be alive forever. Her niece and nephew, her sisters and Jack, Colleen and Connor. Faith was even thinking of joining the volunteer fire department, since Gerard kept heckling her about it. She had this new phase of friendship with Jeremy, who was loyal and generous and funny. She had the steep and beautiful hills, the cold, deep lakes with their infinite secrets, the quiet woods and gushing waterfalls. She was a Holland, and she belonged to this land.
And she had Levi, who might admit he loved her back.
Why go back when all she’d ever wanted was to stay?
That being said, the architect who’d given Faith her first job in San Francisco had just come through with a job to design a common area for a big condo complex in Oakland. Lots of land, lots of potential. He’d sent her some photos, and right away, ideas had started forming. She could take the job, which paid very well, go back to the city by the bay, pack up her apartment, sell what she didn’t want, say goodbye to her friends.
Being away, making something of herself without the goodwill generated by the Holland name, being alone...it had made her stronger. Mom had been right.
But it was time to come home.
So she’d go to San Francisco, end things on a strong note, and then let her heart come back home.
Faith pushed open the door, the heat of the pub most welcome. A two-minute walk, but already her feet were like blocks of ice.
“Hey,” Connor greeted her as he pulled a Guinness. “My sister’s looking for you.”
As the words left his mouth, his twin pounced, dragging Faith into the bathroom.
“And hello to you, too,” Faith said. “What are you—”
“This thing with you and Levi...how serious is that?” Colleen asked, her face unsmiling. “You totally smitten?”
“Oh. Yes, actually. Why?”
Colleen sighed. “He’s here. With his ex-wife.”
Faith felt her mouth drop open. “Wow.”
“Yeah. They’re in a booth in the back.”
“Oh.” Faith glimpsed her face in the mirror. Not reassuring. “That’s...sucky.”
“Figured you should have some warning.”
“Thanks.”
Well, nothing to do but go out there. It wasn’t like she was going to climb out the bathroom window. Not this time.
But she could fix her hair. And borrow some of Colleen’s makeup.
* * *
AT FIVE-THIRTY THAT EVENING, Levi had been struggling through some paperwork that was endless, repetitious and irritating when the station door opened, and in came Nina Rodriguez, who not so long ago had been Nina Rodriguez-Cooper.
“Hey, stranger,” she said with a big smile.
Gorgeous. That was his first thought. Clad in the same skin-tight clothes she always wore if she wasn’t in uniform...and why not? She had a killer body.
His second thought was What the hell? because really, a little warning might’ve been nice.
“Do you have a complaint you’d like to register?” Emmaline said, not bothering to keep the bitchery from her voice. She might be a pain in the ass, but she was loyal.
Nina ignored her. She was good at that. “You gonna stop staring and say hi?” she asked Levi, raising a perfect eyebrow and leaning against Everett’s desk. Ev, too, had frozen, his eyes on Nina’s ass, which, granted, was one of the seven wonders of the natural world, right up there with Faith’s rack.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi,” Everett echoed.
Nina smiled and pulled up a chair. “I was in the area. Figured I’d stop in and see my favorite cop.”
He caught a whiff of the stuff she used in the shower, a musky, flowery scent, and waited for the surge of anger. This was, after all, the woman who’d left him with a hug and a cheery wave after three months of marriage, making him look like an idiot, for one, and breaking his heart for another. Two things he hated.
The anger didn’t come. “How’ve you been?” he asked.
She tipped her head. “I’ve been fine,” she said.
“Glad to hear it,” Everett said, his voice faint.
Nina glanced at Ev with that beautiful-woman smile, the kind that said In your dreams, mister. Everett only closed his mouth to swallow.
“So we gonna air our dirty laundry here?” Nina asked. “Or are you gonna buy a girl a drink? The best thing about this town was that little bar, as I recall.”
And so Levi stood up, Everett watching in a trance, Emmaline hissing, and took his ex-wife across the square to O’Rourke’s. Ignored Colleen’s look, as well as the fact that three members of the town council fell silent upon his arrival. Victor Iskin waved, his latest taxidermied cat on the bar in front of him, poised as if to leap while Lorena Creech admired it.
“Town hasn’t changed much,” Nina observed.
“Nope.” He took her to the farthest booth in the back and sat down.
He was flustered. Shitty feeling, that.
They ordered a couple of beers and the nachos grande, which Nina recalled with great enthusiasm. Colleen took their order with another pointed look, kicking Levi’s ankle. Nina talked about generic things—the traffic in Scranton, the cow in the road in Sayre. The nachos and beers came, delivered with another kick from Colleen.
And then Nina started with the war talk, which was what soldiers did when they reunited. Levi waited for her to get to whatever point she was here to make. He knew from experience there was no changing of the subject with Nina; she had an agenda, and trying to rush her only drew things out.
Then, finally, after reminding him of their common past in as entertaining a way as possible, she got personal.
“So how’s Sarah?”
“She’s good,” Levi said. Didn’t mention the fact that she could’ve used a sister-in-law this past year or so.
“Is she in college?”
He nodded. “Over at Hobart.”
“Good for her! And your mom? Still hates me, I’m sure.”
“My mom died a couple months after you left.”
Nina’s face changed. “Oh, Levi, you ass. Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve come for the funeral!” She reached across the table and gripped his hand.
“I didn’t really see the point,” he said, extracting his hand.
She sat back in her seat, her big brown
