Back in their school days, Aubrey had been untouchable, tough as nails, and Leah hadn't been anywhere even in the vicinity of her league. Nothing much had changed there. She looked down at herself and sucked in her stomach.

"There's no illusion when it comes to Luke," Ali told Aubrey. "He's one hundred percent real. And all mine."

"Well, now you're just being mean," Aubrey said. "And that's my arena. Leah, what's with the expensive shoes and cheap haircut?"

Leah put a hand to her choppy layers and Aubrey smiled at Ali, like See? That's how you do mean...

Most of Leah's money went towards her school loans and helping to keep her grandma afloat, but she did have one vice. Okay, two, but being addicted to Pinterest wasn't technically a vice. Her love of shoes most definitely was. She'd gotten today's strappy leather wedges from a street fair in Paris, and they'd been totally worth having to eat apples and peanut butter for a week. "They were on sale," she said, clicking them together like she was Dorothy in Oz. "They're knock-offs," she admitted.

Aubrey sighed. "You're not supposed to say that last part. It's not as fun to be mean when you're nice."

"But I am nice," Leah said.

"I know," Aubrey said. "And I'm trying to like you anyway."

The three of them were an extremely unlikely trio, connected by a cute, quirky, old Victorian building in downtown Lucky Harbor. The building was older than God, currently owned by Aubrey's uncle, and divided into three shops. There was Ali's floral shop, Leah's Grandma Elsie's bakery, and last but not least, a neglected bookstore that Aubrey had been making noises about taking over since her job at Town Hall had gone south a few weeks back.

Neither Ali nor Leah were sure yet if having Aubrey in the building every day would be fun or a nightmare. But regardless, Aubrey knew her path. So did Ali.

Leah admired the hell out of that. Especially since she'd never known her path. She'd known one thing, the need to get out of Lucky Harbor-and she had. At age seventeen she'd left and had rarely looked back.

But she was back now, putting her pastry chef skills to good use helping her grandma out with the bakery while she recovered from knee surgery. The problem was, Leah had gotten out of the habit of settling into one place.

Not quite true, said a little voice inside her. If not for a string of spectacularly bad decisions, she'd have finished French culinary school. Or not embarrassed herself on the reality TV show Sweet Wars. Or...

Don't go there.

Instead, she scooped up a big bite of fluffy pancakes and concentrated on their delicious goodness rather than her own screw-ups. Obsessing over her bad decisions was something she saved for the deep dark of night.

"Jack's at the griddle," Ali noted.

Leah twisted around to look at the cooking setup. Fire station #24 was one of four that serviced the county, and thanks to the Olympic Mountains at their back with their million acres of forest, all four stations were perpetually busy.

Lieutenant Jack Harper was indeed manning the griddle. He was tall and broad shouldered, and looked like a guy who could take on anything that came his way. This was a good thing since he ran station #24. He could be as intimidating as hell when he chose to be, which wasn't right now since he was head-bopping to some beat in his headphones that only he could hear. Knowing him, it was some good, old-fashioned, ear-splitting hard rock.

Not too far from him, leashed to a bench off to the side of the cooking area sat the biggest Great Dane Leah had ever seen. He was white with black markings that made him look like a Dalmatian wannabe, and his name was Kevin.

Kevin had been given to a neighboring fire station where he'd remained until he'd eaten one too many expensive hoses, torn up one too many beds, and chewed dead one too many pairs of boots. The rambunctious one-year-old had then been put up for adoption.

The only problem, no one had wanted what was by then a hundred-and-fifty pound nuisance. Kevin had been headed for the Humane Society when Jack, always the protector, always the savior, had stepped in a few weeks back and saved the dog.

Just like he'd done for Leah more times than she could count.

As far as it went for Kevin, it'd become a great source of entertainment for the entire town that Jack Harper II, once the town terror himself-at least to mothers of teenage daughters everywhere-was now in charge of the latest town terror.

Another firefighter stepped up to the griddle, apparently to relieve Jack because Jack loaded a plate for himself and stepped over to Kevin. He flipped the dog a sausage, which Kevin caught in midair with one snap of his huge jaws. The sausage instantly vanished and Kevin licked his lips, staring intently at Jack's plate as if he could make more sausage fly into his mouth by wish alone.

Jack laughed and crouched down to talk to the dog, a movement that had his shirt riding up, revealing low-riding BDUs-his uniform pants-a strip of taut, tantalizing male skin, and just the hint of a perfect ass.

On either side of Leah, both Ali and Aubrey gave lusty sighs. Leah completely understood; she could feel her own lusty sigh catching in her throat but she squelched it. They were in the F-zone, she and Jack. Friends. Friends didn't do lust, or if they did, they also did the smart, logical thing and ignored it. Still, she felt a smile escape her at the contagious sound of Jack's laughter. Truth was, he'd been making her smile since the sixth grade, when she'd first moved to Lucky Harbor.

As if sensing her appraisal, Jack lifted his head. His dark mirrored sunglasses prevented her from catching exactly where his eyes landed, but she knew he was looking right at her because he arched a dark brow.

And on either side of her, Ali and Aubrey sighed again.

"Really?" Leah asked them.

"Well, look at him," Aubrey said unapologetically. "He's hot, he's got rhythm, and not just the fake white-boy kind either. And for a bonus, he's gainfully employed. It's just too bad I'm off men forever."

"Forever's a long time," Ali said, and Leah's gut cramped at the thought of the beautiful, blonde Aubrey going after Jack.

But Jack was still looking at Leah. Those glasses were still in the way but he didn't have to remove them for her to know that his dark eyes were framed by thick, black lashes and the straight, dark lines of his eyebrows. Or that the right one was sliced through by a thin scar, which he'd gotten at age fourteen when he and his cousin Ben had stolen his mom's car and driven it into a fence.

"Forever," Aubrey repeated emphatically. "I'm off men forever," and Leah felt herself relax a little.

Which was silly. Jack could date whoever he wanted, and did. Often.

"And anyway," Aubrey went on, "that's what batteries are for."

Ali laughed along with Aubrey as they all continued to watch Jack, who'd gone back to the griddle. He was moving to his music again while flipping pancakes, much to the utter delight of the crowd.

"Woo-hoo!" Aubrey yelled at him, both she and Ali toasting him with their plastic cups filled with orange juice.

Jack grinned and took a bow.

"Hey," Ali said, nudging Leah. "Go tip him."

"Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?" Aubrey asked.

Leah rolled her eyes and stood up. "You're both ridiculous. He's dating some EMT flight nurse."

Or at least he had been as of last week. She couldn't keep up with Jack's dating life. Okay, so she chose to not keep up. "We're just...buddies." They always had been, she and Jack, through thick and thin, and there'd been a lot of thin. "When you go to middle school with someone, you learn too much about them," she went on, knowing damn well that she needed to just stop talking, something she couldn't seem to do. "I mean, I couldn't go out with the guy who stole all the condoms on sex education day and then used them as water balloons to blast the track girls as we ran the four hundred."

"I could," Aubrey said.

Leah rolled her eyes, mostly to hide the fact that she'd left off the real reason she couldn't date Jack.

"Where you going?" Ali asked when Leah stood up. "We haven't gotten to talk about the show. Sweet Wars. Episode one aired last night, and you were awesome."

"And also, you looked great on TV," Aubrey said. "Bitch. I know you were judged on originality, presentation, and taste of product but you really should get brownie points for not looking fat. The show runs once a week for a month, right? Do you look as good for the next three episodes?"

This subject was no better than the last one. "Gotta go," Leah said, grabbing her plate and pointing to the cooking area. "There's sausage now."

"Ah." Aubrey nodded sagely. "So you do want Jack's sausage."

Ali burst out laughing and Aubrey high-fived her.

Ignoring them both, Leah headed toward the grill.

Jack flipped a row of pancakes, rotated a line of sausage links, and checked the flame. He was in a waiting pattern.

The status of his life.

Behind him, two fellow firefighters were talking about how one had bought his girlfriend an expensive purse as an apology for forgetting the anniversary of their first date. The guy thought the present would help ease him out of the dog house.

Jack knew better. The purse was a nice touch, but in his experience a man's mistakes were never really forgotten, only meticulously catalogued in a woman's frontal lobe to be pulled out later at her discretion.

A guy needed to either avoid mistakes entirely, or get out of the relationship before any anniversaries came up.

"Wuff."

This from Kevin, trying to get his attention.

"No more sausage," Jack called to him. "You know what happens when you eat too much. You stink me out of the bedroom."

Kevin had a big black spot over his left eye, giving him the look of a mischievous pirate as he gazed longingly at the row of sausages. When Jack didn't go get him, the dog heaved a long sigh, and lay down, setting his head on his paws.

"Heads up," Tim called.

Jack caught the gallon-sized container of pancake batter with one hand while continuing to flip pancakes with his other.

"Pretty fancy handiwork," a woman said.

Leah.

Jack turned and found her standing next to Kevin, holding a plate.

Jack pointed just as the dog would have made his move. Great Danes had a lot of great qualities like loyalty and affection, but politeness was not one of them. Kevin lived to press his nose into ladies' crotches, climb on people's laps like he was a six pound Pomeranian, and eat...well, everything.

And Kevin had his eyes on the prize-Leah's plate.

Jack gestured Leah closer with a crook of his finger. She'd shown back up in Lucky Harbor with shadows beneath her forest green eyes and lots of secrets in them, but she was starting to look a little more like herself. Her white gauzy top and leggings emphasized a willowy body made lean by hard work or tough times-knowing Leah it was probably both. Her silky auburn hair was loose, the choppy layers blowing around her face. He'd have called it her just-had-sex look, except she wasn't sleeping with anyone at the moment.

He knew this because one, Lucky Harbor didn't keep secrets, and two, he worked at the firehouse, aka Gossip Central. He knew Leah was in a holding pattern too. And something was bothering her.

Not your problem...

But though he told himself that, repeatedly in fact, old habits were hard to break. His relationship with her was as long as it was complicated, but she'd been there for him whenever he'd needed her, no questions asked. In the past week alone she'd driven his mom to her doctor's appointment, twice, fed and walked Kevin when Jack had been called out of county, and left a plate of cream cheese croissants in his fridge-his favorite. There was a lot of water beneath their bridge, but she mattered to him, even when he wanted to wrap his fingers around her neck and squeeze.

"You have any sausage ready?" she asked.

At the word sausage, Kevin practically levitated. Ears quirking, nose wriggling, the dog sat up, his sharp eyes following as Jack forked a piece of meat and set it on Leah's plate. When Jack didn't share with Kevin as well, he let out a pitiful whine.

Falling for it hook, line and sinker, Leah melted. "Aw," she said. "Can I give him one?"

"Only if you want to sleep with him tonight," Jack said.

"I wouldn't mind."

"Trust me, you would."

Coming up beside Jack, Tim waggled a brow at Leah. "I'll sleep with you tonight. No matter how many sausages you eat."

Leah laughed. "You say that to all the women in line."

Tim flashed a grin, a hint of dimple showing. "But with you, I meant it. So...yes?"

"No," Leah said, still smiling. "Not tonight."

"Tomorrow night?"

Jack slid a look to Tim. "You have a death wish?"

"What do you mean?"

"Rookies who come onto Leah vanish mysteriously," Jack said seriously. "Never to be seen again."

Tim narrowed his eyes. "Yeah? Who?"

"The last rookie. His name was Tim too."

Leah laughed, and Tim rolled his eyes. At work he reported directly to Jack, but he'd already been marked as having authority problems and he didn't look chastened in the slightest.

"I'll risk it," he said cockily to Leah.

Jack wondered if he'd still be looking so sure of himself later when he'd be scrubbing down fire trucks by himself. All of them.

Leah yawned and rubbed a hand over her eyes, and Jack forgot about Tim. "Maybe you should switch to Wheaties," Jack said. "You look like you need the boost."

She met his gaze. "Tim thought I looked all right."

"You know it, babe," Tim said, still shamelessly eavesdropping. "Change your mind about tonight and I'll make sure you know exactly how good you look."

Jack revised his plan about Tim cleaning the engines. The rookie would be too busy at the senior center giving a hands-on fire extinguisher demonstration, which every firefighter worth his salt dreaded because the seniors were feisty, didn't listen, and in the case of the female seniors, liked their "hands-on" anything training.

Oblivious to his fate, Tim continued to work the grill. Jack kept his attention on Leah. He wanted her happy, but that didn't mean he wanted her dating a player like Tim. But saying so would be pretty much like waving a red flag in front of a bull, no matter how pretty that bull might be. She'd give a stranger the very shirt off her back but Jack had long ago learned to not even attempt to tell her what to do or she'd do the opposite just because.

She had a long habit of doing just that.

He blamed her asshole father, but in this case it didn't matter because Leah didn't seem all that interested in Tim's flirting anyway.

Or in anything actually.

Which was what was really bothering Jack. Leah loved the challenge of life, the adventure of it. She'd been chasing that challenge and adventure for as long as he could remember. It was contagious: her spirit, her enthusiasm, her ability to be as unpredictable as the whim of Fate.

And unlike anyone else in his world, she alone could lighten a bad mood and make him laugh. But her smile wasn't reaching her eyes. Nudging her aside, out of Tim's earshot, he waited until she looked at him. "Hey," he said.

"Aren't you worried you'll vanish mysteriously never to be seen again?"