Molly Wilson glanced at the shed at the bottom of her mother’s garden, seeing for the first time an overhanging branch pressing down on the roof and slowly crushing the old, wooden building. It needed fixing and soon, but branches and sheds were the least of her worries right now. It took all of her strength to swing round and face Kyle Lawson, aware of the magnetic pull he still held over her, and the terrible blow she’d dealt him.
 

He sat a few feet away, a mug of hot coffee close by, his hands resting on the table where she’d done her homework and eaten too many dinners. That was before she’d left her mother to cope alone with the man who insisted she call him dad. If only she could be anywhere but in the living room listening to him outline his bat-crazy scheme. A scheme, he maintained, would make both their situations better.
 

"Seriously, Kyle?" she said, aware her gaze lingered too long on the face that still filled her dreams after all this time. "You want me to join you in a business venture? No offence, but I think you’ve been out in the sun too long."
 

Kyle’s expression didn’t register her criticism. "I appreciate how it sounds but this is the only way out of my predicament. If you’re as concerned at what your stepfather did as you say, at least consider my plan before dismissing it outright."
 

His deep, gentle voice soothed like ointment on an open wound. No denying Kyle had grown better with age, or maybe absence just made her heart beat faster. Who was she kidding? He was as much a threat to her at twenty-three as when she’d been sixteen and developed a crush bigger than the Fun Zone Theme Park he now owned. Back then he’d been a man standing head and shoulders above a sea of boys, and his presence never failed to raise her heart rate or interfere with her breathing.