Pan didn't have a lot of friends in the town—the few women she considered friends all lived in the next county south. It was only since first Phoebe’s marriage and then Pip’s that they’d socialized in Masterson again.

They had good reason for it; her sister Pip had been attacked at the community center one night. She had narrowly missed being raped. The man who had attacked her had returned recently, and had nearly killed her and Matt.

Pan would always be leery being in Masterson, but she loved spending time with the various cousins who populated the county.

And after a week recuperating from the accident, she’d been more than ready to grab a ride with Pip when Pip had headed in to meet up with Matt.

She needed to see people besides Levi and his brothers. Or Pip and Phoebe. She needed someone who could be objective.

And she needed to talk to her insurance company about her car. Soon.

But first—she needed someone to talk to. Her cousin Nikki had been working on the movie set several times over the last week—Rowland Bowles was using Nikki as a body double for Pan when needed. They’d do the shots of her face when they got a chance.

Her four female cousins were some of the best friends she could claim. And she liked it that way.

Tylers ran toward boys—there were twenty-two male cousins in her generation, and only she, her sisters, Maggie, and Nikki, Andrea and Maisy for the girls. A good deal of those male cousins were older. The eldest Tyler, Martin, was right around thirty-five or so.

Having so many male cousins around did have its drawbacks. For her, her sisters and her female cousins.

Tylers could be a little overprotective, especially of the women.

Even more so after what had happened to Phoebe and Pip. And even Perci, she had been injured when Pip had. Perci had just gotten out of the cast three weeks ago, after all.

None of the Tyler men were overjoyed at the prospect of the movie company that had flooded the town. It made it a little difficult for her to meet up with Nikki the way she had wanted. Nikki was actually closer to Pip and Perci's age, but since her two sisters rarely went into town by themselves, Pan was the one who saw Nikki, Maggie, and their cousins the most. If she had best friends, those two were it. Maggie had a job interview in the North corner of the county, so she wasn’t able to meet them today. But Pan timed things so that she could hit Nikki's bookstore just as her cousin was heading out to lunch.

Nikki was one of the extras in the Rowland Bowles movie, but Pan did not think her quietest cousin was enjoying it. In fact, Maggie had pestered Nikki into doing it so Maggie didn’t have to do it alone. Nikki planned to funnel all of the money she earned—she had a few lines in the movie—into her struggling business. A bookstore in the middle of Masterson—well, it was going to be a struggle for very long time. Most people ordered what they wanted off the Internet these days. But Nikki's mother had opened the book store when Nikki was just a small girl; she and her brothers had a sentimental attachment to the place. Nikki ran it, while her brothers ran their ranch just south of town.

Money was always tight. But money was always tight for the Tylers. Things had only marginally gotten better for her branch of the Tylers when her sisters had married the Mastersons, and her father and Levi had hatched this experimental line of cattle scheme that her father was pinning all of his hopes on.

A small brush of worry Pan did not want to feel hit her.

Levi and her father were investing so much hope into this experiment, she couldn't help but worry about them being disappointed.

She waited for Nikki to lock the doors to the bookstore. They had at least a five block walk ahead of them. And Pan was still pretty achy from the still healing bruises.

In the rain.

Pan pulled the jacket she’d grabbed off the hook by the back door of the Masterson home tighter around her shoulders. She'd known when she slipped it on that it was his.

Somehow, she didn't think Levi would mind.

She didn't know why she’d grabbed his and not one of the others—Pip and Phoebe had both had jackets hanging right there that she could've borrowed easily. But she'd grabbed Levi's.

Freudian slip? No doubt. The man was driving her crazy. She didn't know what to do about him. Still, his coat was warm and smelled just like him. It made her feel safe; for some reason, she needed that today. Joel waited outside the diner, and Pan stopped for a moment to speak with her brother-in-law. Joel was the one who had actually changed their world. He had certainly changed Phoebe's—but only for good. Joel and Matt were the best brothers-in-law she could have and she knew it.

It was just their brother she couldn’t stop thinking about.

Leave it to Levi to completely confuse her; she'd been thinking about nothing for two days. He’d left with her father to go to Texas again. He hadn’t wanted to leave her. Pan had seen that in his eyes when he told her goodbye just that morning. He hadn't known when he would be back, either.

Pan missed him. Seriously missed him more than she ever thought possible. It was pathetic. What did that say about her? She was not going to fall for Levi Masterson. She wasn't about to just fall in line—it wasn't going to happen.

She and Nikki headed inside the diner. Joel was waiting for someone, but he'd made a point of checking on her when she walked by. Her sister's husband seemed to think he had to assume the responsibility for her and her siblings. She like Joel but Pan needed to make her own way. Just to see if she could. She turned and followed her cousin inside the diner. It was time to put Levi away for now. At least until she figured out exactly how she felt.