It was nearly a week before Hazel found the next clue. Enough time to almost forget about them, to realize the whole thing had been a silly misunderstanding. Enough time to decide spending the next few months with Noah was actually a terrible idea.

Even though she still kinda wanted to.

But the real reason she didn’t tell Noah about the clue was because it was actually pretty mundane. A clue she could follow completely on her own. One she was planning to do anyway, really. So she didn’t need a guide or an adventurous companion at all.

That was why she was at the grocery store buying ingredients for milkshakes by herself. And also why she was hiding in the frozen-food aisle because she’d just seen Noah walk in and now she was trying to calculate if she could check out before he spotted her. Which was crazy. He didn’t need to know she’d found another marked book today, this one with a line about drinking vanilla shakes like the person leaving the clues wanted to make sure she enjoyed all her favorite tastes of summer before it was over. He didn’t need to know she had broken her promise.

She could just be at the grocery store. Like a normal person. Which she just happened to be.

Right. No problem. She grabbed a carton of vanilla ice cream and put it in her basket next to the milk and the sprinkles she’d chosen to add to the top. And she was ready to confidently walk to the register when a voice behind her stopped her in her tracks.

‘Hazel Kelly.’ A low, deep rumble that did things to her that she’d rather not explore in the frozen food section. Or maybe ever.

She turned to replace Noah leaning against the freezers with a mischievous grin on his face.

‘Fancy meeting you here,’ he said, prowling closer.

Hazel clutched her basket to her body. ‘Just getting some groceries.’

Noah peered into her basket. ‘Ice cream and sprinkles, yum.’

‘And milk.’ Hazel pointed out like it mattered that she was also buying milk, like that absolved her of her lies.

‘Making milkshakes?’ he asked, still smiling as though he knew her secret.

‘I had a craving, and my favorite shake place closed last year so I thought I would make one instead.’ She was rambling. This was ridiculous. Noah had no right to make her so flustered all the time. He was just a regular human man. And Hazel refused to think about the fact that this was the second time he’d shown up at the scene of one of her clues. It was the grocery store. Plenty of people were here.

It wasn’t weird that she’d just run into Andy in the produce department and Joe in the baking aisle, also looking for sprinkles. It was a small town. That was to be expected. This was all to be expected, including the handsome man staring at her like he wanted to eat her and wash it down with a milkshake.

Hazel swallowed hard.

‘So…’ She shifted the basket to her other arm.

‘So, enjoy your shake, Haze.’ He was about to walk away and she couldn’t let him because he was here. Again. And she didn’t want to drink her shake alone anyway. And she did promise…

‘It was a clue!’ she blurted out and Noah’s eyebrows rose. ‘I didn’t tell you. I found another book clue and it was about milkshakes but that seemed boring so I didn’t tell you.’

Noah’s smile grew. ‘A clue?’

Hazel sighed. ‘Vanilla milkshakes are objectively better. Colder and Sweeter. Evie smiled around her straw and took another sip.’ Hazel quoted from memory the clue she’d found this morning, looking somewhere over Noah’s shoulder instead of at his face while she said it.

‘Perfect!’ he said like she’d nailed her line for the school play.

‘Perfect?’

‘Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. Vanilla shakes are the best.’

‘True.’

‘And we’re both here now … so…’

Hazel couldn’t help her smile at Noah’s hopeful tone. ‘Do you want to have a milkshake with me?’ she asked.

‘There is literally nothing else I’d rather do.’ He held her gaze and Hazel believed him. She couldn’t think of a single thing she’d rather do either, as it turned out.

‘Sorry I broke my promise.’

‘I forgive you.’ He linked his arm with hers and escorted her down the frozen-food aisle. ‘But for future reference, Haze, milkshakes are never boring.’

Hazel laughed, relief and warmth and excitement flowing through her.

Okay, universe, or whoever you are, I’m officially done fighting this thing. Lead the way.

‘Your blender or mine?’ Noah asked as they walked out into the warm air of the evening.

Hazel didn’t feel prepared to let Noah into her space yet. That felt like a step too far. ‘Yours,’ she said, letting Noah put the shopping bags in the trunk of her car.

‘Perfect. Meet you there.’

It wasn’t until she was driving away that she realized Noah hadn’t bought whatever it was he’d come to the grocery store for in the first place.

Maybe she flustered him, too?


Noah probably should have mentioned that he didn’t actually own a blender, but Hazel had a tendency to scramble his thoughts.

But it was working out okay.

It was a slow night at Mac’s and the pub owner/landlord didn’t seem to mind them coming down to the bar and borrowing his. Or at least he hadn’t kicked them out. Yet.

‘Are you sure we’re allowed to be back here?’ Hazel whispered, crowding closer to him in the cramped kitchen.

‘Of course. As Mac’s favorite employee…’

Danny snorted loud enough to be heard over the dishwasher.

Noah cleared his throat. ‘One of Mac’s favorite employees.’

Hazel laughed.

‘There are certain perks,’ Noah went on, grabbing the blender from the top metal shelf. Mac only busted this thing out on frozen margarita nights. Noah set it down on the counter as Hazel pulled the ice cream and milk from her bag.

‘Oh, really?’

‘Sure. I pop down here for late night snacks all the time.’

Hazel laughed again, her gaze drifting over his shoulder. ‘Is that so? And Mac doesn’t mind?’

‘What Mac doesn’t know can’t hurt him,’ he said with a wink.

‘You know we have security cameras, right?’ Mac’s voice scared Noah enough that he clapped a hand over his chest.

‘Jesus! Why are you so quiet?’

‘You couldn’t hear me over your bizarre bragging.’ Mac quirked a dark, unamused eyebrow. ‘Hey, Hazel.’

Hazel was doubled over in giggles and Noah would let Mac make fun of him all day just to keep listening to that sound.

‘Hey, Mac,’ she said, gasping a little for breath.

‘You’re cleaning this up.’ Mac gestured to the mess they were already making. ‘And put some damn clothes on if you’re going to sneak down here in the middle of the night. I’m tired of seeing your skinny ass on video.’

Hazel laughed so hard she snorted, making her laugh even harder.

Noah grinned. ‘It’s not that skinny. Muscular is how I would describe it.’

Hazel wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘Muscular?’ she squeaked, the giggles still fizzing out of her.

‘Yeah, right,’ Mac muttered, making his way to the back office.

‘Is he angry?’ Hazel asked, finally getting her laughter under control.

Noah waved the other man off. ‘You know Mac.’

Hazel nodded. Of course she knew Mac. She’d known him most of her life, like everyone else in this odd little town, and for a minute Noah was almost jealous. Jealous of all the people who’d had so many more years with Hazel than he had.

He shook his head. She was here now, smiling at him, her eyes still full of laughter.

‘Ready?’ he asked, reaching for the ice cream.

‘Very.’

They filled the blender with ice cream and just enough milk to make the shakes drinkable and then poured the concoction into tall beer glasses, the only things they could replace that made sense for a shake.

Hazel shook sprinkles on top of each one with a flourish.

‘There. That makes them special.’

Noah resisted the urge to tell her they were special because she was here and she was special. He’d already cornered her in the grocery store after he’d vowed to himself to let her come to him next. That was enough overdoing it for one day.

Instead he sipped his shake, barely able to get it through the straw. It was thick and cold and sweet.

‘So good,’ Hazel moaned and Noah forcibly shoved his thoughts away from where they wanted to go, which was hearing Hazel moaning those words about something very different. Something involving him between her thighs.

‘Thanks,’ she said.

Noah blinked. ‘Uh … for what?’

‘The shake. It came out a lot better than mine usually do.’

‘Must be the fancy blender.’

Hazel smiled, the straw between her teeth. ‘Must be.’

‘Or that we make a good team.’

She tipped her head, studying him. Deciding something. Something about him. And the moment felt monumentally important. Even though it shouldn’t. Even though they were just drinking milkshakes in the kitchen at Mac’s with Danny washing dishes a few feet away. Nothing about this moment was important.

And yet…

‘Yeah, I guess we do.’

He couldn’t help but feel like he’d passed the test.

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