Tessa was trying. She really was. It was the least the Eric deserved after making such an effort to be a part of her life. But she was struggling to find the excitement, the exhilaration, the…the fireworks with Eric that she felt the moment that Dylan’s eyes connected with hers.

Dylan’s words replayed in her mind.

Don’t go out with that guy. Go out with me.

Because you and I belong together.

She’d wanted to wrap her hands around his neck and strangle him.

He had to have the worst timing in the whole entire world. Had Eric not shown up today, would he have made the same professions? How could she even take him seriously when, up to now, he hadn’t so much as hinted that they could be more? Well—other than a kiss, but that was probably because he was just bored.

“How exactly do you eat this thing again?” Eric asked her as they took a seat on the end of a picnic table where they had a good view of tonight’s band.

“Forget retaining any dignity and just dive right in.”

He stared at it again before biting into it, taking a second to tear through the skin to the meat underneath. She laughed and offered him a napkin to catch the juice running down his chin.

“I’m glad I came,” Eric said, smiling at her as he wiped it away. “It’s good to see where you’re from, the place and people who have influenced you.”

“Me, too.” She studied Eric, noting again all the features he possessed that checked off all the right boxes. He wasn’t going to be spooked when things got too serious. He wasn’t going to run.

And with time, maybe she could see herself falling in love with him. He’d be easy to fall into a rhythm with if she wanted to.

The question was, did she want to?

The band finished their song and they excused themselves for a quick break before exiting the stage.

“You have to help me eat this thing. It’s the least you can do so I can salvage some of my dignity.”

Yeah, he was pretty sweet. Maybe not a suave as Dylan, but he was kind and considerate.

But she’d be lying if she said there was any magic between them.

The sound of excitement ran through the crowd as the band reappeared on the stage, only this time with another person in tow, a guitar already strapped around his neck.

Dylan took a step forward, grabbing the microphone. “Good evening, Blossom Falls.”

The crowd went crazy when it became clear Dylan’s intentions were to play a song for them.

“Thank you. The band here’s been gracious enough to let me join them up here tonight for a song. It’s one of the first songs of mine that ever played on the radio, so it’s something that’s near and dear to my heart. You probably have heard it a time or two. I wrote it with one person in mind, and I thought it was only fitting that, being here with you all, I play it again tonight.”

He strummed at the strings, the opening immediately recognizable to Tessa, who for years had wondered if he’d thought of her as he wrote it. It had gutted her every time it came on, and she steeled herself against the pain that hearing it again would cause. But it was different somehow, especially as he drawled out the opening line, and his eyes locked on hers, as if he’d known where she was sitting all along.

She swallowed, trying to still the rapid beating of her heart, the ache that his sultry voice brought on.

It wasn’t our time.

It wasn’t meant to be.

But maybe,

Just maybe,

Someday she’ll come back to me.

He wasn’t playing fair. He couldn’t just come back to town and play that song, here, now. And he couldn’t play it and turn those brown eyes to her in that special way that had her heart hammering so loudly in her chest.

And like that, the last pieces of the wall she’d built around her heart seemed to be falling away, and tears filled her eyes.

“Tessa? You okay?” Eric asked.

She looked at him, knowing that no matter how much time they had together, she would never feel the same sweeping array of emotions that Dylan evoked in her. And to pretend that was okay with her, that it was enough, wasn’t fair to her and certainly wasn’t fair to him.

“I will be. But first, I think we need to talk.”

Tessa shut the car door, waving a permanent good-bye to Eric, who attempted to smile back before driving away. It hadn’t been easy to tell him what she did, but it was the right thing to do.

She turned around, ready to head into the house when she noticed the figure sitting on the top porch step. Dylan.

“Hey,” he said.

She didn’t reply, instead coming to take a seat next to him.

“Surprised to see you home so early,” he said. “Something wrong?”

“Really? That’s how you want to play this, even after that stunt you pulled? Do you want to tell me what you were trying to say in playing that song tonight?”

Tessa needed to hear him say it. She could have misinterpreted his meaning entirely. Maybe he had just wanted to please the crowd. Maybe just wanted to set Eric in his place for not knowing who he was. It might not have had anything to do with her.

“I would have told you had you stuck around after the song, but you left.”

She’d left because she needed to speak with Eric in private. She’d owed him at least that. “Well, I’m here now. What were you going to tell me?”

“I think it’s something that would be best if I just showed you.” He stood up, reaching his hand out to her. She hesitated for only a second before letting him help her up, his hand feeling good as it held hers for that quick moment, before she took hers back, not yet sure where things were going.

They were in the truck a minute later, heading in the direction of the main highway when he suddenly took a left at the fork. The only thing at the end of this road was... “Are you taking me out to see the Wallace place?”

Dylan just smiled, not offering any hints.

She settled back in the seat, trying to be patient even as her nerves were getting more and more strained under the pressure of everything that remained unsaid between them.

They pulled up to the house, but where she expected darkness, she was surprised to see a light on over the porch. “Is someone here? I thought Dad said something about the new owner living in Pasadena?”

“I actually have it on pretty good authority that the owner lives right here in town.”

The way he was grinning that dopey grin made her look at him more closely. He didn’t mean… “You didn’t buy the Wallace place, did you?” she asked, getting out of the truck.

“Guilty as charged.”

She stared back to the farmhouse, actually at a loss for words. “I— Wait. You bought his place? Whatever would possess you to do that?”

He came around the truck to stand next to her, staring out at the house, and she stepped forward, too, coming to stand next to him. “I’ve been thinking about finding a place of my own for some time. Remember how Finn and I were talking about maybe buying the apple orchards for the business? Well, Jasper found the current owner, but they’re only interested in selling it all or nothing. And the answer became obvious. This place? This town? It all made sense.”

“There have to be hundreds of other places you could have chosen, grander houses than this old place.”

“All true. But from the moment I saw the place again the other day, standing about where we are now, I knew it was meant to be mine.”

Dylan had bought the Wallace place.

Her incredulity wasn’t based on her thinking it was a bad choice. Quite the opposite. Tessa had always loved this place. Not as large as the Montenegros’ farmhouse, it still had character and plenty of space inside for her and the three dogs and two cats she envisioned for herself at ten years old. As kids, they all used to play hide and seek inside, there being no short supply of small closets and doorways linking all the rooms together.

And now Dylan was the owner.

“So? What do you think?”

A wave of anger and resentment hit her and she struggled to keep from screaming. “I think—I think that you’re really something.”

He studied her. “I don’t understand. You’re…mad at me?”

“You’re darn right I’m mad. For all those years you were so adamant that this place wasn’t for you, that this life here wasn’t for you.” That she, Tessa, wasn’t for him, she thought but fortunately had the sanity not to say out loud. “And when you left Blossom Falls, I learned to accept the fact that you and I were just…different. That it had been in your nature to want more, a different life, a less settled life. But now you’re standing here and telling me you not only want to plant roots, but you want to do it here? In a house so close that I could see it from my bedroom window if I was of a mind to look.”

Instead of firing off an angry retort, however, Dylan was just standing there smiling at her, giving her a good urge to kick him in the shin.

“Let me understand this,” he drawled. “You’re angry not because I bought the house and plan to settle down but because I’m doing all of this now.”

“No,” she snapped, but realized denial was futile. She sighed. “Maybe. I don’t know.”

He stepped in front of her view of the house so she had to look at him and those eyes that were filled with a warm light and something else. Hope?

“Growing up like I did with my mom, the only thing that made sense to me was my music. It was the one thing where my efforts actually were rewarded. Where the more time I spent practicing, the more I could see life and beauty taking shape by my own hard work.”

Tessa didn’t know the extent of what life had been like for Dylan with his mom, but she knew that it had gotten pretty bad leading up to her death. When he’d shown up at his aunt’s an angry and hurt twelve-year-old boy, not wanting to care about anyone or let them care about him, Tessa had realized he needed someone to look after him, and that person was going to be her. With time and nurturing from those around him, Dylan had changed. Learned to accept praise and love and laughter. Her love for him changed, too, getting bigger and brighter and all too consuming even though she hadn’t always understood what she was feeling.

“Even as a kid, I’d vowed that I would do anything, take every avenue I had to to make my music my future,” he continued, taking her hand and slipping it into his own. “When I got to Blossom Falls, I found a sense of belonging and love that I’d never had, and that I embraced even though I never let go of my dream of being a musician. What I didn’t expect, however, was…you. You always looked at me, even at nine years old, as something better and brighter than I saw myself. Watching you grow up, I felt almost what I thought was a brotherly affection. Until that Christmas I saw you in a way that, if Finn or the rest of your family knew, would leave me pulverized. I knew I was in trouble and that the best course of action was to stay away before I did something stupid.”

Tessa remembered the Christmas he was talking about. She’d been sixteen and had been waiting to see Dylan ever since his aunt told them he would be coming home from his first year of college for the winter break. She thought she’d felt something in the way he looked at her, the way he couldn’t stop looking at her, and she’d felt deliriously happy and terrified at the same time. But then something came up and he’d taken off the day after Christmas. It was strangely exhilarating to know that he hadn’t been as immune as she thought he must have been.

“Those two weeks when I came back after you lost your mom, I knew I was walking a dangerous line between my feelings and the boundaries that had to stay firmly in place between us. You were so sad, so lost, and all I knew was that I couldn’t leave you. So I stayed and we spent more time together, really talked together, and despite myself and my big dreams, I fell hard for you enough that I finally took leave of my senses and kissed you that night. And that kiss…” He shook his head. “It was the best thing that had ever happened to me. It made me feel things that I hadn’t realized were possible. And it scared the hell out of me, so I did the only thing I thought made sense at the time. I left. But I never stopped thinking about you. And these past few days, being with you again? It’s the only thing that’s made sense to me in a long time.”

Tessa felt stupid tears cloud her eyes. Knowing he was speaking his truth. Knowing that it was as true for her, too. She had thought she hated him over all these years. But the love? It had always been there. And for the first time, she believed that maybe it wasn’t as one-sided as she’d feared.

“Look, Tessa. I don’t know what the future is going to be. Where you or I will be. I just know that right now, being with you feels right. I spent ten years wondering what would have happened if I’d made a different choice that night, and now that I’m back here again, I don’t want to risk another ten years going by, or wondering what would have happened if I’d been brave enough to tell you what I was feeling. That there’s something between us, something I think could be really good. And if you’re up to it, I’d like to give it a real go.”

Tessa took a step back, needing the space from him and the warmth and promise in his eyes to put her thoughts together. “It would be easy, so easy, to say yes. But it isn’t that simple anymore. We have different lives now. You’re a musician. You’re going to be out on the road eventually. And I have a life, friends, a home, and a job in the city. I just don’t see how that would work.”

“It’s worth trying, don’t you think? And San Francisco isn’t the end of the world. I’ll visit you when I can, and you can come and see me, too. Whether here at the farm or out on the road. You know, those tour busses are far more comfortable than you might expect.” He took a step forward again and closed the space, only this time the truck was against her back and she was left with nowhere to retreat. “I don’t want to walk away wondering what if anymore. Why shouldn’t we give it a shot and see what comes of it?”

She’d run out of excuses and they both knew it. Now it was a matter of answering what was in her heart, something she’d been good at ignoring these past few years.

Tessa reached her hand up, touching his face. But words wouldn’t come, and instead she used the only thing she could to tell him her answer. She kissed him. The only true expression of emotion they’d ever shared the precious two times before.

She heard his intake of breath as her lips covered his, the shock as he froze for the barest moment, before he accepted everything she was telling him without speaking a word, and his hands cupped her face as he brought her in closer. Unlike the previous kisses, the first coming from wonder and curiosity as they tested their feelings for each other, the second from unsaid emotions that nearly overwhelmed them, this kiss was the most real of all. Accepting their past, the pain that their separation caused them for years, and an understanding that no matter how hard they’d tried to pretend they didn’t care, the person in their arms was the one person they could never escape from.

And who, maybe, they no longer needed to.

“You’re not holding out on me, are you, Lynn?” Tessa teased the older woman selling kiwi fruits Sunday morning at the farmers’ market.

Despite having gotten maybe four hours of sleep last night from the time she and Dylan finally parted in the hall to the moment she’d opened her eyes this morning and the memories of everything that had taken place the night before flooded over her, Tessa was feeling more awake than she’d felt in a long time.

“Would I give my favorite customer anything but the best?” Lynn said.

Dylan always liked desserts, fruit tarts being high on the list if she remembered correctly. “Give me the full bag then.”

Was she really standing here thinking about ways to Dylan Jamison’s stomach—and heart? She glanced over to see Dylan talking on his phone with Elle, his blond hair shining more golden under the morning sunlight. Combined with the aviator glasses he wore to shield his eyes from the glare, he looked very Hollywood. Something that hadn’t escaped her notice—or the notice of the women around them, who weren’t bothering to try and hide their stares.

She sighed softly, still unable to believe the culmination of events that had taken place in the space of a day. She, Tessa Montenegro, a woman who didn’t take chances—particularly with her heart—had decided to take that leap of faith and accept Dylan’s offer to see where this thing between them could go. Every minute in his company had felt almost dreamlike, and she’d wanted to pinch herself to see if it were real.

Except when he was kissing her. Those moments—the many, many moments they’d had since he first told her how he felt—were the ones that felt most real. How couldn’t they when they served as a reminder of why no one had ever compared to Dylan Jamison before or after that first fateful kiss?

“Here you go, honey,” Lynn said, bringing her from her reverie as she handed Tessa the bag of fruit. “I hear that you’ve been helping Jasper with Claudia Nunn’s case against the gas company.”

“Oh, that’s overstating my involvement a bit. I’m afraid there wasn’t really much I could do that Jasper hadn’t already done.”

“Well, I’ve been meaning to come into Jasper’s for some time to talk about getting my estate in order, but since he was married to my sister all those years ago, I’ve been a little on the fence. Now, if you were going to be there more frequently helping him out, I might stop in and get things moving.”

“That’s so sweet of you to think of me,” Tessa said, touched that Lynn thought of her in such high regard. “But I’m only going to be in town for a couple more days. I was only here to help my dad out, and since he’s on the mend, I’ll probably be leaving day after tomorrow.” At least as long as the doctor gave him the okay to resume more of his every day tasks at his visit tomorrow. “Now knowing Jasper as I do, history not withstanding, I know he’ll do his best for you. You should call him.”

A warm hand wrapped around her waist, and her gut sucked in as she shivered from his touch.

“Here. Let me,” Dylan said and took the bag filled with fruit from her.

Lynn smiled conspiratorially at Tessa. “Now you take care of yourself, Tessa. Don’t be a stranger.”

“I won’t. Thanks, Lynn.”

Dylan’s hand moved from her waist and took her hand in his as they walked, and he placed the bulk of the day’s purchases in the other hand. Neither of them said anything, instead just enjoying each other’s presence as they strolled through the stalls of produce and farm-made goods.

Being here around people she’d known since she was a baby, catching up on news and gossip felt oddly comforting. Familiar. Gratifying. What once had felt stifling as she had grown up with everyone knowing hers and the rest of the Montenegro clan’s business now felt like a big hug from a town that really, genuinely cared about her—about everyone.

“Why was Elle calling?” she asked, curious as to the reason for the early morning call.

“Appears she already wants to confirm our weekend plans for pancakes. She also wants me to help her work on a song for an upcoming talent show at the school.”

“That’s so sweet. You told her yes, right?”

“Told her can’t imagine a better way to spend our time together. She wants you to put the date on your calendar, too, by the way. It’s the Monday before Thanksgiving.”

“Monday?” Tessa couldn’t imagine a worse day to try and get away from work, what with Thanksgiving just a few days away. “I will make it happen,” she said with determination, ignoring the twinge of anxiety she had just thinking about the excuses she’d need to make at work to sneak away. But this was Elle and it was important.

“There’s something else I was thinking about. Now that I’m going to be the proud owner of not just a house but also an apple orchard and a rather large, unused barn, I have some decisions to make, contractors to meet with…”

The possibilities swirled in her mind. “I hope you’re going to go with white on the clapboards. Maybe black…or even green accents. And you definitely will have to open that kitchen, maybe look at getting an island.”

He laughed. “I see you have a few opinions already, all of which I want to hear about. But first I was thinking about the barn. I’m not really much of a guy who sees himself getting up at the crack of dawn to feed the chickens or pigs or whatever it is farmers keep. There were a few other possibilities I was considering and I wanted your opinion.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“First, depending on how successful Rocking Blues Cider becomes, it could be an interesting place to turn into a tasting room. Maybe set up a little shop where we sell the cider as well as some local products to tourists.”

“Is that what you’d want, though? I would think buying a place out here in the country was an escape for you from all of that attention,” she said, even as the possibilities flowed. The old barn, faded red but still representative of the farm’s origins, would be amazing as a tasting room. The rafters could be painted and the whole ceiling opened up with lights strung up during the holidays—”

“There’s enough land between the barn and the house right now that, with a good fence and a reworking of the road around the place, it could still keep the house secluded and private. Which brings me to the other prospect. Seeing as how the town is in such dire need of a place for all the future artists to be nurtured and taught, what if we turn it into the community’s next art studio? Only, maybe we could expand it into a performing art studio. One where kids like you could learn to paint and express their creativity through painting and drawing, while kids like Elle, who don’t have the means to afford otherwise, could take free music lessons. And if there’s an interest, maybe there’ll be some room for a dance studio or maybe a theater club.”

Tessa thought she was going to burst at the possibilities that Dylan was painting for her. Of young artists being inspired to be the next Edward Hopper or Georgia O’Keefe as they basked under the tutelage of people in the community who saw the value in what they could do. Of young musicians and dancers having someone to believe in them and show them how they could make their dreams a reality. It was too late for her, perhaps, but others could be inspired.

“I think—” Her tears welled up again, and she laughed because she’d turned into such a baby in the space of twelve hours. “I think that last bit? About the community center sounds perfect.”

Her excitement was so sudden that—without thinking of who saw her—she threw herself into his arms and planted a long kiss on his lips. She laughed as he whipped her around before finally setting her down and—even as dozens of people were watching—this time settling a more leisurely kiss on her that, had he not been holding her up, might have sent her to the ground in a puddle, barely aware of the dozens of flashes going off just over her shoulder.

All she cared about was the sun on her face, the tingling warmth of her lips from his kiss, and the man smiling down on her like she was the only thing important in the world.

He set her down, taking a moment to clear a tendril of hair from her eyes.

“So much for your keeping a low profile,” she said, her heart light and free of any doubt. Life was definitely looking up.

Dylan’s phone rang and he slipped his hand from hers to get it. “Sorry. Aunt Daphne’s supposed to get back with me about dinner tonight,” he said apologetically.

But the number on the screen wasn’t Daphne.

“You probably should just get it,” Tessa told him. “Otherwise she’ll probably keep calling.”

“If you’re sure you don’t mind.”

She shook her head and smiled even though she didn’t feel as casual about it as she pretended. But his avoiding his ex wasn’t going to make her go away. Best to see what she wanted so they could move on.

Leaning down, he kissed her quickly on the lips before answering, “Hey, Roxie.”

Needing a distraction, Tessa headed over to the Barnsworth family’s stand, where she checked out the array of pickled vegetables and canned marmalades, even as bits and pieces of Dylan’s conversation reached her.

Relax, Tessa.

He didn’t choose Roxie. He chose you.

She just had to have some faith.