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“I appreciate the gesture, girls, but my birthday is this Wednesday. I doubt we’ll be able to schedule a canoe trip on such short notice.” Anna latched on to the first excuse she could think of. “Summer is Mrs. Mason’s busiest season.”
“That’s true, but birthdays are special occasions.” Sunni waved to someone behind Anna. “Can you come over here a minute? We have a question for you.”
Anna twisted around just in time to see Dash freeze midstep in front of one of the carnival booths a few yards away. He pivoted toward them slowly and made his way to Sunni’s side.
“Is it possible Anna and her girls can use their gift certificate this Wednesday?”
Dash didn’t respond. Anna wasn’t sure if it was because he was trying to stay in character or because Sunni had put him on the spot.
“If you can’t fit us in, I under—”
The word lodged in Anna’s throat when Dash tugged off his headpiece, revealing the man behind the mask.
The man who’d playfully taken her in his arms and waltzed her through the grass.
The man with tousled, ink-black hair and eyes the velvet blue of a summer evening sky.
The only person who’d seen the bully lurking beneath Ross’s charismatic smile.
Liam.
* * *
For the last six hours, Liam couldn’t wait to remove this silly headpiece so he could breathe fresh air again. Now the only thing he wanted to do was put it back on and pretend he was Aiden pretending to be Dash.
Fortunately, his mom didn’t pick up on the tension that thickened the air like an early-morning mist over the river.
“I’ve been so busy getting things ready for the fund-raiser I haven’t had a chance to look at the calendar. Do you know if Aiden is free that day?”
Liam tore his gaze from Anna and tried to dredge up an image of their schedule for the upcoming week.
“He blocked off the day for a private lesson, and Brendan will be out of town for a business meeting.”
Liam’s pint-size dancing partners, who’d pushed Anna into his arms earlier in the day, wilted like daisies in the midday heat, but Anna looked...relieved?
What was that about? Why had she bid on that particular item if she hadn’t wanted to win?
“The twins wanted to surprise Anna,” Sunni murmured, almost as if she’d read Liam’s mind.
“So we kind of forged her signature,” Cassie added proudly.
“’Cause it’s her birthday,” her sister, Chloe, chimed in.
Fortunately for Liam, the girls’ names were printed in the center of the giant sunflowers silk-screened on the front of their T-shirts or he would have had a difficult time telling them apart.
“Mom says birthdays don’t count when you’re her age, but I think they always count, don’t you?” Cassie directed the question at Liam.
“Always,” he agreed.
“She won’t have to do any of the work, either—”
Cassie bobbed her head in agreement. “Mom works a lot—”
“And sometimes she falls asleep on the couch at night—”
“Girls.” Anna squeezed the word in, her cheeks flooding with color, as her daughters paused to take a breath. “It’s all right. I can call Mrs. Mason and schedule another time.”
Instead of agreeing with Anna, his mom tipped her head to one side, something Liam had seen her do whenever she was trying to come up with a solution to a problem.
And then she smiled—at him—and Liam knew exactly what that solution was.
Don’t say it, Mom.
But she did. Out loud.
“What are you doing on Wednesday, Liam?”
Liam made the mistake of glancing at the twins, and the hope blazing in their eyes pulled him in and held him captive like a tractor beam.
“It looks—” Liam heard himself say “—like I’ll be going on a canoe trip.”
* * *
“Gourmet meal. Cooked over an open fire.” Liam secured the tie-down on Aiden’s canoe and gave it a hard yank. “Seriously?”
“Hey! Take it easy on the old guy.” Aiden ran a comforting hand over the scarlet flames that flowed underneath the curve of the gunwale. “I thought it was a nice touch. Lily claims it’s all about marketing, and do you know how much swanky restaurants charge for freshly caught trout?”
Liam didn’t. And Aiden had to be joking.
“Trout?” He stared at his brother. “I’m going to have my hands full with three inexperienced paddlers, and you expect me to pack a fly rod? And what if I don’t catch anything?”
“Huh.” Aiden looked a little mystified by this line of questioning. “I guess I hadn’t really thought about that. I always catch fish.”
His younger brother’s confidence, which Liam found humorous if not downright entertaining on most occasions, sawed against his nerves today. “What am I supposed to do? Call Chet and ask him to airdrop a gourmet dinner for four on Eagle Rock?”
Nothing against the manager of the grocery store deli, but Chet’s idea of fancy was spackling a layer of ketchup over the tops of the homemade meat loaves before they went into the oven.
“Lily happened to like the description I wrote up for the auction, by the way. She said it was very creative.”
That was one word for it.
“Calm water? Sunshine?” Liam stuffed a dry bag into the bed of the pickup. “You know you can’t promise those kinds of conditions.”
“It’s called setting the right mood.” Aiden’s eyes narrowed. “And since we’re on the subject, what’s up with yours? It’s not like this will be your first trip down the river.”
True. But it would be his first trip down the river with Anna.
“I’ve got two canoes to finish by the end of the week,” Liam muttered.
Also true—but a deadline wasn’t the reason Liam had been plagued by a series of clips straight from the archives of High School Past ever since he’d gotten home from the shelter’s fund-raiser earlier that afternoon.
Past, Liam reminded himself, being the key word here.
Even though Anna, who’d been wearing denim shorts and an apple-green T-shirt when he’d danced with her that afternoon, didn’t look much older than the girl who’d breezed up to Liam’s locker on his first day at Emerson Middle and High School. She’d had a bright smile on her face and a sheaf of colorful flyers advertising the pep rally on Friday night tucked in the crook of her arm.
Liam had been tempted to go, just so he could see her again, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that Anna Foster belonged to an elite inner circle. Or that Mr. Swanson’s fifth-hour study hall would be the closest Liam would ever get to her—and that was only because the seats were arranged alphabetically.
He’d been right. Liam had seen Anna at school practically every day, but it was easy to remember the number of times they’d actually spoken. Once. And that conversation had pretty much destroyed any chance of there ever being a second.
Chapter Three
Anna’s hands tightened on the steering wheel when she turned the corner and spotted Liam and Aiden standing in the driveway.
Why had she agreed to this?
Over the past few days, she’d tried to come up with a reason to bow out of their upcoming canoe trip gracefully, but the twins had been talking about it nonstop since the fund-raiser on Saturday afternoon. And in those rare moments of silence when they weren’t talking about the outing, they’d been preparing for it. Studying the map that highlighted their projected route and memorizing the list of safety tips Sunni had emailed to Anna on Monday morning. Filling out the detailed questionnaire used to determine their level of experience.
On the last page of the information packet, Sunni had added a personal note: “Happy Birthday, Anna! Enjoy the peace and tranquility of a day on the river!”
Peace and tranquility?
Not when Anna’s stomach tilted sideways at the thought of spending those hours with Liam.
Regret coursed through her, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. Words Anna had spoken in anger the night of their senior prom had formed a wall between her and Liam that remained intact even after she’d returned to Castle Falls. Strengthened by time and distance and a silence neither one of them had attempted to break.
But Anna could still see the flash of hurt in Liam’s eyes, a sign her words had hit their mark.
What makes you think that my relationship with Ross is any of your business? You don’t know the first thing about him...or me. And from what I’ve heard about your family, you don’t know anything about love, either.
How ironic, that she was the one who’d proved to be blind when it came to that particular emotion.
A mistake she wasn’t going to make again...
“Morning, ladies!” Aiden called out cheerfully. He could have passed for a modern-day river pirate in faded jeans and a black T-shirt with the sleeves cut off at the shoulders. A red do-rag matched the flames painted on the side of the canoe jutting from the back of his pickup truck.
Still, the knot in Anna’s stomach loosened a little. She wasn’t sure if it was because Aiden was the youngest in the family or because a perpetual gleam of mischief danced in his cobalt-blue eyes, but Anna had always found him to be the most approachable of the three brothers.
Cassie and Chloe obviously didn’t share her opinion. They bailed out of the backseat and sprinted across the lawn toward Liam, their copper braids streaming behind them like the tails on a pair of kites.
Anna dragged in a breath, afraid the girls were going to bowl the man right over. But at the last possible second, they skidded to a stop directly in front of him, chattering a mile a minute about their upcoming adventure.
As Anna made her way toward them, she managed to catch every third word or so. Photographs. Sunflowers. Pins and journals.
The average person would have been hard-pressed to make sense of the lilting duet, but instead of clapping his hands over his ears or running for cover, Liam bent closer and gave the twins his undivided attention. A swatch of silky dark hair slipped over his eye and for a moment, Anna saw a lanky adolescent boy slumped in his desk in the back of the classroom.
Rumors had started to run rampant even before Liam and his brothers moved in with the Masons. Some of the kids said they’d been living on the street. Others claimed that Liam’s parents had been sent to prison and the boys would have disappeared into the foster-care system if Rich and Sunni hadn’t stepped in and offered them a home.
Anna figured the real story lay somewhere in between, but it was difficult to separate fact from fiction when the people in question refused to speak up on their own behalf.
Brendan, who’d been a sophomore when they arrived in Castle Falls, regarded everyone with barely veiled hostility. He’d stalked the narrow hallway between the middle and high schools with a grungy backpack hooked over one shoulder and a pretty good-sized chip on the other.
Aiden, at ten, didn’t sport an attitude, but Anna had overheard Mrs. Harris, the fourth-grade Sunday-school teacher, refer to him as “an active body.” A tactful way of saying that Aiden was everywhere at once. Anna had witnessed him crawling under tables and climbing over chairs in the church fellowship room like he was competing in an obstacle course.
And always in the center, like a blue-eyed fulcrum meant to balance the chaos, was Liam. Coaxing a smile out of his older brother. Making sure Aiden’s energy was channeled in a positive direction so he wouldn’t bump, break or burn something down.
It suddenly occurred to Anna that she’d noticed a lot of things about Liam Kane...
Her heart stuttered like the engine in her cantankerous minivan when her gaze unexpectedly locked with the very grown-up version of the boy she’d been remembering.
“You kids have fun now.” Aiden’s rumble of laughter broke the silence and he thumped Liam on the arm. “And make sure you do everything I taught you, bro.”
Liam rolled his eyes and gave his brother an affectionate shove toward the driver’s-side door. “Be safe.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Aiden winked at Anna before he vaulted into the cab of the pickup.
Cassie and Chloe obviously saw Aiden’s departure as the beginning of their own adventure, because they linked hands and began to hop up and down.
“Can we get our stuff out of the car now, Mr. Kane?”
“Sure, that would be—” Liam stopped.
Because the girls were already gone.
“They can teleport,” Liam said.
He sounded so amazed that Anna couldn’t help but smile as her daughters began unloading their backpacks from the back of the van.
“Among other things.” Life with twins wasn’t for the faint of heart. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
* * *
Was he ready for this?
Ha. Not even close. Not when Anna’s smile sent his pulse skipping like a rock over the surface of the water.
Liam reminded himself it had been meant for her daughters, not for him, as he forced himself to meet her gaze.
“Did you have any questions about our itinerary for the day?”
“No.” The smile faded. “I think the information Sunni emailed on Monday covered everything.”
“Good.” So far, so good. “I’ll be right back. There’s a waiver you’ll need to sign—”
“It’s in the kitchen.” His mom jogged up to them, her pink hiking boots leaving heart-shaped stencils in grass still misted with morning dew. Lily and Brendan’s overweight basset hound, Missy, chugged along at her heels. “Right next to the fresh pot of coffee I put on for you and Anna.”
Liam reached down to pat the dog, pretending not to see the questioning frown Sunni tossed in his direction.
Given the fact that Brendan ran Castle Falls Outfitters from an office in their mom’s house, it wasn’t unusual to do business at the kitchen table, but Liam was anxious to start the four-hour countdown.
He wasn’t worried that lingering over a cup of java with Anna in the tiny kitchen would feel awkward. Just the opposite.
He was worried it would feel too good.
One more reason to keep his distance.
“Happy birthday, Anna!” Sunni reeled Anna in for a quick hug. “Are you looking forward to spending the day on the river?”
Since Liam already knew what the answer to that question would be, there was no point in hanging around.
“If you have Anna sign the liability waiver, Mom, I’ll make sure everything else is ready.” He pivoted toward the riverbank, familiar territory where everything made sense.
Where he could breathe air that wasn’t laced with the scent of Anna’s perfume, a delicate but tantalizing fragrance that reminded Liam of the wild roses that bloomed outside the window of his workshop every summer.
He rounded the corner of the garage, where he and Aiden shared an upstairs apartment, and almost collided with his older brother and Lily.
“Whoa!” Brendan reared back and pretended to scan the yard. “Where’s the fire?”
“I’m on the clock this morning, remember?” Liam reminded him.
Three hours, fifty-two minutes and counting.
“Oh. Right.” Brendan linked his arm through Lily’s. “Anna Leighton’s birthday present. How did you end up playing guide today instead of Aiden? I thought he was the one who came up with the package for the silent auction.”
“Aiden had already booked a private lesson.”
It was a testimony to Lily’s influence that Brendan didn’t know the details. BL—before Lily—his brother had micromanaged every aspect of Castle Falls Outfitters, including the things he’d asked Aiden and Liam to oversee. But over the past year, Brendan had loosened his grip and started to focus his attention on marketing and sales, the area of the business he truly enjoyed. Liam was still getting used to this new-and-improved version of his big brother.
“I’m sure Anna will have a wonderful time.” Lily smiled.
“She gets to soak up the sunshine and eat food she doesn’t have to prepare. What more could a girl want?”
Liam could think of a lot of things.
In high school, it was no secret that Anna couldn’t wait to leave Castle Falls. Everyone had expected great things from Emerson’s beautiful valedictorian and Ross, the team’s talented quarterback. Ross’s football scholarship would take the couple through college and then on to places a girl from a small town in the UP could only dream about.
College hadn’t been in Liam’s future, not when all hands were needed on deck to keep Castle Falls Outfitters out of the red when Rich Mason passed away six months after he and Sunni had opened their home to Liam and his brothers.
As always, memories of his foster dad stirred up a blend of grief and gratitude. Liam still didn’t know why God had called Rich home so soon, but the impact he’d had on Liam in those few short months had changed his life.
Where you look is where you go.
One of Rich’s favorite sayings chased through Liam’s mind. At the time, he’d assumed his foster dad had been talking about paddling a canoe. Any guide worth his salt knew you’d run aground if you kept looking back, but now Liam understood Rich’s words of wisdom could apply to a lot of situations.
Like this one.
Which was why he would treat Anna the way he would treat anyone who’d booked a canoe trip with Castle Falls Outfitters. He would be polite. Professional.
Because the here and now was a much safer place to be than camping on the ledge of the past. Or, even worse, allowing himself to dream about the future.
Chapter Four
“Come on, Mom!”
Anna had barely finished signing the waiver on Sunni’s kitchen table when the girls burst through the door.
Sunni chuckled at their enthusiasm. “Have a wonderful time. And don’t worry about a thing, Anna. You’re in good hands.”
Liam’s hands.
Anna didn’t have time to dwell on that. She was taken captive by two impatient little girls who still believed a birthday was a cause for celebration. Not a day to look back on your life and wonder why it hadn’t turned out the way you’d expected it would.
The day promised to be exactly the way Aiden had described it on the bid sheet. A whisper of a breeze stirred the tops of the trees, and the sun beamed down at them from a cloudless sapphire sky, turning the surface of the river to glass.
Cassie and Chloe towed her toward the riverbank. Two canoes, fashioned from intricate strips of polished natural wood instead of fiberglass, looked as though they’d come straight from an era when fur traders and lumberjacks roamed the forest.
Anna knew nothing about canoes other than the fact they were supposed to float, of course, but even she could see the craftsmanship that elevated the ones Liam made from the cookie-cutter styles sold in most sporting-goods stores.
Cassie and Chloe could barely contain their excitement while Liam went through the safety procures and demonstrated basic paddling techniques.
“If you don’t have any questions,” he said after helping the twins put their life jackets on, “I think we’re good to go.”
“Which canoe is mine?” Cassie wanted to know.
“You and I will share that one.” Liam nodded at the canoe on the left.
“It doesn’t have flames.” Cassie couldn’t quite hide her disappointment.
“You saw Aiden’s canoe.” A hint of a smile came out to play. “A long time ago, my brother found out his name means “fiery,” so he painted flames on the sides.”
Before the girls could suggest they find a can of paint and decorate their canoes, Anna helped Chloe get settled and took her place at the stern.
Liam took the lead and the girls fell silent, their frowns of concentration gradually giving way to awestruck wonder.
The river flowed behind Riverside Avenue, Castle Falls’s main street, just steps from the back door of The Happy Cow, but Anna stayed so busy during the day she barely had time to give the picturesque scene more than a passing glance.
Here it cut a sparkling corridor through a hedge of towering white pine, birch and fragrant cedar. The leaves of the hardwoods had slowly unfurled over the past few weeks, opening to a soothing, soul-feeding shade of green. Anna breathed in the scent of sunshine and water and felt something unfurl inside her, too.
The two canoes ended up side by side as they rounded a natural bend in the river.
“Look! Someone is building a playhouse!” Chloe pointed at the skeletal frame of a cabin tucked in a stand of birch trees. Simple lines and the river-rock fireplace rising through the center of the gabled roof gave the structure a rustic charm.
“It’s a house.” Liam chuckled. “I’m hoping to move in by the end of the summer. I work on it in my spare time and Aiden chips in to help whenever he can. He has a vested interest in this place because it means he’ll have the garage apartment all to himself.”
Cassie’s brow furrowed as they drew even with Liam’s cabin.
“It’s kind of little.”
“Cassie!” Anna had taught her daughters to always tell the truth, but while they seemed to understand the importance of honesty, they didn’t always grasp the meaning of the word tact.
“Well, it is.” Cassie stuck to her opinion. “Don’t you think it’s little, Chloe?”
Ordinarily Anna found it humorous when Cassie attempted to draft her twin sister as an ally, but this time she was too embarrassed by her daughter’s candor. Anna discovered it was difficult for a mother to make eye contact and telegraph a silent message while drifting down the river in a canoe.
“It’s a little little,” Chloe agreed.
Liam didn’t appear offended or uncomfortable by Anna’s daughters’ innocent observations. “Just right for one person.”
“But aren’t you going to get married someday?” Cassie asked, not bothering to hide her shock.
Eight-year-olds—Anna knew this from past experience—didn’t hide anything.
“And have kids?” Chloe looked shocked, too.
Okay. Family meeting. Tonight. Topic: Personal Questions.
“Girls,” Anna finally managed to choke out. “I’m sure Liam knows how big his house should be.”
* * *
Not according to Sunni.
Liam’s mom had questioned the size of the cabin the first time he’d shown her the blueprint, too.
But really, how much space did a guy need anyway? A kitchen. A bedroom. A living room where he could kick back and put up his feet after work.
At least a dozen times a day, Liam pictured how the cabin would look when it was finished. But, suddenly, Anna was there. And not as a visitor. Liam saw her reading in the oversize chair next to the fireplace, her chestnut hair falling loose around her shoulders. Laughing with Cassie and Chloe in the kitchen. Snuggled up with him on the couch while snow swirled outside the window...
Maybe he should have asked Aiden to switch places with him today.
Because there was no way Liam would let himself go there.
He thanked God on a daily basis for the blessing of a close family, but that didn’t mean he planned to have one of his own.
Maybe if Rich had lived longer, Liam would have had a chance to figure out how to do it right.
He’d heard the rumors about him and his brothers when they’d moved to Castle Falls. Even one of Sunni’s closest friends had expressed concern about her ability to handle the household alone after Rich passed away.
Those boys aren’t just from a broken home, they’re probably broken on the inside, too, Sunni. And you aren’t going to be able to fix them with a hug and a smile. Who knows what kind of problems are going to crop up as they get older? They could turn out just like their father.
Darren Kane—a man whose temper had erupted without warning or provocation and inflicted lasting damage on their family—was the last person Liam wanted to be like.
Still, he might have dismissed the comment if he hadn’t seen the same concern reflected in other people’s eyes.
It made Liam wonder if there wasn’t a fault line, embedded deep inside of him, a crack formed by the constant upheaval he had experienced as a child. All it would take was a shift of some kind, some unexpected, external pressure, and he’d turn into his dad.