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“This guy is Dan. He will be training me starting on Wednesday. He said I could take a picture of the truck, because I said I wanted to show my friend. He seemed happy that I was all excited,” she said with a laugh as she zoomed the picture in so Kade could see the little white ford pickup truck. It was a little old and banged up and had the company logo across the doors and the bed of the truck. She loved it. “I got to test drive it,” she admitted softly. “It was a little driving test so Cliff could make sure I would be a safe driver for the company. I got to drive for an hour.”

Kade was just staring at the truck with an unreadable expression on his face.

She waited a few seconds before she gave a voice to her insecurities. “It’s nothing fancy or anything—”

“It’s fuckin’ awesome, Jess. Don’t downplay how cool this is. Look,” he said, pointing to the tires. “Someone has even put a little lift on it, and tires with good tread for the cold months. Do you get to drive it outside of work?”

“Yes, but only if I keep it within a certain radius and don’t put too many extra miles on it. They have one of those tracker things on it.”

“All fair,” he said, handing her phone back to her. He was grinning and looked like he wanted to say something, but he stayed silent instead and began walking again.

After a couple of quiet minutes, she asked, “What?”

He glanced at her and his eyes were sparking with his animal’s color again. “It’s just happening for you, Jess.”

She didn’t understand. “It’s just temporary,” she said.

“You know when I got busted out of Cold Foot, I didn’t believe anything good happening to me. I waited for that other shoe to drop too. Time is the fix for that.”

“Chhh, you just think life is going to keep going straight up, don’t you? You really have changed from the old Kade I kind of knew.”

“Life doesn’t work like that,” he said. “It’s not a straight up journey ever, but if you’re ready, and wanting to work, you can go in the right general direction. Everything happens for a reason, Jess. You are piling up the meant-to-be’s here. There is no Promise here. No pressure. No one telling you what to do. No bad intentions for you. And now you landed a job that will grant your independence what…2 days in? You just needed to cut the dead weight. Fuck all that Derek said. Fuck the manipulation. Look what you’re doing outside of the reach of Sister’s Edge?”

She shook her head. He didn’t understand the Heichman Curse. She wasn’t on the way up. She never could be. Fate had different plans from the day she’d been born a Heichman. She liked that he had such a positive view on things though, so she wouldn’t correct him.

“There,” she said, pointing to the neighborhood book nook.

Kade frowned at the little contraption that held the books. “It looks like a mailbox on steroids.”

She snickered and picked up the pace, her heart racing with excitement to show him. The little door creaked as she opened it and exposed the double row of books. Instructions were etched onto the edge of the book nook. ‘Take a book, replace a book.’

“This is cool,” he uttered, pulling out a book. It was a shifter romance with a half-naked male model on the cover. Kade pulled a face. “This dude needs to put on a shirt though.”

“Hell no he doesn’t,” she joked, snatching it from his hands. “This is on my list to read next.”

“So, you will read the book at the house, and then come and trade it out for this one,” he said, figuring out the rules.

“Yeah! But I kind of want to contribute, you know? I was thinking of going to the bookstore in town and buying a new one to add to the book nook.”

He was giving her the strangest look.

“What?” she asked, wiping her face in case there was something on it.

“You’re a builder.”

“What do you mean?”

“You improve things.”

Jess shrugged. “Not really,” she said softly.

“I’ve been in Garret’s rental house a half dozen times, and I’ve never seen flowers on the table, or that full length mirror next to the fireplace, or the candles on the mantle.”

She ducked her gaze so he wouldn’t see her pleased blush. “You should’ve seen me hauling that mirror back to the house. Three people pulled over and offered me a ride.”

He chuckled. “There’re some really nice people in this town. You are a fixer. I can tell.”

“I just like the idea of leaving a place better than I found it.”