“I brought coffee,” she said, inhaling deeply since he was standing so close. He smelled like soap and man, a clean, sexy scent that made her want to nuzzle up to him so she could inhale it for longer.
Dang. She blinked, aware she needed to get a grip.
Mac didn’t appear to notice.
“Great.” He glanced back at the counter. She followed his gaze to the full coffeepot there. “I didn’t know. I just made some.”
“Ah, but this is special coffee,” she elaborated, feeling slightly reckless, wishing she was daring enough to push him back against the wall and kiss the tar out of him. “Not your everyday java, at least according to their sign. This is the Roasted Bean’s best.”
“I see.” His gaze darkened from silver to burnished steel. The flash of his grin took her breath away. Again she had visions of him naked, on top of her, inside of her.
“Here you go.” She busied herself removing a cup from the holder. “You still drink it black, right?”
His grin widened, clearly pleased she’d remembered such a small thing. “Thank you.” Accepting the cup she handed him, he eyed the other two.
“One for me and one for Gus.” She took a deep sip of hers, making a little sound of pleasure. “This is good.”
“Gus can’t really drink coffee.” Dragging his hands through his thick, dark hair, Mac grimaced. “With his pancreatic issues, it’s too much for him. Even if he could get it down, it’d make him sick.”
“Crud. I didn’t know.”
“Come here.” Putting his cup on the counter, he pulled her in close. She thrilled to the feel of his hard, muscular body, allowing herself to entertain a few racy fantasies.
“Mac?” Gus called, his voice thick and gravelly.
Hailey pulled away, and both she and Mac hurried into the next room. Just as they reached him, Gus began coughing, a thick, phlegmy sound. Immediately, Mac pushed a button on the hospital bed, raising it up.
“Dad? Are you all right?”
Gasping, Gus nodded violently, waving away Mac’s attempt to hand him a glass of water. “Dang sinus,” he finally growled. “I need to ask Dolores about some allergy meds.”
“Are you hungry?” Hailey made her voice light and deliberately cheerful. These days, Gus ate less and less. Sometimes he’d ask for her to make something that he thought sounded good, but would only take one tiny bite before pronouncing himself done. Dolores had privately told Hailey this was his body’s way of shutting down, and trying to force food on him would only make him sicker.
Hailey wondered if Mac knew this, too. She supposed he did, since he was in charge of his father from two o’clock on.
“I think I could eat a boiled egg,” Gus told her, glancing sideways at Mac.
“I’ll get it cooking,” she said.
She fixed him one egg, soft-boiled the way he liked it. Though she knew he wouldn’t eat it, she made one slice of toast with some peach jelly. She also added a small juice glass full of milk. If she could get Gus to take even a few sips, she considered it a victory.
After putting everything on a tray, she carried it out to him. Already he looked better than he had a few minutes ago—color had returned to his face. Mac had combed his hair for him, and helped him brush his teeth over a small tray.
Gus smiled as she set his breakfast on the hospital bed arm in front of him. “Looks good,” he said. Then, as she’d known he would, he took a single, tiny bite of the boiled egg. Eyeing the toast and jelly, he shook his head. “I used to love peach preserves.”
“Surely you can take one taste?” Hailey coaxed.
Slowly, Gus shook his head. When Hailey glanced at Mac, she surprised him watching her and his father, a look of such tenderness on his rugged face that she caught her breath. Telling herself that it had to be directed at his father, she busied herself getting everything ready for Dolores, who’d be coming later that day.
“Do you want any more of that egg?” Mac asked, gently trying to get Gus to take another bite.
“I’m full.” Gus turned his head away. “How about you call Detective Logan? I want to find out if they’ve gotten any new leads.”
Mac glanced at his watch. “I’m not sure he’ll be in yet. It’s still pretty early.”
“Try anyway.” Gus sounded almost desperate.
“Please,” Hailey seconded. She wasn’t sure why this issue was so important to Gus right this instant, but it was.
After dialing the number, Mac handed his cell to Gus. Listening, a look of expectation on his face, Gus waited. Eventually, without speaking, he handed the phone back to Mac. “Voice mail,” he told him. “I didn’t leave my name and number because I want to keep calling back until I reach him.”
“What do you want to tell him?” Hailey asked.
“To hurry the hell up,” Gus answered, his voice a rasp. “We’re running out of time.”
* * *
Watching Hailey interact so easily with his father brought another kind of tightness to his chest. Alone with her in the barn the previous night, he’d bared himself to her in a way he’d never done with any other human being.
After, he’d run a gamut of emotions, ranging from mortified to resigned. Though she certainly had acted sympathetic, he worried that secretly she’d despise him for giving in to emotions men weren’t supposed to have.
And then he’d realized something else. He was only human. He laughed, he wept. He experienced grief and sorrow and love and ecstasy. Just like every other single person on this planet.
Once he’d been able to let the shame go, he acknowledged that he and Hailey had shared a defining moment. If anything, this proved to him that they belonged together.
Now he only needed to convince her.
Leaving her alone with Gus, he headed to town to pick up some materials for a custom kitchen cabinet job he was doing for an elderly couple the next town over. He’d gone over to do an estimate and submitted a bid, never thinking he’d actually get the job. Maybe because he hadn’t done that kind of work in a while. But Mr. Smith had called him and asked when he could start. Best of all, he’d do most of the actual construction in his barn and then fit everything into their kitchen, after he’d ripped out their old stuff.
The creative challenge—they’d given him free rein design-wise—made him feel more alive than he had in months. Except for when he was with Hailey.
Who knew, maybe his life had finally started to come together. Either way, he had the feeling he was exactly where he was supposed to be.
The previously slate-gray sky had darkened, and the electricity in the air promised a coming storm. He checked his phone, still only a tornado watch, but along with the severe thunderstorm warning and the flash flood warning, he figured he’d better get his lumber and stash it in the barn as quickly as he could. He brought a tarp to cover it just in case. Wet lumber wasn’t good for anything.
On the way to the lumberyard, his cell rang. Detective Logan. He felt a moment’s disappointment that he wasn’t with his dad and then answered.
“We think we have a lead,” Logan began, without even saying hello. “Now we normally don’t release this kind of info, but I’m going to make an exception in your case. A guy named Norman Toogood. We’ve had our eye on him for a long time, but didn’t have anything concrete. And now we do. One of the local restaurants have him on security film talking to Lola Lundgren.”
“That’s not much,” Mac said.
“No, but it’s a start. A man of his age shouldn’t be chatting up a fourteen-year-old girl. There’s definitely something going on there.”
Mac’s heart skipped a beat. Seeing that he had gripped his phone way too tightly, he forced himself to relax his fingers. “What’s his story?”
“He’s part of the Travellers. Except he hung out here in town when th
ey moved on. He’s working at one of the gas stations off the interstate. The FBI has sent men to bring him in for questioning. I just wanted to let you—and your father—know.”
After thanking the detective, Mac pulled over and turned his truck around. A few drops of rain had begun to speckle his windshield. He’d go buy materials later. First he had to tell his father the good news. He knew he could call, but he wanted to deliver the information in person. He couldn’t help but wonder what Hailey’s reaction would be when she heard. Today might just be the day steps were actually taken, not only to clear Gus’s name, but to bring closure to Hailey and her family.
By the time Mac pulled up in front of his house, the rain had started coming down in earnest. Wind blew sheets of moisture sideways, reducing visibility to only a few feet. Luckily his house and the rest of the farm sat up on a hill, so if the creek flooded, he’d be safe.
But Hailey needed to get home. He thought about the route she took to get to both schools and her house. He thought she’d be safe, but maybe he ought to let her borrow his four-wheel drive truck to be safe.
Grabbing the tarp from the passenger seat, he held it over his head and dashed into the house.
Exactly as Mac had expected, Gus heard the news with a whoop of celebration. He actually fist-bumped the air, and then dissolved into a fit of coughing. Hailey, who’d listened in silence, hurriedly rushed to plump up Gus’s pillows and help him take a sip of water.
To his disappointment, she didn’t seem the slightest bit interested in what Detective Logan had said. She smiled politely and nodded, but didn’t make a single comment.
Later, when she was in the kitchen preparing Gus’s lunch, he asked her about it.
“It’s just a lead,” she told him, leaning back against the kitchen counter, her bright blue gaze clear and untroubled. “I only want to know once they have either concrete evidence or a confession.”
Though glad Gus hadn’t heard, he had to admit she had a point. “It’s raining pretty hard out there,” he said, changing the subject. “Do you want to borrow my truck? You can bring it back tomorrow.”
Considering, she frowned. “Let’s see what it’s doing when it’s time for me to leave. To be honest, I’ve always hated driving in the rain.”
“If you’d like, I can pick them up.” He shrugged, to show her it wouldn’t be a big deal. “If you stay with Gus, I can go get them and bring them back here.”
“We’ll see.” Again, he got a sense of disconnect. As if she heard his words, but they didn’t touch her. When she looked up, she caught him watching her. “Sorry,” she said, waving one hand. “I can feel the atmospheric pressure or something. Storms always make me nervous. Even more so now that we had such a close call with the tornado the other day.”
More relieved than he could say, he grabbed her and pulled her close for a quick kiss. “You know the chances of another tornado following the same path are slim to none, right?”
Smiling for the first time since that morning, she nodded. “That’s what I keep telling myself.”
She’d barely finished speaking when the lights went out.
Chapter 15
Hailey let out a little squeak and jumped into Mac’s arms. Not only did she feel safe there, but the solid masculine feel of his body sent a jolt of longing straight through her core.
Her breath caught—or maybe that was his. Either way, when he claimed her mouth this time, the deep, possessive kiss completely took her mind off the storm.
“Mac! Hailey!” Gus, his voice agitated. “Where are you? I can’t see a damn thing in here.”
Sagging against him, Hailey stifled a giggle. “Come on,” she said, taking Mac’s hand. “We’d better get in there and make sure he’s all right.”
The rain stopped by one o’clock, and the sun came out. Hailey checked her phone and all the warnings and watches had been lifted. Radar showed all the storms had moved east into Louisiana.
At two, she checked one last time on Gus, and then went to find Mac to tell him goodbye. He was on the phone—with clients, from the sound of it—so she blew him a kiss and left.
The roads were wet but clear. After picking up Tom and Eli from school—Tara had stayed after for a drama club meeting—Hailey took them home and did some light cleaning for a few hours until it would be time to start dinner. Unaccountably on edge, especially since the FBI had taken a viable suspect, she turned on the TV in case anyone in law enforcement wanted to make an announcement. She also checked her watch frequently, waiting for Tara to get home. Even if this Traveller guy turned out to be the killer, with all the strange doings in town, she wouldn’t be able to relax until Tara walked through the front door. Tara’s friend Sasha’s mother would be picking the girls up after practice.
Needing to focus on something, anything, else, Hailey got out the ingredients for the evening meal. Tonight she planned to make one of the kids’ favorites—roasted chicken drumsticks. The dish was not only economical, but easy to make. She also planned macaroni and cheese and green beans—more favorites—to complete the meal. As usual, cooking soothed her jangled nerves, and she lost herself in the assembling of the various components.
When a car pulled up in front of the house, Hailey breathed a sigh of relief, even though she hadn’t really expected her sister for another hour. She rolled her shoulders to release some of the tension and watched out the window as Tara exited the vehicle and ran up the front walk.
“Another girl has been taken.” Wide-eyed and out of breath, Tara rushed into the kitchen to give Hailey the news. “We found out at the end of drama rehearsal. Aimee Westerfield.”
“What?” Hailey stared. “But the police have someone in custody.”
Shaking her head so fast her long hair whipped around her face, Tara seemed to be struggling not to cry. “If they have someone, either he did this before they brought him in, or they have the wrong person.”
“Or she took off on her own like Emily McNair did.”
“Maybe. But I don’t think so. She and her boyfriend had a big fight, and she went for a walk by herself. At eleven o’clock at night. No one has seen her since. Her mom called the police station this morning when they went to wake her up and she wasn’t there. They called her boyfriend, and he told them what happened.”
“Oh, no.” Hailey’s stomach twisted. “That poor girl. And her family. Do you know her, too?”
“Not really. I know of her.” Tara plopped onto a bar stool, reaching for one of the apples Mac had given Hailey. She’d put them in a ceramic bowl to encourage healthy snacking. “She’s in my third period history class.”
“Her parents must be worried sick.” Trying to figure out the best way to ask, Hailey decided to just go ahead and say it. “Is Aimee blond-haired and blue-eyed, too?”
Tara frowned, clearly not having considered this angle at all. “Yeah,” she finally answered. “She is.” Raising her troubled gaze to meet her older sister’s, Tara swallowed hard. “So am I.”
With her gut knotted, it took every ounce of self-restraint Hailey had to raise her head and reassure her sister. “I’ve thought of that,” she began. “That’s why I don’t want you taking any unnecessary chances, okay? We’ve just got to keep you safe, always.” Unable to help herself, Hailey went over and gave her sister a fierce, quick hug.
Tara hugged her back.
“What was that for?” Tara asked once Hailey released her.
“Just because I love you. I don’t know what I’d do if something like that...” The thought was so awful that Hailey couldn’t even finish the sentence.
Grimacing, Tara nodded. Though she pretended otherwise, the glint in her eyes told Hailey her sister was secretly pleased.
Tara caught sight of the chicken legs that Hailey had placed in the roasting pan. “Ooh. I’m starving. When do we eat?”
“When this gets done cooking.” Spinning around, Hailey turned the oven on to get it preheated. “I’ll get started right away.”
Tara smiled, though her eyes remained troubled. “I sure hope Aimee is all right. But something inside me is telling me she isn’t.”
“How do you know about this?” Hailey asked. “Was it on the noon news?” She’d missed that one since she’d been making Gus’s lunch. And of course after that, the power had gone out.
Tara shrugged. “Probably. I only know because they made an announcement at school. They asked if anyone had any information about where Aimee might be, to speak to one of the teachers immediately.”
Heaven help her, but Hailey’s first instinct was to call Mac. And she would, as soon as she got done talking to Tara. This was definitely something he needed to know.
“There’s a vigil at the school tonight,” Tara continued. “I was thinking I might go.”
“A vigil?” Hailey frowned. “What about a search? I’d think that’d be a lot more productive. They shouldn’t have a vigil yet. Not until she’s found.”
Taking a bite of her apple, Tara shrugged. Once she’d swallowed, she spoke. “I’m not the one in charge of that, but still I think I should go. All my friends are going. It’s important that we all support one another.”
Hailey stared. Her kid sister sounded so grown up. “We’ll see,” she finally allowed. “It’s a school night, so a lot of that depends on if you finish your homework.”
Tara groaned and rolled her eyes. “I don’t have any homework. The teachers all felt bad about Aimee disappearing, so they didn’t assign any. Tom doesn’t have any either.”
“Then go up and make sure Eli is done. Dinner will be ready in about forty-five minutes. I’ll think about this vigil thing and let you know after we eat.”
Tara nodded and took off up the stairs.
After everything had been placed in the oven, and the green beans were simmering in the electric skillet, Hailey called Mac. The call went straight to voice mail, which she figured meant he was on the phone. She left a message.
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