Poor Will. Honestly, there wasn't enough champagne in the world for all the bombshells Merry kept dropping on him.

He blinked at her. "Your what?"

"We have the same father. I'd never met him before, but recently he showed up out of the blue. He got the internship at the paper and he's been hanging around ever since. He says he wants to get to know me."

He nodded a few times. "And how's that going?" he asked dryly.

"Not well. He seems nice enough, harmless. But maybe I'm just naturally suspicious. Why did he all of a sudden want to track me down? And why stick around even though I'm not really into it?"

He laughed. "If you ever want to go into law enforcement, you're off to a great start."

"Do I sound paranoid?" She scuffed the toe of her boot against the pavement as they reached the parking lot. "I saw him looking through pictures from Knight and Day Flight Tours. He mentioned those rumors about the missing money."

"If he wants a life of crime, he'd better learn not to blurt things out."

"Okay, I get it. I'm paranoid. But I don't trust that entire family, not after how they treated my mother." At his questioning glance, she explained. "They gave her money to go away." She bit her lip, the old hurt sneaking in the way it did sometimes. "Anyway, I just wanted to warn you."

When she looked up at him, she caught an odd expression on his face. As if he was—touched. "You don't have to worry," he said almost tenderly. "But it's kind of cute that you did."

"Cute?"

He turned her with one strong arm so she faced him. "Yeah, cute. I appreciate the thought. But the Knight brothers can take care of ourselves. I'm more worried about you and this half-brother of yours. He seemed like a dopey kid to me, but I can check into him if you want."

"No, that would feel really strange, checking out my own brother."

"You wouldn't be, I would. And he's not my brother. As far as I'm concerned, he's a stranger in town, and we don't cotton to strangers around here." He shifted into a backwoods accent.

She giggled. "You're pretty cute, aren't you?"

"I prefer 'devastatingly handsome,' if you don't mind."

She laughed again, flashing on that kiss. It still reverberated through her like the sound of a bell. Or maybe like a wake-up bell. Rise and shine, it called to her. Something big is happening, something beyond exciting, something you've never felt before.

Honestly, it scared her, which was why she'd instantly decided they shouldn't try that again. Messing around with Will would be like playing with dynamite. With his strength and authority, he made her previous boyfriends look like little boys. That kiss…there was so much behind it. So much intensity and emotion and depth.

They'd reached his Tacoma. She paused but he nudged her past it. "You don't have to walk me to my car," she protested.

He gave her a look that said "no arguments." God, he really was in rock-wall mode now. Of course he had to walk her to her car. Protectiveness was woven into the fabric of his being.

Which was another reason not to go to bed with Will. She didn't need a full-time guardian, or even a part-time one.

When they reached her car, she leaned her rear against the driver's side door. He stayed back a step, which she found oddly disappointing. One little kiss goodbye wouldn't hurt, would it?

But his mind wasn't on kissing. It was still on Chase. "Do me a favor, would you? If anything happens with Chase, if anything bugs you, or he says something that sets off any alarm bells, please call me. Anytime, day or night."

"Or Knight and Day," she quipped.

"Or Knight and Day." Finally, he smiled again. "That might be our new slogan. Anytime, Knight or Day."

"I sense a poem coming on."

He gave her a wry look, but didn't respond. He kept his steady gaze on her, giving nothing away. She'd love to know what he was thinking about right now. The kiss? Her half-brother? Their online relationship? Their non-online relationship? Something that had nothing to do with her, like what numbers he was going to play in the lottery or what he was going to have for breakfast?

She lingered one more moment, just in case he tried to kiss her again, or make any move at all. But he didn't. So she got into her car, gave him one last wave, and pulled out of the parking lot.

As soon as she got home, she logged onto her computer and fired off one last message to StarLord. "I don't regret a thing."

* * *

For the next few days, Merry obsessed over the incredible revelation that StarLord was Will Knight. The worst part was that she couldn't tell her friends, not even Suzanne, who had provided that wonderful picnic.

"We had fun," was all she said. For a writer, it was pretty much torture that she couldn't say more.

"The least you could do is share a couple of details," Suzanne grumbled. Using her stroller to box Merry in, she'd cornered her on Constellation Way outside of Mrs. Murphy's bookstore, Fifth Book from the Sun.

"Just for the record, that's no way to use your child," Merry said virtuously. "You're setting a bad example."

"Ha. I set up a romantic interlude for you and all I get is, 'we had fun'? Even my baby is disappointed in you."

"Okay, it was a lot more than fun. It was kind of mind-blowing. But I really can't say any more than that. Especially here." She cast a significant look toward Mrs. Murphy, who was dodging a line of customers to peer out the window at them.

She'd be all over this little morsel. My God.

"Somewhere else, then. We can go anywhere. Have stroller, will travel." Suzanne adjusted the visor keeping the sun off Faith's little face.

"I really can't, Suzanne."

"Because it's someone you know. Someone I know. Someone we all know."

Merry schooled her expression to reveal nothing. Damn, that expressionless act Will pulled off was a lot harder than it looked.

Suzanne caught on right away. "Right on all counts!" she said triumphantly.

"I have to go."

"Margaritas tonight? A little rum might make you talk."

Yeah, it probably would. No margaritas for a while, Merry decided. "Sorry, I have to work."

"Since when do you work nights?"

"I work all the time, didn't you know?"

Lisa called her later that day to offer moral support. "I just want you to know, I would never try to pry a secret out of you."

"Did Suzanne corner you, too?" Merry balanced her phone on her shoulder as she breezed through an article on a proposal to install roundabouts in key intersections.

"Pretty much. Faith got a bee sting. She called my emergency number, then once the baby was okay, the gloves came off. But I told her your business is your business, and I refuse to pressure you."

"Thank you." Since Lisa had come to Jupiter Point with a secret of her own, Merry wasn't surprised by that statement.

"However, if you feel the need to talk, if you want to let someone in on the identity of your mystery man, you know I'm a great keeper of secrets. Just pointing that out."

"Lisa…" she warned.

"No pressure."

"Lisa…"

"Okay, gotta go, a patient just walked in." She hung up in a hurry. Merry had to laugh. In just a few months, Lisa had gone from jaded big-city cynic to one of the crowd. It was kind of cute, actually.

Thank goodness for Carolyn, who didn't pester her at all. Most likely, that was because she was simply too busy now that she was flying back and forth between two jobs. She didn't have time for trivial things like Merry's suddenly surreal love life.

Maybe "love life" wasn't the right term. It was more like—hot pursuit.

All of a sudden, she kept running into Will everywhere. Jogging at the beach, eating a giant stack of pancakes at the Milky Way with his brothers, breaking up a fight at Barstow's, helping the hotshots and the local fire department with fire mitigation. In public, they both acted as if nothing had changed, as if they were still prickly adversaries.

But every time she saw him, her heart did this funny thing in her chest, a kind of expansion, like a tiger lily unfurling from a bud.

And another thing…he kept doing very sweet, completely anonymous things for her. For instance, on the morning after their date, when she stopped at the Venus and Mars for her morning cinnamon latte the barista refused to accept payment. "It's already taken care of," he told her. "Secret admirer, I guess."

The next morning, same thing. After three mornings, she pinned him down. "How long am I drinking lattes for free?"

"He left a hundred dollars and a number for us to call when the funds run out. I'd say you're drinking for free as long as you want."

Huh.

That same day, Mrs. Murphy called to notify her that her book had arrived. Mystified, since she didn't remember ordering any books, she swung by the Fifth Book from the Sun. The book was a new collection of stories by Toni Morrison, her favorite author in the world. Hardcover, signed by the author, and much pricier than anything she would have bought for herself.

Mrs. Murphy claimed to have no idea who had ordered the book. Will had actually managed to keep a secret the biggest rumor-monger in town, which made him some kind of Superman.

"But if you want me to find out," Mrs. Murphy added in a whisper, "I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Not strictly legal or ethical, but I could bend some rules for you."

"Please, don't even consider that. You wouldn't want Jupiter Point's finest coming after you."

But Merry didn't mind a certain member of Jupiter Point's finest coming after her. She'd never been wooed like this before. Being pursued by Will Knight—yeah, she kind of loved that.

And it kept going. Brianna knocked on her apartment door one morning with a gorgeous terra-cotta pot filled with dirt. "Special delivery from an anonymous benefactor," she said, her vivid face alive with curiosity.

Merry peered at it suspiciously. "Dirt?"

"Uh, no. I mean, yes, that's soil. Potting soil. Covering up a rare variety of Lilium lancifolium from China." When Merry stared at her blankly, she continued impatiently, "Tiger lily. There are three bulbs in this pot. They'll grow inside if you give them enough moisture, but you can also plant them outside. Did you know that you can eat every part of a tiger lily plant? It's medicinal too. You can make a tincture from the flowers that helps with nausea during pregnancy."

"There will be no need for that tincture, thank you very much." Merry took the terra-cotta pot, which was heavier than it looked. She always forgot how strong Brianna was from all her garden work.

"Are you sure? If a man gave me three Lilium lancifolium bulbs, my ovaries might spontaneously go into overdrive."

Merry laughed. "You'd better tell Rollo that all it takes is a big old pot of dirt and you'll start popping out babies."

Brianna flushed self-consciously.

"Wait…are you…?"

"No, no, not yet. But we've been kicking around the idea. Suzanne's baby has no one to play with. And I always wanted someone to make fairy houses for. I was shocked when I reached high school and no one was interested in fairy houses anymore."

"Girl, you kill me. I swear, when you look up adorable in the dictionary, there ought to be a picture of little gingeroo Brianna making fairy houses in the forest. Thanks for the delivery." When Brianna planted her feet and refused to budge, she added, "And no, I'm not saying who sent this."

"But do you know?"

"Goodbye, Bri."

Then came the final straw. At work one day, she got a call from the front desk. The local car detailing service had arrived to pick up her car.

Very sweetly, she asked them to give her a minute.

Then she dialed Will's number. "What the hell do you think you're doing? My car is fine as it is!"

"When's the last time you had your oil changed? And your brakes checked?"

"There's a schedule somewhere." She couldn't remember exactly where she kept that information, but who really paid attention to that stuff anyway?

Deputy Will Knight, of course.

"Can you just do me a favor and let them check out your car? I'd sleep a lot easier."

"But they're going to clean it too, aren't they? I can't have that. My car is kind of like a filing cabinet on wheels."

"Fine, tell them to skip the interior. That's up to you." He coughed, burying the word "stubborn" in the sound.

"I heard that. And I can't accept your intrusive bossiness disguised as an offer of help."

He growled a little bit. "You're a helluva lot of trouble, you know that?"

"I've been told, yes. Now back to the main point. What are you up to with all these little gifts and so forth? I thought we agreed we're going to keep things on a friendly level."

"Which is why I didn't send you the moon-and-star condoms I thought you'd appreciate."

She laugh-snorted. "The what?"

"They glow in the dark."

She laughed so hard that Chase, who happened to step into her office at that moment, stopped in his tracks.

"You're laughing." He sounded confused by that fact. "And you sound like you're having fun."

She covered the receiver. "This is a private conversation. Do you mind?"

"With who? Is it a guy? Do I know him?"

"Private," she repeated. She really didn't want Chase to know anything about Will. Even though he'd been perfectly respectful lately, she wasn't ready to get too personal with him. Just because they shared a father didn't mean they had anything else to talk about.

When Chase’s face fell, she relented. "How about lunch next week?"

He grinned, his blond hair flopping around his ears. "Seriously?"

"We'll see. But I think so."

When he finally moved past her doorway, she lowered her voice. "Seriously, Will, I can handle my own business. I don't like taking things from a man, even a friend. I'm all about standing on my own two feet."

"How's a guy supposed to sweep you off your feet, then?"

Her mouth quivered into a smile and that warm feeling spread through her again. Was that what Will was trying to do? Sweep her off her feet? The fact that he wanted to made her glow inside. "That's not on the agenda, remember?"

"Agenda's change."

Just then, she heard a click as someone else jumped on the line. "Hey there, mystery woman. Whoever you are, if you don't jump Will's bones, you're making a mistake. He's one of the all-time great guys. Legends will be told about him someday. Books will be written, songs will be sung."

"Cindy!" Will's furious voice interrupted her.

"Gotta go," Cindy said hurriedly. "But you should know I have a curated list of prospects for Will and I'm not afraid to use it." And she hung up.

Will said goodbye at that point, in such a mortified tone that she didn't dare laugh.

So he wasn't the only one feeling the heat about their off-the-radar "thing," whatever it was. Small town life…she might never get used to it.