Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
ATLAS
Hector didn’t tell me about the hidden cameras until we’d returned home from our impromptu date. His friend had covertly canvassed the place to make sure there were no listening devices hidden in our apartment.
I hadn’t even considered that possibility, so I was thankful Hector had made sure all the bases were covered. His friend installed hidden cameras pointed at all three entrances into the upstairs apartment: the front door and the windows in both rooms.
He’d been worried that I’d get angry about having one installed inside my room without my permission first, but I understood he was doing it for my sake.
Plus, the camera was angled in such a way that it only showed the window and the corner of my dresser.
It was the same for the one installed in Hector’s room.
Inside the diner, the cameras were a lot more conspicuous.
“Are we shooting a movie or something?” Becca asked when she came into work the next day. The cameras weren’t meant to be hidden since that was probably illegal, and we wanted the stalker to know the cameras were there.
“A friend gave me a good deal on them,” Hector replied with a shrug. His eyes drifted to mine, which had him visibly flustered before he’d made an excuse to retreat to the kitchen.
I was grinning so hard in his direction…until a body blocked my view. Becca had a hand on her hip and a devious smirk on her pretty face. “Have a good break yesterday?”
Becca was very well aware of my crush on Hector—hell, I was pretty sure the entire town was aware of it—and with how she’d been the one to lend Hector the picnic basket, I had no doubt she’d connected the dots.
Still, our relationship was so new, I wanted to keep it to myself for a bit longer.
“It was relaxing,” I said casually, but it only made her smirk wider. Having lived here for a while now, I knew a resident of Kither Springs wouldn’t give up that easily, but before she could continue to grill me, groups of people descended onto the diner like hungry scavengers.
“Well, aren’t you lucky?” she threw my way and went to help the first table. I laughed to myself and found my way to my own section.
The rest of the morning passed quickly. There were moments where it felt like someone was watching me, but I figured it was Hector sneaking peeks at me during a lull. I was guilty of doing the same.
Hector wore his signature white apron and boxy white hat to keep his hair back. His tan face had hints of pink, telling me the heat in the kitchen was probably getting to him. However, he ignored it and stayed focused on his task.
There was just something so sexy about a man hard at work. It was a thousand times hotter when said sexy man was my man, and I could now unabashedly stare all I wanted.
The prickly feeling crawled over my skin again, like there was a gaze so intense I could practically feel the eyes on me. But I was watching Hector, and he still had his head down, preparing a customer’s order.
I glanced around, a sinking feeling in my stomach. It was my stalker. It had to be. Nobody else would be staring at me this intently. But as I searched the busy diner, I couldn’t pinpoint where the gaze was coming from.
Familiar faces looked up and smiled when they saw me looking. I tried my best to smile back, but I wasn’t sure if I’d managed to look natural with how tense I was feeling.
There were a lot of regulars here, and they all looked friendly enough, but could one of them be my potential stalker? I ruled out the women since Arnold had heard the stalker’s voice and was certain it was a man.
But what if the stalker hadn’t been the one to give him the gift? What if the real stalker had hired someone to relay his message?
The handwriting on the notes was all cutesy and more feminine, in my opinion, so what if the only real clue we got about the stalker wasn’t actually a real clue and a misdirection instead?
Were we back at square one?
Someone patted me on the shoulder, causing me to jump and spin around to put some distance between us.
Sam held his hands up. “Whoa! Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”
Blood was rushing in my ears, and my heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest. The stalker could be anyone, and I’d have no clue. It could be the person standing in front of me right now.
“You alright?” Sam asked, the concern evident on his face now. And that was the kick I needed to shake the ridiculous thought out of my head.
Of course, the stalker wasn’t Sam. He was my friend and a good guy. Plus, he was madly in love with his now-real fiancé, Ryker.
Sam and I had gotten close this year, and he’d told me about how they had faked their relationship in order to rent an apartment in town, but anyone who saw them together would know they were doomed to fail at keeping things only pretend.
All that to say, he couldn’t be my crazed, obsessed stalker. Statistically speaking, the stalker was someone I knew, but I had a strong feeling it wasn’t any of my friends. They were all solid people.
I relaxed and shot Sam a smile. “Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about something.”
The concern didn’t fade from Sam. He gave me a pat on the arm.
“Is everything okay?” he asked and glanced around the room to where the cameras were located.
I’d had a couple of customers ask about them today, since there weren’t many businesses in Kither Springs that had security systems set up.
It wasn’t really necessary with how low the crime rate was here.
I’d given everyone the same bullshit answer Hector had given Becca, that his friend offered him a good deal, so he took him up on it, but I didn’t want to lie to Sam.
He was one of the first friends I’d made in town and even pulled me into his friend group by inviting me to things.
Sure, I’d already known Jones and the others from seeing them at the diner, but Sam was really the reason I now considered them good friends.
“We’re just being extra cautious recently,” I told him.
He frowned, and I wondered if Clay and Dan had informed him about my stalker situation.
Clay obviously knew about it since I’d recruited his help, and he’d asked my permission to tell his partner.
Dan had tried to talk me into telling Hector a couple of weeks back, and I should have listened to him earlier. But better late than never, I guess.
“Did something happen? Should I get Clay?” Sam went on hyper-alert, and that told me he hadn’t been clued in on the situation.
I planned to change that—to tell all of them—since the only reason I’d kept it a secret in the first place was that I wanted to handle it on my own without burdening Hector.
It was a moot point now that he was in-the-know about all this.
I took Sam’s hand and squeezed. “Everything’s fine for now. We’ll talk about it later, okay?” I said and glanced around the busy diner.
Even if the residents all looked like they were preoccupied with their own thing, I had no doubt they had some sort of superpower that immediately notified and tuned them into potential gossip.
They already liked to speculate about the relationship between Hector and me, and I wasn’t ready to give them something else to talk about.
Sam took the hint and nodded. “So, Ryker and I are going to the fall fair next Saturday. I was wondering if you and Hector wanted to join us?”
“Like a double date?”
He smiled mischievously. “Interesting choice of words. Last I’d heard, you two were just friends. Is there a relationship status update between you and Hector that I should know about?”
“Can’t say that I have anything to report,” I said mysteriously. I should really confirm with Hector before telling people, so for now, I’d keep my mouth shut despite wanting to shout it from the rooftop. But my loopy smile probably gave me away. Sam laughed and patted me on the back.
“See if you can’t lure your man away from the kitchen for a morning, huh? A double date sounds fun. And hey, call me if you want to talk. About anything.”
I nodded and waved as he walked back to his table, where his gramps and Junior were waiting for him.
“A double date, huh?” Becca’s voice sounded from right behind me.
“Holy moly!” I screeched and almost whacked her in the face with how quickly I turned her way. It seemed everyone was insistent on giving me a heart attack today. “Warn a man, will you?”
Becca ignored me and swung an arm around my shoulder.
“I’ve seen you smitten with him for so long that I can instantly tell something is different now.
But fine, you two want to keep it under wraps?
I can keep my mouth shut. But just so you know, I’ll be the first to celebrate once you start telling people.
I will be one of the first people you tell, right?
I must get employee privileges or something. ”
I shook my head and laughed. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a true Kither Spring-er or whatever the hell you call yourselves?”
“Born and raised,” she said, puffing up her chest. “And we like to call ourselves Kitherians. Or at least I do. It sounds so much cooler than the alternative, don’t ya think?”
She shot me a wink, then was on her way. I smiled as I shook my head. Becca was a handful, but she made her support of us very clear. Which was very much appreciated.
My crush on the older man had been an open secret around these parts, and people had voiced their concerns to me mostly about our age difference.
And there were those who still had the misguided belief that Hector wasn’t the sweetheart that he was, and tried to warn me off with rumors that had circled around him since childhood.
I never listened to them, of course, but what all of that had taught me was that there were still many people in town who greatly misunderstood Hector.
They never saw past his rough exterior and the rumors that surrounded him to get to know the giant, sweet man that he was. And that freaking broke my heart for him.
It made me want to prove that much more that he deserved the love and happiness he thought he’d never have.