When I Fall in Love(39)

“I have to admit, I never thought I’d hear those words from your mouth.”

Amazingly, he sounded unfazed. Maybe he could pull off his words: I don’t date. And I’m perfectly fine with that.

She turned at the door. “Oh, I’m full of surprises. And I’m just getting started, 9A.”

Then she winked. And Max was very afraid.





RAINA NEEDED MEDICAL ATTENTION, maybe a therapist to help her figure out this annoying attraction to the Christiansen men.

It wasn’t like she went looking for them. They motored right up to the door of her heart and knocked. But what was her problem that she kept letting them in? A girl who’d been burned, who’d watched her pride walk out the door in arrogant Owen Christiansen’s back pocket, should be a little more savvy. Should actually pay attention to the warning signs when her heart gave an extra thump at the sound of a motorcycle.

She shouldn’t even give Casper a second look after her behavior with Owen. In fact, she’d tried to put it out of her mind, tried not to think about the humiliation, the fact that she’d so completely stepped over her own rules, the ones she’d recently set in her desire to start over. But could she help it if Casper could charm an audience with his laughter, his rousing anthem to victory over this upcoming oversize canoe race?

She hadn’t a clue what a dragon boat was, or why it might be so important to win the annual Deep Haven dragon boat race, but she felt the battle cry form deep in her chest. So when Casper had turned to her and said, “You’ll paddle for us, right?” she couldn’t help but nod. Really, what else could she say?

I’ve never touched a paddle? I can barely swim? No, those words hadn’t breached her lips. Just a swift, enthusiastic nod.

Yep, she needed medication, or perhaps a quick, rousing slap to wake her up to her own terrible addiction to men with curly hair and mesmerizing blue eyes who rode motorcycles.

She refused to walk back into her too-vivid mistakes. But something about Casper’s chivalry, getting her out of the mud, not betraying her pizza thievery, had spoken to her. She could give him a chance not to break her heart.

A small, tentative chance.

Raina looked in the mirror at her outfit. The last time he’d seen her, she’d been wearing a pizza uniform, so certainly anything would be an improvement. She wore a yellow athletic shirt and a short black workout skirt. She’d pilfered Liza’s closet for swim shoes and a white tennis visor.

Yes, she appeared a bona fide athlete, a picture of paddling perfection.

Grabbing an over-the-shoulder bag, she shoved a towel in—he did mention water, right?—and headed toward the door.

Maybe she didn’t have to steer clear of the Christiansens just because she’d made one mistake. A mistake no one would ever have to know about. Sure, she’d mentioned Owen once when she’d mistaken Casper for his brother, but she’d kept quiet after that. Maybe the Owen mistake could leave town with Owen.

“Hey, Raina, are you leaving?”

Her name from Liza’s mouth stopped her on the stoop, and she went back inside, where she found her aunt sketching at the kitchen table.

“Working on some new designs?” Raina said, leaning over her shoulder. Liza had built a tidy business and now shipped her one-of-a-kind pottery around the nation. She’d set up a kiln and throwing bench in the garage of her former home, an apartment above the Footstep of Heaven Bookstore and Coffee Shop. Now she displayed her work at the local gallery and art fairs and held occasional open houses in her quaint, story-and-a-half bungalow just off Main Street.

“Yes. How do you like this?” She showed Raina a rainbow of colors against a red clay background, the word Abundance etched into the rainbow.

“Beautiful.”

“I’m basing everything on John 10:10, the idea that Jesus came to give us life and to give it in abundance.”

Raina smiled. Liza had this way of working God into everyday conversation. As if she actually believed God cared about her. Raina didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth. Although if God really existed, maybe He did care about somebody like Liza, a good person who spent her time investing in other people. A person without Raina’s mistakes, her past. Yeah, maybe that verse worked for people like Liza who had earned the right to ask. To live abundantly.

A girl like Raina had to make her own future.

“I’m headed out to . . . uh, dragon boat practice, and I’ll be back—”

Liza put the sketchpad down. “Since when do you dragon boat?”

“Since I got invited to be on the Evergreen Resort team.”

Liza nodded, a smile in her eyes. “The Christiansen team. Is Darek leading it this year?”