“What? Are you kidding? You look ... younger.” I walked back over to the bar and grabbed the beer he’d persuaded me to have. I took a gulp. “And you act younger, too,” I couldn’t help adding.

I saw his grin as he bent down to finish up with the dustpan. God, that dimple was going to be the death of me.

“Touché.”

Everything was done. The restaurant was as clean and put away as it could possibly get. I had zero excuses to continue hanging out with Jack Eversea. I had to head home. I also had to figure out how to stop referring to him by his full name in my head.

After putting away all the cleaning stuff, I grabbed my purse from behind the bar and the set of keys to lock up behind us. “You ready?”

“Yeah.” He put his cap back on, curling his one hand around the peak and mashing the back of it up and down on his head a few times with his other the way guys do. I have never understood that—like it has to be just perfectly molded to their heads or something. Joey did exactly the same thing. Jack pushed his arms through his hoodie and popped the hood up over the cap.

“It’s, like, eighty degrees still outside. I should have seen through your disguise sooner. You’re going to have to think of a better way to blend in or you’re gonna die from the heat.” I shook my head, amused. Then a thought occurred to me.

“Are you staying here? I mean, in Butler Cove?” I was treating this encounter as a one-time deal. Which, of course, it was. Even if he was staying close by, there was no way I would be seeing him again. I’d been awkward enough already to last me a lifetime of horror and humiliation.

I locked up the restaurant behind us.

“Yeah, I’m borrowing a friend’s beach house for a while,” he responded. “How long depends on if I can stay here without being found out. You have no idea what the paparazzi are capable of. I didn’t think a lot of stuff through before I got here, I just drove. I was pretty upset.” He scowled off into the distance.

It was the second time he had made mention of his current issues. It must be weird to meet a person for the first time and have them know all this stuff about you already. I really wanted to ask him about it, but with my track record, I was as likely to make him feel worse. Anyway, what was there to say? He was broken hearted over his girlfriend cheating on him. He was hardly going to tell me, a complete stranger, the lurid details.

It was time for me to get out of here. I may have been getting over my initial star-struck moment, but he was still absolutely and sinfully gorgeous. Hanging out with him wasn’t going to get me over that. And the last thing I needed was to get pie-eyed over him when he was going to vanish about as quickly as he’d arrived.

“Okay, well ... thanks for helping me close up and ... good luck.”

“Wait. Keri Ann?” For a moment he looked unsure, with his hands deep in his pockets and his toe absently kicking a pebble. “I really hate to ask this. It’s just I don’t know anyone else here and I trust you. For whatever reason.”

“Thanks,” I said, surprised. “You should.” Even though it was going to kill me not to tell Jazz about tonight. “Soooo, walk me to my door—it’s only about a hundred yards—and you can ask me whatever you like.” I couldn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth. But regardless of this being my hometown and it not being a far walk—it was eleven thirty and dark as Hades, even with the moon. I turned toward home, not waiting for an answer. Immediately I regretted it, wondering what this hotshot Hollywood type would think about my run down, falling apart southern home. It was built of plaster and wood in the 1800’s. In the hot and humid south. Need I say more?

Jack’s tall frame fell in beside me. “Geez, it gets dark here,” he said, echoing my thoughts of a few moments ago.

“It’s the sea turtles.”

When I didn’t elaborate, Jack scratched his head. “Sea turtles?”

“Hmm? Oh, they nest on the beaches and when the babies hatch they follow the moonlight to the water. Too many house and streetlights can confuse them, so we keep it pretty low key around here. Prepare to get lost a few times if you’re driving at night.”

“Huh. Who knew?”

“I’m pretty sure they have sea turtles on the west coast.” I looked over at him.

He furrowed his brow. “Yeah, I guess I haven’t paid attention. That must seem pretty dumb to you, huh?”

I shook my head as I directed us left to a narrow path. Our feet crunched on crushed oyster shells as we made our way under a huge magnolia dripping with Spanish moss. “No. Sea turtles are important in a small town that’s big on eco-tourism. You kind of pick it up by osmosis living here. You’ve had more going on with your life than I am sure I could possibly fathom, so it doesn’t seem dumb.”

“Just shallow. Right,” he added, as if he was filling in a blank I’d not said.

“No! Not at all.”

“It’s fine, I’m not offended. I’ve been living a pretty shallow existence lately which isn’t really ... ” He trailed off.

We had stopped at my back deck. He looked around and I tried to see the place through his eyes. Bringing him to the backyard wasn’t the best idea. I quickly kept walking and he followed me around to the front. I jogged up the front stairs onto the porch and fished around in my purse for the key.

Jack sighed. “Shit. I dunno, I’m not in the best mood these days.” Running a hand over his hooded head, a silver ring he wore on his middle finger glinted. He looked around. “Hey, this place is awesome.” Reaching out, he ran his hand along the porch railing and stepped back to see the whole house.

“It’s the Butler family home. It’s been in our family for generations.” I couldn’t hide the touch of pride that came out in my tone. “It’s seen better days.” An understatement, but it was still beautiful. To me anyway, and any historical architecture buff. “There were some ... mishaps ... of the family money kind.” If that’s what you called them. “Anyway, Joey and I are trying to fix it up.”

He cocked his head to the side. “Joey?”

“My brother. He’s at Med school right now ... so I guess it’s just me trying to fix it up at the moment.” I realized I better head him off at the pass if I didn’t want to get into my life story. It wasn’t something you just blurted out to someone you’d never see again. “Thanks for walking me. What was the favor you wanted to ask? I’m not going to tell anyone, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

I finally found the key and stepped forward to press it into the lock while I waited. Wow, I was avoiding spending more time with Jack Eversea.

“I’m embarrassed to ask, but I’m starting to feel like I don’t have a choice. If you can’t ... or won’t, I totally understand.” Oh God, did he want to come in? Was that what this was about? When he said he wanted to forget his troubles for a night, did he mean ... with me?

What was even more disconcerting was my reaction to that thought literally caused my insides to flip over and strength to leech from my legs. I held onto the doorframe and was suddenly short of breath. This was ... not a comfortable feeling. He seemed to be still deliberating. What? I wasn’t hot enough? Too bitchy? Too plain Jane? Who was I kidding? My hair wasn’t brown, it was ... mousy. Even the highlights Jazz had persuaded me to put in were dull.