Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Claire
Cheyenne stopped in her tracks, spinning around so quickly that the saddle in her hands nearly knocked me over. “What did you just say?”
“Ow,” I said pointedly.
“Sorry. But surely I didn’t hear you correctly. Can you repeat that?” Her dark eyes were the widest I’d ever seen them.
I braced myself on Shadow’s stall door, put my head in my hands, and sighed dramatically. “I have a crush on Agent Weston.”
Cheyenne dropped the saddle, apparently deciding that this was more important than getting a jump start on the morning’s work. “Well, he is pretty cute. Not my type, obviously, but cute.”
“Not my type, either,” I protested.
“And yet you have a crush on him.” She grabbed my hand and tugged me toward our bench so we could talk.
It had been our favorite spot for almost twenty years, a location chosen because we could see both barn entrances and the office door, ensuring that none of my siblings could sneak up and overhear our secrets.
When we sat down, she turned to look at me with a happy grin on her face. “We could double-date.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Nothing can happen. I mean, he’s kind of my boss.”
“Is he though?” She cocked her head.
“I don’t know!” I buried my face in my hands again.
I didn’t know and I was afraid to ask because I knew how stupid and inexperienced it made me look.
It was probably something they’d covered in training that had gone in one ear and out the other.
I could remember random details that interested me no problem. But something boring? Forget it.
She studied me. “Claire Hawkins, you’re legitimately getting hung up on this guy.”
I shook my head quickly, trying to deny it to myself as much as to her. “No. This is just me, right? This is what I do. Lose my head, get crazy crushes, make things bigger than they really are… It’s my fatal flaw.” I sighed dramatically again, holding a fist to my heart.
Her face broke into a smile. “I love you so much it’s ridiculous. And yes, you’re dramatic. Adorably so. But you’ve taken a pragmatic and practical approach to relationships as an adult. This is different than anything I’ve seen in the last several years.”
My shoulders sank. “That’s because he’s different.”
He was, and it felt like a tragedy. I’d met someone I connected with on a different level than anyone I’d dated before, but our partnership was temporary. He’d be leaving Wildwood as soon as we wrapped up our case. The thought of it made me want to mope in bed with a tub of ice cream.
“How is he different?” She smiled patiently, encouraging me to talk.
“He understands me.” I leaned my head back and stared at the ceiling, knowing I couldn’t share the depth of it with Cheyenne. I’d never ruin her happiness by telling her how much it hurt to be left behind or how his understanding my feelings had made them bearable.
“It’s a good feeling, isn’t it?” She leaned back, too, touching her head to mine.
“Yeah.” I swallowed hard. “Vance makes me feel like we’re a team. Like he has my back.”
“Any good partner should. That’s true for life and law enforcement.” I could hear her smile even without seeing it.
“Yeah.” I shook myself, sitting up straight again. “But it doesn’t matter. It’s just a crush. Hopefully now that I’ve told you, I’ll get over it and get back to work.”
“What if you don’t get over it?” she asked slowly.
“I have to, don’t I?”
She squeezed my hand. “What does your heart say?”
I shot her a look. “My heart doesn’t apply. This is work.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, what does your gut say?”
“I don’t know. I don’t trust it. I know how I am.”
“I don’t think you’re being fair to yourself.”
I waved her off. “I’ll probably flip back to disliking him by tomorrow. He’s a very dislikable man.”
“Dislikeable?” She shot me a skeptical look. “What do you mean?”
“Well, for one thing, he wears six-hundred-dollar hiking boots.”
“A terrible quality in a man,” she agreed, fighting a smile.
“He can sit at a desk, combing through reports for hours. Doesn’t even get twitchy.”
“That sounds like a good thing,” she pointed out. “Having different strengths makes you a good team.”
“He buys expensive coffee instead of drinking what’s in the breakroom.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re grasping at straws, Hawkins.”
“He probably can’t even ride a horse.”
She laughed out loud. “So you’ll teach him.”
“He doesn’t live here.”
This time, my sigh was real. I slumped, looking down the line of stalls to the mountains beyond. They called to me. Felt like home.
No matter how much I wanted to roam and see the world, something still tethered me to this place. But he would be moving on. And the odds of him ever coming back to Wildwood to work another case were ridiculously low.
Cheyenne sighed too. “That could be a problem. But you know, sometimes things work out. I was hesitant to get back together with Rhett because I thought he was going to be moving on, but look at us now. We’re getting married and building a life together.”
“I know.” I squeezed her hand and gave her a smile. For the first time in a while, it felt real. Vance was right. I could be truly happy for her and honor my feelings, too.
I hated feeling left behind, which was why I absolutely could not get involved with Vance. He was only here for the case. Hell, that was probably the only reason he was even being nice to me and pretending like we were real partners.
When this was over, I’d probably never hear from him again.
At precisely nine o’clock, Vance and I stood on the Evanses’ front porch, waiting for someone to come to the door. He’d briefed me on his plans on the way over. My job, for this one at least, was just to observe.
In a perfect world, Leslie would be caught off guard by our visit. But the odds of that were nearly zero. Even if Tony hadn’t called to let them know he’d been questioned, we had to assume they knew we’d connect Tony to Katelyn eventually.
When Leslie answered the door, the look on her face told me she knew exactly why we were there. “Come in,” she said, sighing. “I’ve been expecting you.”
I glanced at Vance. His face was a mask. The man would make a great poker player.
Hell, I was a great poker player, too. Just wasn’t a skill I’d ever thought to use in my job. But interviewing a mother whose son was a person of interest in a homicide case was very different. We had to tread lightly, Vance had warned.
So I followed his cue and kept my face neutral while Leslie led us through the foyer to their sitting room, fighting back the urge to laugh at the sight of her.
She was wearing a ridiculously tight pencil skirt and stiletto heels so high that she wobbled on the tile floors, making me worry she’d break an ankle before all this was over.
She waved us into the sitting room with a graceful flick of the wrist. I perched on the edge of a green velvet chaise lounge, keeping my face as straight as if I were trying to bluff my way into a win against Cole and Rhett.
Leslie reminded me of one of the housewives from reality TV.
She’d designed this house herself—a house that was completely out of place in Wildwood.
It was like someone had picked up a mansion from some California beach town and plopped it down where it didn’t belong.
She also loved that her husband held power over the town.
His job wasn’t much to brag about in my opinion, but it kept Leslie at the top of the pecking order.
She loved being on top.
If I was reading her right, she wouldn’t mind being on top of Vance, either.
When she sat down across from him, she kept a professional posture, with her ankles crossed and her hands folded lightly in her lap.
But she ran her eyes over his body and looked at him through long lashes, giving him a seductive smile.
It took everything I had not to roll my eyes.
“I’m sure you know why we’re here,” Vance began, giving her an opening to talk.
“Yes.” She nodded. “I knew when that poor girl was found so close to us that it would open everything up again. I feel terrible for her, of course, but I hope that Tony’s connection to her can continue to be kept quiet.”
Vance ignored the plea. “What exactly can you tell me about his connection to her?”
She shrugged, but her eyes flitted to the door like she was nervous. “There’s not much to tell, really. They barely knew each other. ”
A lie.
When we remained silent, she lifted her hands helplessly. “I mean, they went on a few dates. But it was never serious, and it had been over for a long time before she disappeared.”
“I understand she came here and stayed with him for Christmas break last year.”
Leslie’s lips thinned. “Well, yes, that’s true. But Tony often has friends come visit. He’s a popular guy.” She deliberately relaxed her posture. Smiled.
We weren’t the only ones wearing masks.
“What was your impression of Katelyn?”
Her expression soured. “Personally, I didn’t care for her. I know that sounds terrible to say, considering, and of course I feel sorry for whatever happened to her. But I couldn’t help but feel she was trying to manipulate Tony into something much more serious than what he wanted.”
Vance cocked his head. “Oh really? What exactly did he want?”
Leslie blinked twice, like she realized she’d said something wrong. “Friendship, of course. He’s very focused on his studies right now, but he enjoys … friendship. As most college guys do.”
Right. I worked hard to keep my face blank as I stared at Leslie, trying to figure out if she was lying or genuinely clueless. She was clearly using the word friendship to mean casual sex. But that wasn’t at all what her son had wanted from Katelyn—or Elsa. He’d been focused on marriage.
Vance kept digging. “But you felt like she was pressuring him into more?”