Morgan should feel lucky, she supposed. Really lucky. If she’d been caught stealing back in Portland, there was no way she would have been let off with only community service. At least not without going to court or something. And the judge hadn’t said anything about it going on her record. In fact, he’d been really cool about the whole thing.

Except she didn’t feel lucky. Not even a little bit. Because if her mom hadn’t opened her big mouth, the cop who obviously had the hots for her mom would have let her off the hook.

There was totally a story there. Not that her mom would tell her anything. She still treated Morgan as if she were a little kid and didn’t know anything.

No doubt she thought she was protecting her, but Morgan was almost sixteen and she wasn’t stupid. Not at all. Not even if her parents both thought she was. But she knew what was going on. Her dad had found a new girlfriend—hell, Chastity was only a few years older than she was. She didn’t know that, but it could be true. And he’d left them.

From what she could tell, he didn’t want anything to do with her at all. Her mom, fine; she guessed she could understand that. People fell out of love. It happened all the time. Half of her friends back home had divorced parents. But how did you fall out of love with your kid? That’s what Morgan couldn’t understand.

She stuffed her journal, still unopened, underneath her pillow again. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to write in it since everything had happened. Which was stupid, because that was the kind of stuff she should be writing about. Getting her feelings out. That’s what her mom would say. It’s good to get your feelings out. Don’t keep them bottled up.

But what could she say?

Morgan tapped the pen against her teeth and finally shoved it under her pillow too before flopping on her back on the little bed.

It had been nice of her mom to give her the only bedroom. Morgan knew she was trying. She should probably cut her a break. It couldn’t be easy for her either, to have your marriage come apart on television in front of the whole city. Her mom probably needed a hug.

Morgan wrapped her arms around herself. Hell, she needed a hug. But every time she thought she might be able to reach out, her mom got that look in her eyes that she was going to cry or tell Morgan it was okay for her to cry or some other bullshit.

So she didn’t.

Morgan rolled over and reached for her phone, but didn’t bother picking it up. Who would she text? None of her friends back home cared about her. Not really. They were the kind of friends who only cared if you were there and could do something for them. Fake friends. She’d figured that out the second they’d driven away. Out of sight, out of mind.

Not one of them had returned her texts.

And she didn’t have any friends in this stupid little town. At least not yet. There were a few kids who might be okay.

She reached over and flicked off the lamp. Her stomach growled and again, Morgan regretted going to bed as soon as they got home from the station. She shouldn’t have refused the chicken. As soon as she’d seen the table, it was obvious her mom had made an effort with the dinner and that only pissed her off. Why should they sit around and pretend they were a happy little family when they obviously were anything but?

The last thing Morgan heard before she drifted off to sleep was the muffled sounds of her mom crying in the next room. Something twisted in her stomach. She swallowed hard and pulled the pillow over her head and fell asleep.

The next morning, Morgan’s alarm went off before her mom could wake her. If she had to go to the stupid new school, and she obviously did, she might as well make an effort.

Not that she cared to fit in with the townies and their boring lives, but maybe it was better than sitting alone at lunch and feeling like a total freak.

This time when Morgan applied her eye makeup, she lightened up a little on the dark eyeliner. She hadn’t really liked the look that much anyway, but her mom had really hated it, which was why she kept doing it. But maybe for one day she’d try it this way. Couldn’t hurt.

Her mother insisted on driving her again, even though the school was only a few blocks away. She probably thought Morgan wouldn’t go if she didn’t personally see her into the building herself. Fortunately, she didn’t insist on walking her inside. Morgan would have drawn the line.

Besides, of course she was going to go. There’s not like there was anything else to do in the stupid little town.

Morgan was pulling the books she’d been assigned out of her locker and stuffing them into her book bag when a blonde head appeared around the side of her locker.

“Hey,” the blonde said. “You’re Morgan, right? The new girl?”

“Do you get a lot of new girls here?”

The blonde laughed. “Just you.” She slid around the locker and stuck her hand out. “I’m Jess.”

Morgan glanced down at the hand with its perfectly painted pink nails and looked back up at the girl. She was pretty in that all-American, cheerleader kind of way. Not at all the kind of girl Morgan would normally be friends with. Still, she took the hand.

“Hey.”

“My mom used to know your mom when they were kids,” Jess said. “Well, I guess she sort of knew her and her friends. She worked with your mom’s friend, Amber.” Jess shrugged. “Small town and all. Her name is Shelby. My mom’s older, but she remembers her.”

Morgan had heard her mom talk about Amber. And Christy and Drew. Apparently they were inseparable growing up. As close as sisters, her mom used to say. Not that close if she’d been able to move away and barely see them. But Morgan wasn’t in any position to judge friendships. Not when she didn’t really have any of her own.

“I’ve heard of her.”

Jess nodded. “So what classes do you have?”

They spent the next few minutes discussing timetables and teachers. Jess moaned over the fact that Morgan had Mr. Gilman for English, but beyond that, Jess approved and they had math together that afternoon. Jess insisted that Morgan sit with her and her friends at lunch and they made plans to meet at her locker when the bell rang.

By the time Morgan made her way to first period, she felt something that she might even be able to describe as the slightest bit of happiness.

Maybe she’d have a new friend after all.

“I cannot believe you dumped an entire tray of drinks on Darrell Benson.” Christy hadn’t been able to quit laughing since Cam told her about her not-so-perfect first shift at the End of the Road.

“It wasn’t funny,” Cam said, which only made Christy laugh louder. “It was a huge mess and Darrell turned this weird shade of red and—”

“He’s always a weird shade of red.” Christy howled and clutched her stomach.

“Well, he was definitely mad.”

“I can just picture him,” Christy said between chuckles. “Red and mad and covered in beer.”

“I’m sure glad you think it’s funny.” Cam shook her head and reached for her glass of wine. “I thought for sure Tommy was going to fire me on the spot.”

“Tommy is not going to fire you.” Mark, who’d been mostly silent on the other end of the table, spoke up.

“Why would you say that?”

Mark shook his head and looked down at his drink.

“Mark?” Christy had stopped laughing and stared at her husband seriously. “Why would you say that? Why wouldn’t Tommy fire Cam?” She turned to Cam quickly. “Not that you deserved to be fired, Cam.”

Cam shrugged off the comment, more interested in Mark’s remark.

“It’s nothing,” Mark said. “Forget I said anything at all.”

“Oh, I don’t think that’s going to happen.” Christy’s lips pressed into a thin line and she examined her husband before she rolled her eyes. “You might as well tell me now, Mark. I’ll just get it out of you later.”

With an exasperated sigh, Mark put down his beer. “All I’m saying is that hiring Cam is probably a real coup for Tommy Jenkins.”

“A coup?”

“Yeah.” He took a slow, careful swallow of beer. “Remember the way it was between Tommy and Evan back in high school?”

“They were friends.” Cam remembered. Evan and Ben were best friends, and thank goodness for that because Ben’s family more or less adopted Evan and gave him some semblance of family. Evan’s mom had worked so much. But every once in a while, Tommy Jenkins would come around and convince Evan to ditch school, or get drunk in the woods, or steal a car, or…all of the above. Cam had always hated it when Evan would fall in with Tommy, and they used to have terrible fights about it that usually resulted in Evan telling her that she was too good for him, and she would be better off without him. She’d leave, crying and heartbroken, until a few hours later, or the next morning, Evan would appear at her front door, begging her to forgive him, bringing her flowers and promising he’d be the man she deserved.

Until one day he didn’t.

The memory, long buried, rose up like a thorny weed in her memory, picking at her tender skin.

Mark’s voice brought her back to the present. “They weren’t friends so much as…well, I think we all remember.”

Christy clicked her tongue and nodded. “But why would it make a difference now with Cam working for Tommy?”

“Because Tommy always wanted what he couldn’t have,” Mark said easily. “Especially if it was Evan’s. And Cam—”

“Was Evan’s,” Christy finished for him with a nod.

“She was most definitely Evan’s.”

Cam ignored his words, but mostly she ignored how they made her feel inside. They used to say those words to each other. “You’re mine and I’m yours. Forever.”

It was another memory she couldn’t afford to let herself sink into.

“But they’re not friends anymore.” She didn’t know for sure, but the way Evan had gotten upset when she’d mentioned trying to get a job with Tommy, it didn’t seem likely.

Mark laughed. “No. Definitely not.”

“Not since high school. In fact, they’ve been more like enemies,” Christy filled in. “When he came back from the army, he was different. Grown up, serious.”

“A man.” Mark finished the thought for his wife with strong certainty.

“Yes. A man.” Christy nodded in agreement with her husband. “He’s a totally different person since he came back. At least as far as the getting into trouble. But Tommy never changed.”

“He just made a career out of it. And now the two of them are constantly at odds with each other.” Mark took over the story again. “So having you, the love of his archenemy’s life, working for him…” He grinned. “No doubt he’s probably pretty proud of himself.”

The love of Evan’s life?

Of course she knew that probably held a thread of truth. Just as it did for her. In fact, there was no probably about it.

“Well, I certainly didn’t take the job to get in the middle of anything between them. I needed work and I’m in no position to be choosy right now.”

“I wish I could offer you something in the office,” Mark said. “But there’s only so much work.”

“And I’m doing it.” Christy smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“No worries, guys. I’m okay. Honestly.”

Her friend gave her a questioning look, but thankfully didn’t push. “It’ll be so good when the girls get here, don’t you think? Like the old days.”

“Just like the old days.”

They spent a few minutes chatting about their friends. Christy seemed to know more about everyone than Cam did, and that made her ashamed. She hadn’t been a good friend to any of them after she left town. At the time, she told herself it was because they were all so busy with their own lives, but really it was because the memories hurt too much. If she allowed herself to go there with her friends, it was a slippery slope before she started to think of Evan and the heartache would return. And once she was with Ryan, and pregnant with Morgan, she couldn’t allow those feelings in.

She’d made her choice, or it was made for her when she got pregnant. Either way, there were consequences for her actions and she’d had to live with them.

“So…” Christy leaned across the table the moment Mark went to the bar to get more drinks. “Have you heard from Evan again? I mean…I get it if you don’t want to say anything around Mark, but…”

Cam didn’t want to say anything around Christy either, but it’s not as if she could say that. Christy would be devastated if Cam told her to mind her own business. Not that she would. Well…she probably wouldn’t. It had been so long since Cam had a real friend to confide in, she wasn’t sure she remembered how.

And that wasn’t entirely true. Christy had always been her friend. She’d always been there. It was Cam who hadn’t been the friend.

As if she needed the reminder.

“Well?”

Christy was clearly oblivious of the internal chaos going on within her.

“Well, yes. I have.” That was an understatement to be sure, but she didn’t want to lie to her friend. She also wasn’t tripping over herself to tell her that her daughter had been caught shoplifting on her first day of school.

“And?”

“And…I think he’s very good at his job,” she said mildly. “He’s very different from how he used to be.” She regretted that particular statement the moment it was out of her mouth.

“Isn’t he ever?” Christy practically bounced in her seat. “So different that you might actually—”

Cam held up her hand to stave off the rest of the sentence, whatever it may be. “Don’t go there.” She shook her head. “Don’t go anywhere near there.”

“Okay.” Christy sat back in her seat. “But just to clarify, would you be okay if he walked in here right now and sat down? I mean…we are all kind of friends and…the Log and Jam is kind of his place. I just don’t want it to be awkward.”

Like, any more awkward than it already was? Cam wanted to laugh. And not in an it’s so damn funny way. But she wasn’t worried about Evan walking into the pub, at least not on this particular night.

“He won’t be coming in,” she said.

“But it’s Tuesday and that’s trivia night.”

Cam shook her head. “Well, maybe he’ll be by later, but not now.”

Christy tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “And how is it that you happen to know that?”

There was no point hiding it. Besides, in Timber Creek, news would travel fast. “Because Evan is with Morgan.”

“Morgan?”

Cam drummed her fingers on the table. “Helping her with her community service.”

“Community service?”

“She’s been assigned fifty hours of community service and Evan is in charge.” She rushed the words out, hoping the details would slip by her friend.

“Evan?”

“Why do I feel like there’s an echo in here?”

Christy straightened in her seat and shook her head slightly. “Start at the beginning. Morgan? Community service? Evan?”

Right then, Mark returned with another round of drinks, and Cam wanted to hug him when he set it down in front of her and said, “Judge Stewart assigned Morgan to some community service last night and Evan is the officer in charge of the case.”

Both the women looked up at him with open mouths, but he directed his explanation to Cam. “Ben told me.” He shrugged. “Evan was in earlier apparently and filled him in.”

Perfect. It was already starting. There was no privacy in a small town. It was one of the little details about Timber Creek that Cam had not missed at all.

Christy looked to Cam for confirmation. She nodded and took a long drink of her wine. She was going to need it.

Evan didn’t know what to expect when he knocked on the door of the little apartment over Junky’s shop. Would Cam be home? Or just the girl? He’d heard Cam was working her first shift earlier that day at the End of the Road and he’d made himself stay away. No doubt if he’d shown up without a legitimate reason, Tommy would make a scene and Cam would get embarrassed, or worse…mad.

He had no doubt he’d have reason enough to visit her at work sooner rather than later. He just hoped it wouldn’t have anything to do with her.

But maybe Cam was home from work by now. Maybe she was there waiting for him to pick up her daughter for her punishment. The night before, he’d given Morgan the choice of starting right away, or waiting a few days. To his surprise, she hadn’t put it off the way he would have expected a teenager to do.

Not that he knew much about teenagers. But when he was her age, he would have done everything he could to put off till tomorrow what he could have done that day.

Finally, he brought himself to knock on the little door. Morgan answered almost immediately.

“I was wondering if you were ever going to knock.” She greeted him with all the attitude he expected.

He raised his eyebrows but didn’t respond. Instead, he tried to casually look past her into the little apartment.

“If you’re looking for my mom, she isn’t here.”

“I wasn’t.”

It was her turn to give him a look. “Whatever.” She reached behind her, grabbed a tote bag and pulled the door shut. “I guess we might as well get this over with. Unless you need to talk to my mom. Or get her to sign something or something.”

“No,” Evan said. “She doesn’t need to sign anything. We can get going. I don’t want to bother her at work.”

They started walking down the steel stairs. “She’s not working. At least not anymore.”

“No?” He tried to sound casual, but this girl was clearly a lot more observant than he’d given her credit for, and he didn’t want to give anything away. Not that there was anything to hide. Not really. He was definitely curious about Cam. And why shouldn’t he be? Once upon a time, they’d told each other everything. It was only natural to be interested in her life now.

“She called after her shift,” Morgan continued as he held the door of the cruiser open for her. This time, he let her sit in the front. “She’s with Christy.”

Evan got in the car next to her and grabbed a notebook. “Are you ready to do this?”

“You’re sure you don’t want to know more about my mom?”

He swallowed and shook his head. “No. Today is about you,” he said. “Today and every day until you work off this community service. Seems you’ve gotten us both a new after-school hobby.”

Morgan shrugged, but he noticed her face color a little.

“So,” he began again. “I think I have a bit of a plan to get us through this as painlessly as possible while at the same time, teaching you a little something. We’ll do two hours a day, three days a week.”

“What?” Morgan sat upright in her seat. “But that’ll take forever. That’ll take like three months!”

“Just over two, actually. But yes, it’s not going to be finished right away.” Evan flicked his pen back and forth. “You should be thankful you only got fifty hours.” He gave her a look that he hoped made his point. “Let’s get going.” He put the car in gear and started driving to the park in the center of town. “We’re going to start nice and easy with a little garbage pick-up in the park.”

“Garbage?”

He shot her a look again. Apparently it was going to take a little bit for her to get the message that she was being punished for her actions.

An hour into the garbage pick-up, and Evan was pretty sure Judge Stewart had been punishing him just as much as he’d been punishing Morgan. Only he couldn’t figure out what he’d done to deserve the privilege of supervising a moody teenager with a garbage bag.

He could think of better ways to spend a Tuesday afternoon, like getting ready for his usual trivia night at the Log and Jam, or laying on the couch with a beer and Netflix.

Okay, maybe Judge Stewart wasn’t punishing him so much as giving him a wake-up call about his boring life.

But it wasn’t boring. Not really. It was…stable. Consistent. Easy. Evan always knew what to expect. There were no surprises and no drama.

He hadn’t dated anyone in over a year, not seriously anyway. At least nothing he considered serious. Stephanie might disagree.

At the thought of his on-again/off-again/not really a girlfriend/more like a booty call friend, Evan felt a wash of guilt. He hadn’t called her in days. Four, to be precise. Not since he performed a routine traffic stop on a very non-routine driver.

Cam.

No one had ever been able to compare to Cam. Not before and not since. Stephanie was a nice girl, but there was never going to be anything more than a few hook-ups and the occasional night at the pub.

With a sigh, Evan pushed up from the picnic table where he’d been lounging and stretched. He scanned the areas for Morgan, who up until a moment ago had been directly in his line of sight.

He turned, and still didn’t see her immediately. Finally he spotted her with a group of teenagers over by the swing sets.

For a moment, Evan debated interrupting her. After all, she was new to town; it was probably a good thing that she was getting to know some kids. But his duty got the best of him, and with a shake of his head, Evan went to break it up and get Morgan back to work.

“Officer Anderson! Hi.” A boy he vaguely recognized as Tansy Butterfield’s son shoved his hands in his pocket and straightened when he saw him coming. He didn’t know Tansy well. She’d been five years ahead of him in school, and she’d married a guy from another town who Evan didn’t really know. But the little he did know about them seemed good.

He could have laughed at himself for the way he was silently assessing Morgan’s friend choices. As if it mattered to him at all.

But it did.

Even if it was only because they were stuck with each other for the next little while.

Right. That’s why it mattered.

Evan pushed the annoying voice in his head away. “Hello.”

“Trent, sir.” The kid thrust out his hand, eager to please. “Trent Butterfield.”

“Nice to meet you, Trent.” He took the kid’s hand and ignored the snickers from the boy’s friend, who would no doubt give him a hard time later. “I see you’ve met Morgan.”

“I was just—”

“It’s okay,” Evan said before she could make an excuse. “You’re allowed to have a little break. But just a little one.”

He saw the relief on her face and was pleased with himself.

“We won’t bother her for long, sir. I just noticed her at school the other day and when I saw her today I thought I should…” Trent’s friends snickered again and he jabbed one of them in the ribs with his elbow. “I just wanted to say hi.” The kid looked directly at Morgan, who flushed a deep scarlet and looked at her feet. Evan did his best not to laugh.

Instead, he shook his head. “Why don’t you get her number, Trent, and then you can text her later. When she’s not busy,” he added pointedly.

He left them alone then and went back to the picnic table, where he watched them from a safe distance.

Fifteen. Morgan was fifteen. He’d seen her birthdate on the forms Cam had filled out at the police station. About the age when he’d fallen head over heels, completely hopelessly in love with Cam.

Her daughter looked so much like she had at that age. Only…angrier. As if she were holding onto something. Cam had never been an angry teenager. Instead, she’d been filled with a longing and ambition. A dreamer, always thinking about what was next. She’d been a girl full of hope and innocence. Morgan didn’t have that about her. Instead, she seemed to be weighed down by something.

What had happened to the girl to make her so sad?

Something about her drew him to her. He wanted to protect her and heal whatever hurts she had.

It was ludicrous, really. He didn’t know her. And even though he’d known her mother a lifetime ago, it didn’t mean he had any right to her.

Or did he?

He couldn’t deny that ever since Ben pointed out the timing, a little piece of Evan had wondered whether maybe Ben was right…Morgan was fifteen. Was there a chance she was his?

Of course there was a chance. But surely Cam would have told him. She would have…

Evan dropped his head into his hands briefly and scrubbed at his hair. What would an eighteen-year-old Cam have done?

The truth hit him like a brick.

He had no idea.