From the Start by Melissa Tagg

matched the admiration clinking around Colton’s thoughts.
    The outside of the business, as he’d seen when they drove up, had just as much personality—the words First National Bank still etched into its gray cement, intricate cornice swirling above the entrance and at each corner of the sloping roof, a jutting brass sign with the name of the restaurant . . . and of course, the bright red door.
    “Not gonna lie. I’m happy with how it turned it out.” Seth gestured across the room. “In here you wouldn’t even know a tornado hit.”
    So this was what vision looked like. The kind born and nurtured through determination, effort . . . success.
    Colton used to know what that felt like.
    “How long did the place sit empty before you bought it?”
    Seth skirted around black-topped tables now, moving toward the front door. “Six or seven years. The city was on the brink of tearing the place down. There were days over the past year when I thought it’d never come together, but somehow it did. And honestly, I think it’s the fact that it wasn’t a cakewalk getting to opening day that’s been helping me take the storm damage in stride.”
    Colton reached around to rub the crick in his neck that had been hassling him ever since he woke up that morning. Probably the result of spending the night in a twin bed he barely fit into.
    Which made the decision he’d come to last night just before finally drifting off to sleep all the more logical: He’d help out with whatever storm repairs he could today—which he now knew meant playing lumberjack—but then he’d catch a flight back to California. If not tonight, then tomorrow.
    He didn’t belong in Maple Valley.
    He’d felt it last night as the Walkers gathered in the kitchen, their laughter drifting upstairs to where he lay in Logan’s younger brother’s old bed. He’d felt it this morning as he watched Kate hug her father and joke around with her siblings and cousin as they trickled from their bedrooms one by one.
    He felt it now . . . as he looked around Seth’s restaurant, wondering what it’d be like to know not even a tornado could topple his dream.
    Seth pushed through the front door. “Be back in a minute with the axes.”
    Half an hour later, sweat beaded on Colton’s forehead as he angled his arms behind him, then forward—the thwacking of the ax digging into wood vibrating up arms. On the other side of the massive tree trunk, Logan took his turn. Across the room, Seth paced, cell phone at his ear, smile spreading over his cheeks.
    “Look at him,” Logan said, breathing heavy after his lastswing. “Flirting with his girlfriend while we chop a tree that’s already down.”
    “How do you know that’s who he’s talking to?”
    “See the smile on his face? If that doesn’t spell lovesick puppy dog, I don’t know what does. Word on the street is he’s had a girl stashed in that apartment upstairs all summer.”
    “She wasn’t stashed and she wasn’t there all summer.” Seth’s shadow formed over the tree trunk. Must’ve gotten off the phone in time to hear Logan’s last comment. “Get your intel right. She stayed at your dad’s.”
    Logan leaned his elbow on the end of his ax, wiping one palm across his forehead. “Raegan told me all about it. Turns out our boy Seth has been emailing a girl constantly—like multiple times a day—for a year. And then she showed up here on opening day. Hasn’t left since.”
    Seth shook his head, red creeping into his cheeks. “Wrong. She went home to Michigan end of last week.”
    “And then came running back as soon as she heard about the tornado. According to Raegan, the whole town’s been waiting for the two of you to admit you’re crazy about each other.”
    Slithering heat snuck through the tarp and slapped against Colton.
    “Now you see what I have to deal with living in Maple Valley, Colton.” Seth’s phone rang again. He checked the display but didn’t answer. “I don’t even