he’d felt…affection. Satisfaction. Pride. Happiness. All of which were very nice. Probably the way a guy should look at the woman he wanted to marry. But had he ever looked at her and imagined her naked? Surely he had.

But in the next moment, Kyle admitted that if he had, he would have reeled it in. Not behind closed doors—or in the back of his pickup or on the couch in her parents’ basement—but in public where others might notice? Yeah. Hannah was a nice girl. If he’d looked across a public room and had thoughts of messing up her perfect hairdo and smudging her perfect lip gloss and wrinkling her perfectly ironed skirt, he would have stopped them. He’d respected her. Liked her. Appreciated things about her other than her body and the sex.

But Scott was now looking at Peyton with a hunger that everyone in the bar could feel. And it didn’t make Kyle think for one second that Scott didn’t respect or like or appreciate her. He simply wanted her. In that primal, natural, she’s-mine way that a man should want a woman.

Kyle looked over at Hannah now. She had her hair up in a twist at the back of her head, but there were tendrils escaping. And that made his fingers literally itch to pull more of it free. And then he straightened as he really took in her appearance for the first time. When he’d first walked in, he’d noticed her. Just her. And the man she was sitting with. But he’d been focused on her reaction to seeing him more than how she looked.

But now…

Holy shit. She wore sparkly pink flip-flips, short denim shorts, and a button-up shirt. But the shirt was untucked. And she’d missed a button. And, if he wasn’t mistaken, there was a dollop of whipped cream on her shirt.

She looked hot as hell. She’d preferred dresses and skirts, so he’d rarely seen her in denim shorts, though they were a staple for girls in Sapphire Falls. Hannah had worn them from time to time, of course. Summers were hot here and they were far more practical than dresses for things like yard work. But when she had worn them, they hadn’t been I-can’t-think-straight short. And even if the shirt did have buttons and should look proper, it hugged her breasts, and that one undone button showed a hint of pink satin underneath when she shifted.

She looked a little disheveled, actually. And he knew without a doubt that he wasn’t leaving this bar until he’d messed up her hair, smudged her lip gloss, and wrinkled that shirt.

“I stand corrected,” Derek muttered.

Kyle focused on him again. “What?”

“I have now seen you look at Hannah the way Scott looks at Peyton.”

Kyle frowned. It took denim shorts and spilled whipped cream to make him look at her that way? But that’s not what this felt like. This felt like she’d somehow given him permission to look at her that way. By being a little less than perfect, she’d flipped a switch in his brain.

Scott cleared his throat and turned back to the bar just then. Clearly, he’d missed several minutes there. Kyle was sure he was giving Scott a look that mirrored Derek’s I-know-what-you’re-thinking-about look.

“Shut up,” he told them, lifting his cup.

Derek chuckled. “I don’t know which of you is more entertaining. Calm, cool, to-do-list Kyle being all grumpy and wrinkled and annoyed, or by-the-book, all-his-shit-together Scott being all gaga over a girl.”

Scott and Kyle looked at each other.

“We really do have our shit together,” Scott said.

“Absolutely. You’re as calm and cool as I am,” Kyle said.

“So why are we friends with Derek again?”

They both looked at the bartender.

“Beats the shit out of me,” Kyle said.

But Derek wasn’t bothered. He straightened from the bar and gave them a smile. “Fine. Just remember that I also know how to make you not calm and cool. Scott, ask Kyle who the guy is at the computer over in that other corner.”

Right. That’s what he wanted to talk about. “You bastard,” Kyle said.

Scott glanced at the guy. “Why? Who is he?”

“He came to town with Hannah. They’re even sharing a room over at Ty’s,” Derek said.

They weren’t exactly sharing the room. Hannah had been staying at Alice’s. As far as Kyle knew. From what Alice said, that was the case. But he hadn’t actually asked, “what bed is Hannah sleeping in?” And he hadn’t been back to Ty’s except to change clothes. He wasn’t even using the shower there because he knew Hannah might be, and he wasn’t sure he could handle seeing her bodywash sitting on the edge of the tub. That’s how worked up he was.

He hated being worked up.

“Why isn’t she staying at her mom and dad’s?” Scott asked.

“Seems that when she didn’t come home as planned, Kyle wasn’t the only one she ticked off,” Derek said.

That was…true. Her family had been hurt and upset. They were okay now and had invited her to stay, but Hannah had insisted she wanted to be with Alice as much as possible. Kyle knew that because her dad had told him, not because Hannah had. And again, he was annoyed. This was ridiculous.

“And she brought this guy with her?” Scott asked. “Boyfriend?”

Derek shrugged. “We’re assuming. Right, Kyle?”

“I don’t fucking care.” He really wished he meant that. He didn’t think that Michael Kade was her boyfriend. He was sitting at that tiny table with her and seemed hardly aware she was even there. If he was a boyfriend, he sucked at it. And she hadn’t mentioned him as a reason why she couldn’t go along with Kyle’s seduction plan. But Kade was the man who got to see her every day. In fucking Seattle.

“But you know who that is, right?” Derek asked Scott.

Scott looked at the guy again. “No, should I?”

“You ever heard of Michael Kade?” Derek asked.

Scott nodded. “Sure. The writer. He does thrillers and stuff, right?”

“Yep. And that’s him.”

Scott looked again. “No shit?”

“No shit. That is Michael Kade, the New York Times bestselling author, and he’s here in Sapphire Falls with Hannah for as long as she’s here. He calls her his muse.”

Before Kyle had to respond to that, Peyton slipped in between Scott and Kyle. And Kyle kind of wanted to kiss her for it. Having one of his friends watching all of his reactions—and commenting on them—was bad enough. Though he should probably be glad to have Scott around. At least the big cop knew a little of what Kyle was going through. Because it was clear that he was as wound up over Peyton as Kyle was over Hannah.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself,” Scott said as he swiveled his stool and Peyton moved between his knees.

Okay, so what Scott was going through wasn’t exactly what Kyle had going on. Scott had the girl.

Kyle knew he should just concentrate on his coffee, but he found himself looking at Hannah again. And thinking about the seriously laid thing. Sex had been great between them, but it had been pretty straightforward. They’d done it in a truck, on a blanket by the river, on a couple of couches, and various beds. They’d tried out some different positions. But there hadn’t been anything even remotely kinky about it. It had always been…making love. Cheesy maybe, but true. It had been sexy. But there had always been an underlying sweetness.

But sweet was the last word on Kyle’s mind when Peyton stretched up and laid a hot kiss on Scott that had Kyle shifting on his stool and shooting Derek a look. The bartender was watching with wide eyes. He glanced at Kyle and mouthed, “Damn.”

Yeah. Damn. Because now Kyle wanted that. Not with Peyton, but that unabashed passion and can’t-hold-back-how-I-feel that was palpable between her and Scott.

Finally, Peyton settled back on her heels, running her tongue over her lip and smiling up at Scott like he was her everything.

And yeah, Kyle wanted that too. He wanted to be the reason that a woman smiled with that combination of affection and naughtiness. And not from just anyone. His gaze flickered over to Hannah again. She was still staring at her computer screen, but it almost looked like she was trying too hard to seem enthralled with whatever was on there. Had she seen Scott and Peyton’s kiss?

He looked over at Riley. She was watching the spectacle with eyebrows up. Peyton’s friend, Heather, was also watching with a huge grin. And sure enough, when he glanced back at Hannah, her eyes had lifted from the screen and she was looking at Scott and Peyton. But her gaze shifted to him a moment later. And her cheeks got pink.

He couldn’t actually see that from where he was sitting clear across the bar, but somehow, he knew it. And he felt a strange surge of yes go through him. She’d seen the hot kiss, but she was thinking about him.

Suddenly he felt a lot better about everything. Well, almost everything. He still hadn’t seen or talked to her in four days. And she was telling everyone in town but him about her life in Seattle. And he didn’t even want to know about her life in Seattle, but he wanted to know her.

Crazy. He was going crazy.

Scott and Peyton were heading for the door a minute later, and Kyle was relieved. He had too many fucking emotions going on right now, and they weren’t helping with the one he’d best label cock-swelling lust.

“So she’s been down here the last two nights?” he asked Derek.

Derek grinned. “You caught that huh?”

“And you didn’t tell me.”

“You’re not supposed to care.”

Right. “Well, that’s not really working out.”

“So I see.”

“What the hell has she been doing for the past four days, anyway?”

“Are you talking about Hannah?” someone asked behind Derek.

Kyle looked around his friend. Mitch Dugan was helping himself to a bottle of water from behind the bar. His arms were covered in sawdust, and he had a tool belt slung low on his hips.

“Yeah. I’ve been…” Needing to see her. But that sounded stupid. And maybe creepy. “…wondering how she’s doing,” he finished, nearly wincing at how stupid that sounded.

“Seems like she’s doing great,” a female voice added to the conversation.

Kyle looked over to see that Andi had joined them.

“Everyone’s talking about her acupuncture and stuff—hey!” She frowned up at Derek who had elbowed her after “stuff”.

Kyle frowned, but before he could ask what Andi was talking about, Tessa Sheridan stepped around Mitch. “She’s been out by the river just about every afternoon,” Tess said as she grabbed the coffee pot.

“The river?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah, I’ve seen her out there walking and…meditating, I guess, when I’ve been on my runs,” Tess said.

Tess was a marathoner and, unlike other people in this town, followed a pretty strict schedule. Kyle liked that about her. He also liked that when she came in to talk to him about muscle strains and other things that she listened and did what he told her to do. “She’s been meditating by the river?”

“If I had to guess,” Tess said with a shrug. “That’s what it looks like.”

What else did he not know? And why did it matter at all?

“I need to talk to her,” he said, swiveling on his stool.

“Whoa there,” Derek said. “She’s here with Michael.”

“So?”

“So, you’ll be interrupting if you go over there,” Derek said.

“So?”

“That might irritate Hannah.”

Kyle didn’t really give a crap. Her avoiding him for four days irritated him. Now they would be even. “I’ll risk it,” Kyle told him.

“Come on. Just be patient for a change.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Hey, you said the first night they were in here that you made them leave and made it really clear that the after-hours thing was friends only.”

“So?” Derek asked this time.

“So, you’re being really supportive of Michael Kade being in here after hours now. For the past few days.” Yeah, he wasn’t letting that go.

Derek scrubbed at a nonexistent spot on the top of the bar.

“Why?”

Derek shrugged.

“Don’t give me that,” Kyle said. “Why the change of heart?”

Derek sighed. “His new book.”

“So?”

“So, he said after he gets through the next chapter, he’s going to let me read it.”

Kyle stared at his best friend. “You’re a Michael Kade fan?”

“Well, yeah,” Derek said as if it was a really stupid question. “And he’s setting this book here.”

“Here? In Sapphire Falls?” Kyle asked.

“Yep. He’s calling it Aquamarine Ridge though,” Derek said with a grin.

Kyle grimaced. “That’s horrible.”

“I know.” Derek’s grin grew. “It’s this funny, tongue-in-cheek, serial killer thriller.”

“A serial killer thriller that’s funny?”

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t know he did funny,” Kyle said. The guy didn’t even look that interesting, not to mention funny.

“He doesn’t,” Derek said. “This book is something new for him. And it’s awesome.”

“I can help you get Hannah alone for a bit.” Yet another voice joined the conversation.

Kyle looked over to see Levi Spencer coming through the door from the kitchen. Bryan was right behind him. Bryan went to Tess, wrapping an arm around her and kissing the top of her head as Levi came around the end of the bar. Levi was helping finance some of the remodel, and it looked like they’d had a meeting of key people tonight.

“Yeah?” Kyle asked.

“I want to talk to Mr. Kade about this book. From what I hear, the loveable, eccentric millionaire zombie has yet to be introduced,” Levi said. “And I don’t mind interrupting them at all.” He gave Kyle a grin, and Kyle knew that he meant it. Levi was one of those guys who got away with stuff most people couldn’t. Yes, his money helped, but the man pretty much dripped charm. Even the guys around here were suckers for it.

“Excellent,” Kyle said, sliding off his stool. “Lead the way.”