“Where are you?” he asked her tightly.

She hiccupped. “Eating cookies.”

“And drinking,” he guessed.

“A little. And pretending that you weren’t relieved when I walked away from you this afternoon.”

“Katie.”

She could hear the regret in his voice now, and also the utter assurance that he’d done the right thing in letting her walk away. Which was stupid because though she’d done the physical walking, he’d been the one to go. Frustrated at her own jumbled thoughts and at Cam himself, she shook her head. “That’s all I can string together, but you get the gist.”

“Yeah, I get the gist. Katie-”

“Good-bye, Cam.” When she shut her phone, there was a moment of silence.

“That was impressive,” Harley finally said.

Katie dropped her forehead to the counter. “I wasn’t that impressive.”

“I think you were perfect,” Serena told her. “And brave. I like that you tell it how it is. I’m not charging you for the cookies. In fact, maybe we could work out a trade. I keep you in desserts, and you…you can help me out with my books. They’re a mess.”

“I’m leaving in a week.”

“Where to?”

“I’m going to go back to LA first, visit my parents, pay my rent, and then drive wherever the car takes me.”

“Bummer for both of us then.”

Katie sighed and lifted her head, looking at her new friends, both as drunk as she. Well, maybe not quite as drunk as she. “I should have wished for two nights of great sex on that falling star.”

“Huh?” Serena asked.

“I wished and it came true. I think I need another falling star.”

Serena and Harley craned their necks and looked outside, where the brief storm had moved on. Night had fallen in its place, complete with a sky full of stars.

“I want to wish for great sex,” Harley said to Serena.

“Me too,” Serena said, and the three of them grabbed their coats and staggered outside, unsteady on their feet.

“It’s cold.” Harley announced the obvious as they sat down on the curb in front of Katie’s car. Shivering, they leaned back and waited for a falling star, their breath crystallizing in front of their faces.

“The vodka is warming me up,” Katie said.

“Lightweight,” Serena said.

That was true enough, so she didn’t respond.

They all watched and waited, and when it happened, when a star twinkled bright and fell, all three of them gasped in unison at the beauty of it, and fell backward so that they were flat on the sidewalk.

“Wow,” Serena whispered, staring upward. “Oh, wow, that’s amazing.”

“Shh.” Katie couldn’t take her eyes off the sky, where the last of the bursting light was fading. “Quick, wish. Wish hard and mean it.”

Serena scrunched up her eyes and wished.

Harley followed suit.

And Katie made another wish: That when she was done with her adventures, she could find a place like this, a place where she belonged, with people in it to care about her. And maybe with a Cam of her own to keep…

They were still lying like that, flat on the sidewalk, faces upturned to the sky, when a truck drove up. Katie heard the door open, heard the crunch of footsteps stop at their feet.

“What the hell?”

Wow, he’d driven quick. But then again, he wasn’t a weenie on the roads like she was.

“Why are you lying in the snow?” His voice was low and even, with a hint of incredulous disbelief, the voice of a man with the strapping physique and physical prowess that pretty much flatlined Katie’s heart whenever she listened to him, not to mention all that quiet, sexy charm that went with. Embarrassed, she jerked upright at the same time that Harley and Serena did the same, and-And bonked their heads together.

“Ow.”

“Ow.”

“Ow.”

“Great, it’s the three stooges,” Cam said over their comin-gling groans. “Or I should say the three drunk stooges.”

Chapter 20

Holding her head, seeing stars, Katie fell back to the sidewalk again.

Cam’s face appeared in her view as he leaned over her.

It was a gorgeous face, really, with those mesmerizing green eyes, and that scar above the left one. And then there was his crooked smile that had snagged her heart, but he wasn’t smiling now. Nope, he was frowning, but she still wanted to kiss that mouth.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Making friends. Friends who won’t walk away when I’m still talking.”

“I didn’t walk away. You did.”

“Semantics.” Or that’s what she tried to say, but her tongue tripped all over itself.

Serena laughed and staggered to her feet, smacking Cam in the chest. “You’re driving her plowed butt home, right?”

“I’m driving all of your plowed butts home.” He held out his fingers. “Keys.”

“Harley and I are good.” Serena pulled on Harley’s sleeve, helping her upright, where they leaned on each other. “We’re going to hang out here and consume massive quantities of the best dessert in town.”

“Psst,” Harley said in a stage whisper. “You’re the only dessert in town.”

Serena shushed her and looked at Katie. “You could join us. Your choice.”