by Liz Johnson
Matt offered them a wide smile, somehow making himself shorter, less intimidating. Apparently he didn’t take their welcome for granted, so he’d keep earning their trust. His broad shoulders couldn’t be helped, but he wasn’t so meaty as to look like a thug. In fact, he looked almost the opposite of the guy he’d chased away the night before.
The skin at the corners of his blue eyes wrinkled with his grin. How on earth did he look so refreshed? She’d lain awake for hours last night, listening for any sound out of the ordinary. And all she had to show for it were puffy eyes and a thundering headache.
“Very nice to meet you, Meghan.” Matt stepped into the room just far enough to offer a handshake to the middle-aged woman. “Your daughters and I played a board game last night, and I’m sorry to report that I lost miserably. You have smart kids.”
Meghan beamed at him but didn’t say anything.
Matt relaxed back into his spot in the doorway, putting his hands in his jean pockets, his elbows loosely bent at his sides. The dark brown of his long-sleeve T-shirt made his hair look even lighter than usual; several curls fell over his forehead. He tossed his head, sending his curls back into place as he watched the kids, who had returned to their coloring.
She hadn’t looked at any man more than just in passing since Paul, so why did Matt make her heart stutter?
When he caught her eye, he quirked the corner of his mouth and winked. She jumped, nearly sending the omelet onto the floor.
“What’s wrong, Miss Ashley?” Julio ran up to her, his little eyes squinting, two lines appearing between his brows. “You’re all red in the face.”
Of course she was red in the face. She’d just been caught staring at a man she had no business looking at. Avoiding Matt’s gaze at all cost, she offered a distraction. “Matt brought us muffins for breakfast. Who wants one?”
“Me!” Julio grabbed for the bag.
“Uh-uh, mister.” She shook her head. “The table needs to be cleared and set first. And would someone please call Carmen and the others?”
When all was ready and everyone had assembled, they squeezed around the long wooden table. Ashley told herself that she sat next to Matt so that he wouldn’t end up next to someone he might make uncomfortable, but that wasn’t the entire truth.
His elbow bumped hers as he shoveled eggs into his mouth, and he whispered an apology, followed by surprising words of praise. “You’re doing a good thing here.”
The affirmation sent an unexpected burst of warmth straight through her chest, curling around her heart and leaving her a little bit breathless. She was doing something important.
But then why was someone threatening her?
With the breakfast dishes done and the kids doing crafts at the table, she followed Matt into the rooms in need of window-lock repairs.
As he unscrewed a broken bolt, he handed her the warped hardware. “So do you want to talk about the girl you mentioned yesterday? Joy, right? Still think the threats are about her?”
Ashley glanced over her shoulder, peeking down the hall to make sure no one was close enough to hear them. She still whispered for good measure. “I can’t be sure, since the notes never mention her by name. But I just don’t see how it could be anyone else.”
“Tell me more about the woman who brought her here.” His attention moved from the screwdriver in his hand to land heavily on her face.
“Miranda. She lives on the other side of town and works in human resources at the tire plant.”
“The same one that’s been having layoffs?”
“Yes. Some of the women who work there have come to her when their husbands lose control. She always directs the women to me, and, if they want it, I do whatever I can to get them the help they need.” A ball thumped against the opposite side of the wall that she leaned against, and she gave it three sharp raps.
“Sorry, Miss Ashley.”
“Take it to the back patio, Julio. But put on a coat before you go outside.”
After several seconds, the screen door slammed, and she continued, “Last week Miranda brought this girl—Joy—to the back door, which was strange.”
“How so?”
“Miranda will tell anyone who wants to know about this place, but she’s never brought women by in person. She always said it would put her in a sticky situation between the employees she was supposed to serve and their spouses. Some of the women work at the plant alongside their husbands. Miranda didn’t want to get mixed up in domestic disputes that would spill into the workplace, but she couldn’t just sit back and watch when one of the guys took his temper out on his wife. My guess is that Jimmy is pretty—”
“Jimmy?”
“Swift. You met him at the police station yesterday.”
Matt nodded slowly, not like it took him more than an instant to remember the guy. More like he was trying to wipe away an unpleasant memory.
“Anyway, I think Jimmy pretty much sides with the guys in a dispute. As far as I’m aware, he’s never spoken to Miranda about her work with us. But I got the feeling from Miranda that he knows about it and doesn’t exactly approve, even though he’s never tried to stop it.”
“So if Miranda brought her in personally, then that means that Joy wasn’t a wife or girlfriend or daughter to one of Swift’s workers?”
Ashley chewed on her lower lip, rubbing a hand down the leg of her jeans. How much of her memories of that night were accurate? How much was conjecture? It had been so late when Miranda knocked on the door.
But it was their only lead and the only place for them to start.
“I don’t think so. Miranda introduced the girl as Joy. And, like I said, she wouldn’t say much more than her name.”
“So you just took Miranda’s word for it that...what? Joy was in trouble?”
“I didn’t have to take anyone’s word for it—her injuries spoke for themselves. She had bruises on each arm from her wrists to her elbows...and those were just the injuries I could see when she was fully dressed.”
Joy really hadn’t communicated beyond a few short statements. But the hope in her eyes when Ashley had asked if she needed a safe place to stay had spoken volumes.
Ashley had stayed calm and collected at the time, but thinking back now on that first encounter with Joy, she felt a shiver run along her spine. In all likelihood, the man who had caused those bruises was the man threatening her now. If he’d been that rough with Joy before she’d gotten away from him, Ashley shuddered to think what he might do to the girl if she was ever in his power again. No matter what, Ashley had to make sure that didn’t happen.
She jumped, pulled from her thoughts as Matt strolled past her, into the hallway and toward Lil’s room—the next room with a broken lock. Next to the laundry room, this was the smallest in the home. The single bed covered with a blue quilt looked even smaller than usual as Matt filled the space.
“As I was saying,” Ashley continued, “Miranda said she didn’t know much about Joy’s situation except that she needed a place to go. Somewhere out of town. I have contacts at shelters in counties around the state, so I was able to get Joy set up at one of them.”
“What did Joy say?”
“Aside from her name and age? Not much. Well, she nodded when I said I could set her up at a place out of town. Normally, if someone feels they need to leave town, I prefer to send them to stay with someone they already know. But she wouldn’t give me the name of her parents or a relative, so I had nowhere else to send her.” Ashley wrung her hands, reliving that night in her mind, second-guessing every decision she’d made to protect the girl. “Miranda seemed certain that she wasn’t safe here in town. That whoever was abusing her would find her if she didn’t get out of the county. I wasn’t going to leave her unprotected. She’s in a safe place now.”
Matt finished installing the lock
and turned to face her. She took a deep breath as his frown deepened and the grooves at the corners of his mouth grew. His eyes bore all the way through her as he crossed his arms over his chest. In response, her back straightened and she tilted her chin up. Maybe her choices with Joy hadn’t been by the book—since she suspected the girl was underage, protocol said she should have contacted the police—but she stood by her decision.
He could fight her all day if he wanted. She wasn’t going to back down, no matter what questions he asked. She’d done what she had to in order to protect the girl.
If he didn’t like her answers? Well, he didn’t have to stick around.
She could protect the women and children living at Lil’s on her own.
An image of the shadowy figure lurking on her lawn the night before sent her stomach to the floor. What if she had another visitor and Matt wasn’t there to scare him off?
It didn’t do anyone any good to go over worst-case scenarios. She could do this. Paul had taught her that, after all. She was stronger than he’d ever given her credit for. She was stronger than Matt seemed to think, too.
“So Joy arrived right before you were almost run over and got that first note?”
Fists clenched at her sides, she started to defend herself. “I did the right...” His words sank in. “You’re not upset that I didn’t get more information about her before finding another place for her?”
He crossed the room in three steps, his stride swallowing the distance and invading her space in an instant. The intensity of his gaze left her struggling for air. He rested a hand on her shoulder and leaned in even closer.
Her breath released in a rush as she stumbled over the leg of Lil’s bedside table, but his grip on her arm caught her before she fell.
The force of his gaze didn’t lift, but at the last minute the corners of his eyes crinkled with a hint of a smile that never found its way to his mouth. “I’m so proud of you. Tristan talks about you all the time. He says you’re amazing and that you’re doing incredible things for the women here. He wasn’t kidding.”
Despite the blaze in her cheeks, she rolled her eyes as she searched for somewhere—anywhere—else to look. The spot where he still held her arm tingled like the buzz after a particularly sweet cupcake, and she slipped it out of his grasp, wrapping it around her stomach.
Whether the tingle originated from his touch or his kind words, she had no business feeling this way for any guy, let alone Matt Waterstone. Paul had made her tingle, too, at first, and she wasn’t about to go there again. That beast was laid to rest, and she was just fine on her own. She didn’t need any distractions from the women who needed her at Lil’s.
He dropped his hand to his side and stepped back, and she stole a full breath.
“Well, that’s the last of the broken locks. I’ll have to go to a different store to find a new chain for the front door. So we’re done for now.” He tossed an old lock in the air and caught it without even looking at it. “What’s next?”
She chewed on her bottom lip and shook her head. He had a plan. It was spelled out across his face in perfect penmanship. So why wasn’t he in a rush to put it into action?
“I suppose we better find out who might be after Joy.”
The floorboards creaked as he shifted his weight to the other leg, flinched and shifted right back. “Where do you want to start?”
“I’ll call the director at the home where Joy is staying right now to see if she’s said anything about who hurt her. Our only other option is finding out if Miranda can tell us anything else.”
“You think she wasn’t completely honest with you when she dropped off Joy?”
“There’s only one way to know for sure.”
FIVE
“Do you think Miranda will be able to help us?”
Ashley twisted the edge of her shirt in her hands as Matt guided his truck toward Miranda’s house. Several dark clouds drifted in front of the morning sun, making the few road signs this far out of town difficult to read. The overcast skies threatened rain but never quite followed through.
If only she knew for sure if Miranda had been entirely honest about what she knew when it came to Joy. This whole situation had been strange from the beginning, but that didn’t mean that Miranda was mixed up in something. There were so many other factors to consider. Ashley wanted answers, but she didn’t want to bring trouble to Miranda’s doorstep if she wasn’t involved.
“I just don’t know.” She rubbed her temple with two fingers; tension was already making her head throb. “I mean, yes, she’s been strange lately. But that could be from any number of factors.”
“Like what?” He didn’t take his eyes off the road, but somehow she could still feel the touch of his gaze.
She shook her head. Miranda’s struggles weren’t exactly hers to share, but how could Matt help her find the creep making her life miserable if she didn’t trust him with what she knew? She’d spent her entire adult life helping people make it through the worst kind of secrets. But they had to share those secrets before she could help. Maybe that was the case now, too.
The large, two-story farmhouse that loomed ahead let her off the hook.
“That’s Miranda’s place. Turn down the drive there.” She pointed at the mailbox, which barely hung on to the wooden stand with rusted bolts, and Matt followed her motion. His truck lurched over the driveway in dire need of repair, and she bounced so hard that her hair brushed the once felt-covered ceiling.
“Sorry about that.” As he slowed the truck to a crawl, he reached out to smooth down her hair. His hand brushed from the top of her head to her ear, a subtle grin accompanying his movement. She couldn’t be sure if the pitch of her stomach was caused by his grin, the pressure of his touch or the pothole that sent her sailing into the passenger door.
He snatched his hand back to the steering wheel and cleared his throat. “Old truck, old shocks.”
His words did little to fill the silence. When they finally pulled up to the end of the drive, she grabbed the door handle with a damp grip, ready to be free. It didn’t open, so she yanked on it again. Still nothing.
In response to her sidelong glance, he offered, “It sticks sometimes.” After telling her that he’d help her with it, he jumped from his seat and disappeared around the back of the truck. In less than a second, the door creaked open and Matt was holding out his hand to help her down.
Ignoring his hand, she lowered herself to the ground, her feet crunching the gravel as he swung the door closed. Mere inches between them, his breath stirred the hair that he had smoothed just moments before, and she sucked in a breath, holding it as she looked up into his face. He leaned in even closer, his head tilted toward her but never quite touching her. Pesky butterflies took a second spin around her insides, and she pressed both hands to her stomach.
Was he going to kiss her? Did she want him to?
“Ashley? What are you doing here?”
At Miranda’s question Matt shot back about three feet, and Ashley slid toward the front of the truck to greet her friend.
“I’m so glad that you’re home.” She blinked several times, trying to focus on the questions she was there to ask.
Miranda’s smile didn’t reach her eyes as she tugged off mud-caked gloves and brushed grass blades from the knees of her jeans without ever taking her eyes off Matt. “I was just working in the garden.” She nodded toward the shoulder-high cornstalks to her left. “You’re a long way from Lil’s.”
“Yes, well...” Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. She hadn’t thought of a good excuse for coming for a visit. In more than two years of friendship, she could count on one hand the number of times she’d been to Miranda’s house. Those had been social functions. Her daughter’s graduation party. A retirement party for a mutual friend.
Now she
had no valid reason for showing up unannounced.
With a SEAL, no less.
No valid reason except the truth. But if she jumped in before testing the waters, she could scare off Miranda, who happened to be their only lead.
She glanced at Matt out of the corner of her eye, the remnants of her butterflies another uninvited guest at this shindig. He lifted one eyebrow, as if asking if she wanted him to step in. She could offer only a quick shake of her head before turning back to Miranda.
“Well, actually... You see...”
Matt stepped forward then, his hand extended and a bright smile on his face. “Ma’am.” He nodded at the middle-aged woman, who immediately began running her fingers through her shoulder-length brown tresses. “I’m Matt Waterstone. Just came up from San Diego to visit Ashley this week.”
“Good to meet you.” She snatched her hand back as soon as she shook his, clutching her sodden gloves to her stomach as her eyes shifted back and forth between the two of them. “What’s going on?”
“We came to speak with you about a girl named Joy.”
Miranda’s mouth dropped open, then pinched closed. She took two quick steps and crossed her arms over her chest as her eyebrows drew tightly together to form a single line across her forehead.
Just perfect. He’d scared her. What if Miranda completely shut down now?
She had to smooth the ripples out. Fast.
But before she could speak, he continued, despite Miranda’s obvious reaction. “I understand that you’ve been a good friend to many women in this town.”
Miranda glanced toward her garden before looking back at him. “I’ve tried to be, but what does that have to do with Joy?”
“We think Joy may be in some trouble.”
Miranda’s features pinched even tighter. “I don’t understand what that has to do with me. Like I told Ashley when I dropped Joy off, I don’t know anything about her really. She just needed a safe place to stay for a while and someone to help her get on her feet.”