After the last few days she’d had, the very last thing Cam wanted to do was get dressed up and go to the anniversary dance at the high school. She’d managed to avoid all of the other meet-and-mingle events by picking up a last minute shift at work, but there was no way she’d be able to get out of the dance. Not without her friends descending upon her.

Now that she was home from what turned out to be a very slow shift—it seemed everyone was partaking in the festivities and not in the local skin show—all she really wanted to do was put her sweatpants on, climb into bed, and forget all about everything. Instead, she had a quick shower, blew out her now, much shorter hair, and slipped into the dress Amber had so generously bought her.

“Wow, Mom.”

Startled, she turned to see Morgan standing in the bathroom door, looking pretty wow herself.

“Oh, Morgan.” She brought her hand to her mouth and willed herself not to cry at the image of her daughter in something besides a black t-shirt, ripped jeans or a hoodie. “You look so…well…oh.”

She pulled her daughter into a hug and for the briefest moment before Morgan pushed her away again, reveled in her closeness. The moment was gone all too soon and Morgan slipped from her arms.

“I really like you in blue.” Cam had been surprised when she’d seen the outfit Morgan had picked out, but pleasantly so. The blue tank top brought out the brilliant color of her eyes and the skinny black pants complemented her curves perfectly.

Cam leaned against the doorjamb and watched as Morgan ran a brush through her hair and proceeded to apply makeup. She bit her tongue from suggesting that she go a little lighter on the eyeliner.

Morgan shrugged at the compliment.

“Hey.” Cam stood up straight. “I just had an idea. Stay right here.”

“As if I had anywhere else to go.”

Cam went to the front closet and dug out a box she’d shoved at the back and pulled out a pair of black strappy heels. She was going to wear them, but she had another pair that would go just as well with her dress. She took the shoes to the bathroom and held them out for Morgan. “Do you want to wear these tonight? I think they’ll look really good with—”

“Really?” Morgan spun around and moved to grab the shoes, stopping short as if Cam would snatch them back at the last minute.

“Yes,” she said. “I think they’ll look great on you.”

Morgan’s face split into a smile. “Yes. I totally want to wear them.”

She slipped them on right there in the bathroom and at once stood inches taller than Cam. “They’re perfect.”

Cam blinked back a tear. “No, baby. You’re perfect.”

Her mom made her drive to the dance with her, but to her surprise, Morgan didn’t mind. Not really. Besides, the second they pulled up, Christy hijacked her mom so she was saved from the mortification of actually walking into the school with her. The whole idea of a high school anniversary party was still so completely lame to her, but really when there wasn’t much going on in a backward town, in the middle of the sticks, maybe a fiftieth anniversary of a school was celebration worthy.

As far as Morgan was concerned, it just meant that her school was old.

But it probably wouldn’t be too totally lame.

Not with Trent there.

She tried not to be all girly and freak out at the idea of seeing him and kissing him again. They hadn’t kissed since the party at Jason’s house. He’d held her hand and hugged her and…she assumed that meant they were dating. Or whatever.

“Holy shit, hottie!”

Morgan turned so quickly on her heel that she stumbled a bit. Fortunately she caught herself as Jess ran toward her. “Whatever,” Morgan said. “Look at you.”

“It’s true.” Jess did a little pivot and flicked her long hair back over her shoulder. “We’re totally smoking. These guys aren’t going to know what hit them.”

“Where are they?” Morgan looked over the parking lot, which was full of students, past and present. Again, she was surprised by the sheer amount of people who’d come back to town just to celebrate an old school. “I thought Jason might have picked you up.”

“Nope. My parents wanted to drive and blah blah blah. Let’s go in. We need to put in our appearance.”

“Appearance?”

“Oh yeah. You didn’t think we’d be staying here all night, did you?”

She had, but she wasn’t about to tell Jess that.

“Oh,” Jess said. “I almost forgot.” She dug into her purse and pulled out a flask.

“What’s that?”

“Just a little party juice.” She took a sip and handed it to Morgan. “Tonight is going to kick ass.”

Morgan took the flask but hesitated before putting it to her lips.

“Have you ever had coconut rum before?”

Morgan shook her head.

“It’s delicious and I promise you’re not going to get drunk. Just a little buzz. It makes everything a little more fun. Have a sip and we’ll go dance. You’ll totally see.”

What the hell. It wasn’t as if anyone was going to notice if they had a few little sips of rum. Their parents were totally caught up in having their own reunion; nobody seemed to care at all about what they were doing. And a few sips weren’t going to hurt. Especially if they made her less nervous around Trent. And Jess did say it would make things more fun.

She lifted the flask to her lips and took a drink.

The gym had been completely transformed with more balloons than Cam believed possible. Even at their graduation dance there hadn’t been so many balloons. Christy and her committee had done an amazing job. And she’d tell her that too, if she could find her friend. She’d lost track of her after running into her in the parking lot. The second they’d gone inside, Christy was off to tend to one task after another. Cam had done her best to help out, but after making sure the name tag table had fresh markers, she begged off and went in search of Amber and Drew.

“Isn’t this insane?” Drew shook her head in wonder. “I think the last time I was in here was when we graduated.”

“That for sure was the last time I was here,” Amber said. “And it still smells the same.”

Cam laughed because it was true. The underlying odor combination of dirty gym socks and sawdust that was uniquely the Timber Creek gymnasium still lingered in the air.

“I guess not much has changed.” Drew shook her head. “Can you believe we were once as young as those kids?” She pointed to a group of students and they all shook their heads in disbelief. It seemed like a million years ago and at the same time, just yesterday.

“I can’t believe so many people came back for this.” Cam looked around again, pointing out Brenda, who’d been the class president, although Christy was convinced the vote was rigged and she should have won. Standing in the corner was Franklin, who’d played the tuba and never actually spoke to anyone except that one time he’d asked her out and she had to turn him down. He’d never made eye contact with her after that. And there was Grant, dancing with a man she didn’t recognize. He’d pitched the winning inning of the state baseball championship and had secured himself as the hottest senior at Timber Creek High, with every available girl vying for his attention for the rest of the year. Cam was probably one of the few people who’d known back then that he was gay. He’d confided in her one day while they finished up a lab assignment. She’d kept his secret, even from Evan. It filled her with happiness to see he’d obviously found happiness.

“Hey,” Amber said. “I ran into Ben Ross. Did you know he owned the Log and Jam?” She aimed the question at Drew, who nodded.

“Of course I knew. He’s my brother in-law.”

“He and Evan are still best friends,” Cam offered. “Have you seen him yet?”

Drew shook her head. “No.” A sadness clouded her eyes. “Things between Eric and Ben haven’t been very good in a long time. And right now it’s…well, Eric tried to reach out before I came and…it doesn’t matter.”

“That’s too bad.” Amber put her hand on Drew’s arm. “I’m sorry they’re not close anymore.”

“Me too.”

“And it’s too bad he couldn’t come. He should have been here, too.”

“He would have liked to, it’s just that…well…things are—hey, who is that?”

Amber and Cam both turned to see who she was pointing at.

Cam’s mouth fell open.

Amber let out a low whistle that only the three of them could hear. “Whoever he is…holy shit. He looks like he could be on one of the covers of my books.”

“Oh my God, yes!” Drew agreed.

The man in question wore a black button-up shirt that hugged his clearly defined muscles underneath, with equally well-fitting pants.

“Hey.” Christy slid up behind them. “What are you guys staring at?”

“Who is that?” Amber wasn’t shy about pointing directly at the man. “Because whoever he is, I think I may need to meet him.”

Cam shot her a look of surprise. She’d never heard Amber talk like that about a man. Ever.

“You know exactly who that is.”

“No, I assure you, I do not.”

“That’s Logan Myers.”

Cam almost choked on the sip of punch she’d just taken. Drew gasped and Amber’s hand shot out and smacked Christy on the arm.

“Ow.”

“Sorry. But seriously. Logan Myers? As in, Junky’s kid? No way.”

Christy laughed but took a half step away from Amber. “He grew up all right, didn’t he?”

“Wasn’t he like six years younger than us?” Drew shook her head. “Little Logan?”

“He certainly doesn’t look little now.”

“No he doesn’t.” Evan appeared next to them. He slipped his hand into Cam’s and squeezed.

“What’s he like?” Amber directed the question to Evan.

“You should go introduce yourself and find out, Amber.” He winked at Amber and turned to Cam. “Will you dance with me?”

“Of course.”

The song was slow and when Evan wrapped his arms around her and started moving her around the gym floor, Cam felt all the tension ease out of her. She rested her head on his shoulder. When she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine they were seventeen again, with the cheesy love song in the background, the sweaty throng of people all around them, and Evan’s familiar embrace.

“This is nice.”

“Kind of like old times.” He kissed the top of her head. “How many times did we dance like this over the years?”

“Too many to count.” She smiled against his shoulder. “But this time Mrs. Hesterman isn’t jabbing her ruler between us, telling us to back up two inches.”

In response, Evan pulled her closer. “I’d like to see her try.”

Cam’s eyes flicked open. Across the dance floor, she could see Stephanie watching them, a sour look on her face. “Maybe there’ll be someone else who wants to get between us.”

He turned to look and then back to Cam. Evan smiled and immediately danced them to the far side of the gym. “Nothing will come between us, sweetheart. Especially not Stephanie. She’ll be fine. Her feelings are just a little sore, but she knows as well as I do that she and I were never serious. Don’t worry about her.”

Oddly, Cam wasn’t worried about Stephanie. But there were other things on her mind. She’d tried to put Ryan’s outrageous claims and their impending trip back to Portland to prove herself out of her mind. But it wasn’t just Ryan that was troubling her. Every step she and Evan took on the dance floor felt more and more like graduation.

Everything had seemed perfect that night. She’d never felt closer to him, more in love, more excited about their future. But the entire time they were dancing and partying, Evan kept a secret from her and he’d left her the very next day. For a future.

What about the future he was looking forward to now? She’d tried to be excited when he told her about his application to college and that he’d been accepted. And she was happy for him. She really was. But more than that, she was terrified.

Lorraine’s words rang in her ears, like an echo that wouldn’t fade. “He’s worked too hard. It’s not the right time for him to be tied down. It wasn’t then, and it isn’t now.” No matter what, Cam would never keep Evan from living his dreams.

“Hey.” Evan tipped up her chin so she was looking at him. “Relax. Everything is perfect tonight.”

Perfect. She wanted to believe that. She really did. But if she told Evan what was really worrying her, about what his mom had said…and about the paternity test…well, she just couldn’t. It wasn’t fair. And it definitely wasn’t perfect.

“Have I told you how gorgeous you look?”

She smiled. He had, at least a dozen times.

Everyone was having a good time. Cam didn’t want to bring drama into what was otherwise a fun day for everyone. And judging by whatever was going on with all her friends, it was a day they all needed to cut loose and relax. She forced a smile on her face and let Evan spin her around the dance floor as the song changed to something more upbeat.

When the song changed again, and they slowed their pace once more, Evan pulled her in close and kissed the top of her head. It was hard to imagine there had ever been a time when they hadn’t been close this way. Being with him in their old high school gym, it was as if all the years didn’t matter. And maybe they didn’t. Maybe none of it mattered. If she closed her eyes, she could pretend that everything really was perfect.

“I could stay like this forever,” she murmured into his chest.

“Mmmm.”

“Cam?” A voice that sounded vaguely familiar intruded on their peace. “Cam Riley?”