Chapter 18
When Cal got back home from dropping off Jules, he spent some time puttering around in the kitchen, cleaning up dishes and savoring the happy memories made that day. When he heard the front door close, he carried a towel with him, drying his hands as he met his father in the foyer.
“You missed a good party,” he told his dad, scowling his disappointment.
“Yeah. I hate that. But my patients needed me.” His father brushed past him, headed to the kitchen. “I’m starving. Any food left from the party?”
Cal rolled his eyes. “There is. Mom made sure we fixed a plate for you and set it aside.”
Jonathon raised a startled glance. “She did?”
“Of course she did. She spent decades of her life taking care of you when you worked all hours at the hospital. Old habits die hard.” Callum opened the refrigerator and took out the aluminum-wrap-covered plate.
“Here. Everything on this plate is microwavable. The cold stuff is on the bottom shelf.” He pointed to another dish with foil wrap on top as he handed off the plate to his father.
“She still cares about you, despite the divorce.”
His father shot him a withering glance. “Dear boy, I think you spent too long in the sun today. You’re not making sense.”
Cal moved aside so his father could get to the microwave. “I’m making perfect sense. What doesn’t make sense is you disappearing from a family event for hours. You already missed most of your kids’ childhoods. When are you going to prioritize your family over the hospital?”
“I swore an oath to give my patients the best care I could, Callum. I know you, of all people, understand the importance of upholding oaths. You’re doing the same thing as sheriff.”
“But I know when to delegate so I don’t exhaust myself. You have nurses and interns at the hospital who are equipped to deal with most everything that could arise—”
His father snorted and shook his head. “You sound like Emily. Your mother used to nag me, too.”
“And when you ignored her pleas, she left you. What does that tell you?” Cal asked, feeling his temper rise.
“I’m not in the mood for lectures, Callum. I’ve had a long day.” With that, his father turned his back to get a beer out of the refrigerator.
Cal sighed. Why did he think his father would change? And why was he still living with his dad, taking care of him and trying to keep Jonathon from working himself into an early grave?
To his dog, who was lying on a dog blanket at the foot of the stairs, he said, “Come on, Pilot. Let’s go to bed.”
With a scrabble of claws on hardwood, Pilot rose and trotted up the steps toward Cal’s bedroom.
Hearing his father’s low voice, Cal paused on the stairs to listen.
“Did I wake you?” Jonathon said to someone. “I’m sorry. I’ll let you get back to sleep. I just…well, I wanted to thank you for saving me a plate of food today. You’ve always been good about that, and… I wanted you to know…” His dad cleared his throat. “I appreciate it. Have always appreciated it.”
There was a silence, and Cal gripped the stair railing harder. He hadn’t known his father still called his mom. Maybe the lingering feelings went both ways.
“Yeah,” Jonathon said, “You, too. Good night, Em.”
Cal gave his head a shake as he continued up the steps, not knowing what to make of the call he’d overheard. Maybe his father wasn’t a lost cause after all.
Jules didn’t see Cal again until Monday, when he strolled into the gift shop, looking as cool and tempting as ice cream on a July afternoon.
She hadn’t talked with him since he’d dropped her off on Saturday.
She’d decided not to text him about the man who’d been in her motel room.
While she had moments when she regretted not reporting the break-in to the police, the night manager had lived up to his end of the deal.
She had a secure door lock now and free rent until the end of the month.
Perhaps by then she’d have the evidence against Hamilton that would get him off the streets, and she and Abby could get out of this desolate town.
As far as the incident Friday with Chase at the hospital, she’d checked on Abby on Sunday and reiterated to the staff the importance of calling the police if Chase showed up again.
She’d then spent most of the day with her sister, determined to make up for her prolonged absence.
Abby seemed well, unaware of Chase’s attempt to gain access to her.
Jules told her sister about the Colton family celebration, and Abby’s eyes had become animated.
“Were there more sparks at that picnic than the fireworks, Juju?” Abby asked, her tone lilting.
Jules had blown a raspberry and waved off the notion, then added, “But Cal is hot. I’ll give him that.”
Now, she watched Cal scan the quiet gift shop as he strode up to the sales counter, and she squashed the sizzle that fired in her veins.
“Is it always this slow on Monday?” he asked.
“People tend to come in waves. Busy early, as tourists start out on the highway, and often a second rush in the evening, if they drove the route in reverse, or they want to end the day with a treat or a souvenir.”
“Ever think of closing the shop during the midday doldrums?” he asked, a suspicious lift at one corner of his mouth.
She narrowed her eyes. “Why would I do that?”
He checked behind him again as if reassuring himself they were alone. “So you could join me in the break room for a little…treat?”
The seductive way he said treat and the wicked grin that lit his face sent tingles of anticipation through her. Gripping the edge of the counter to steady herself, she lifted her chin. “If that’s your idea of a sexual proposition—”
“Only if you want it to be. Otherwise, I meant I have a picnic lunch waiting in my Jeep including leftover desserts from Saturday.”
Jules thought about the paltry cold cut sandwich she’d brought for herself, and her stomach rumbled.
Cal laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes to lunch and cupcakes.”
Seeing no good reason not to join him for lunch, she turned over the Open sign and stuck a handwritten note on the door that read, Back at 1:00 p.m.
From his Wrangler, Cal retrieved a cardboard box laden with fruit, cheeses, fried chicken and potato salad.
And three kinds of dessert—chocolate cake, peanut butter cookies and Kelly’s divine strawberry cupcakes.
Jules stuffed herself. On Sunday, between visiting Abby and stressing over the intruder in her room, she couldn’t find the appetite to eat. Today, she was ravenous.
“When can you stake out Hamilton’s activities again?” she asked between bites of cupcake. “I can’t stop thinking about the multitude of ways he could be getting up to no good yesterday while we weren’t watching him.”
“Who said I wasn’t watching him?”
Jules stopped with her dessert halfway to her mouth. “You followed him without me?” She slapped the flat of her free hand on the table and grunted. “Dang it, Cal! I thought we were doing this together. I don’t like being excluded!”
He bit a fresh strawberry and let the juice trickle down his chin before slowly wiping the sticky sweetness with his finger and licking it off.
Jules couldn’t say if the heat that pulsed through her watching Cal was lust or anger or some confusing combination of the two. He could be the most infuriating prankster and at the same time tease her desires without even trying. Just being… Cal.
Once he’d swallowed, he put the strawberry stem on his plate and held her gaze.
“I’ve made sure the patrols around Zoey Rogers’ house, Hamilton’s rental and the Red Grove Food Distributors Warehouse were maintained through the weekend.
Our friend doesn’t appear to have done more than shopped at the Cash Wise Saturday and picked up supper at the Dairy Queen drive-through Sunday night. ”
Jules leaned back in her chair, only mildly comforted by this news. “So was someone following him all weekend? Even Saturday night?”
Cal dusted off his fingers after selecting a cupcake from the Tupperware he’d transported them in and tilted his head. “Why Saturday night in particular?”
She stared down at her plate and twisted her mouth as she debated what to tell him.
“Jules? What happened Saturday night?” he asked, his tone brooking no resistance.
She sighed and met his gaze. “When I got back to my motel room after you dropped me here at the shop—” She paused as her lunch rolled in her belly and a shudder chased through her, remembering the man’s rough hand, the flash of metal.
“Tell me, Jules,” he said, his tone gentler now.
“A man had broken into my room. Not hard to accomplish because the lock was flimsy as hell, but…”
Cal’s blue eyes flashed with alarm. “And?”
“He grabbed me. Had a knife, but…the night manager was with me, and I guess he spooked the guy away. He ran when he realized I wasn’t alone.”
Cal bit out a hard curse, his hands fisting and his face growing rigid. “Why didn’t you call me when it happened? Hell, why didn’t you call me at all?”
“What could you have done? The guy was gone. You weren’t going to isolate his fingerprints in a motel room where there are already traces of dozens of travelers and housekeeping staff.”
“Maybe because I care about you, and if you’re attacked, I want to know—sheriff or not.”
He cared about her? She didn’t know what to do with that admission, so she shoved it aside. “There’s more.”
He folded his arms over his chest and gave her a stern look. “Go on.”
“Friday afternoon, after we gave up on Chase—”
He groaned. “What did you do?”
“Uh! Not me. Chase. He went to the mental health facility where Abby is and tried to get in to see her! The facility staff called me, because he claimed to be our brother, and I’d said no visitors but me.”
He unfolded his arms and leaned forward, his expression creased in concern. “Is she okay?”
Jules nodded. “I saw her yesterday. She doesn’t know Chase was there. But…we have to do something about him. Soon! He’s a wild card, and I don’t like how long this business of watching and waiting is taking!”
Cal sighed. “Okay. I’d planned to visit my mother this evening, but you’re right. Dealing with Hamilton is important to you, so it’s important to me. We’ll see what he’s up to after his route today. Deal?”
Something warm spilled into her chest. His concern for her well-being, his prioritizing what mattered to her, his thoughtfulness toward her.
When had she ever had this much consideration from anyone?
She hadn’t. Cal was…an outlier. And he was chipping away at the protective defenses she’d erected around her heart. She gave him her best smile. “Deal.”
Three days later, Jules sat next to Cal in the front seat of her car, once again watching Hamilton leave work at the distributor warehouse.
They’d followed him every day this week, switching whose vehicle they used, but he’d done little besides drive back to his apartment and stop once at McDonald’s.
She was getting impatient, knowing Chase had to be doing illegal things worthy of an arrest that would take him off the street.
Late at night? Along his delivery route?
Because of her own work schedule and Cal’s responsibilities with the sheriff’s department, they obviously couldn’t follow Chase 24/7, so they hadn’t yet caught him red-handed doing anything worthy of arrest. Other than the day he followed Zoey Rogers home—which he’d stopped doing, likely because of the increased police presence around the teenager—Chase had been…
boring. Humdrum, normal activity during the hours Jules and Cal were watching him.
She knew in her gut he was up to no good. They simply hadn’t uncovered it. Yet.
But she would. She would stay on the creepy man’s trail until he paid for the emotional distress and life interruption he’d caused Abby.
As usual, when Chase appeared and climbed into his rusted white pickup, they waited an appropriate time, then followed him.
Today, instead of going home or to a restaurant or a high school, Hamilton drove to a low-rent part of town, where some windows were shuttered, others broken.
Sidewalks sprouted weeds, and pedestrians were few and far between.
“Hang back more,” Cal warned. “As unpopulated as this area is, our presence will stand out all the more.”
She nodded her understanding, and when Hamilton pulled into an alley and stopped there, she drove past without stopping and sent Cal a quizzical glance. “Do I circle around and find us a place to park and observe or…what?”
Cal scratched his chin. “If you promise to stay close to me and do what I say, I’m thinking our move is to leave the car somewhere around here—” he waved a finger to the side streets “—and walk back. We can find a discreet place to monitor his activity, see if he leaves his truck or meets someone or appears to be stalking someone again.”
She considered his suggestion and bobbed her chin. “Okay.”
Ten minutes later, they were ensconced in a deserted building, diagonally across the street from the alley where Chase still sat in his truck. They stayed low, peering through a broken window to monitor their target.
“Hold the phone,” Cal said, when a silver SUV arrived and stopped in the alley. Chase climbed out of his truck and approached the driver’s window of the second vehicle. “Who have we here?”
Jules tensed, and Cal snapped pictures of the SUV.
“What do we do?” she asked, her nerves jangling, every fiber of her being telling her this was the moment she’d been waiting for. A guy didn’t drive to out-of-the-way, seedy alleys to trade baseball cards.
“Patience, Jules. I’m sending pictures of the SUV and license plate to both my office and the city police marked ‘priority.’ If the owner of the other car has a record, we’ll know in a matter of minutes.”
“But if Chase is up to no good, shouldn’t we act now? Catch him in the act? You can arrest him—”
“Jules.” He put a hand on her arm. “I have to have a little thing called probable cause of a crime. So far, he’s just talking to a friend.”
She narrowed her eyes, studying the interaction. “I don’t know, Cal. They don’t look so friendly to me. Chase looks angry.”
Cal’s phone pinged, and he checked the screen. Before he could read the incoming text, his phone rang. Arching an eyebrow when he checked his caller ID, he muttered, “Well, well. We seemed to have poked a hornet’s nest.”