Dawson stared at his phone, trying to make sense of the name on the screen. Charlotte. He knew who she was. But he didn’t know why she was calling him.

“You gonna answer that?” JJ took another bite of his turkey sandwich, the food that Stephen had brought in that day.

“Yeah.” He grabbed the phone and left his sandwich. “Yes.” He stood and walked away before swiping open the call only a moment before it would’ve gone to voicemail. “Charlotte?” Maybe the house had fallen down. It was pretty windy today.

“I got the job!” she said, her voice loud and full of glee.

He smiled, her joy infecting him through the phone line. “That’s great. I knew you’d get it.”

“I just…I didn’t know who to call, and yours is pretty much the only number I have in my phone.” She exhaled, the sound full of exhilaration. “Anyway, what time will you be back tonight?”

“I get off at seven,” he said. The last tour flew out at four, and he’d be back on land at six, with another hour to get his helicopter tuned up and ready for the night.

“I’m making dinner,” she said. “I don’t know what yet, but there will be a cake.”

Dawson wanted to ask if this was their date, but he bit back the words, very aware that JJ sat only a few paces away and had probably heard every word he’d said. “A celebration calls for cake,” he said. “I could pick one up, if you’d like.”

“I have a great recipe for this lemon cake,” she said, and Dawson lost his appetite for sweets. He thought if someone was to go to all the trouble of making a cake, it should at least have chocolate.

“Sounds great,” he said anyway, chalking the little fib up to kindness.

“Can I call you if I need you to stop and grab anything on the way back?”

“Sure,” he said. “But I can’t answer when I’m flying, and I’ve got two more tours this afternoon.”

“I’ll leave a message.”

“All right.” Dawson turned from the window, and sure enough, JJ watched him, his sandwich gone now. If Dawson didn’t get back to his lunch, JJ would probably eat it too. “Talk to you later.”

He hung up and rejoined his friend at the table. “The woman I’m staying with for a few more days.”

“Have you signed a lease then?”

“Sort of.”

JJ raised his eyebrows and reached for a bag of chips.

“I can’t sign until the end of the month,” he said. “I’m going over on Wednesday next week. Moving next Saturday.”

“And you’re doing something with this Charlotte tonight after work?”

Dawson stuffed a huge bite of turkey and bread in his mouth and shook his head. In the time it took him to chew and swallow, though, he really hoped tonight was something instead of nothing. But JJ didn’t need to know that—Charlotte either. He’d already said too much to her, and the picture of her shocked face from that morning when he’d asked her out and then told her he was moving flashed through his mind.

“No,” he said after he’d swallowed. “She got a job, and she’s making a cake. It’s not anything.”

JJ let the subject drop, but Dawson’s mind spun around Charlotte’s phone call. He didn’t have all the details yet, but something traumatic had happened in her past. Her recent past, if her sudden appearance in Getaway Bay was any indication.

By the time he rumbled up to the house in his Land Rover, darkness had started to stain the sky a navy blue. The sunset from this vantage point on the island never got old, and Dawson took one last minute to enjoy it before going inside.

The scent of sugar hung in the air, and if he didn’t know better…. “Chocolate,” he said as he stepped into the kitchen to find her putting the finishing touches on a cake covered in chocolate frosting.

“Looks amazing,” he said, drinking her in before switching his gaze to the cake before she caught him admiring her.

“I was hoping you’d grill.” She indicated a plate of seasoned steaks.

“Wow, you pulled out all the stops.” He scanned the counter and found homemade coleslaw, two bags of chips, and as he watched, she stepped over to the oven and pulled out a sheet tray with cheesy baked potatoes on it.

His mouth watered, and his gaze drifted back to Charlotte. “I’m going to regret this in the morning, aren’t I?”

She laughed, her head falling back a little to expose that slender neck. Dawson’s blood heated, and he grabbed the plate of steaks and backed away from her. Maybe he simply hadn’t been out with a woman in too long.

Sure, he’d go if JJ set him up, but none of those women had even come close to exciting him. But Charlotte lit every fuse in him, and he went out onto the deck without a way to start the grill.

He took a deep breath, hoping the fresh air would clear his head, before going back inside to get a lighter. Charlotte wasn’t in the kitchen, but Dawson didn’t look for her. They were obviously having dinner and dessert tonight, and he wondered if he should bring up his invitation from that morning.

But he’d been hoping to move out before he started dating her. “So this isn’t a date,” he said as the flames roared to life on the grill. He closed the top and added, “It’s just a celebration meal, because she got a job.”

This lie felt like a real lie to himself, not one done out of kindness to preserve someone’s feelings. No matter what he labeled this dinner, it was going to be a date.

He watched the temperature gauge on the grill and put the steaks on when it reached four hundred degrees. After setting a timer on his phone, he moved over to the hammock and sank into it, a low groan coming from deep in his core.

He shouldn’t be so stiff and tired from sitting in a chair all day. His exhaustion was mental, not physical, as it did take a lot of brain power to fly a complicated machine like a helicopter, tell jokes, and dispense Hawaiian history over and over again.

At least he had tomorrow off. He wondered what Charlotte would be doing, when she’d start her new job, and if they could spend the day together. Those thoughts rotated and softened as Dawson started to doze.

The scent of smoke and something burning filled his nose at the same time his timer went off, startling him back to full consciousness.

He got out of the hammock and hurried over to the grill, his senses on full alert now. He flipped the steaks and set another timer, but he didn’t go back to the hammock. Everything else was ready, and they were just waiting on him to eat dinner.

With the steaks done, he flipped off the propane and entered the house. “Ready,” he called. The plate had been on the counter beside the twice-baked potatoes for five seconds when Charlotte came rushing downstairs. Her hair was damp and she combed her fingers through it.

Dawson couldn’t help staring at her with those strawberry blonde locks, that bright coral-colored shirt, and those shorts…. He swallowed and tore his eyes from the length of her bare legs, half-wishing she’d wore a longer pair of shorts. Or maybe he didn’t.

“Looks great.” She smiled at him and pulled out real dishes. He’d been using the bowls for his cereal in the morning, and he pulled open the silverware drawer to get out real forks and knives.

They moved around one another, not speaking, as they scooped coleslaw onto their plates, and Charlotte opened both bags of chips and Dawson took the largest, cheeiest potato for himself.

Instead of sitting at the bar where he usually did, he followed Charlotte to the dining room table, only a few steps from the sliding doors that led to the deck. She’d placed the cake there, along with a couple of small plates and two more forks.

She sat on the end facing the windows, and Dawson sat to her right, his knee practically touching hers underneath the table. His stomach felt so tight, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to swallow anything though he hadn’t eaten for hours and hours.

“Steak sauce,” she said, jumping up from the table and returning to the fridge. She returned with the bottle and set it on the table between them. “What are you doing tomorrow?”

“Look,” he said. “I just have to know.” He was going to regret asking her, he was sure. “Is this the dinner date? Or are we just….” He didn’t know how to finish the sentence. He wanted to be her friend, sure. But the kind that held hands as they got to know each other, as they cuddled together on the couch and watched the sun set. That kind of friend really interested him when it came to Charlotte.

“I got divorced four months ago,” she said, forking up a bite of coleslaw. “My husband met another woman while we were still married, and decided he liked her more than me.” When she met his eyes, Dawson saw vulnerability mixed in with the hurt. “I didn’t come here to start dating.”

“Okay,” he said, because what else was there? He wasn’t going to push himself on her when she clearly wasn’t ready. He cut off a corner of his steak and reached for the bottle of sauce. At least he hadn’t overcooked the meat, because that would be a real slap in the face, as if her words hadn’t stung enough.

“What about you?” she asked.

“What about me?”

“Ever been married?” She took that bite of coleslaw and watched him with those gorgeous sea foam green eyes. He might have imagined the slight blush in her face that made her freckles stand out a bit more.

“No,” he said.

“By choice?”

“Isn’t it always by choice?”

“Well, some people don’t have much opportunity to meet someone, so maybe not.”

“I—” His throat seized. Was he really going to tell her about Janet so soon? “I suppose I had an opportunity, and it didn’t work out.”

“Oh?”

“We all have regrets,” he said, hoping that would close the conversation for now. “I’m off tomorrow. When do you start work at the wedding planner?”

“I have to take the paperwork back tomorrow, and then I’ll know.” She flashed him a smile. “Maybe after that, we can work in the yard.”

“Yard work is something you do early in the morning around here.”

“Don’t you run in the morning?”

How she knew that, Dawson wasn’t sure. “If we’re going to be doing yard work, I can skip the running.”

“I want to put down the weed barrier and get some new plants and bushes for the beds lining the house. Then we’ll order rock too.” She spoke as if he had any decision-making power for how she’d landscape her yard.

But he already felt foolish, so he didn’t argue. “Sure.”

“And I need to buy a car.”

“Sounds like a lot for one day.” She obviously hadn’t bought a vehicle recently, otherwise she would know it took hours just to sign papers and get loans, which required more paper-signing.

“Let’s do the yard work until it’s too hot. Then I can go into town and drop off my paperwork and go see about a car. I’ve already looked online and called someone.”

“Oh, you’re buying used?”

Their eyes locked, and Dawson refused to believe he was the only one who felt the fire flaming between them. She had to notice it, and by the way her eyes sparked, she did. She just didn’t want to do anything about it. Didn’t she know what happened when a wildfire was allowed to burn, unchecked?

“Yes,” she finally said. “I found a car I can afford, and I’m going to buy it tomorrow. Cash.”

So maybe it would only take a few minutes.

“We can go to the nursery after that,” she said. “But the car I’m getting is small.” She started swiping on her phone and turned it toward him. “See?”

He peered at the tiny red two-seater. It looked like a fun, flirty car a man in his midlife crisis would buy. It seemed perfect for her, though. “Yeah, that definitely won’t hold more than a flat of petunias.”

She laughed and said, “That’s where you come in. You and that big SUV hogging the driveway.”

“Oh, using me again.”

“Well, you have the muscles and the machine.” She shrugged like it was a no-brainer, and he couldn’t help chuckling.

Dinner continued, and he got over his earlier humiliation. The conversation was easy, and the laughter flowed easily. And wow, he had no idea lemon and chocolate could create such a party in his mouth.

And no matter what Charlotte said, the evening felt like a date. Sounded like a date. She acted like it was a date. So when she finally excused herself and went upstairs to bed, Dawson stared after her, glad their first date had gone so well.