A SEAL's Kiss. Tawny Weber

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      But as great as that’d been, nothing could beat good friends who knew you inside out and had a history that went back to kindergarten.

      “What’s the good stuff?” Sage asked, still smiling as she inspected the buffet. As to be expected for a Northern California winery wedding, the tables were heavy with appetizers of local produce, cheeses and gourmet delicacies.

      “Your love life, of course,” Cailley Heath, the third bridesmaid said as she joined them, choosing a juicy red strawberry off the fruit bouquet shaped like a heart. “I want to hear all about sex in Tibet.”

      “Shhh,” Nina hushed. When both Sage and Cailley gave her confused looks, she tilted her head toward the nearby table where two men were sitting, their heads together in serious discussion. Ahh, Aiden had found his other half.

      He and Sage’s father tended to become inseparable whenever Sailor Boy was on leave. Discussing the latest theory in quantum physics or evidence of an ancient tribe that’d been discovered in a far-off jungle, no doubt.

      Sage snickered, then teasingly shook her head at Nina.

      She could have danced naked with every man in the room right there on their table, and they wouldn’t have noticed.

      “What?” she teased. “You think my father has no idea I have sex?”

      Not that it was a topic of regular discussion. Typical of the Professor, when it was time for the birds-and-bees talk, her widowed father had a local nurse chat with Sage, filling her in on all of the pertinent details.

      After which her friends had filled her in on the juicy ones.

      “Your dad might know you have sex,” Cailley teased. “But does Aiden?”

      “I’m sure he does,” Sage said with an exasperated roll of her eyes, pretending the words her, Aiden and sex in the same sentence didn’t send a naughty thrill to all the wrong places. “The real question is, why would he care?”

      “I dunno. The way he looks at you sometimes is pretty intense,” Cailley said, her tone turning serious enough to make Sage twitchy. She shrugged it off, though. Aiden didn’t look at her as anything other than a friend. A flaky, weird friend whose father was his mentor.

      “He always looks intense. That’s just Aiden,” Sage said dismissively, focusing on the buffet instead. With all the choices, she wanted to try a little of everything here. Which would be much more satisfying than talking about a guy who even found ways to straighten the straight and narrow.

      “Just as well,” Nina replied, filling her own plate with salad, no dressing. “A sexy SEAL might be fun for a fling, but he’d definitely be a bad idea for the long term. I want a guy who’ll be around all the time. Ready and willing to fulfill my every wish.”

      Sage laughed, but Cailley gave a dissatisfied grunt.

      “You’ve always known exactly what you want,” the blonde said with a heavy sigh.

      True. While Sage had no idea what she wanted, and bounced from idea to idea, first in her one-year attempt at college, then later in her varied and sundry jobs throughout the country.

      But Nina was totally focused on exactly what she wanted. After graduation, it’d been to get into UC Davis. After college, it’d been to get a job as a viticulture researcher at the local winery. And now, at twenty-five they all knew getting married was next up on Nina’s schedule.

      “You know what you want,” Nina said in a soothing tone.

      “I don’t think move out of my mom’s apartment and find a job that pays enough to cover my student loans is exactly knowing what I want,” Cailley said, her lower lip shifting into a pout.

      Poor Cailley. Unlike Sage, who was happy to move on to the next job when one didn’t fit, Cailley was desperately trying to find that perfect match.

      “Hey, I met this guy last week who used to work as a headhunter for a big corporation,” Nina said, snapping her fingers. “He’s got lots of training in career counseling. You should talk with him.”

      Her pout forgotten, Cailley gave an excited yes.

      “How about you, Sage? Did you want to talk to him while you’re home, too?” Nina offered tentatively.

      “A career counselor? No, but thanks,” Sage refused with a laugh, taking her filled plate to a small table and settling in to enjoy the meal.

      “You really should. If you don’t, you’ll just keep bouncing around, not getting ahead.”

      “I’m fine with that. There is so much out there to see and do and explore.” The possibilities were endless. She wanted to find something that touched her soul. That made her spirit sing. All she had to do was keep looking until she found it. “Why dismiss any of the possibilities until I’ve tried them all?”

      “Is that what you say about the guys?” Nina joked.

      “Only until she finds the right guy,” Cailley tossed in. “As soon as that happens, Sage will settle down fast.”

      Settle down? As in, quit searching for her bliss? Live in one place, for the rest of her life? Do the same thing day in and day out?

      Sage shuddered. If that wasn’t incentive to avoid that particular guy, she didn’t know what was.

      One year ago

      “SERIOUSLY? A twenties-themed wedding?” Sage adjusted her headband, which kept trying to slide over her forehead, making her look like a drunken goth-style flapper. At least her bridesmaid dress was black, the beads glinting in the candlelight to match the blue tips of her razor-cut black hair. “What was Cailley thinking?”

      “Well, Eric proposed at that Johnny Depp gangster movie, so they thought it’d be a fun, romantic way to commemorate it,” AnaMaria said, looking much more suited to the flapper theme with her cute red curls and matching lipstick. “You missed all the pre-wedding fun though. They had a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style picnic, complete with vintage cars and barbecue yesterday.”

      “I feel horrible about that, too,” Sage said with a grimace. “I’d have loved to see the cars. My dad was talking about it all the way from the airport this morning.”

      She didn’t want to admit that she’d barely made it for the wedding at all. Dave, her boyfriend until last week, had hocked her original plane ticket that would have gotten here a week ago. She’d found out the night before her flight was due to leave, then had had to work overtime at the coffee bar all week, call in a few favors and borrow against her next paycheck to replace it. She’d covered the last-minute fare difference by selling Dave’s drum set.

      She’d thought she wanted a guy who needed her. That maybe being a part of helping him find his passion was her way to bliss. But there wasn’t much bliss to be found in giving a wannabe diva a free ride.

      “So what’s the deal?” AnaMaria asked quietly after a few seconds.

      “Deal?” Sage prevaricated. Sharing the fact that she’d just ended yet another unfulfillingly dead-end, soul-dimming relationship wasn’t her idea of wedding fun.

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