“Chance Creek has its moments, huh?” he asked as if guessing her thoughts.
“Silver Falls does, I guess.”
“You don’t like our town much, do you?”
“What did Chance Creek ever do for me?” she countered. All her later memories were tinged with the shame of knowing everyone knew about her father’s exploits, even before he was caught. Tory had been so glad to get away from that. In Seattle, no one knew her. She’d been able to completely reinvent herself as an upright, dependable, trustworthy citizen. Without her family around to screw things up for her, she’d never had to worry about being the butt of gossip or the receiver of pitying glances.
She’d needed that.
Since she’d been back she’d braced herself every time she ventured into town, but the truth was no one had whispered or turned their back on her. Maybe things had changed.
“What did you ever do for Chance Creek?” Liam asked with another smile.
“I don’t want to talk about this.” His question reminded her of the Founder’s Prize and her aunt Virginia’s demand that she win it for the family.
Out of the question. She wasn’t even going to try.
“How about this, then? Are you seeing anyone?”
“You said you’d be a gentleman,” she reminded him. They’d crossed the bridge and walked up the road. She pulled out her phone and checked it. “I’ve got bars here.”
“Just asking,” Liam said as she wrote her text. “Trying to fill in the blanks of the past thirteen years.”
“I’m not seeing anyone. You?” she added when she was done with her message to Steel.
“Nope. Single.”
She looked around at the dark trees and starry skies. “What a pair of sad sacks we are.”
Liam leaned forward and kissed her.
Chapter Two
“Hell, I didn’t mean to do that,” Liam said. What was wrong with him? This was exactly what he’d said he wouldn’t do—to Tory and to himself.
Tory hadn’t moved. Her lips were parted, and the look she was sending his way was half outraged, half amused.
“What?” he demanded when she didn’t speak.
“I knew you wouldn’t get through the evening without trying that.”
“Oh, you did, did you?” he asked, stung. “But I notice you stayed anyway. Maybe you wanted me to kiss you.”
“Maybe I did.” She looked as surprised as he felt after she said the words. “I mean—we were just at a wedding. I have been single a long time, and I’ve been… I don’t know. Sad today.”
He found himself shifting closer. “I could kiss you again.” He was losing his mind. Out of control. The last thing he should be doing was kissing Tory Cooper.
“Okay.” Tory tossed her hair back and grinned at him.
Liam’s body reacted before his mind caught up. He wrapped an arm around her, buried a hand in her hair and tilted her head so he could meet her mouth with his.
God, she tasted good. Felt good in his arms. Smelled like heaven. A floral scent mixed with woodsmoke.
When he pulled back, aching for more but determined not to push it, Tory let out a breath.
“The two of us shouldn’t work like that,” she said.
“Know what you mean.” The sparks flying between them rivaled that of the fire they’d left behind.
Speaking of which.
“We’d better get back.”
“Yeah.”
They retraced their steps and took their seats leaning up against the log. This time Liam noticed Tory sat closer, though.
And when he put his arm around her shoulder, she didn’t pull away.
They sat like that for a long time before Tory shifted. “Are we sleeping right here?”
“Do you have a better idea?” Liam was finding it hard to focus on anything except the curve of her neck and the light, smoky scent of her hair. Things had gone from zero to sixty before he’d realized they were even at the starting gate. He wasn’t sure what was happening. All he knew was he didn’t want it to stop.
“Just wondered if you planned to break into the lodge or something.”
Liam pulled away. “Break in? I’m not Steel—” He bit off the rest of his sentence, realizing too late what he was saying. “I mean—”
Tory shifted away. “You mean Coopers are the criminals, not Turners. And yet you’re the one who’s trespassing, right?”
“So are you!” She was right; he took pride in his family’s reputation for doing what was right. He did his best to walk a moral path, although Noah was the one who had the lock on that.
“At your instigation.”
“That wouldn’t hold up in court.”
“Probably not,” she agreed with a lopsided smile he couldn’t interpret. “So we’re sleeping here on the beach.”
He tried to keep up. Tory was running rings around him tonight. Had she come to the wedding planning to flirt with him? Maybe she thought it was funny.
He needed to keep a clear head.
“That was the plan. It’s not supposed to rain, so I wasn’t going to bother with a tent, but I’ve got one if you’d prefer,” he said.
“I’m fine under the stars, but I’ll probably head back first thing tomorrow, so if you don’t mind, I’ll call it a night.”
He did mind, and he was sorry that things had gotten tense between them when they’d been going so well, but while he might not be the world’s best conversationalist, he did know when to shut up. He’d ruffled Tory’s feathers with that remark about Steel, and she would take anything he said now as a further attack, whether or not he meant it that way.
He got to his feet and held out a hand. When Tory took it and allowed him to help her up, he breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t screwed things up beyond repair.
He led her to the truck and handed her a sleeping bag and mat. It took no time at all for them to set themselves up for sleeping a respectable distance from each other near the fire. He handed Tory a roll of toilet paper, and she disappeared around the side of the lodge. Sometime later she was back.
“Had to hike into the forest
