Pine Lake

“Wait here.” He eased through the quiet house, giving each room a thorough search before returning to the foyer. “All clear.”

“Thanks for checking.” Olive stepped inside and followed his gaze to the bolt at the top of the door. “A precaution. Not that it did any good tonight.”

“You unlocked the deadbolt in your sleep?”

“Apparently.”

“You should get a security system, one with a loud enough alarm to wake you if a door or window is opened.”

“Yes, my mother had one put in when the episodes first started. As I said, I thought I’d outgrown them, but after tonight, I won’t take any chances. I’ll arrange for an installation as soon as possible.”

Jack took a last sweep of the small, but comfortable living area. The walls were white and the furniture gray, not unlike the nondescript color scheme in his apartment. But Olive had punctuated the space with pillows and throw rugs in bright shades of red and turquoise. He observed everything, not because her design aesthetic interested him, but because a house could reveal a lot about the person who lived there.

Olive Belmont seemed to be an open book. If her cousin was involved in something as shady as Tommy had implied, Jack doubted she knew anything about it. But then, he had been fooled before.

He stepped out on the porch and scoured the darkness. The breeze had picked up, fluttering through the trees in Olive’s front yard and unleashing the scent of jasmine from the bushes that grew up her fence. It was all very lush and homey and familiar and yet Jack felt strangely unmoored as if coming back here to his hometown had caused him to lose his bearings.

He turned back to Olive. “Are you sure you’ll be all right for the rest of the night?”

“I’ll be fine. If I sleep at all, it won’t be deeply enough to leave my bed.”

An image of that bed floated through Jack’s head—crisp white linens and soft, soft pillows.

“Well, good night, then.” He bent impulsively to kiss her cheek. The action took both of them by surprise and she jerked her head just enough so that his mouth brushed hers.

He didn’t pull away or offer an apology. Instead, he tangled his fingers in her hair and brought his mouth to hers, this time on purpose. She responded by parting her lips and kissing him back. When he pulled away, she looked disoriented, as if she had just awakened from another harrowing adventure.

“What a strange night this has been,” she murmured.

“Hasn’t it, though?” he said over his shoulder as he strode down the steps.

Chapter Four (#ue6b58201-9381-5980-ba81-7339b74a0793)

Olive was just coming out of the local coffee shop the next morning when she spotted Jack on his way in. He held the door for her and she stepped out on the sidewalk to join him, taking a moment to discreetly admire the fit of his faded jeans and the cotton shirt that he wore untucked and rolled up at the sleeves.

His hair was even darker than she remembered, his eyes a deep, rich chocolate. Despite what she’d said the night before, he had most definitely changed since their high school years. The harsh light of day emphasized the fine lines around his eyes, the resolved set of his jaw and a chiseled chin. The changes didn’t so much age him as harden him. He was a man in his prime rather than the seventeen-year-old boy who had been driven out of town by both his elders and his peers.

“Good morning,” she said in a tone far too bright for the circumstances. “Looks like we had the same idea.”

“It would seem so.” He stood with one hand still on the door as he gave her a long assessment.

His scrutiny was only fair, she supposed, since she’d done the same to him. Still, she was secretly relieved that she’d taken time with her appearance even though the sleeveless white dress and caged heels were for work and not for Jack King. Normally, she wouldn’t have been so formally turned out during summer break, but she had a faculty meeting later that morning, the first of the new school year, and she wanted to make a good impression. That Jack seemed to appreciate her fine-tuning was merely icing on the cake.

“Are you headed over to the sheriff’s office?” he asked.

“I’ve already been in.” They moved away from the door to the edge of the street so as not to block customer traffic. “We spoke briefly. I really couldn’t add much to my previous statement and Tommy revealed very little about the investigation. Although I gather word has already gotten out about Jamie’s death. That’s not surprising. Secrets are hard to keep in a town this small.”

“That hasn’t been my experience.” His tone was enigmatic. “You repeated what you’d already told him last night?”

“I stuck to our story if that’s what you mean.” She shot a quick glance over her shoulder and then leaned in. “Lying to the police before breakfast, let alone my first cup of coffee, is a lot more stressful than I would have imagined. I don’t know how career criminals do it.”

“If it makes you feel any better, you ad-libbed like a champ last night.”

She winced. “That doesn’t make me feel better. Worse, in fact. I work with kids. I take my responsibility as a role model very seriously. What does it say about my character that I could so easily withhold the truth in a murder investigation?”

“You have every right to protect yourself. Nothing you could have told him would change the course of his investigation. You didn’t see or hear anything. Why put yourself needlessly at risk?”

“I guess.”

He glanced back at the shop door. “I should grab my coffee and go. Tommy will be expecting me.”

“And I need to get to work. Good luck with your interview.” She paused. “Should we get together later to compare notes? I have a meeting at ten, but I’ll be in my office all afternoon.”

“I’ll try to give you a call.”

A noncommittal answer if Olive had ever heard one, but she decided not to take it personally. She’d enjoyed their good-night kiss—had been quite stunned by it, in fact—but she didn’t attach too much importance to the gesture. Jack had acted on impulse and she’d responded in kind. Blame it on the lingering adrenaline from her rescue. Olive freely acknowledged an attraction to him, but really, wasn’t his allure little more than an old memory?

Besides, it was probably for the best to keep some distance. After last night, there would undoubtedly be talk. Olive wasn’t one to live her life in fear of gossip, but like it or not, reputation mattered in a small town, especially for someone in her position. The next few weeks were crucial. They could well set the tone for the whole school year, if not the rest of her career. She would be foolish to invite distraction and controversy when everything she’d worked so hard for was at stake.

She murmured a goodbye and then turned to cross the street only to have Jack grab her arm and yank her back to the curb as a black pickup truck roared through the intersection. Her heel caught in a crack and she went down in an ungainly sprawl. The coffee cup flew out of her hand, exploding on impact with the pavement. Mortified, Olive could only stare helplessly at the spreading brown splotches on her white dress.

Jack was instantly at her side. “You okay?”

“I think so.” She took his hand and quickly scrambled to her feet. A small group had already started to gather and Olive would have liked nothing more than to sink right through the sidewalk.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, fine.” She dusted her hands and tried to salvage her poise. If anything could be more embarrassing than taking a spill in public, it was doing so in the presence of a high school crush. “That’s the second time you’ve had to come to my rescue in as many days. And the second time in less than a week that I almost got hit stepping off a curb. I really should pay more attention.”