like daisies in the midday heat, but Anna looked...relieved?
What was that about? Why had she bid on that particular item if she hadn’t wanted to win?
“The twins wanted to surprise Anna,” Sunni murmured, almost as if she’d read Liam’s mind.
“So we kind of forged her signature,” Cassie added proudly.
“’Cause it’s her birthday,” her sister, Chloe, chimed in.
Fortunately for Liam, the girls’ names were printed in the center of the giant sunflowers silk-screened on the front of their T-shirts or he would have had a difficult time telling them apart.
“Mom says birthdays don’t count when you’re her age, but I think they always count, don’t you?” Cassie directed the question at Liam.
“Always,” he agreed.
“She won’t have to do any of the work, either—”
Cassie bobbed her head in agreement. “Mom works a lot—”
“And sometimes she falls asleep on the couch at night—”
“Girls.” Anna squeezed the word in, her cheeks flooding with color, as her daughters paused to take a breath. “It’s all right. I can call Mrs. Mason and schedule another time.”
Instead of agreeing with Anna, his mom tipped her head to one side, something Liam had seen her do whenever she was trying to come up with a solution to a problem.
And then she smiled—at him—and Liam knew exactly what that solution was.
Don’t say it, Mom.
But she did. Out loud.
“What are you doing on Wednesday, Liam?”
Liam made the mistake of glancing at the twins, and the hope blazing in their eyes pulled him in and held him captive like a tractor beam.
“It looks—” Liam heard himself say “—like I’ll be going on a canoe trip.”
* * *
“Gourmet meal. Cooked over an open fire.” Liam secured the tie-down on Aiden’s canoe and gave it a hard yank. “Seriously?”
“Hey! Take it easy on the old guy.” Aiden ran a comforting hand over the scarlet flames that flowed underneath the curve of the gunwale. “I thought it was a nice touch. Lily claims it’s all about marketing, and do you know how much swanky restaurants charge for freshly caught trout?”
Liam didn’t. And Aiden had to be joking.
“Trout?” He stared at his brother. “I’m going to have my hands full with three inexperienced paddlers, and you expect me to pack a fly rod? And what if I don’t catch anything?”
“Huh.” Aiden looked a little mystified by this line of questioning. “I guess I hadn’t really thought about that. I always catch fish.”
His younger brother’s confidence, which Liam found humorous if not downright entertaining on most occasions, sawed against his nerves today. “What am I supposed to do? Call Chet and ask him to airdrop a gourmet dinner for four on Eagle Rock?”
Nothing against the manager of the grocery store deli, but Chet’s idea of fancy was spackling a layer of ketchup over the tops of the homemade meat loaves before they went into the oven.
“Lily happened to like the description I wrote up for the auction, by the way. She said it was very creative.”
That was one word for it.
“Calm water? Sunshine?” Liam stuffed a dry bag into the bed of the pickup. “You know you can’t promise those kinds of conditions.”
“It’s called setting the right mood.” Aiden’s eyes narrowed. “And since we’re on the subject, what’s up with yours? It’s not like this will be your first trip down the river.”
True. But it would be his first trip down the river with Anna.
“I’ve got two canoes to finish by the end of the week,” Liam muttered.
Also true—but a deadline wasn’t the reason Liam had been plagued by a series of clips straight from the archives of High School Past ever since he’d gotten home from the shelter’s fund-raiser earlier that afternoon.
Past, Liam reminded himself, being the key word here.
Even though Anna, who’d been wearing denim shorts and an apple-green T-shirt when he’d danced with her that afternoon, didn’t look much older than the girl who’d breezed up to Liam’s locker on his first day at Emerson Middle and High School. She’d had a bright smile on her face and a sheaf of colorful flyers advertising the pep rally on Friday night tucked in the crook of her arm.
Liam had been tempted to go, just so he could see her again, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that Anna Foster belonged to an elite inner circle. Or that Mr. Swanson’s fifth-hour study hall would be the closest Liam would ever get to her—and that was only because the seats were arranged alphabetically.
He’d been right. Liam had seen Anna at school practically every day, but it was easy to remember the number of times they’d actually spoken. Once. And that conversation had pretty much destroyed any chance of there ever being a second.
Anna’s hands tightened on the steering wheel when she turned the corner and spotted Liam and Aiden standing in the driveway.
Why had she agreed to this?
Over the past few days, she’d tried to come up with a reason to bow out of their upcoming canoe trip gracefully, but the twins had been talking about it nonstop since the fund-raiser on Saturday afternoon. And in those rare moments of silence when they weren’t talking about the outing, they’d been preparing for it. Studying the map that highlighted their projected route and memorizing the list of safety tips Sunni had emailed to Anna on Monday morning. Filling out the detailed questionnaire used to determine their level of experience.
On the last page of the information packet, Sunni had added a personal note: “Happy Birthday, Anna! Enjoy the peace and tranquility of a day on the river!”
Peace and tranquility?
Not when Anna’s stomach tilted sideways at the thought of spending those hours with Liam.
Regret coursed through her, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. Words Anna had spoken in anger the night of their senior prom had formed a wall between her and Liam that remained intact even after she’d returned to Castle Falls. Strengthened by time and distance and a silence neither one of them had attempted to break.
But Anna could still see the flash of hurt in Liam’s eyes, a sign her words had hit their mark.
What makes you think that my relationship with Ross is any of your business? You don’t know the first thing about him...or me. And from what I’ve heard about your family, you don’t know anything about love, either.
How ironic, that she was the one who’d proved to be blind when it came to that particular emotion.
A mistake she wasn’t going to make again...
“Morning, ladies!” Aiden called out cheerfully. He could have passed for a modern-day river pirate in faded jeans and a black T-shirt with the sleeves cut off at the shoulders. A red do-rag matched the flames painted on the side of the canoe jutting from the back of his pickup truck.
Still, the knot in Anna’s stomach loosened a little. She wasn’t sure if it was because Aiden was the youngest in the family or because a perpetual gleam of mischief danced in his cobalt-blue eyes, but Anna had always found him to be the most approachable of the three brothers.
Cassie and Chloe obviously