Everything looks the same, but it feels different.

“Hi, Dahlia!” Martha says, waving as I bike past her bakery. “How was Vegas?”

“Interesting,” I say, cringing as I pedal past her.

“Come back on your lunch break. I want to hear all about it,” she says, tapping the ashes from her cigarette as I hurry down the street. “The coffee is on me!”

I wave to her as I keep biking through the town of Summerland, breathing in the cool morning air on my way to work.

What part does she want to hear? The part where I got married to a stranger, or the part where I got caught by my boss and father-in-law having sex with that same stranger at work?

She probably wants to hear it all, but I definitely don’t need that story getting out around town. I’m taking that one to my grave.

I close my eyes and shake my head as I pass the small diner where Audrey is writing down the daily specials in chalk on a blackboard.

“Hi, Dahlia,” she says, smiling at me.

I say hi back to her, but I don’t stop. I don’t feel like talking to anyone this morning.

It’s my first day back at work in Summerland, and I should be happy and relieved to be home, but I’m not. The familiar town that I love feels different.

Maybe it feels different because I’m different now.

Or maybe I’m just upset.

I turn onto Blueberry Lane, waving to John who’s walking down the sidewalk as I head to work.

There’s a heaviness in my chest as I pedal down the beautiful streets, ducking my head as I roll under the huge maple tree on Lou and Cynthia’s front lawn.

He never came to say goodbye.

It still hurts.

Yes, it was humiliating to get caught by his cousin and his father, and yes, we weren’t married by choice, but we had still been through a lot together, and he should have come to say goodbye.

But he didn’t.

I usually look around, enjoying the beautiful view as I bike to work, but today I’m just looking forward with an empty stare. I didn’t realize how much I liked having Tyler around until now. And now it’s too late.

He’s not going to want me around after what happened.

I still cringe every time I think about it. Tyler and I sitting in front of Mack’s desk with our eyes in our laps while he tore us a new one. I’ll never forget sitting there with no panties on, my inner thighs sticky wet, the taste of Tyler’s come still coating my mouth, all while the head of the company I work for blasted us for being immature, sexual freaks.

I can’t imagine what he must have been thinking when he walked in and saw his son with a ball gag strapped to his mouth, whipping his half naked wife with a whip in the office that he built from the ground up.

My knuckles turn white as I squeeze my handlebars, thinking of Nick and the satisfied smirk on his face as he watched us trying to explain what we were doing while we got dressed in a panic.

He had a key to Tyler’s office. He was the one who opened the door hoping to find us in a compromising situation, and he hit the fucking jackpot.

After chewing us out for half an hour, Mack told us both that we would be fired if it ever happened again. He then turned to Tyler and told him that he just used up his last chance. If Tyler did one more thing to displease him at work, he’d be out of the running for the top position at McMillan Worldwide Inc.

I left the office shortly after that and just hung around in my hotel room feeling sorry for myself, waiting for the phone to ring. It was my last night in Vegas, and I was hoping Tyler would come over for some support. Some comfort.

Some anything.

But the phone never rang. The door was silent.

He never came.

I got on my plane the next morning, and here I am, back in the town that I love, which now feels strangely empty and distant.

The factory comes into view as I turn down Foresthill street on my old bike. I returned the Ferrari to the dealership before I left and had the money refunded to Tyler’s account.

It was impractical anyway, and I just couldn’t keep it after what happened.

And what can I say? I love my bike.

“Hey, boss!” the security guard, Michael, says, coming out of the booth as I approach. He has a big smile on his face as I skid to a stop in front of him. “How was Sin City?” he asks with a grin as I step off my bike. “I know, I know. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”

I wish that was true, but unfortunately the tattoo on my ass refused to stay on the West Coast.

“That’s right,” I say, forcing out a smile as he takes my bike and places it on the bike rack for me. “Anything happen while I was gone?”

Michael shrugs. “Nothing but a pesky raccoon who keeps trying to get into the garbage cans.”

I smile. Nothing ever happens in Summerland. Just the way I like it.

We wish each other a good day, and I join the line of workers who are walking into the factory. The huge Hospitech sign has been taken down over the entrance and has been replaced with a shiny new sign that says McMillan Worldwide Inc.

I keep my head low and my shoulders up as I take the stairs up to my office. I’m still upset at how the Vegas trip ended, and I don’t really feel like having fifteen hundred and ninety-two people asking me how it went. I just want to sneak into my office, lock the door, and get back to work while I still have a job to get back to work on.

With Tyler likely out of the running for Mack’s promotion, this factory will probably get closed down, and I’ll probably be let go along with it.

I take a deep breath as I arrive at my office and pull out my key. I stick it in the lock, but the door is already open. That’s weird.

“Good morning, Mrs. McMillan,” a familiar voice says as I swing the door open.

I jump back, swallowing a scream as I see Tyler sitting in my chair with his feet on my desk. It takes a second for my confusion to dissipate, but when it does I’m smiling like a crazy person.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, staring at him in shock.

He smiles as he takes his feet off my desk and stands up. “I came to see my beautiful wife,” he says, looking ravishing in a dark fitted suit.

I tilt my head and raise an eyebrow as I narrow my eyes on him. “Great. And what’s the real reason?”

“You kept raving about Summerland, so I decided to come have a little visit.”

“And?”

He nods as he walks to the window and looks out. “It’s cute. I can see why you like it.”

My heart starts pounding as I slowly walk over to him and look out the window as well. The workers are still pouring into the factory, holding their coffee thermoses and lunch boxes.

“So, are you here on vacation?” I ask, watching him from the corner of my eye. He’s wearing a black suit with a gray tie, looking gorgeous as usual. He’s beautiful by Vegas standards, but in Summerland, he’s a full-blown God.

“Business,” he says, turning to me with a smile. “And of course, to see you. You really came through for me last week, and I appreciate it, even though it didn’t work out quite as we had planned.”

“Is your father still mad?”

He laughs. “Furious.”

I close my eyes, wanting to die of embarrassment.

But Tyler just laughs. “It’s not the first time he’s caught me having sex. The first time was in grade ten with Rebecca Forrester. He got over that time, he’ll get over this time too.”

“But the promotion?”

“We’ll see what happens,” he says with a sigh. “But it’s not looking good.”

“I’m sorry,” I say, feeling awful.

He shrugs. “It was my idea,” he says, looking back out the window. “We should have stayed professional like you wanted to.”

I decide not to remind him that it was me who put the ball gag in his mouth and strapped it to his head.

“So, what are you doing here?” I ask, feeling my stomach harden. “Closing the factory?”

He shakes his head. “Not exactly. I’m here to live up to my side of the deal. You went along with everything back in Vegas, so now I’m here to help you find a way to save the factory. Plus, it seemed like a really good idea to lay low and stay away from my father for a few days.”

“A few days?” I ask, feeling my pulse start to race. Tyler is going to be here for a few days?

“What ten-star hotel are you staying at in Summerland?” I ask with a laugh. There are zero hotels within an hour’s drive from here.

He smiles as he looks down at me. “Aunt Wilma’s Inn.”

“Oh,” I say, laughing at him. “Fancy. She makes delicious crumpets, but I’ve heard there’s no hot water past seven a.m.”

“Good to know,” he says with a nod. “Thanks.”

The thought of Tyler staying at a place like Aunt Wilma’s Inn keeps making me giggle. I keep wondering how he likes the dusty flowered curtains and the small bathrooms with the separate faucets, one for hot and one for cold. If I was out of my element in Vegas, he is definitely out of his element here in Summerland.

“Come,” I say, hooking my arm around his. “I’ll show you around.”

“Please do,” he says, following me with a grin. “I want to see where my wife is from.”

* * *

“You expect me to ride on that?” Tyler asks, staring at my bike.

“What’s the problem?” I ask with a laugh as I ring the bell on the handlebars. After spending the day touring the factory, introducing Tyler to the workers, and unsuccessfully trying to find a financial solution that would allow the factory to stay open, I’m taking him back to Aunt Wilma’s Inn. And we’re taking my bike.

“The problem is I buy you a half-million-dollar car and you expect me to ride on a rusty old bike,” he says, crossing his arms as he stares at my beloved bike with an unamused look on his face.

“You mean Lightning over here?” I ask, slapping the seat. “She’s reliable and sturdy.”

“So is a Ferrari.”

My cheeks turn a guilty red as I look away.

“I got a call from the dealership,” he says, tilting his head as he stares at me. “Why did you return it?”

I sigh. “It was too much, Tyler. And I couldn’t replace poor Lightning like that? She would have been devastated.”

He rolls his eyes and laughs. “Rainbow and Lightning,” he whispers to himself, clearly amused. “She’s a tad rusty.”

I shrug my shoulders as I get up on her. “Perhaps she could use an upgrade, but I like to ride around town on a bike. I’m not a Ferrari kind of gal.”

“All right,” he says, dropping his arms to his sides. “I have to try out this bike that rides better than a half-million-dollar Ferrari.”

I grin as I scooch forward. “Then hop on.”

He’s looking at me in shock. “I don’t get to drive it?”

I shake my head. “Nobody drives Lightning but me. You couldn’t handle her.”

He smiles as he climbs on the back, sitting on the long seat as I stand up. “She’s not the only one I can’t handle,” he whispers as I start pedaling.

I take him on a tour of the town and he seems to love it. We ride through the huge park in town, riding around the lake where the kids are feeding the swans and past the volleyball courts where the factory’s janitors are taking on the factory’s marketing department in a competitive game of beach volleyball.

“This is the opposite of Vegas,” Tyler says as we head down the main street past the mom-and-pop Hardware store and the old firehouse, which is now a cute little library.

“I know,” I say, smiling at the complete lack of obnoxious blinking lights. “Isn’t it great?”

Tyler doesn’t answer, but I can tell he likes it. He keeps looking around and pointing at the old Victorian architecture, the kids playing street hockey, and the neighbors who are out on their lawns actually talking to each other.

“I can see why you like it so much,” he says when we pull into town and take a break. My legs are killing from pedaling for so long with his huge body on the back.

“It’s worth trying to save,” I say as I rest my bike on a large maple tree. “And you haven’t even experienced the best part of Summerland.”

He looks right at me and smiles. “I think I’m experiencing it right now.”

I grab his hand and pull him down the cobblestone sidewalk. “I’m talking about Lou’s submarines. They’re absolutely phenomenal.”

“What about your bike?” Tyler says, looking back over his shoulder. “Don’t you have to lock it up?”

I chuckle. “Not in Summerland.”

We walk over to Lou’s submarine shop, and I order two large subs with everything on them and two root beers to go.

Tyler insists on paying since I did all of the pedaling, and I’m not about to argue about that. We walk to a nice bench under a beautiful weeping willow tree and sit down to eat our sloppy but delicious dinners.

“Wow,” he says, staring at me with wide eyes after he takes the first bite. “Incredible.”

“I know, right?” I say through a mouthful of chewed-up food. This is my favorite dinner in the world, and it tastes even better with Tyler by my side.

We sit in a comfortable silence as we eat and watch the people casually walking around with a relaxed vibe that only a small town like Summerland can provide. I’m surprised how nice and natural it feels to have Tyler sitting here with me in my town. It feels even more homey than usual.

“What happened to your parents?” he asks as he crumples up the wrapping after he’s finished his sub.

“They probably took off to God knows where again without saying goodbye,” I say, taking a deep breath. “If you’re looking for your six-hundred-dollar investment, I’m afraid it’s blown up in smoke.”

He laughs. “That’s what I was expecting.”

“I’m sorry again about them,” I say, feeling embarrassed like I always do when I think of my parents.

Tyler shakes his head. “Sorry for what? They’re super cute together. After all this time, all they need is each other. You can tell how absolutely in love they are.”

I take my last bite as I watch an elderly couple in the distance, shuffling through the park. My parents never needed careers or a fancy house or expensive cars. All they needed was each other. All they needed was love.

I crunch up the brown paper bag and toss it in the garbage. And they left me to do everything else.

“All right,” I say, pushing the thoughts of my parents out of my head. “Your tour is almost finished. My legs are starting to get tired.”

“I can drive.”

“No way,” I say, shaking my head. “Nobody rides Lightning but me.”

Tyler gets up and we walk back to my bike, enjoying the gorgeous evening, and enjoying each other’s company.

“Back to Aunt Wilma’s Inn?” he asks when I climb onto my bike. “Want to come hang out with me? The flowered curtains are sick. You won’t regret it.”

I’m sure I wouldn’t. But if we end up hanging out in private, we’re definitely going to end up having sex.

“I don’t think so,” I say with a laugh. “I don’t want all five rooms and poor Auntie Wilma herself to hear us having sex through the thin paper walls.”

Oh, shit. That just slipped out.

Tyler’s face lights up like the Vegas strip at midnight. “I didn’t say anything about sex,” he says with a grin, “but now that it’s out there, let’s figure out where we want to do it.”

“Forget it,” I say, looking forward. “I changed my mind.”

“Too late,” he says with a grin. “It’s out there. We’re doing this.”

“We just had dinner, we went on a walk, so technically this is our first date,” I say. “And I never put out on a first date.”

He sighs. “That’s fair,” he says, looking understanding but also a bit disappointed. “But now that I have you on a first date, what would you like to do?”

“Let’s rent a movie,” I say, climbing off my bike. I grab his hand and pull him across the street. “There’s a video store a block away from here.”

“I didn’t think they still had these,” he says, looking awed as we walk into the video store. “I thought they were extinct.”

“They are,” I say, smiling at the guy who’s reading a comic book behind the counter, “but Summerland is one of a kind. It’s frozen in time.”

“I can see that,” Tyler says, picking up a cheesy action movie and looking at the back.

“It’s part of its charm,” I say, taking the action movie from his hands and putting it back on the shelf. “Let’s watch something good.”

We walk through the aisles of the small shop, browsing the movies and arguing over which movies are good and which are bad. I’m shocked when we reach the romance section and he hasn’t seen any of them.

“Even The Notebook?” I ask, holding up the DVD with a disbelieving look on my face.

“Haven’t seen it,” he says, crinkling his nose up when he takes the DVD from my hands. “I wouldn’t take you as the type who likes romantic movies.”

I’ve heard that before. You can’t have romance and a career, but just because I’ve chosen the latter doesn’t mean I don’t need a fix of romance once in a while. I can’t have it in real life, so I watch the movies instead.

“We’re getting it,” I say, ripping the DVD from his hands and heading to the cash.

“Hey!” Tyler says, opening his arms in protest. “Don’t I get a say? It’s my hotel room. I should get a say.”

I shake my head as I plop The Notebook on the counter and pull out my wallet. “Then we’ll watch it at my house. Now you get zero says.”

I pay for the movie and we head back to my place. This time I let Tyler bike and I sit on the back, wrapping my arms around his hard stomach. With abs like these, I’ll let him pedal more often.

This is starting out as a really good first date.