Chapter 2

Ashley felt something brewing in the beachy air, but it wasn’t a storm. Burke continued brushing sand from his shirt, a look of distaste on his handsome face.

He’s not handsome, Ash told herself. So she’d been fighting a crush on her best friend for sixty-three days. It wasn’t a crime, and Burke would never know.

He sighed in the most exasperated way and reached back with one hand and pulled his shirt right over his head. “I have sand everywhere.” He shook the blue T-shirt while Ash stared at his tan, broad shoulders and then pushed her eyes toward the sky.

Every cell inside her body burst into flames, and she needed to run. Now. “I’ll go check on Dolly.”

“No.” His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. “Wait.”

She looked into his ocean blue eyes and let herself dive in for a moment. Just a moment. That was all she gave herself each day. A moment to imagine what holding his hand would be like. A moment to think about asking him to her niece’s birthday party so she wouldn’t have to go alone. A moment to consider stopping by his house after she checked on her mother each evening.

And she’d already had her moment when she found him handsome and ogled his beach-running body.

“Wait?” She pulled her hand out of his fingers. “You’re acting weird today. Everything okay?”

He stared at her for another moment, shook his shirt again, and pulled it back on. “I’m fine. Let’s run.” Burke started down the beach, whistling through his teeth for his dog to come with. Dolly did, apparently whatever had startled her no longer an issue.

Ash started after him, but his pace was blistering, and she didn’t catch up to him until he reached the top curve in the bay. Even then, her chest felt like it was her first day of running instead of a habit she’d picked up fifteen years ago after her first year in college had added twenty pounds to her petite frame.

Once Burke had found out about her morning ritual, he’d asked to join her. It hadn’t been a problem. In fact, he pushed her to work harder, run faster, like she was now.

“Did you get bad news or something?” she panted as she matched her stride to his. He had six inches on her easily, and his legs seemed to eat up more sand with one step than she got in two.

“I’m fine,” he said again, which totally meant he wasn’t. After his last real girlfriend broke up with him five or six years ago, Burke had run like this. Like he could get away from whatever was plaguing him by running up and around the east bay and then Getaway Bay.

Ash really hoped they weren’t going that far today. It was their fifth day running this week, and she’d planned a three-miler.

“Well, I have some news,” she said, determined to babble to herself if she had to. She didn’t like running in silence, and she’d given up headphones and music years ago. Burke was usually a chatterbox during their morning runs too.

“Yeah?”

A one-word answer was better than I’m fine, so Ash employed her bravery to tell him what she hadn’t told anyone. She often used him as a sounding board, but she’d moved forward without him this time.

“Yeah, remember how I said I was bored with my life? That I needed a change?”

Burke came to a sudden and screeching halt, sand actually spewing forward as he stalled. His chest heaved and sweat ran down the side of his face and dripped from his jaw. “You need a change.” He wasn’t asking a question, and Ash saw that storm she’d felt earlier, swirling right there in his eyes.

“Yeah,” she said, wiping her forehead and wishing she had a hair appointment for later that day. As it was, she had a wedding dress to finish, and chicken teriyaki to make, and a mother to go visit. “Remember I said that?” She sucked at the air, ready to be done with this weird morning of running.

“You’re bored with all the wedding dress sewing.”

Bored wasn’t the right word. Ash had known since the time she was thirteen that she would sit behind a sewing machine for a living. The first time she’d experienced that needle zipping along, in and out, in and out, creating something beautiful from flat fabric, she knew.

Burke drew her attention away from the glinting water undulating out in the bay. “Ash?”

“Yeah?”

He hesitated, and then asked, “What’s the news?”

“I signed up for scuba diving lessons.” The very thought of being underwater terrified her. Maybe another reason she’d always known she wouldn’t leave Getaway Bay. Sure, she could dip her toes in, swim in a pool, or even wade out until the water reached her waist.

But she did not like going underwater.

“Wow.” Burke’s breathing started to steady, but he looked as red as a boiled lobster. “You don’t even swim.”

“I know how,” Ash said, rolling her eyes. She’d expected more support from Burke. But he was looking at her like she’d lost her mind. Maybe she had.

“When is this happening?”

“I just need a change,” she said, the desperation coating the last word. She didn’t even try to hide it, not from Burke. She looked at him, willing him to understand.

“I’ll go with you,” he said in that best friend voice she’d grown to love over the years. “When’s your first lesson?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

He blew his breath out. “I can make that work.”

Ash nudged him, a playful open palm to his shoulder. “Maybe you should consult your calendar, Mister Party Animal.” She added a laugh, mostly to cover up the zing racing up her arm and into her shoulder.

“Come on,” he said, turning away.

“What?” Ash sidestepped, and only seeing half of his face was enough to see the clench in his jaw.

“You know I’m not a party animal.” He spoke quietly, almost like he didn’t want the waves to overhear. No one else was out on the beach quite yet, though she expected to see the Thompson twins at any moment.

“Yeah, I know.” She stepped beside him and mirrored him as they faced the water.

“I have nothing on my calendar tomorrow morning, except work at Petals and Leis.”

“So, you can come?”

His hand fumbled down her arm and into hers. Ash sucked in a breath as he said, “Of course.”

Maybe he hadn’t heard her. But this handholding was so brand new, and Ash felt like a party paraded through her whole body.

“Burke, what’s wrong?” she asked, her voice a bit on the high-pitched side.

“I have to tell you something, and I want you to let me finish before you say anything.”

Ash swallowed and nodded. He’d only asked her to wait until the end of what he had to say once before. And that was when he’d given a little speech about leaving the island for a while to get a second degree, this one in accounting.

She’d missed him terribly during those few years, and he’d come back a different man than the one she’d known when he’d left. He was a little livelier, a lot more guarded, and the only one she trusted with everything.

Well, maybe not her crush on him.

Because Burke Lawson didn’t date, at least not for real. Not since he’d come back to Getaway Bay. And he’d never looked at her with anything but playful friendship in his eyes.

Just like he’d never held her hand.

She pulled away and said, “Go on, then.”

“I need a favor.” He ran his hands through his flop of blond hair, and Ash wished she could copy him.

“Anything,” she said.

Hope lit up his whole face. “Really?”

“Sure,” she said. “We’re best friends, Burke. If I can help you, I will.”

Why he didn’t smile, she wasn’t sure.

“I did something stupid.” He swallowed.

“It’s okay,” she said.

“I told my dad—okay, well, my dad said he’s almost ready to retire. I want the farm. He wants to give me the farm. But he and my mom want me to settle down first.”

Ash waited, thinking his parents had a reasonable request, though no one worked harder than Burke. He could run Petals and Leis without any problems. But she also knew it was a family company, and that fact mattered a great deal to his dad. To Burke too.

“So, are you going to give up your fake reputation?” she asked.

“Yes.” Another swallow. “That’s where you come in.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. I told my dad we were dating.” He put both hands on her shoulders and peered down at her, desperation in his wide eyes. “Will you be my girlfriend? Just for a few weeks.”

The air left Ash’s lungs, and she just stared at Burke. Was he serious? Had he learned of her crush somehow? Had she been too obvious?

She didn’t know, and she couldn’t answer. So she just kept staring.