There was something behind those green eyes of Sara’s that Parker couldn’t get over.

He hadn’t lied about not regretting things. His grandmother had raised him to look to the future, not toil over the past.

“Where you’ve been in life molds you into the person you’ll be tomorrow,” she would often say.

So, even though he’d fallen hard and fast three different times and crawled away each time with a broken heart and, on one occasion, an empty bank account, he’d never looked back.

But Sara claiming to have never been in love and her hesitation to own up to being in a relationship told him the door was still open.

He wasn’t looking for another roller-coaster ride of a relationship, but he couldn’t deny the instant attraction he felt for her. And he knew she felt something too. It was right there, behind those sexy eyes of hers.

Glancing up, he noticed the redhead waving at Sara.

“It looks like you’re needed.” He nodded towards the bar. Carrie was desperately trying to get Sara’s attention. He watched as the two women frantically signed across the space at one another.

“What was that about?” he asked when Carrie disappeared towards the front.

“Nothing.” She glanced down at his plate, “Well, I have to…” She motioned for him to get out of the booth.

“Oh.” He started to move but stopped when he noticed a tall dark-haired man quickly approaching their table, followed closely by Carrie.

“I tried to…” She stopped talking when the man arrived at their table.

“So, this is how it is?” The tone in the man’s voice told Parker that this was who Sara was currently or had recently been involved with.

Parker stood quickly, since he wasn’t sure if the man was going to pounce on him or not.

“Parker Clark.” He held out his hand. “I was just meeting with Miss Jordan and her uncle about the work I’ll be doing around here.

The man’s chest seemed to deflate in front of him.

“Meeting?” he asked.

Sara slid out of the booth behind him. “What are you doing here, Aiden?” Sara crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the man.

“Betty had lunch here and she mentioned to my mother at the grocery store that she saw you snuggling in a booth with some man down at the Golden Oar.” His eyes flew between them quickly. “When my mother told me—”

“Your first thought was to come down here and what? Bash someone’s face in?”

“Well… no,” he finally admitted, running his hand through his dark hair.

“Aiden, we both know…” Sara stopped talking and looked between the men. Then, without another word, she took Aiden’s arm and pulled him towards the front door.

As soon as the pair was clear of the room, he gathered his belongings, paid his bill, and made his way out of the building. He was still in a good mood about Iian Jordan agreeing to his plans and because of the conversation he’d had with Sara.

Seeing the couple still arguing in the parking lot only reassured him that there was hope yet. He shoved his laptop and the binder with the samples in the back seat of his truck and tried not to overhear what they were saying.

He was just about to climb in the truck when hands spun him around and suddenly, Sara was plastered against him, her lips crushing his in a wild kiss with a heat he’d never felt before.

He only had time to register the softness of her lips before they were gone.

“See,” she said angrily, turning away from him before he could lock eyes with her. “I’m free to kiss whomever I want, whenever.”

“I’m warning you…” Aiden started as he moved closer to them.

Sara crossed her arms over her chest and threw her chin up. “What? What will you do?”

To his credit, the man stopped a few feet away from them. Parker saw his eyes turn sad. “You’re playing with fire,” he said in a low tone.

“Oh, and you weren’t when you slept with Jenny?” she threw back.

At that point, Parker had ideas of quietly sliding into his truck and driving away, except he was still pretty much pinned between Sara and his door. If he moved, he was sure she’d spin on him and… well, he didn’t know, but he didn’t want to chance it.

So he stood there and listened to the argument. From what he could gather, Aiden had cheated on her, which had led to the couple taking a break. Aiden appeared to be under the assumption the hiatus was over. Sara was not.

“I told you… I didn’t sleep with Jenny.”

“No, you just finger banged her in the back seat of your car in this very parking lot.” Sara’s voice was surprisingly calm.

“Sara.” Aiden made a move forward, but Sara threw up her hands.

“I think you need to go.” Parker finally jumped in, after seeing that the situation wasn’t going to solve itself anytime soon.

Sara turned on him and he got a full view of her green eyes. He’d expected anger, hurt, and pain. Instead, he could only see relief and a little annoyance. What was strange was that the annoyance was aimed at him instead of the guy who’d cheated on her.

Aiden took the hint though and took a step back. “We’ll talk later, once you’ve calmed down.” The man continued to back up as his eyes narrowed at him. He could tell that the guy was sizing him up.

They were similar in size, but Parker worked a physically demanding job every day and worked out, so he easily out-muscled the guy.

“Business meeting,” Aiden mumbled as he turned around and walked away.

“So, that was your…” His eyebrows rose slightly as he let the question hang in the air. Aiden drove out of the parking lot, the rocks of the gravel crunching and spraying behind him.

Sara’s eyes narrowed towards him as she took a step towards him. Heat flooded them and they turned emerald green. His own eyes locked and held there, enjoying the color change.

They had been sitting next to one another before, but now, looking down at her, he could just imagine how wonderful she would feel pressed up against him.

What would it feel like to kiss those lips again? This time he’d be in charge and take what he wanted. He’d make sure to go slower and a hell of a lot longer than before.

His eyes moved down to her lips and held there. He heard her breath hitch and smiled as she swayed slightly towards him. Reaching up, he held her shoulders gently to steady her.

“Are you okay?” he asked when she remained silent.

She surprised him by leaning a little closer as she spoke.

“Thanks for your… help.” Her eyes dipped to his lips and his smile grew. “I’m sorry you had to witness that meltdown.”

“It wasn’t your fault.” His fingers moved up and down her arms slowly.

The sound of a car entering the parking area seemed to wake her up, and she took a giant step back as his arms dropped to his sides.

She blinked a few times and glanced around. “Yeah, well… thanks” Shaking her head slightly, she turned and walked back into the restaurant without a glance back.

* * *

Sara watched through the windows as Parker drove away from the Golden Oar. What was she thinking? She leaned her head against the glass and sighed. Why had she kissed him?

Aiden had egged her on and, in truth, he’d asked for any pain it had caused him. After all, finding out that your boyfriend had cheated on you and the entire town knew it was the worst kind of pain.

Not that they had made it to the next level in their relationship. They hadn’t really committed to one another.

Looking back, it was clear that they were doomed from the start. Dating the sheriff’s son wasn’t something she’d planned on. They’d grown up together and she’d always had a thing for him, but now… friendship was the only possibility left between them.

Her mind wandered back to that kiss. She’d wanted to hurt Aiden and hadn’t expected to get her socks knocked off when her lips touched Parker’s.

“You okay?” Carrie asked from behind her. “My brother can be… well, a jerk.”

“I’m fine.” Sara wondered how much of the fight everyone in the restaurant had witnessed. Then she remembered the kiss again and groaned. “How was the show?”

Carrie chuckled and glanced around. There were only a handful of employees and guests in the place at the moment, but still, news would spread quickly that she’d kissed the new guy in town.

“So, how was it?” Her friend took her arm and led her towards the back.

“What?” She tried to play dumb but knew Carrie was too smart for it. Carrie gave her a look. “Fine,” she lied, not wanting to go into details of how amazing the short kiss had been.

“It looked better than fine.” Carrie sighed and plopped herself down on the old sofa in Iian’s office. Even though her uncle didn’t like employees using his office as a break room, everyone did anyway. Her uncle was too much of a softy towards his employees and family to make a big fuss about it.

Leaning against the desk that had been her great-grandfather’s, she smiled. “The guy has sexy lips.”

“That’s not the only thing sexy on him.” Carrie sighed and leaned her head back. “Did you see those arms?”

An image of them flashed in her mind and she smiled.

“I’d like to get my hands…” Carrie stopped when Iian walked into the room.

“What is this, a slumber party?” he signed to them both. He sat behind his desk, looking a little disgusted. She knew him too well to take him seriously and chuckled.

Most everyone who worked at the Golden Oar knew at least basic sign language. Carrie had worked there since her freshman year in school and knew more than most.

“Sara kissed Parker,” Carrie signed, which earned her a look from Sara.

“Tattle-tale,” she said, making sure to have her back towards her uncle.

“What?” Iian jerked his eyes towards her. “Why?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Uncle. Maybe because he’s hot,” she said sarcastically.

“Damn it, Sara, the guy hasn’t even started working yet. I don’t need another relationship wrecking my business plans.”

Iian glanced towards Carrie, who quickly stood up and walked out of the room without another word.

Joshua, Carrie’s ex-boyfriend, had been a chef there, a damn good one, but after a messy breakup, which no one in town knew the details of, he’d packed up and moved out of Pride. He’d been gone almost a month now, and Carrie hadn’t gotten back in the dating game since.

Then again, Sara wasn’t looking forward to joining in the game either. Pride wasn’t the smallest town in the world. In the past ten years, it had grown from a little more than a thousand to almost three thousand people. Still, the dating pool was very shallow. Most of the people her age had immediately left Pride after graduation.

People who moved to town tended to bring their significant others with them. Aiden was one of the few guys in her class to stick around.

“I just did it to get back at Aiden,” she admitted. When it was just the two of them in the room, she didn’t even bother speaking out loud. She’d grown up learning American Sign Language as a second language. Her folks had joked that she’d learned it long before she’d actually spoken her first words.

Iian seemed to take that in, his eyes scanning hers. Then a slow smile formed on his lips, one that she’d never seen on him before.

“You’re the one who’s going to be stuck dealing with him for a month.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Hey, you signed up for the job. If you’re not ready—”

“No, I’m more than ready,” she broke in. “You know that.”

“Good.” Iian leaned back and looked very relaxed behind the big desk. “Now, why don’t you head in and see if everything is ready for the dinner rush. I’ve got some paperwork to catch up on before we leave.”

Making her way through the kitchen, she was assured everything was in place by Chef Valerie, who had taken over as head chef when Iian wasn’t there. The woman was older than everyone else who worked in the place but kept the employees on their toes and was so full of energy, sometimes the other’s complained that they couldn’t keep up with her.

Sara wasn’t working the evening shift so once everything was ready and the lunch rush was officially over, she clocked out, jumped in her Jeep, and headed home.

Living at your parents’ house when you’re coming up on your twenty-fourth birthday was a little depressing. Which is why she’d taken over one of the cabins at the family’s bed and breakfast a few months back. The blue cabin was one of the farthest cabins from the main house. She’d only moved her clothes and computers in with her when she’d moved out of her childhood bedroom.

Her mother had tried to talk her out of moving out, but her father had appeased her by pointing out that Sara would be close enough to still eat her meals with them when she was home.

She’d thought about renting Patty’s place above the grocery store, but currently there were renters in it, so she’d picked one of the small cabins with an incredible beach view.

Parking her Jeep beside her parents’ sedan, she climbed out and thought about heading into the main house to see what her family was up to. But on the off chance they’d heard about the parking lot incident, she decided to head straight to her place and sulk. She had a carton of Rocky Road she could probably empty.

Shutting the door behind her, she glanced around the small cabin and groaned. Laundry and dishes needed to be done, as well as a general overall cleaning.

She leaned her head back on the door. She didn’t want to focus on real life at the moment. Grabbing up her iPad, she took the container of ice cream and a spoon, snatched a light throw blanket, and headed for the beach.

The pathway that led her through the tall grass was well worn and would be lit after dark. Her brother and father had built new stairs and benches along the pathway a few years back. The electricity stretched from the farthest of the ten cabins, several of which had been built in her lifetime. The others had been remodeled shortly before her parents had started the business.

Her mother’s brother, Matthew, had purchased the property long ago. Matthew and Sara’s father, Todd Jordan, had been best friends. When Matthew had died in a car accident, her mother, Megan, had moved to Pride.

Once, when she was a child, Sara had overheard her parents talking about her mother’s past. She knew that she’d been married to a man named Derrick who had been very abusive. When she’d been pregnant with Sara’s brother, Matthew, named after his late uncle, her ex-husband had broken out of jail and kidnapped their mother. If it wasn’t for her father, her mother may not have survived, and Sara and her brother and younger sister wouldn’t be here.

Later, when she’d been in middle school, she’d overheard her parents talking about the man who’d almost killed their family before it had gotten started. Apparently, he’d died in a prison fight. It was the first time she’d heard her father curse.

“The bastard finally picked a fight with someone bigger than him and got what he deserved,” her father had said.

Sara settled in her favorite spot on the beach, a heavy piece of driftwood that had been smoothed out by years of rain and water hitting it and was perfectly shaped to her back. Tucking the blanket around her, she opened the ice cream and dug in as her eyes scanned to find her place in the book she was engrossed in.

A pint of ice cream and two chapters of her book later, she heard a dog barking in the distance and glanced around.

Seeing the person in the distance slightly annoyed her. It wasn’t a private beach, but still, most of the time when she came here, she was alone.

Of course, during tourist season, the place was full of families, but they were still a few weeks away from spring break at this point.

Shifting, she tried to see who was walking towards her before they got too close. The dog came into full view long before its owner did. Her book was all but forgotten as the dog came running up to her.

Its paws were bigger than its head and the puppy kept falling over them and anything else that got in its way.

She laughed and played with the dog and waited for his owner to approach her. When he finally came into view, she knew she wouldn’t get any more reading in that evening.