Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Kell
In the five years since Kell Luview left D.C., he’d done a lot of thinking.
More than a lot.
That thinking–and a heaping dose of emotion–came roaring back when he found himself stuck with Rachel Hart.
Literally.
The sound of her voice made him want to kiss her. Or turn on his heel and walk away. He wasn’t sure which. Given that he literally could not escape from Rachel now, that left only one option.
Kissing her was off the table, though, no matter how tempting.
He stared at their glued-together hands as she tugged lightly, the skin pulling but not releasing. Manicured nails, with tiny white tips and perfect skin, made it clear Rachel hadn’t spent the last five years climbing trees or pulling invasive plants like he had.
“That hurts,” he said, tearing his eyes away from that soft, beautiful hand.
“No kidding! I cannot believe this!” Tugging a little, she continued her effort to extract herself.
Superglue had its own reality.
“What did you think would happen when you touched it after I told you not to?” he growled.
“I thought you were handling the repair all wrong!”
“Because you’ve fixed exactly how many engines, Rachel?”
“I don’t have to know how to fix an engine to see when someone’s doing it wrong. All that glue you were glopping was about to–”
“That’s exactly how you know someone’s doing something wrong: by knowing how to do it right. Or… at all.”
“Hmph.” The corner of her right eye began to twitch, her mouth twisting with a furious disgust he absolutely did not deserve.
And it gutted him.
“You just took a bad situation and made it worse,” he informed her, regretting the words instantly because he was talking too much. Pretending to be Deke had been easier.
“Gee, Kell. Thanks for telling me. I never would have figured that out on my own.” Fake eyelash batting commenced, forcing him to look her over.
How the hell did Rachel Hart end up, with no warning, in his hometown?
After she’d screwed him over, five years ago, he’d come home with his tail between his legs. Buried his bruised ego and dented pride nice and deep under his promise to help his dad with the family tree business and eventually take it over.
Dean Luview had been elated, and his mom was like a box of fireworks in the hands of teenagers on the Fourth of July: colorful, explosive, and full of more than a little awe that one of the kids she thought had left for good was back home.
For good.
Took a while before he spilled his guts about Alissa and Rachel to his mom and his big sister, Colleen, but he’d gotten the whole sordid story off his chest, then locked it all up inside his heart, part of a past that was dead to him.
Unfortunately, ghosts knew how to break locks.
Or, at least, how to drive crappy rental cars into town.
Back when they were still friends, Rachel had connected her mother, the TV star Portia Starman, with his mom, who ran some of the town festivals, and a new reality TV show had been born: Love You Springs Eternal.
Cheesy title, but there wasn’t much about the town that wasn’t cheesy.
Kell had managed to avoid Portia almost entirely while she was in town, keeping himself busy pulling poison ivy for the film crew and evading his mother’s many requests that he come home for dinner with the star. He had zero desire to be grilled about the past by Rachel’s mom.
If he just thought of her as an emotion, it was easy. Kell was an expert at hiding from those.
Love You Springs Eternal had only lasted six episodes. It ran on some channel so obscure that even the local satellite TV company had to go out of its way to add it. But Rachel’s mom had lived in “Love You” for two months, filming and basking in the adoration of her Gen X and boomer fans.
Each episode had a theme, starting with the town’s history.
One hundred and fifty-two years ago, legend had it, hot springs were discovered in Luview by his great-great-great grandfather, Abram Luview. Abram was unmarried, owned a large tract of land, and worked as a logger.
A chance dip in the hot springs at the same time as a young woman from the next town over, and bam! Instalove. Adelaide, too, had been unable to find the right match until that dip, and when two lonely hearts went for a swim in the waters, they fell in love.
Awwwww, right?
Except Abram Luview, who found his bride that day, didn’t just see stars in his beloved’s eyes.
He saw dollar signs.
The hot springs were on his land.
Abram was an early marketer. Over the years, he and his descendants helped to turn Luview, Maine, into Love You, Maine: Where Every Day Is Valentine’s Day.
Back in the late 1800s, he spun the town’s image into a place where a lonely man could find a suitable bride by just going for a swim.
Trainloads of single ladies from Boston came every summer, searching for husbands, and soon, the town was known as a lovers’ paradise.
Nice and easy, in a time when rural Maine was filled with loggers who needed a mate.
Pastors set up churches in town to offer weddings, and it all went from there.
In the 1920s, it was a place to escape Prohibition and have a cool drink at Bilbee’s Tavern.
In the late 1940s, inns and B&Bs opened to meet the post-war demand for relaxing mountain vacations. As time went on, more and more people owned cars, and motor courts popped up along the roads.
By the 1970s, the ski resorts were being developed, sprawling affairs that brought new tourists to the area.
As baby boomers were born, then went on to have their own kids, the town began catering to families as well as singles. There was something for everyone in Love You, Maine, because love is universal.
We all deserve it, and we all need it.
Many of the residents of Luview earned their living from love. Love You Bakery sold heart-shaped cupcakes. Love You Coffee served your beverage in a heart-shaped mug. Love You Flowers specialized in pink and red roses.
Want a quickie wedding? The Love You Forever Inn and Drive-Thru Chapel was at your service.
As for Valentine’s Day? It was February 14th, of course. But it was nothing unusual in Kell’s small town because… that’s right.
Every day was Valentine’s Day in Love You, Maine.
The police cruisers were pink, the library was red, and the fire engines fit right in.
You know what didn’t fit in, though? Kell seethed, staring at his hand, which was forced to touch hers, their fingers adhered to a rubber tube that looked phallic enough that he would never, ever hear the end of it from the folks at the ER.
Including his sister, a nurse, who was working a shift there right now.
Rachel. That’s who didn’t fit in.
Rachel.
All of this flashed through him in seconds as he looked away, mentally calculating.
“Are you going to say something, or just play the brooding, grumpy mountain man?” Rachel snapped.
“Weighing out the pros and cons of the skin on my fingers.”
“What does that mean?”
“Stay stuck to you for hours and expose myself to permanent humiliation in my hometown, or let ’er rip and lose a few inches of skin.”
She gasped. “You’re not serious!”
“Oh, trust me. I am.”
“You’d put yourself through that kind of pain just to get away from me?”
His answer was a hard stare.
“This is not my fault, Kell! It just happened.”
“Just happened because you can’t leave well enough alone and let someone else live their life.”
“Now you’re personalizing it? You think I like being stuck to you?”
Another hard stare. This time, she didn’t flinch, giving it all right back.
Huh. She’d changed in the last five years, too. The Rachel he knew would have nervously looked away.
“Why are you here, Rachel?”
“Because I’m retracing my mother’s steps and had a craving for a heart-shaped morning glory muffin, Kell.”
He stared her down some more.
She gave no quarter.
That’s how it was going to be? Fine. Forgetting, he started to cross his arms over his chest and yanked her, Rachel’s balance in those silly little boots sending her crashing into him, his hands on her hips, her hair brushing against his cheek.
Hoo boy.
Stepping out of his arms, she clung to the car and blasted him. “And if anyone’s asking questions, it’s me. What… happened to you?” she asked, eyes roving all over him, from the top of his head to the tips of his work boots.
Her cheeks were pink, and not from the chill.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re huge. And… furry.”
“Furry?”
“Yes. Look at you. Did you stop cutting your hair five years ago? It goes down past your collarbone!”
“Nothing wrong with long hair.”
“And that beard! At least it’s neatly trimmed.”
“Are you a hair and makeup expert now, Rachel? You here to work on a movie set? That’s the only reason I can think of for you to comment on my looks.”
Her cheeks went from pink to a furious red.
“I’m just saying you lied to me and called yourself Deke, and you’ve changed so much, it fooled me.”
“Good. Then it worked.”
“Why wouldn’t you want me to recognize you?”
His patented hard stare came out again.
“You keep trying to intimidate me with that glare, but it won’t work. I’ve faced down far scarier people than you, Kell.”
“I’m not trying to intimidate you. I’m trying to get you to shut up.”
“How about you get me out of this mess you created?”
“Me?” He shook their connected hands. “I didn’t cause this. You did!”
Waving her unstuck left hand, she rolled her eyes.
“Whatever. Just fix this.”
“Have to go into town to the ER.”
“Seriously? You don’t have some kind of solution to remove this?”
He looked at her nails.
“Got any nail polish remover?” Craning his neck, he looked in her car. The backseat was full of luggage. “Looks like you brought your entire closet. Your trunk’s full, too? You moving here?”
He fought the zing! that ran through him at the thought.
No.
Oh, no. No way. He was not cracking open the lid to that tightly-sealed box. The worst thing that could happen to him was to have any piece of his D.C. past come into his current life. Especially Rachel.