I hit send before I can second guess it. My parents don’t need to know I nearly cried in the car while covered in powdered sugar. Dad would try to come here to deal with the raccoon situation and his health is too fragile for him to be going anywhere.
I set the phone aside and sit on the edge of the bed, stretching my legs out, staring at the ceiling for a moment before flopping back with a long exhale.
Memories swirl up without me inviting them in. My summers at that cabin were filled with a lot of joy. I remember Logan pulling my ponytail like … all the time. Without him and his friends, I never would’ve dared to jump from the big rocky cliff into water that felt ten degrees colder than it should’ve been.
There was an old outhouse on Logan’s property and he convinced me it was haunted. I must’ve been ten or eleven that summer. He made me cry once, then brought me marshmallows the next night tomake up for it. I haven’t thought about those summers in years.
Without warning, my brain tosses Liam into the reel. Liam, standing shirtless with that axe, looking like a lumberjack ad with bright eyes and powerful muscles in those arms and abs. Liam, tapping the roof of my SUV like he didn’t just upend a decade of safe distance between us. He has no idea how I’ve crushed on him throughout the summers here in Cady Springs.
I groan and cover my face with both hands. “No. Absolutely not. Off limits then, off limits now.”
Still … he looked at me differently. Didn’t he?
Nope. I’m not going there.
I sit back up, find a pen in the room’s writing set, and drag the lodge’s notepad toward me. I scrawl a list, keeping the pen moving like that’ll keep my thoughtsin check:
Call pest control and get a quote
Find bleach, rubber boots and gloves
Garbage bags and protective masks
Open windows while there
Find out if Logan is around and what he’s doing
Try not to stare at Liam Rowe (seriously, stop it)
I circle that last one twice, then toss the pendown and stretch out on the bed.
Tomorrow, I take the cabin back. One way or another. One stinking step at a time.
Chapter 4
