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But I was helpless, in her presence. At her mercy. On my knees. And before I could stop myself I said, “How about my place?”

It wasn’t the most outlandish suggestion. There weren’t that many lunch options in Barkley Falls. Michelle had named the two big ones, and there was a fifty percent chance Fred and Charles would be at either one of them. There was a deli at the grocery store people from Town Hall tended to grab sandwiches at or the little coffee shop by the medical clinic, but really, that was it.

“I kind of need to hide,” I explained.

“Are you ashamed of me?”

She was teasing me, but the thought I had was the opposite.Never. I want to crow your name from the rooftops. I want to tell the whole world you’re with me.

“No,” I said. “But this is a small town. If I have lunch with…” I hesitated. What I couldn’t say wasa gorgeous woman I can’t keep my damn eyes off of—

What I said instead was—“With a new woman in town, I’ll be answering questions for weeks.”

“I’m not that new. We moved here over a year ago!”

“They don’t start calling you established until you’ve been here a decade.”

Michelle had hesitated a moment longer, glancing at the garage, then nodded. “Fine. Okay. But I’m scared of Luciana, so…”

“I’m only five minutes from here,” I assured her. “I’m a little scared of Luciana too.”

She laughed. I almost forgot how the sound made me feel.

As we walked down Main Street, we passed several people who wanted to chat. A couple of business owners; a colleague from work; one of the organizers of the Christmas fair happening in just over a month. Shit. I should have taken her straight down a side street.

But someone would have noticed that too.

Each of the people who said hi looked curiously at Michelle. And each of them I gave a polite hello but kept walking briskly as if I had a very important meeting to attend to. Which I did.

The only exception was when we physically ran into Barbara Chambers coming out of Sadie’s Vintage. She put her hand up like a traffic cop. “Oh no, William. You are not walking by without introducing me to this lovely young woman.”

When we finally extricated ourselves, I took Michelle by the arm, leading her around the corner onto the back street. Enough was enough.

“Barbara’s like an Italian grandmother,” Michelle laughed.

“I’m glad you find this amusing,” I said.

“You know this whole town, don’t you?”

I let out a breath as we got some relative anonymity on the leafy side street. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if people were hooking their fingers in their blinds as we walked by. We were only a block away from my place anyway. “Between growing up here and managing the whole town it’s hard not to.”

“Maybe you should run for mayor.”

I stiffened. “Funny you should say that. Fred’s trying to get me to run. After he’s done.”

“You’d be good at it.”

I frowned.

“Seriously—everyone seems to love you. And you’re so involved in the community. Have you ever thought about it?”

Usually when people asked me this, I wanted to put them off. I did put them off, telling them I was happy with my current job. Which I was. Ish. But being with Michelle, I felt like there was no point in lying. She made me question why I hid so much of myself from everyone else to begin with.

“It used to be my dream when I was a kid. I saw the people working in my community, making a difference. I wanted to do that. I joined all the clubs, did all the things I was supposed to. While working in New York, after my MBA, I used to get calls from firms representing political organizations. They wanted me to run for office.”

“So, what happened?”

Suddenly I wished I hadn’t spoken. That I’d kept things to myself.