Page 39 of Jack
“That’s the one. He was a track coach too.” He headed toward the Geo. “Taught me how to run.”
“Now we know who to blame.”
He glanced at Harper, frowned.
She grinned at him, then got into the Geo.
Oh, this would be a long day.
FIVE
She refusedto admit that maybe, just a little, she might be having fun as they drove through the city of Duck Lake, partners on the hunt.
Jack emanated a devastating hotness when he turned all focused and driven, and of course she knew that, but seeing it again, up close . . .
“What are you thinking?” His question drew her out of her thoughts. She made a tiny noise of surprise and then scrambled for an answer because, well, she couldn’t tell him what she’dreallybeen thinking. Or remembering.
Totally inappropriate to be stuck in the sweet memory of watching him water-ski on Duck Lake, the wind in her hair, tangled around her face as the man did jumps and flips and turns and all manner of daredevil tricks behind his father’s Yamaha ski boat.
Tanned, muscled from working landscape for the inn all summer, that dark hair short, wet, and tousled, laughing and thumbs-upping Stein and Conrad, who sat on the back deck of the boat.
“Nothing,” she finally said, her voice a little tweaked.
Focus!Because hello, Penny wasmissingand . . . and . . .
He glanced at her. “Still think she’s been kidnapped?”
She raised a shoulder. “Do you?”
“We’ll see. Ethan might have answers.”
“He said he didn’t know anything.”
“He lied.”
She frowned.
“Everybody lies. It’s just a question of how much.”
“I don’t remember you being this cynical.”
He turned off Main, headed toward Willow Street. “Realistic. Honest. And blame years of missing-person cases where the missing person turns out to have simply absconded with the contents of a bank account. Or worse, committed a crime and struck out on the lam, trying to fake their own death.”
“You get those?”
“A lot of people want to be dead and start over as a new person.”
“Sometimes it could be nice.”
He sighed. “Yep.”
Silence, and she glanced at him. “Is that what you did after you ran from law school? Start over?”
He sighed. “I didn’t . . . Listen, I graduated. Finished law school. But I couldn’t seem to . . .” He tried again. “Sticking around was too hard after Sabrina’s death.”
The name landed like a thud between them. “Sabrina?”
He turned onto Willow. “My study partner. If you say you didn’t read the book, I won’t believe you.”