How the old dog could recognize her now in the dark and not the other day in broad daylight was beyond Cam.
“Well, finally I get a hello!” She stroked Bowie’s ears and his silky-smooth back, giving him a good rubdown. Then she put her cheek against his head. “I missed you. I missed my special boy. Yes, I did.”
Bowie nuzzled her like old times, and she was clearly loving it.
“He just had to get close enough to figure out who you were,” Cam said as Bowie licked Hadley’s face and made her break out in a laugh. With the sea breeze ruffling her dress, she looked good enough to eat, as Bowie continued to demonstrate. Lucky dog.
It had taken Cam all of ten seconds to lose his objectivity. Nice.
“What are you doing up this way?” she asked. “Aren’t you renting on the South Shore?” This was the older end of the beach. The way older end. More like the tiny-old-house area, not the giant McMansion section where she’d probably imagined he would stay.
“I’m renting a bungalow,” he said. “To sort of lie low.” He shifted his weight and put his hands in his pockets, deciding there was no point in hiding the truth. “It’s…um…it’s next door to your grandma’s.”
Even Bowie’s fur couldn’t hide her gasp. “Somehow she didn’t mention that.” She dropped her voice to a barely audible level. “Like some other things.”
Cam rushed to explain. “I know you’re not exactly thrilled, but I was thinking this could be a good thing.”
She stared at him.
“I’m a very good neighbor,” he said. “I like fixing things. When she gets back, her place will be in great shape.”
“Fixing things?” Hadley said.
“Yeah, you know.” Cam shoved his hands in his pockets. “It’s an old house. I’ve already replaced a bunch of bad light switches and the ceiling fan in her bedroom.”
“Why are you…why are you being nice?”
He tossed back his head and laughed. Mainly because he was supposed to be aiming for cool and detached and completely failing. He surprised himself by saying, “I am nice.”
“So this is how you did it.” Hadley crossed her arms. “This is how you worked your way into my grandma’s good graces.”
He frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Charm.” She made an animated gesture with her hands. “It oozes out of all your pores. You can’t even help it.”
He shrugged that off. “I really like your grandmother.” Sincerity filled his voice. “I would never take advantage of her.” It was the truth, and he wanted Hadley to know that. The conversation came to a lull, both of them glancing out over the water at the lights from distant boats bobbing on the horizon.
“So you think I’m charming?” he said after a minute.
A frown creased her brow. “Maybe, but that doesn’t give you a pass for bad behavior.”
He laughed again. “You’ve never given me a pass.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you mean?”
“It’s a good thing. You treat me like…like a normal person. Like I’m just…Tony.”
“You’re not just Tony,” she said.
“I am, and I’ll prove it. See?” He pointed up at the sky.
“No.” She shook her head. “Not that.” When they were kids in high school, they’d often stargazed on this same beach. He’d tried hard to impress her by acquiring a knowledge of the night skies that sounded far more vast than it was. But judging by the kisses and making out that the stargazing led to, he’d done all right. More than all right.
He stood beside her and pointed above their heads. When his shoulder grazed hers by accident, he became very aware of her, the softness of her skin, her sweet scent. “The summer triangle.” He tried to sound like a scientist but inside his brain was a bowl of oatmeal. “Altair, Deneb, and Vega.”
She rolled her eyes. “I only remember the Big Dipper, and I don’t even see it.”
“Sure you do.” He looked down at her and smiled. “There’s the dipper.”
“Still don’t see it.”
He moved behind her, resting his arm lightly on her shoulder, and pointed high above their heads. Big mistake, touching her. It reminded him of sweet old times, and set his every nerve on edge. “It’s right there. See?” Her brief glance at him looked troubled. Like she was feeling the same conflict he was. And maybe all the same desires too—but neither of them wanted them.
“When you get lost, you just look for the North Star,” he said quietly. “You follow the two stars on the handle of the Dipper and that leads you right to it. Never fails.”
“You make it sound easy.” She stopped studying the sky and met his gaze. She was so close that he could reach out and touch her cheek. Or curl his hand lightly around her neck and pull her to him. Kiss her on those full lips. Take her into his arms.
“Maybe it’s not so complicated,” he said with a shrug.
He was pretty sure he wasn’t talking about stars.
And he was also pretty sure he was making a big mistake. Especially when Hadley suddenly stepped back and crossed her arms, bringing him back to reality.
What was he doing, reminding her of the past? Wanting her to like him. Wanting her period. All things he’d have to stop doing if he wanted his life back.
* * *
Running into Bowie on the beach and getting such an enthusiastic welcome was awesome. But running into Cam was what really threw Hadley. With his swagger and his easygoing humor, he reduced her immediately into…well, into her teenage self.
And even if he was trying to remind her of the sweet times, drawing her to him like a magnet, looking like the boy she once loved, she couldn’t let the lethal combination of moonlight and ocean get to her. Even if seeing him like this again really did shake her. And even if he did know how to fix her grandmother’s light switches.
She needed to move, to break the spell of the moonlight, but her legs refused to take her away.
Her hand fell, and the cool, smooth surface of Darla’s ring skimmed her leg, reminding her of her friends. Of her commitment to being honest. And of being her real self. “Explain the idiot comment,” she blurted.
“Idiot comment?” Before he could properly answer, Bowie and Jagger, who were running in and out of the water chasing the waves, had caught his attention. A young couple holding hands walked by, and both dogs trotted up to say hi. Cam stepped forward to call them back, but the woman laughed and told them how sweet they were.
Hadley took advantage of the time to try not to hyperventilate. “You said you were an idiot for breaking up with me. What did you mean by that?”
Cam pointed to a small dune nearby that was clear of grass. “You have a minute to sit?”
They sat side by side on the sand, which was still radiating warmth from the sunny day, watching the dogs sniff and frolic until Cam finally spoke. “The differences between us suddenly seemed so huge. I…couldn’t handle it.”
“What differences?” she asked. “We barely fought.”
“You were so bright—you scored the highest in every subject. And you were dying to bust out of here and experience the world. I knew you were headed for greatness.”