Kayla held onto Connor and enjoyed the ride. The wind and sun were in their faces and her son was healthy and happy in her arms.

She closed her eyes and wished that she could hold onto that moment for the rest of her life.

They found a small cove to put the anchor down in around noon and ate lunch and watched the fish swim around the boat.

For a brief moment, she imagined that they were a family. That Connor was Rowan’s. She held onto that thought throughout the day and the joy she felt in her heart was almost painful when they headed back to the docks.

When they gathered around the dinner table with Crystal, Sarah, and Ben, she imagined what it would be like to be part of their family.

As she tucked her son into bed that night, she dreamed of a day when they would have a place of their own. When she knew what she wanted, where she wanted to be, and who she wanted to be with.

Rowan kissed her softly on the window bench, but when she asked him to say, he shook his head and told her he had an early morning patient.

“When can I… see you again?” Her body had responded so much to the day that she desperately wanted to lay next to him all night long.

“I had to move my schedule around, so I’m pretty busy this week, but this weekend. Saturday?”

She nodded. “I’ll check my schedule.” She walked him to the top of the stairs and kissed him again.

“Goodnight.”

“Night.”

She watched him go again and almost floated back to her bedroom.

That night, her dreams were filled with happy-ever-afters.

Her days started to blend together as her mother’s house shaped up. They had finished the entire downstairs by the time her brother made it back into town.

She had gotten her first paycheck and had gone down to Adler’s hardware store and purchased a few flowers for the front porch. She’d taken her time during a lunch break and had potted them and placed them where she wanted.

Rowan and his friends had arranged to paint her mother’s house starting first thing Saturday morning.

Until then, she enjoyed working every day with her mother and brother and then spending her evenings in the store.

She had worked it out so that Crystal brought Connor to her mother’s house for lunches and her mother stopped by the big house for dinner with Connor while she worked.

She figured that having the two of them spend time together was a good thing, and having Crystal watch over them was a bonus since she trusted the woman’s opinion on how her mother was doing.

That following Friday night, she was excited to find out that Crystal had arranged to give her some weekends off since Olivia had asked for a few more hours to help pay for some car repairs.

She’d spent a few hours in Crystal’s office going over all her files for the past two years since Joe had taken over the books.

So far, she was having a difficult time making heads or tails out of the mess. There were boxes of receipts that hadn’t been entered into the computer system as well as handwritten IOUs from a few past employees that she was pretty sure had never been paid back.

They had gotten a large shipment of products in earlier that day and Olivia had been busy putting everything out, so she had spent her time out front helping her.

Olivia had to leave an hour before closing to pick up Simona from Brock’s place since he was working the night shift at the local Walmart as a stocker.

Kayla spent the last hour of her shift making sure everything was in the right place.

She emptied the last box and decided to take the stack of boxes back downstairs before she closed up. There was a large stack of empty boxes in the back corner that they broke down and shipped out to be recycled.

No one had entered the store for the past hour, so she was pretty sure she would be okay for a few minutes while she hauled the boxes downstairs.

She had just dragged the last box down there when the door closed at the top of the stairs, causing her to jump and scream out.

“Hello?” she called out as her heart tripled its speed. She moved slowly towards the door and rolled her eyes when she realized the small wood block they used to hold it open sat at the base of the stairs. It must have fallen loose. She picked it up and jogged up the stairs, telling herself that she had too wild of an imagination.

When she tried the door handle, it didn’t twist in her hand. She frowned down at it and tried it several more times.

Reaching into her back pocket, she groaned when she remembered she’d set her phone down so she wouldn’t drop it while she moved the boxes.

Putting her hand into her front pocket, she closed her eyes on another groan when she realized that her keys were sitting beside her phone by the cash register.

“I did not just lock myself in the basement,” she said calmly. She tried the handle one more time and then kicked the door when it wouldn’t budge.

Glancing around, she wondered why the basement door would be locked from the inside anyway. She kicked it again for good measure and then went back downstairs to find something to help her open the door.

She had spent ten minutes looking around when she heard the bell chime upstairs, signaling that someone was in the store. She called out and banged on the door repeatedly until it opened slowly.

Julie Cummings stood on the other side, frowning at her. “Did you lock yourself in?”

Kayla sighed and hugged the older woman quickly. “Yes, the block fell out…” She waved her hand and moved further into the store. Her phone and keys were still sitting by the register. When she checked the drawer, she smiled and relaxed. She had been concerned that someone had snuck in and taken everything.

“Is everything there?” Julie asked.

“Yes, I was only down there for a few minutes. Thank you so much. What can I help you with tonight?”

“Oh, I ran out of my lotion. I’m thankful you were still open. We had parent-teacher conferences tonight and I got stuck behind. I didn’t think I was going to make it.”

“What a happy accident.” Kayla smiled over at the woman. “If I hadn’t locked myself in the basement, I wouldn’t have been here.”

She walked with her to the shelf and handed the woman the bottle. “Since you helped me out, I’ll give you a ten percent discount.”

“Oh, how wonderful.” Julie smiled back at her and handed her a credit card. “I’m just thankful I could help out. They should really look at fixing that lock so it doesn’t happen to you again.”

“Believe me, it won’t.” She handed the woman’s card back to her, then put the bottle of lotion into a bright blue Serenity’s Attic bag.

After she walked Julie out, she doubled-checked that everything still looked in place. Then she quickly closed out the cash drawer and deposited the cash bag into the safe that got emptied once a week by the armored company.

She was just walking out when her phone rang. Seeing Rowan’s face, she answered.

“Hi,”

“Are you okay? You’re running a little late and Crystal and I were getting worried.”

“Yes, I had a last-minute customer.” She had decided not to tell anyone about her escapade in the basement but gently suggest to Crystal that the lock on the basement door be changed out. “Sorry, I’m just walking out to my car now.” She turned to lock the front door.

She had tucked her phone between her ear and her shoulder and when she flipped the keys to lock the front door, it fell down. She jerked downward to catch it just as the glass from the front door exploded above her.

Shattered glass flew all around her, landing in her hair and spraying over the dark sidewalk.

She screamed and tucked her body into a ball. When she stopped hearing the sound of buzzing in her head, she heard Rowan screaming her name over and over.

“Rowan.” She fumbled for her cell phone on the pavement. The tempered glass looked like snow on the dark ground. She had to dig through the mess to finally pick up her phone.

“Kayla, I’m on the way.”

“The front door shattered.” She kept her body tucked and scooted over to lean against the wall. “Rowan,” she said when she heard a car start up and tires squeal, “someone shot at me.”

* * *

Hearing those words caused his foot to push down further on the gas pedal. It felt like his heart didn’t beat until he came to a screeching halt in front of his aunt’s store. He saw Kayla bunched up against the brick wall. When she heard his car, her eyes moved up and he could see the fear in them.

When he jumped out, he scanned the dark street for danger as he moved towards her and gathered her in his arms.

He swooped her up and rushed her to his car.

“Rowan, I think they’re gone.” Her voice sounded hollow.

“Better be safe. Crystal was calling the police.” He locked his doors and continued to glance around. Several people had gathered around outside so he relaxed a little.

“You okay?” He turned to her and grabbed her arms to see if she was cut.

“It was tempered glass,” she said when he didn’t find a scratch on her. “I’m okay.”

He noticed the shaking in her hands and pulled her into his arms.

“I had just locked up,” she said into his chest. “I didn’t hear anything but the glass shatter. I’d dropped… my phone. I bent down to pick it up… the glass just shattered. It was so quick.”

He let her ramble on as he held her. When he saw the red and blue lights, he leaned back. “The police are here.”

He felt her body relax against his.

They stood out in front of the store talking to Joseph, one of Silver Cove’s officers. Crystal and Connor showed up a few minutes later after he texted her that it was safe to come down with CJ.

Kayla had rushed to her son and hugged him, then held onto him as she explained once more what had happened. They stood around speculating who had done this. Most everyone in the crowd believed it was kids since there had been several instances in the past few months of other businesses being vandalized.

He drove to Adler’s to get a large piece of plywood to cover the door while Crystal and Kayla cleaned the glass up. Joseph helped him cover the door with the board and screws he’d purchased.

When everything was clean and secure, he could tell that Kayla and Connor had run out of steam.

He piled them in his car, but instead of parking in front of his aunt’s place, he stopped in his driveway.

“What do you say to a sleep over?” he asked Connor, who looked half-asleep.

“At your house?” he asked, his eyes going wide as he looked out the window at the place.

“Yup, it’s just across from where you’re staying.” He showed the kid the brightly lit house that sat directly across the street. “If you want, I can run and get you some stuff.”

Connor looked to Kayla. “Mom?”

Kayla smiled and shrugged. “It’s up to you, baby.”

“Kay,” CJ said as Rowan pulled him out of the car seat his aunt had transferred to his car at the store.

He carried the kid into his house and wasn’t surprised that he was fast asleep by the time he set him down on his guest bed.

“We’ll leave the light on,” he suggested.

“Thank you,” she said from the doorway.

He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her. Then he moved across the hall into his doorway and kissed her. “You scared me.”

“I was so scared.” Her arms were wrapped around his waist.

“Do you need anything from across the street?” he asked, moving towards the bed.

“No, I’m fine.” She sat on the edge of his bed and glanced towards the open doors.

He knelt and pulled off her shoes, then ran his fingers up her insteps and watched her close her eyes with pleasure.

“I’d forgotten what being on your feet all day does to you,” she sighed.

“Lay back and let me show you how much it means to me that you’re both here, under my roof tonight.”