Sweet Harmony (Harmony Falls #1) - Elizabeth Kelly Page 0,23

day left his body. “Thank you. I appreciate that. I’m sorry that we had to announce it early, but Daniel was already halfway up the porch stairs so I…”

“No, I get it,” she said. “You had to come back and, um, kiss me again so that Daniel would, uh, believe it.”

“Yes,” he said.

Now he was the one not looking at her. Just talking about the kissing from this morning was threatening to give him a stiffy. Christ, he really needed to get control of himself.

“Okay, well, um, do you want to come inside? I can make us some iced tea and you can give me details about your life.”

He rubbed the back of his neck as fresh anxiety trickled down his spine. “What do you think about going for a walk or something?”

He needed to be away from her house, needed to be far away from her bed. Keeping his distance from her hot little body would be much easier if they weren’t a few feet from her bedroom.

“Sure,” she said.

“We could drive over to the Falls and hike one of the easier trails,” he said.

“Okay.” She stood. “Just let me change my clothes and my shoes. I’ll be back in five.”

“Sure.” He waited a few minutes after she left before he pulled his phone out of his pocket. He stood and paced back and forth on the porch, keeping his eye on the hallway through the screen door as he phoned Lucas.

Lucas answered on the second ring. “Dude. S’up?”

“Hey. Do me a favour?”

“Sure.”

“You said your boss will be looking at commercial properties here, right?”

“Yeah.”

“When is he coming to look?”

“I don’t know. Maybe this weekend or next?”

“Text him and recommend that he speak with Kira Walker at Rose and Ray Realty.”

Lucas didn’t ask questions. “Yeah, all right. Rose and Ray Realty.”

He could hear Kira walking down the stairs, see her sneaker-clad feet through the screen, and he walked to the far end of the porch and lowered his voice. “Kira Walker, Lucas. Make sure you recommend her specifically.”

“Yeah, yeah, got it. Recommend your fake girlfriend. I’ll text him.”

“Tonight?”

“Jesus, dude, what is up with you?”

“Just do me a favour and text him tonight.”

“Fine,” Lucas said. There was the muffled sound of cheering and Lucas muttered a curse. “Are you kidding me? The guy was clearly out. He tagged him like a mile before he stepped on the base.”

“Lucas! Tonight, text him tonight.”

“I will,” Lucas said. “I promise. Later, dickhead.”

“Bye, asshole.” He hit the end button and shoved his phone into his pocket, turning around just as Kira stepped out onto the porch.

“Ready to go?” she asked.

He smiled at her. “Yes.”

* * *

“Grace, you are a world-class idiot.” With a frustrated puff of air, Grace blew the hair that had escaped from her ponytail away from her face. She held up the map of the Falls and the surrounding park and studied it carefully. “Okay, so according to this map, you entered the trail here, you didn’t leave the trail, so you should be back at the park entrance by now…”

Yeah, she should have been. Only she wasn’t and she had no frackin’ idea why not. She hadn’t taken a foot off the damn path. She pulled her phone out of the pocket of her yoga pants and tried to Google directions out of the park, muttering another curse when she realized she didn’t have service.

“Oh, for the love of God,” she said before shoving her phone back into her pocket. “I can’t seriously be lost in the goddamn park.”

She could and she was.

She should have known better. When Addie had called and cancelled their hike last minute, she should have kicked off her damn shoes, ordered take-out, and binge watched Good Girls. But, oh no, she went to the Falls anyway, even after promising Addie she wouldn’t.

Both Addie and Kira were well aware of her challenges with directions. More than once they had affectionately teased that she wouldn’t be able to find her way out of a wet paper bag. Sadly, they were right. It was why they’d made her promise never to go hiking at Harmony Falls Park on her own. Not even the easier, shorter trails. The odds of her having to spend the night out here were way higher than she liked to consider.

She glanced around, her unease growing a little. It was only a little after seven and she still had at least an hour before the sun went down, but what if she didn’t find her