Heat creeps into my chest.

No, not heat.

Embarrassment. Shame. Guilt.

“He laughs when Marisol or Tanesha tease him,” I grumble.

Cooper’s jaw ticks again.

Comparing myself to Marisol and Tanesha isn’t fair. Marisol’s engaged to the Fireballs’ right fielder, and Tanesha’s married to the Fireballs’ left fielder. They’re spoken for.

They’re safe.

But any of the single guys on the team who flirt with me have to pass the Cooper test.

And if anyone knows first-hand what Cooper’s willing to do if he feels like I’m in danger, regardless of the variety of danger, it’s Max.

“You know it’s ridiculous to pretend I’m some wallflower who has to be saved from ruining herself, right?” I tell him. “I knew what I was doing with Chance.”

“Okay, Mrs. Ben Woods.”

My entire body twitches. Our parents give us the space we need to make our own mistakes, and they don’t weaponize guilt, but they’re excellent at Tillie Jean, we hate seeing you upset, and this on-again, off-again thing you have with Ben doesn’t seem to be making you happy. What can we do? when one of us has been dumb for too long.

And no, I haven’t dated anyone seriously since.

I haven’t even followed through with hooking up with any of the guys I’ve tried to meet on dating apps when I’m in the city.

It just never feels right. There’s something wrong with each of them.

Definitely the universe telling me not to waste my time. “You are so lucky I barely have the energy to walk right now, much less kick your ass.”

“One, he was a shitty catcher and needed to go anyway. Two, I’m not trying to rule your life, TJ. But I know you, and I know them, and yeah, I have opinions, and yeah, they impact my job. Quit making Max uncomfortable. Nothing good comes at the end, okay?”

I sigh.

He’s not pulling the I’m worldly now that I live in a big city and travel for my cool job and just come to little ol’ Shipwreck in the off-season card.

He’s pulling the people have demons you don’t know about and I don’t want you or anyone else to get hurt if I can give you a little more information card.

And the truth is, Cooper wouldn’t interfere with my personal life if he wasn’t worried. He’s watched me make enough questionable choices in life without comment for me to know that he’s not just being an ass right now.

Chance Schwartz was a womanizer. I was well aware that if we lasted more than two days, he would’ve slept with other women on the road while sleeping with me when he was home.

And I was fooling myself in thinking I’d be okay with that.

I wasn’t.

But I wanted something. Something I couldn’t get in Shipwreck, something I couldn’t get from my relationship with Ben, something I couldn’t get from my family and friends, no matter how much I love them and take joy in being with them.

We pause at Mom’s table, and she hands Cooper a steaming mug of hot chocolate. “Oh, here, honey, take another to Max. Poor thing looks tired.”

I reach for a coffee.

She lifts a brow, and I take the water bottle she hands me instead.

“Tillie Jean!” Mackenzie waves, and Coco Puff barks, sending an echo of his collar’s translated “I love big sloppy kisses and hugs!” around the park.

Cooper slides me a look.

“Best behavior.” I lift a pinky. “Promise.”

“It’s not all you, TJ. I know it’s not. But it’s…”

“Complicated,” I finish for him.

“Yeah.”

“Then really, there are far worse things that I could be than like a sister to him, hm?”

Cooper twitches, but he also nods. “Far worse.”

We reach the spot at the edge of the park that we dig up every summer, looking for pirate treasure during the pirate festival, and I attack Henri with a hug. “Hey, you. Did you get your next book turned in? How was your book signing?”

We chat for a few minutes, and when I look up, Max is gone.

I don’t like that.

So several hours later, when I get home after hanging out with my friends all day, I head to his house and knock on the door.

He doesn’t answer.

I knock again.

Still no answer.

Could he be out with Cooper and the guys? Of course.

Any one of them could’ve given him a ride, and they would’ve had to, since his SUV is still in the drive. Or he could’ve walked somewhere.

But the three goats lounging in his front yard, munching on cabbage and asparagus spears, suggests he’s at least been home to toss out food for the strays.

So I head to his side window.

The one I crawled through yesterday.

And I peer inside.

Huh. Look at that. Max is hanging out in his living room.

I rap on the window.

He leaps sixty-five feet in the air, then turns a glare on me.

A woman who didn’t grow up with Grady and Cooper might take the hint. But I’m not that woman, so instead, I pop the screen out and press on the glass just right to make the window lift from the outside.

Max’s glare gets glarier. “Go. The fuck. Away.”

“I wasn’t just valedictorian of my high school class. I was also Miss Shipwreck my sophomore year, which was basically unheard of for anyone younger than a junior since Nana pulled off the same feat like three hundred years ago.” Yes, Nana will forgive me for the exaggeration. “And I was Homecoming Queen and Prom Queen and voted most likely to succeed and best hair in my senior yearbook. Plus, my banana pudding won best in fair when I was fourteen, and while I’m not at Grady’s level, I can pretty much guarantee I’ll get a blue ribbon in desserts anytime I enter.”

“I’m calling the sheriff.”

“My cousin Chester will probably answer the call. Won’t be the first time he’s ticketed me. Probably not the last either. I was sometimes a spoiled shit when I was little, and I probably deserve it. But my point isn’t that I’m perfect. My point is, I left home to start college at Virginia Tech, where I intended to become a graphic designer, and not just any graphic designer, but a world-famous, make-a-billion-dollars graphic designer wanted by every company in the world. I like art, even if I don’t like computers, and who cares if you do a job you hate for eight hours a day if it means you can do whatever you want the rest of the time, right?”

“Stop talking.”

“But two weeks into the semester, I overdosed on espresso shots and ended up in the emergency room with an irregular heartbeat that nearly put me into shock and scared the ever-loving fuck out of my roommates. I dropped out, came home, and spent the next month basically melting down since I was a complete and total failure for the first time in my life, and not because I OD’d on caffeine—I mean, let’s be real, who does that?—but because I didn’t even last two weeks at college, which meant I didn’t give it a fair shot and I was a chicken, right?”

I pause.

He’s still giving me the growly bear look, but he’s not telling me to shut up and go away anymore.

“And then I started dating Ben Woods while working at Crusty Nut to find myself, and I was safe here, and I moved in with my Great-Aunt Matilda to help watch over her so she could stay home longer while her body was giving out on her, and I didn’t need anything because my family really has owned this town forever and it means certain comforts get passed down generation to generation, and I was on this path to being my parents, and my parents are pretty damn awesome, so that was great too.”