Once We Met Read online

  The party that had blown up his life.

  “Do you think you could help outfit me? I need the whole place furnished. You have that much in stock for rent?”

  Corbin nodded. “Probably. But we require a deposit. Half upfront. Minimum rental period is for a month. And for a place as big as the Serendipity—it’s got, what? Five or six rooms?”

  “Ten.”

  “Yeah, that’s going to be a bundle. I’ll check the inventory, get you a list of what we have, and what we can do for you.”

  This was going to stretch his budget for furniture much sooner than he’d expected. He nodded, feeling the gnawing worry in his stomach. “Sounds good. Do you rent with the option to buy?” If he was going to drop so much money on this, he may as well have something to show for it at the end.

  “Yeah, we can. I’ll get you a quote. Oh, and one more thing—we probably can’t get a delivery this size together until Saturday. That work for you?”

  Saturday. That left four nights of trying to figure out what to do about Avery and her friend. But Dan nodded anyway. “Yeah, that works.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Dan

  12 Years Ago

  * * *

  Dan sank the basketball through the net off the backboard and fist-pumped as he trotted backward. He threw a grin at Corbin. “Best two out of three?”

  Corbin didn’t look nearly as pleased with the outcome of their one-on-one. As the two best basketball players on the team, neither of them enjoyed getting beat by the other one. “Someone’s in a good mood this morning.” He scowled, but his dark brown eyes hinted of humor. “What has you all bouncy?”

  “I’m not bouncy.” Dan was already sweating and flushed from their game, but heat crept into his cheeks as he swigged from his water bottle. A few drops of water trickled down from the corner of his mouth and sluiced across his neck.

  Corbin was watching him warily when he lowered the water bottle. “Spill.”

  They’d been best friends since the start of high school, when genetics and the school basketball coach had dictated that since Dan and Corbin were tall, they should be on the JV team. Stereotyping had paid off for Coach Hawkes well in that regard.

  Dan was so good, he already had visits from college recruiters with the Big Four universities. Which was great, considering he’d never have gotten a scholarship for his academic record.

  Dan jogged over to his gym bag and grabbed a towel from it. He wiped the sweat from his face, which was already attracting gnats at this early hour of the morning. They had little time to practice this summer with Dan’s work schedule, but Corbin got up early so they could play before Dan went to work. This early in the day, the high school basketball courts were empty anyway. The only people around were a couple playing racquetball on the tennis court and a woman walking her dog around the high school grounds.

  He tucked the towel away as Corbin approached. “I may have met a girl.”

  Corbin grinned, his eyes twinkling. “You’re in love.” The sarcasm in his voice dripped.

  “Har. Har.” But Dan couldn’t stop thinking about her.

  Corbin’s jaw dropped, and he pointed at Dan. “Look at that goofy expression on your face.” He clapped his hands together once and bent over laughing. “Smitten like a kitten.”

  Dan rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I just met her a couple of days ago.”

  Shrugging, Corbin stored the basketball in his gym bag. “What difference does time make? Some people just fall hard and fast. Nothing wrong with that.”

  “Yeah, that’s your excuse for having a new girlfriend every few months.”

  “No, my excuse for that is boredom.” Corbin shrugged and zipped his bag shut.

  “Because you keep looking in all the wrong places. You want someone on the chemistry team, not the cheerleading squad.”

  “Then the chemistry girls need to start showing up at parties. What am I supposed to do, go knocking on doors in town and asking, ‘Hey, are you cute and into chemistry?’” They headed out of the basketball court toward Dan’s house. Mom had been making them breakfasts on the mornings they practiced together, which Dan suspected was half the reason Corbin wanted to practice. His mom had died when he was still a toddler, and he’d been raised by his grandfather.

  “At least when you go to medical school, a bunch of science dorks’ll surround you.”

  Corbin chuckled. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you’ve changed the subject from your new girlfriend to me. But check out this perfect segue. You should bring her to Adam’s party tonight. You still planning on going?”

  Dan nearly tripped. He’d forgotten about the summer bonfire party the captain of the basketball team threw every summer. With Avery taking up his time and his desire to see her and be around her, he’d pushed to the side thoughts of doing anything else. It worked out that Mom had been on the night shift two nights ago and Dad was on a work trip this week—his coming in past curfew had gone unnoticed.

  Mom didn’t love him going to Adam’s parties, but it might be a good excuse to stay out late with Avery once again. If he could get her to go with him. “Yeah, maybe.”

  “You should. I want to meet whoever has you all distracted. Whoever she is, she’s given you confidence, man. Dan Klein has a beating heart after all.”

  Dan shot him a fake warning look. “Don’t let the word get out. I don’t need my reputation getting blown up. Speaking of you being smart, I have a question for you.”

  “We weren’t speaking of me being smart, but go on.” Corbin quirked a brow. “And that, by the way, is an example of a bad segue.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know what the hell the word ‘segue’ means. Other than those scooter things the cops used to use to patrol the park.”

  A garbage truck rumbled past them, then stopped. They went around, stepping past the fuming streams of exhaust. Corbin’s older brother, Curtis, had taken a job for the sanitation department this summer. But he didn’t appear to be working on this truck, which was probably better. Proud as Corbin was of his brother trying to get his life back together, he didn’t love the fact that other guys in the basketball team used bits of information like that to make fun of him. He acted embarrassed about it, even in front of Dan.

  “Anyway.” Dan cleared his throat, wrinkling his nose at the smell of rotting trash. “The girl—her name’s Avery. She’s from Florida. And she and her family are at the lodge this week on vacation.”

  Corbin winced. “Ouch. So she’s not going to be around for long.”

  “Right.” Dan didn’t want to think about that part. “She’s upset because her parents just told her they’re getting a divorce and doesn’t understand why. She says it came out of left field. But I overheard her father talking to his girlfriend on the phone—who Avery probably doesn’t know about.”

  “Whom.”

  “Whatever.” Dan shook his head, some of his long sandy hair falling in his eyes. “Should I tell her?”

  Corbin studied Dan’s profile, a skeptical look on his face. “Are you crazy?”

  “I just—I feel like she’ll be mad if I don’t tell her.”

  “How’s she going to know that you know? That’s her parents’ business. My advice? Stay out of it. That sounds like a lot of drama.”

  Could he be right? “I know, but—”

  “But nothing. You just met this girl. She’s leaving in a few days. If you really like her, then just have fun right now. I guarantee you she’s not looking for more drama.”

  Dan drew his lips to a line. He wanted to believe Corbin was right. But as they walked into his house, he couldn’t help feeling like Avery would want to know.

  You’d want to know, Dan. Tell her.

  But what if he ruined everything with her?

  Chapter Twelve

  Now

  * * *

  “You know. You and Royce might be the only people I’m willing to do this for,” Erika said, sitting back on her heels. She wiped the sweat from h
er brow with her forearm, then peeled a pair of garden gloves from her hand. “And fortunately for me, Royce hates gardening as much as I do.”

  Avery smirked. Erika’s boyfriend would be shocked to see her sitting on the grass, face streaked with dirt. “Yeah, well, I never understood just how serious you were about nature wanting to kill you before we got here.”

  “Most people think I’m kidding, but I’m not. I told you how things were when Royce and I went to Hawaii. Coconut everything does not make for a happy vacation when you’re deathly allergic to it.”

  Avery wrapped her fingers around a weed and tugged, but the damned thing didn’t budge. “Hand me that digger thingy.” Dan had given them a bunch of tools before he’d left, but neither she nor Erika knew the names for most of them. They’d been describing most of them by shape or color and laughing at their incompetence along the way. At thirty, their lack of knowledge about this stuff was embarrassing.

  “Hey, did you put sunscreen on before starting out here today?” Erika frowned at her.

  “No . . .”

  “Yeah, well, you’re definitely sunburned. Forehead, nose, and cheeks.”

  Oh, crap. She hadn’t even thought about the possibility that she might burn—she lived in California, for goodness sake. Oh gosh, please let the sunburn go away before my wedding.

  Avery groaned and then rubbed her forehead. She felt nothing yet, but the movement caused some dirt to drop into her eyes. She blinked, feeling the contact lens in her right eye fold over. “Oh, shit. I think I just messed up my contact.”

  She sat back in the garden bed where she’d been working, ignoring the tangle of weeds beneath her. Once she’d pulled off her glove, she pushed her eyelid open, trying to remove the folded contact. Slipping it onto her finger, she blinked hard, her eye burning and watering.

  “Avery, you should probably get up. Fast.” Dan’s voice came from a few feet away, and both women looked up at him. Peyton was a few feet behind him, his eyes wide.

  Avery stiffened and froze. “Is there a snake near me?” She closed her burning eye, squinting at him with the other.

  “No, but you’re sitting in a patch of poison ivy.”

  “Oh, shit.” Avery scrambled forward, dropping her contact in the rush. She stopped and turned back. “Shit, where did it go?” She’d completely forgotten to pack extras.

  “Where did what go?” Dan asked, coming closer. He pulled her back from the dirt.

  She got to her hands and knees. “My contact lens. I forgot to bring extra lenses. Even if I order some today, my eye doctor takes forever to approve the prescription for the online place—if they even have it in stock. I need to find this one.”

  Erika watched the poison ivy patch warily. “If it’s in poison ivy, I’d call it gone. Isn’t it some chemical from the planet that makes you itchy? You’re not going to want to stick that back in your eye. It’s not like you can wash a disposable lens with soap.”

  “Yeah, your friend is right. It’s got urushiol in it—an oily resin. Not good to get that in your eye,” Peyton piped up from behind Dan.

  Three sets of eyes swung in his direction. “Wow, you know a lot about plants,” Erika said.

  Peyton shrugged, tossing the hair from his eyes. “I took a few plant biology classes. I want to run a landscaping company someday.”

  Dan turned and gave Peyton a surprised look. “You want to own a landscaping company?”

  “Yeah.” Peyton stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Speaking of which, don’t you think we should probably hire someone to do this? This is a big project.”

  “Oh my God, yes,” Avery spoke up, rubbing her arms and stumbling away from the garden bed. The last thing she needed was to get poison ivy and have one more thing ruin her wedding. “I will pay for it myself. I have a card for my business that Bryan doesn’t—” She grimaced. They didn’t need to know she kept a secret credit card from Bryan. Or that he’d been grumbling about wedding expenses.

  Dan caught her wrists firmly in his hands and held her arms still. “Don’t rub. If you’ve got poison ivy on your skin, rubbing it is only going to make it worse.”

  This close to Dan, Avery couldn’t help feeling the tug in her core, like a light tickle of hummingbird wings in her nerves. She met his gaze, her eyes locking with his, her breath caught in her throat.

  She could appreciate how caring he was—that wasn’t wrong. Still, she tugged her wrists away and stepped back, her skin tingling where he’d held her wrists. Or maybe it’s the poison ivy. “And you don’t have to pay for anything,” Dan went on. “I have landscaping budgeted for. You have enough you’re probably paying for, with things like wedding bands and food and all.”

  His words made Avery gasp. The caterer.

  “Oh, my God—I totally skipped my meeting with my caterer.” She checked her watch, looking frantically at Erika. “Shit, shit, they were going to have this huge tasting for me. I bet she called. I just have no cell service—ugh.” She scrambled away, digging her cell phone out of her pocket as she made her way around the lodge toward the front of the house.

  Erika and Dan were only steps behind her when the notification bells came in. Avery wrinkled her nose. A few missed calls and texts. Ugh. Avery dialed the number, lifting the phone to her ear.

  “Rosner’s Catering, can I help you?” The voice of the woman on the line was cool.

  “Hi, this is Avery Moretti. I am so sorry, I had an appointment with you at noon, and I completely lost track of time, and I haven’t been getting service, actually. First, I apologize, it’s been a crazy trip. And second, I didn’t know if I could still come in and—”

  The woman cleared her throat. “Yes, I know who you are. Ms. Moretti, your appointment was four hours ago. All the food I had prepared for you is cold. I tried to get in touch with you several times.”

  Avery felt heat creep into her cheeks, and she turned, seeking comfort in Erika’s gaze. Erika looked just as anxious as Avery felt. She glanced at Dan, and his brows rose expectantly. “I know, and I am so, so sorry. I just—it really doesn’t matter if things aren’t warm. I would just like to taste them, and I’m certain I know what I want. I can be over to you in,”—she looked down at the state of her clothes—“twenty minutes?”

  Terse silence followed. At last, the woman sighed. “All right, but be here in twenty minutes. I close at five.”

  Before Avery could thank her, the line went dead.

  Well, the lady could have been nicer.

  Avery stared at the phone in her hand, her heart pounding.

  “What’d she say?” Erika asked.

  “She said she’ll let me do the tasting if I get there in twenty minutes. I’m going to go shower and change in two minutes, and then we can call an Uber—”

  “I’ll take you,” Dan said. He raised his palms up to cut off any protest she might make. “It’ll get you there sooner. Rideshare isn’t always the fastest around here.”

  Avery didn’t have time to question it—she was already on her way into the lodge.

  Erika followed her. “Do you want me to come?” she asked, falling into step beside her. “I won’t even shower. I’ll just get dressed real quick.”

  “That would be amazing, thank you. I’m a little scared of this caterer. She wasn’t exactly thrilled about me missing the appointment.”

  Within ten minutes, Avery had showered and dressed and was climbing into Dan’s truck with Erika.

  “Where we heading?” Dan asked, backing out of the driveway.

  “Main Street. I’ll just put the GPS on, and maybe you can pull in front of the place? I think she said there’s two street parking spaces reserved there. You’re welcome to come in with us, if you want. It might help to have a local person to smooth things over.”

  “What’s the name? I know every place on Main.” Dan steered onto the main road, and Avery sneaked a glance at him from the passenger seat, thankful he was driving. He was calm and composed and somehow had even showered and cha
nged, too. She sort of missed being able to see his face better, though. Behind that wild beard, his serious nature came out more than she remembered.

  “Rosner’s Catering. Do you know it?” Avery asked. She felt a little sheepish. He’d known the roads in Brandywood by the time they’d met at eighteen. After spending years as a cop, she imagined he’d only gotten more familiar with them. She doubted he ever needed a GPS around here—or would get lost. And there was something incredibly reliable about that.

  Dan gave a stiff nod. “I know it.” His gaze stayed fixed on the road. “It would probably be better if I wait out in the truck, though.” He glanced back at Erika. “You doing okay in the back there? Lots of people who aren’t from around here complain about car sickness on these back roads.”

  Erika rubbed her eyes. “I can see why. I’ll be fine, though, thanks for asking. Turns out I should have packed my whole pharmacy to come to your wedding, Ave. Between the Dramamine and Benadryl I’ll need to survive this town, I may not be awake for the actual ceremony.”

  That Dan had taken the time to ask Erika about how she was feeling was oddly endearing. She’d forgotten how good he was at noticing details.

  Avery gave Erika a sheepish, apologetic look. “I’m so sorry. I promised you two weeks of fun and wedding adventure before you go back to teaching middle schoolers, and instead I’m giving you misery and putting you to hard labor.”

  “Well, maybe Mr. Local Guide can take us somewhere fun after this appointment,” Erika said, leaning forward and resting her hands on the center console between them. “Because I, for one, have had enough gardening for the day. The beds of my fingernails hurt, which I didn’t even know was possible.”

  Avery glanced down at her own nails. Her manicure was ruined from the yard work, though she’d booked an appointment for a few days before the wedding. “At this rate, I’m going to make quite the bride.” She wrinkled her nose, digging through her purse. “I can only see with one eye until Bryan brings my spare lenses. I have a sunburn and scratches from falling in the rosebush. Speaking of which, I should probably put some makeup on for this appointment.”