Back To Us (Shore Secrets 3) by Christi Barth

and just be
her
friends. “You haven’t even heard all the details.”
    “Sorry.” Casey got up and filled a mug covered with chalkboard paint. Then, as usual, she sketched on a lopsided pine tree. “But this isn’t a proposal story. We don’t have to know what you were wearing and where he was standing. He asked you out. You, as usual, are thinking it to death first instead of just saying yes. What more do we need to know?”
    Piper balled her hands on her hips. Challenge accepted. “How about that this isn’t a fling, and it isn’t just a date, either? Ward wants me to promise to date him for one month. At the end of it, he’ll let me lease some of his acreage to start my port line.”
    “He’s sneaky.” Ella’s tone was as full of admiration as though Ward had presented Piper with a pair of Louboutin heels. Which, truth be told, probably would’ve gotten her to a yes much faster. Bribery was a classic because it worked.
    “He’s cagey. Wily.” Casey stabbed her arm into the air. “I’m going to start calling him Wile E. Coyote Cantrell.”
    With a shake of her head that sent her brown hair tumbling over her shoulders, Ella corrected her. “He’s brilliant.”
    Oh, for God’s sake! “He’s certifiably crazy,” Piper huffed out. “You can’t force someone to fall in love with you just by spending time with them. If that was all it took, I’d have to switch teams and marry the girl who does my manicures every week.”
    Ella reached forward to grab Piper’s hands. “He wants you to fall in love again. This is just wonderful.”
    “Ever since you got engaged, you see the world through matrimony-fogged glasses.” Piper jerked free to spread her hands wide. “This is a big deal. There are two huge problems with dating Ward.”
    They looked back and forth at each other. Finally Casey shrugged as she sat back down. “Nope. I’ve got nothing.”
    Seriously? How long did it take for coffee to kick-start neurons, anyway? “He broke my heart. He shredded it into the saddest pink confetti ever.”
    Casey looked down at her donut covered in bubble-gum pink frosting and hot pink sprinkles, then dropped it back to the plate. “That’s disgusting.”
    “Sorry. But...Ward cheated on me. He abused the trust I’d placed in him to go through with a long-distance relationship. How do I know I can trust him again? How do I know he won’t break my heart again?” There. She’d said it. Put her second-biggest fear about this potential relationship reboot right out on the table for everyone to dissect.
    Casey flipped her hands, palms up, and shrugged. “You don’t.”
    “And you suck at motivational speeches.”
    “I’m serious. There’s no guarantee the next random stranger you decide to date won’t cheat on you. There’s no guarantee Ward won’t monumentally screw up with you again. Life doesn’t come with guarantees.”
    Sure it did. The bad guarantees were just easier to count on than the good. “Here’s one: I guarantee that if he breaks my heart again, I won’t survive.”
    “Yes, you will,” Ella said with a sad smile. “That’s the trouble with a broken heart—there’s no escaping it except for time.”
    Guilt swamped Piper, choking whatever retort she’d been ready to lob back. Because Ella had spent three long years trying to get over the sudden death of her parents. That was real heartbreak. The kind some people didn’t ever get over. Suddenly her complaints about Ward seemed trivial. Because he was trying, really
trying
, to do something good here. To set right a wrong. Was she willing to let her fear block her from potential wonderfulness?
    After an awkward silence so tangible it practically had its own heartbeat, Casey tapped her finger against the smooth wood of the counter. “We’ve jumped ahead. Let’s go back to the bigger issue. Ward can’t break your heart unless you give it to him first.”
    Piper didn’t say anything.
    “Okay, I’ll go ahead and mention the