Riverbend Road

by RaeAnne Thayne

  She smacked his arm. “You can mock me all you want but something was up. My spidey sense is tingling about this one.”

  Cade dropped the teasing tone. “Want me to run the plates and see if anything pops?” he asked.

  “That might be overkill at this point. She hasn’t done anything wrong, as far as I can tell. I only wanted to give you a heads-up so you can keep an eye on things, especially since you’re just across the street.”

  “I’ll do that.”

  His phone timer went off and she raised an inquisitive brow.

  “Just telling me the coals are ready for my dinner.”

  She looked shocked. “You’re cooking? Really?”

  “I guess you can call it cooking. Grilling, anyway. I’m throwing on a couple of steaks.”

  “Ah.” Her stomach chose that moment to rumble with enthusiasm, so loudly that Pete looked up and cocked his head to the side. Wyn—the steadiest, most unflappable person he knew—looked flustered. Her cheeks turned pink and she gave an embarrassed-sounding laugh.

  “That wasn’t a hint, I swear. I’ve got leftover Chinese at home.”

  “I’ve got an extra steak, if you want it.”

  He wasn’t sure which of them was more shocked by the invitation. She stared at him, eyes wide.

  What was the big deal? They were friends. They had been for years, long before she ever came back to work for the Haven Point Police Department after her father’s shooting and Cade became chief.

  He had known her since she wore her hair in braids on either side and those light freckles had been much more pronounced. Back in the day, he used to spend every spare moment he could at the Baileys’ house with his best bud, her brother Marshall. The warmth and peace there had been a foreign concept to him at first compared to the fighting and yelling at his own house but had quickly become addictive.

  “Somebody ought to give you dinner,” he said gruffly when she continued to look at him out of wide blue eyes. “It’s not every day one of my officers runs into a burning building to save a couple of kids.”

  “Thank heavens for that.” A dimple flashed beside the mouth he had never noticed was so lush and soft. “You don’t have that many officers and you certainly can’t suspend us all.”

  “True enough.”

  She appeared to consider the offer and he couldn’t begin to guess what was going through her head. He seriously doubted she was entertaining the same thought that seemed to ricochet through his brain—that something had changed between them the moment he saw her come bursting through the doors of that burning barn.

  “I would actually really enjoy a steak,” she finally said. “I’m all dusty from the hike, though. Give me fifteen minutes to run home and change and toss a salad.”

  “You don’t have to do that. The salad, I mean. I’ve got a head of lettuce in the refrigerator and can throw something together.”

  “I’ll bring something. Just give me a few.”

  He was inordinately happy that she had agreed. Probably just lingering relief that the situation today had turned out so well, except for poor Caleb Keegan’s broken ankle.

  “They shouldn’t take much time to cook. I’ll wait until you’re back to throw them on. The coals can heat a little longer.”

  “Sounds good.”

  She headed for the door, whistling for Pete.

  “You can leave him if you want. He can keep me company out on the deck.”

  Again, she looked a little surprised. “Okay. He could probably use some water. Young Pete, behave yourself. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  She headed out into the soft dusk, leaving him with her dog, a couple of steaks and the uncomfortable feeling that he had just made a grave mistake.

  CHAPTER SIX

  DINNER. WITH CADE EMMETT.

  What was wrong with her?

  This had been a day for weird things. The whole moose debacle that she had nearly forgotten about, the fire, her suspension, their new neighbor and finally this.

  She had tried so diligently to keep things casual and friendly between them. Since coming to work at the Haven Point PD, she felt as if she were walking on a knife’s edge, afraid she might reveal her growing feelings for him.

  Working side by side in a small, intimate department was awkward enough. She was the only female in the department and had to constantly pretend she was just one of the guys. With the rest of the officers, it wasn’t an issue. She could laugh and joke, pull pranks and buy a round of beers at the Mad Dog on their downtime.

  The problem was, deep in her heart lived the knowledge that she didn’t want to be one of the guys to Cade.

  She knew there was no other option. He was her boss. While she worked at the Haven Point Police Department, that was the only thing that mattered.

  The day had already been surreal and she feared she was too tired to keep up the pretense all evening. What if she did or said something that revealed the feelings that seemed to have always been a part of her but that had deepened and changed over the years?

  This was going to be a nightmare.

  A wiser woman would have simply thanked him for his kind invitation but declined. She was tired, it had been a long day, she should rest her lungs. She had a million ready excuses. What was she thinking, agreeing to spend more time with him, when it was taking everything she had to maintain this casual, businesslike relationship between them?

  She could still back out. If she called him and told him she wasn’t up for it tonight, he would probably even walk Young Pete back for her.

  Or she could simply look at the evening as a simple meal shared by friends who shared a history going back to the days he used to come to the house to hang out with her brothers.

  That was the safest route, she decided. She’d had plenty of practice keeping things casual between them. No reason a dinner between them wouldn’t be the same.

  She changed quickly out of her hiking shorts and dusty T-shirt into her favorite cropped jeans and a loose blouse then put on a little foundation and mascara and pulled her hair into her favorite messy bun, a much softer style than she would ever allow herself while she was on duty.

  Here was that knife’s edge again, the line she walked between looking presentable and not giving him the idea that she wanted to impress him.

  Throwing the salad together took considerably less time than figuring out what to wear. She opted for a Mediterranean salad using feta cheese and Greek olives with the lettuce. Just before she headed out the door, she remembered she had several pieces of Aunt Jenny’s fabulously creamy cheesecake in her freezer from the last time they had a family party. She took the cheesecake out and transferred a few pieces to a smaller container, then on a whim she cut up some strawberries she had on hand.

  With a minute or two to spare out of the fifteen minutes she’d told him, she walked back to Cade’s house on a cool, lovely night scented with climbing roses and honeysuckle from Herm and Louise Jacobs’s place next door to her.

  Cade had only been in his house a few years, had moved in some time after she moved back to Haven Point, but he had done a great deal in his off-hours to spruce it up.

  Before he moved in, the logs had been faded and weather-beaten, the gardens overgrown. He had planted low-maintenance perennial gardens and spent a memorable week the previous summer sealing and re-chinking the logs—memorable to her, anyway, because he tended to work with his shirt off. Kat and Samantha had spent most of that week camped out at Wyn’s place so they could watch him through the front window.

  Her sister and Samantha Fremont were always trying to set up Wynona on dates with tourists they met in town or guys from Shelter Springs. She had gone with them a few times but the experiences were usually awkward affairs. Either the guys were intimidated because she was a police officer and ha
rdly said a word all night like they were afraid she would arrest them if they spoke out of turn or they were titillated by the idea and wanted to know weird details like how she managed to frisk a guy without touching his junk.

  She found both kinds equally abhorrent. She didn’t even want to think about how long it had been since she had a serious relationship.

  Okay, she knew. Five years. She had broken up with her last steady boyfriend the day before the fateful New Year’s Eve party that had changed everything.

  She pushed the memory away as she reached Cade’s house.

  In the moonlight now, his place looked tidy and comfortable, with that big Adirondack chair on the porch and the lavender blooming in the curving garden along the sidewalk.

  It looked very different from the ramshackle shack where he had grown up. He had remade his environment just as he had remade himself.

  As she approached the house, she saw lights glimmering in the back. She took a chance and decided he was probably on his deck overlooking the river.

  She heard him before she saw him. At first she thought he might have a visitor or be talking on the phone. When she rounded the corner, she saw he was alone, with no phone in sight. Indeed, he was sitting on another Adirondack chair with his feet up on a matching footrest while he chatted companionably with her dog.

  By the sound of it, they were discussing baseball. She had to smile, charmed by the scene. He had created a comfortable oasis here beside the river, with big globe lights strung overhead, comfortable outdoor furniture and even a few big planters that overflowed with what looked like more perennials. She tried to picture Cade at the garden center outside Shelter Springs and couldn’t quite manage it.

  Young Pete sensed her first. He lifted his head and stretched his mouth in that expression that looked uncannily like a smile. A few seconds later, Cade turned, his gaze searching the darkness where she stood.

  He was so blasted gorgeous, with that dark hair, the silver-blue eyes, the delicious hint of afternoon shadow covering his jaw and chin. If she didn’t have her hands full of salad and cheesecake, she would have pressed a hand to her stomach and the sudden nerves jumping there.

  Settle down. This was Cade. Her boss. Her brother’s best friend. Her father’s trainee. Yes, he had half the women in town head over heels for him. Yes, when he smiled that rare, bright smile, she forgot her own name. So what? She could come up with a million and one reasons she couldn’t let any of that matter.

  She stepped into the light and walked up the steps of the deck. For just an instant, she thought she saw something in his gaze, something hot and hungry. She felt an answering tug in her stomach but told herself she was only hungry—and completely imagining things.

  “I figured you were back here.”

  “Where else would we be on a beautiful summer night in Haven Point?”

  “Excellent point.” She smiled and set down the containers of food on the patio table. “I brought salad and a couple pieces of my aunt Jenny’s cheesecake I had in the freezer. It should be thawed by the time we’re ready for dessert.”

  “Yum.” He rose, all lanky, masculine grace, and headed for the grill. “I was hungry so I put the steaks on about ten minutes ago.”

  “Great. I’m starving.”

  “It won’t be long now. Have a seat. I’m afraid I don’t have much to drink in the house but beer.”

  “Ice water is great for me.” Her throat had been scratchy since the fire, but she decided not to mention that for obvious reasons.

  While he went inside the kitchen, she sank into the empty chair next to the one where Cade had been sitting. She reached down and petted her dog, who yawned and settled into a more comfortable position.

  The night seemed soft and lovely, the kind of evening made for relaxing out under the stars.

  The pine and spruce around his property lent an appealing citrusy tang to the air. She inhaled it, struck again by how very close she had come that afternoon to never seeing another glorious Haven Point sunset.

  No doubt it was a reaction to the events of the day but the world seemed vibrant and new, overflowing with possibilities.

  She hadn’t taken nearly enough time to just sit and be lately. When she wasn’t working, she was either helping out at her mother’s or spending time with friends. That was one more thing she intended to change, she resolved.

  “It’s so peaceful back here,” she said when Cade brought her a glass with water with a slice of lemon in it. “I could sit here all evening, just listening to the water and the birds and the wind in the trees. If this were my back deck, I would never want to leave.”

  He laughed as he headed back to the grill. “Your house is two hundred yards away with the exact same view.”

  “Not the same at all, because of the way the river curves. You have a much better view of the mountains.”

  “That’s only because I lost three trees in the flood.”

  He gestured to the river’s edge, where she saw a trio of small saplings interspersed among the larger trees lining the bank.

  The previous summer, the Hell’s Fury rose to dangerous levels because of a dam break upstream. Everyone in Haven Point mobilized to fill sandbags and help people who lived along the river move their valuables to higher ground.

  Because of the efforts of so many, local damage had been minimal, but a few properties still had been affected. She knew others whose basements had been flooded, their landscaping completely washed away.

  “I’d forgotten you lost trees. They’re pretty close too. You were lucky they didn’t fall on the house.”

  “It was a near miss, actually. The branches at the crown of the biggest one brushed the house.”

  “Scary!”

  He shrugged. “The trees were old and not healthy anymore and probably should have been taken out years ago. They obviously had weak root systems or they wouldn’t have been impacted by the flood.”

  “It could have been much worse, for all of us. And now you have a beautiful view because of it.”

  “I guess that’s the thing about floods and fires and other natural disasters,” he said. “The damage from them can be devastating, but they can also be catalysts for change, offering entirely new perspectives.”

  It was an interesting way to look at things. “That’s true. When I was little, we went to Yellowstone seven or eight years after the huge fires that burned more than a third of the park. I remember being so sad about all the snags of burned trees you could still see but my dad explained that the fires were necessary.”

  “Right. Lodgepole pinecones can’t open and begin to reseed without being exposed to high heat.”

  “It’s fascinating, isn’t it? Certain plants and animals started to thrive only because of the fire and entirely new areas of the park were open to view for the first time in recent history.”

  Maybe the fire in Darwin Twitchell’s barn had been her catalyst for change.

  The thought seemed to resonate somewhere deep inside. It was true that she was seeing the world through different eyes than she had this morning. Maybe it was time to look at her life from a new perspective.

  She needed a change.

  The thought that had been swirling around her mind for some time seemed to come into clearer focus, just like a new mountain vista suddenly opening up because of a hundred-year flood or a devastating fire.

  She was still thinking about it when Cade lifted the grill lid, releasing smoke and sizzle and a mouthwatering aroma.

  “Looks like we’re ready.”

  “Great.” She closed the door on her jumbled thoughts and focused on food. “Much longer and I might have to start chomping on your shrubs like the moose I chased out of Aunt Jenny’s driveway earlier today.”

  His smile flashed white in the dim light as he plated the steaks
and carried them to the table.

  She joined him, feeling suddenly self-conscious. Friends, she reminded herself. Friends and coworkers. That’s all they were.

  “So what cases are you working on that might need immediate attention while you’re out?” he asked as she dished up salad and fruit into bowls.

  She couldn’t think of anything better to remind her of their work relationship than to bring up her suspension. Was that why he did it?

  “Nothing pressing. I’m still looking for a break in the graffiti case and the copper-wire theft over at the conduit company. I’ve got a few leads I’ve been tugging. I can fill you in.”

  They talked about work for a few more minutes while she ate her salad. She cut into the steak and took a bite and had to pause just to savor the explosion of taste.

  “Wow. That’s fabulous.”

  “I’ve got a good marinade recipe. It makes all the difference.”

  “I need it! Who knew your mad grill talents have been wasted all these years frying up brats and burgers at the department barbecue!”

  His smile was quick and genuine. “A guy needs a few skills to impress the ladies.”

  From the rumors she heard around town, Cade Emmett had plenty of impressive skills. She wouldn’t exactly call him a player but he had a reputation for never dating the same woman more than a month—and always leaving her wanting more.

  Suddenly feeling warm, she reached for her water glass and swallowed. Just her luck, the mouthful of water slid down the wrong way and she had to cough several times to clear it. By the time she finished, he was frowning.

  “Throat still sore?”

  It was, but she didn’t want to tell him that. “No. I just drank too quickly. I’m fine.”

  He didn’t look convinced. “What did Charlene have to say about you running into a burning building?”

  “She wasn’t very happy about it,” she admitted.

  “I can imagine. Poor woman. She’s lost enough. She doesn’t need to lose you too.”

  She felt the familiar ache for Wyatt and her father. She missed them both so much.