Saturday came slower than Riley thought, or even hoped. She couldn’t remember the last time she was looking forward to seeing a man this much.

She and Trevor had been talking on and off for the past few days, but they hadn’t had a chance to spend any time together other than one quick lunch yesterday. Even then, it wasn’t anything more than him showing up with sandwiches and the two of them finding a spot to sit out in the shade behind her office.

Did her staff talk about it? Yep, they did. Too damn bad, in her eyes. It wasn’t a secret at this point. Not that they were trying to make it into one. So why not just throw it out there in everyone’s face?

Her staff seemed to be a little more open to the changes going on in the office, and she sincerely hoped it didn’t have anything to do with her dating the chief of police. That would be ridiculous and completely backwards thinking.

She should remind herself that it was for the greater good that everyone was sliding into the new ways and not butting heads with her. Especially since Dr. Fielding’s last day was this week. She was sorry to see him go on one level, but happy on another.

It was officially her practice now. She had the final say. No more staff running to their previous employer when they were upset. No more him telling them he couldn’t help them, either. He’d been supportive and helpful to her, but he made sure to firmly plant himself in the Switzerland zone.

It was all on her. Finally. What she’d worked so hard for. The long hours. The stressful nights. The juggling of funds. The convincing of everyone it was the right place to be.

That was wrong. There was no convincing of everyone. Just one person when she said she’d wanted to move. One person who said he wasn’t leaving the city life for some small town in the backwoods.

Not that Lake Placid had even been on her radar a year ago when she brought this up to Jason.

No, it was probably one of the only times he’d actually voiced his opinion. He wanted to stay close to the city. He’d be willing to move, but not more than an hour out.

There were plenty of small towns she could open a practice up in, he’d told her. And he was right. But it wasn’t what she wanted, and as much as she told Trevor she wanted someone to argue with her, she wasn’t giving up her dream.

A dream of moving out of the fast lane. A dream of the quieter life that she got glimpses of when they visited her grandparents in the South.

She didn’t want to go in that direction, not that far away. She just wanted to be somewhere so far removed from what she’d always known, but close enough to visit if need be.

And now she was. She was in Lake Placid and had the keys to her own practice. Monday morning, bright and early, a new sign would be delivered announcing her name out front.

Then when the dust settled, she was going to look into putting an addition on. The closest pediatric dentist was two hours away in Burlington. She’d be able to generate a lot of business if she could bring someone here, even if it was part time.

Her other thought was an orthodontist. Again, the closest one was an hour away in Plattsburg. She had all sorts of ideas and plans to enlarge her practice, and now she felt she could put some of them into motion.

No one could tell her no.

No one could tell her to slow down.

No one could say she wasn’t ready.

This was her practice with her ideas and her final say.

But she had something else to look forward to today, so all thoughts of anyone telling her “no” were out the window. She was going to a party on the lake with her family and some friends.

Well, her brother’s friends, but people she knew. Maybe some would be her friends someday, too. Either way, today was about focusing on the here and now.

Not the past. Not the future. But the present.

And Trevor. She was going to see Trevor again and she was going to focus on him, because right now he was her present. It wasn’t just for a quick twenty-minute visit today, either. At least she hoped not. No, they had plans, or rather she did for when they got back to his place.

“Hi, Aunt Riley!” her niece Lara shouted as she ran as fast as she could to her side, jumping around and hugging her tight. “Did you make our appointment yet for our pedicures? Daddy told me you were going to when you found time. Did you find time yet?”

Riley laughed, hugged Lara back, and kissed her on the forehead. She was growing so fast. Long skinny legs, her hair darker than it’d been a few years ago, losing some of the blonde highlights she’d gotten from her mom. She was starting to look more like a Hamilton.

“I did. I was going to let you know today. I’ve got an appointment next Friday afternoon. I rearranged my schedule and I’m going to take a half day off work so the two of us can get some lunch and get pampered like women are supposed to be.”

“I’m not a woman yet. Daddy said I’m not allowed to be one until I’m twenty-five.”

“I think your dad is right about that.” Riley looked down and noticed Lara was wearing a pink two-piece athletic-style bathing suit with a sheer dress over the top of it and flip flops on her feet. She wasn’t as much of a tomboy as she was a year ago, but she was still hyperactive.

Riley turned and grabbed a pan of brownies and cookies out of the backseat of her SUV. She didn’t care that Quinn liked to cook so much. This party was too much to handle for one person, especially one person who’d had a baby less than two months ago.

“Can I carry them for you?” Lara asked.

“How about you grab my bag in the back? I’ve got my swimsuit with me. Maybe if it’s hot enough I’ll jump in with you.”

“I’ll race you to the dock so we can dive off together,” Lara said. The two of them did that often when Riley was staying there—their own little form of bonding so that Lara had some one-on-one girl time.

They made their way through the back door, Riley putting down her desserts and walking over to kiss her mother on the cheek, then her father. Surprisingly, Jocelyn wasn’t around.

“Where’s the baby?” she asked. She was still an hour earlier than when the party was going to start, hoping to get some family time before everyone showed up.

“Taking a nap right now,” her father said. “Max is out back with Davy, setting the table and chairs up under some shaded spots, and Quinn just ran upstairs to change. She’s been cooking all morning.”

“Does she ever rest?” Riley could only hope to have an ounce of the energy Quinn did. She watched the kids, cared for a newborn, cooked nonstop, and cleaned this massive house daily. Nothing ever looked out of place.

“Not that I’ve seen,” her mother said. “I’ve given up trying to do anything.”

“Glad to know someone else feels the same way I did when I stayed here.”

“So where’s Trevor?” her father asked. “Max said he was coming today.”

“He is. He’ll be here in an hour. He might get called in, so we decided to take separate cars. You aren’t going to embarrass me, are you?” she asked both of her parents.

“We wouldn’t think of it,” her mother said, a sly smirk on her face.

“You better not,” Riley warned. “He won’t want to come around anymore if you do.”

“Do you want him to come around more?” Max asked, walking into the room.

“I do. I’d like to keep it that way too,” she said firmly.

“Then I guess we have no choice but to be on our best behavior,” her mother said. “We wouldn’t want to upset you.”

“I’ve been telling the kids all week not to upset the baby of the house,” her father said. “It’s never good for anyone.”

Riley laughed, but she didn’t think it was funny. Not now, and not twenty years ago when he’d joked with her about it then.

 

***

 

Trevor pulled in a few minutes after the party was scheduled to start and saw more cars than he’d been hoping for. Not that he had a problem around people, because he didn’t, but when Riley said small, he was hoping his idea of small and hers were the same. He was wrong.

He walked to the back where he heard the noise coming from, and looked around in hopes of finding Riley. Instead, Max’s son almost ran into him chasing a Frisbee.

Trevor reached a long arm up and snagged it out of the air. “Here you go.”

“Thanks. You’re the police chief, right?”

“I am. Davy, right?”

“Yeah. Good memory,” Davy said, then ran away.

“Hey there, good looking.”

He turned and saw Riley opening the back door, then stepping out carrying a bowl in her hands. He reached for it just as she turned her body and blocked him. “I’m only trying to help.”

She lifted her chin and pursed her lips. “Kiss first.”

He laughed, did as she said, then grabbed the bowl hastily when she shoved it in his arms. It wasn’t the way he thought he’d be thrust into this party, but he was going to go with it. Except Riley just turned and walked back into the house and left him there alone for the moment…holding something nasty looking.

“Trevor,” he heard, then turned to see Cole McGuire.

He figured Cole would be here, was actually hoping in a small way. “Cole.”

“Welcome to chaos.”

“It doesn’t seem that bad,” Trevor said, looking around and recognizing most of the people here. Or at least half.

“This is my fiancée, Rene. Our son, TJ.”

Trevor looked at the tiny woman that had just walked up to Cole with a big smile on her face, a wiggling baby in her arms. “Hi,” she said. “Nice to meet you.”

“Rene’s brother is over there in the red shirt,” Cole said, pointing out a man sitting at a table with a blonde holding another baby. “Nick Buchanan and his wife, Mallory, and their son, Blake.”

Trevor actually recognized the blonde as someone he’d seen with Trixie Miller before, but Nick didn’t look familiar at all. “Nick’s not from around here?” Trevor asked, trying to piece everyone together. He liked to know who was who in town, even if he never had a conversation with them.

“No,” Rene said. “He and I are both from Richmond, Virginia. We found love here and decided to stay.”

Cole snorted. “Nick found love and decided to stay after visiting his grandmother, Trixie. Rene came for a job with Max.”

“And I found love,” she said, standing on her tiptoes, silently wanting Cole to give her a kiss.

Cole just shook his head, kissed Rene, then lifted his son into his arms and started to bounce him around since he looked to be getting fussy. “Why don’t you get his bottle? I’ve got him.” Rene left the two of them. “You remember Celeste, I’m sure.”

Trevor had noticed Celeste sitting at the table with Nick and Mallory, along with another guy. “Yeah. Is that her husband?”

“It is. Caleb Ryder. He works for Nick.”

Trevor paused, then said, “That’s a little too much of six degrees of separation, if you ask me.”

“It only gets better, Trevor,” Amber Deacon said, coming up next to his side, having heard his comment.

Everyone knew Amber. Or she knew everyone, depending on how you looked at it. But she’d also been a year behind him in school. “This is my husband, Zach Monroe. He also works with Nick.”

“You’re joking, right? What, did Nick move his company here?”

Amber laughed, but Zach reached his hand out, forcing Trevor to shuffle the bowl he was still holding. “Nice to meet you. No, that’d be a little hard to do with Nick employing as many as he does, but we’re all scattered all over the US. I’m only here half the time myself.”

Trevor stored that information away and decided he was going to find out what type of business Nick owned at another time.

“He’s only your husband because you couldn’t wait until August,” Rene said, walking back over and taking TJ out of Cole’s hands.

“Don’t be jealous I beat you to the altar. That was all your choice.”

Now Trevor was beginning to understand what Cole meant about chaos. And these people all worked together, it seemed.

“I didn’t want to be wearing a mumu to my wedding.”

“You still would have looked beautiful,” Cole said, then rolling his eyes at Trevor and added, “Come on, let’s get out of here while we can.”

“Thanks,” Trevor said. “I kind of felt ambushed there and I’m not sure why.”

“Expect a lot of that today. There is always this humorous bickering between everyone. Where’s Riley that she left you unarmed for the moment?”

Trevor laughed. Cole always had a good sense of humor. “Pushed this bowl of green stuff in my hands and took off. I’m not even sure what it is, let alone where it’s supposed to go.”

Cole looked down. “Looks like a jar of TJ’s peas.”

“It’s guacamole,” Riley said, coming up behind them. “It’s good for you. No sugar to damage your teeth. Trevor doesn’t like the dentist, Cole. Did you know that?”

“Could have fooled me.”

“Cute,” Trevor told Riley, right as she walked away from him again, leaving him still holding the green goop. “Really? Is this some kind of a game and I’ve got to guess where to go?”

“She’s coming back,” Cole said, snickering, “and there she goes again. You on duty tonight?”

“On call like normal. You’re not, I’m assuming.” Troopers were always in uniform. Trevor liked that he could get away with jeans and a shirt most of the time. No one ever said a word to him about it, not that he’d care if they did. He got his fill of the uniform when he was an officer.

“About the same as you.”

Cole could be called out at any time as the only one to fly the chopper in the area. “I’m hoping for a quiet night.”

“Same here.” Cole paused, then added, “We could always use you at the barracks. You know it’s a given if you want in.”

“I’ll pass. We work well together. You guys know where to find me if you need me.”

“I’m back,” Riley said. “Come with me now and you can meet my mom and anyone else you don’t know.”

Trevor nodded his head to Cole and followed Riley, glad to get away from a conversation he didn’t feel like having again. He was happy where he was and wished everyone believed him.