Chapter Six
M ommy’s home…” Sage made a face as soon as the words came out of her mouth. What a ridiculous thing to say, she thought as she closed her apartment door behind her. Almost as ridiculous as the high-pitched voice she’d used.
It wasn’t as if she could take Alice’s place in Max’s heart, or as if she even wanted to. She just wanted to give him a happy life. She owed that to Alice.
Slipping off her shoes, Sage shifted the bag from the pet store in her arms and placed her keys in the ceramic bowl on the console table. She called out again, this time using her normal voice while trying to sound cheerful and upbeat instead of exhausted and sad.
“Hi, Max. I’m home. I picked up some special food for you. The staff at the pet store said it’s the best.” It had better be for what she’d paid.
She walked from the white marble entryway into the open-concept space and froze.
The couches’ cushions and throw pillows had been tossed around like a mini-tornado had touched down in her living room, while books, paperwork, and a vase of fake flowers were strewn across the cream-colored area rug. Someone had ransacked her apartment.
At the thought of who that someone might be—a former client’s ex who’d promised retaliation against Sage once he’d been released from prison—the bag slipped from her arms. She cringed as cans of cat food noisily rolled out of the bag and onto the hardwood floor, alerting whoever had broken in to her presence.
Then again, she’d pretty much done that when she’d called out to Max.
Heart pounding, she stood perfectly still with her palm covering her mouth, listening for sounds that she wasn’t alone.
When all she heard was the galloping of her heart, she slowly lowered her hand, patting her blazer’s pockets for her cell phone.
Then she remembered that she’d forgotten it in her rush to get Max settled before heading to the office.
It was somewhere in her apartment. She needed to find her phone, and she needed to find Max.
Running on tiptoes into the kitchen in search of a weapon, she slid on the paper towels covering the white-and-black-tiled floor.
In an effort to stay upright, she grabbed the corner of the granite-topped breakfast bar, noticing as she did so that the paper toweling had been shredded, and not by her toenails.
She straightened, surveying her tossed living room with another culprit in mind.
Her gaze stalled on the side of her couch.
“Max,” she muttered as she scooped the paper towels off the tile floor, placing them on the breakfast bar before heading to inspect the side of the cream-colored couch that Max had used as his personal scratch pad.
She got distracted by the distant ringing of her cell phone and followed the sound down the short hall. She needn’t have worried about Max being bored when she was at work, she decided while stepping around rolls of unraveled toilet paper. Clearly, he knew how to amuse himself.
She tracked the ringing phone to the cat bed at the foot of her bed, digging it out from under the fuzzy throw she’d added to make Max feel at home.
The phone stopped ringing, and Max gave her the side-eye from where he lay curled in a comfy, cozy nest of bedding that he’d created for himself. Her comforter would never be the same.
Apparently ticked that she had the audacity to interrupt his sleep, Max growled at her.
“I’m not impressed with you at the moment either, buddy,” she said, opening her phone with her face. She frowned as she scrolled through her missed calls and redialed Jake. “Hey, what’s up? You’ve called like fifteen times.”
“Yeah, because you never answered or called me back,” he said, sounding as ticked at her as Max. “You weren’t in a good place when you left. I was worried about you.”
She sighed. He was right. She’d still been in shock about Alice, and then to learn she’d left everything to Jake and Sage… It had been a tough way to start the day. She ignored the thought that waking up in Jake’s arms had not been a tough way to start the day, until it had gotten awkward.
“I’m sorry. I ended up leaving my phone here and didn’t realize it until I got to work.
By then it was too late to come back and get it.
” Robert, one of the founding partners at the firm, had made her day that much worse by insisting she return to work to argue a motion in court for one of his cases.
“Sage, it’s eleven o’clock. I’ve called several times in the last few hours, and you still didn’t answer. If this is some kind of passive-aggressive—”
“What do I have to be passive-aggressive about?” She pulled a face, glad that he couldn’t see her.
Taking Max home with her could be construed as a passive-aggressive move.
She’d been upset Jake got to stay in Sunshine Bay, surrounded by memories of Alice and her things, while Sage had to come home alone.
Not that she’d admit to Jake that she hadn’t wanted to be alone.
“Anyway, it wasn’t like I was ignoring your calls. I just got home from work.”
“It’s eleven o’clock. At night.”
“Yes, I think we’ve already established that. Now, I have some work to do before I go to bed, so could you get to the point of your call?”
“What do you mean, you have work to do? You just got home.”
She wanted to say, And your point is—? This was actually an early night for her. But she didn’t think hearing that would go over well with Jake, especially because Max had been home alone all day.
“I’d left a lot of things unfinished when I took off for Sunshine Bay yesterday morning, and I didn’t get in today until one. I can’t afford to get behind.” She got indigestion just thinking what her schedule would look like if that happened.
“Sage, it’s a little over twenty-four hours since we found out Alice died. The last place you need to be is at work.”
“No, it’s exactly where I need to be.” It made it easier to pretend this was all a bad dream. In an effort not to disturb Max, she slowly lowered herself onto the end of the bed. She got a grumbled yowl for her effort.
At the frustrated sigh coming over the line, Sage pictured Jake dragging his fingers through his hair. He’d reacted the same way as a teenager when she’d frustrated him.
“Okay. Whatever. I’m not about to tell you how to live your life, Sage.”
“Thanks. I really appreciate that,” she said, her voice laced with sarcasm.
He snorted. “Give me a break, okay. I was worried about you.”
Surprisingly, she understood how he felt. After being unable to reach Alice, and losing her the way that they had, Sage would feel the same way if she hadn’t been able to reach Jake or her family.
“Even though there was absolutely no reason for you to be worried about me, I appreciate that you were, and I’m sorry you couldn’t reach me. Next time, just call me at work. I’ll text you my direct extension and my work email.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it. There’s quite a bit that we’ll need to discuss over the next few weeks.”
“Such as?” There was an edge in her voice that he’d no doubt picked up on.
She hadn’t meant for suspicion to creep into her tone.
It was residue from her reaction to this morning’s news.
She’d responded badly to Jake offering to handle their joint inheritance.
She wasn’t the most trusting person on a good day, and today had been far from good.
“Okay. I let it go this morning, but I resent what you seem to be implying, Sage. It’s not like I’m going to take off with your share of the inheritance.”
“I’m not implying anything of the kind. Don’t be so sensitive.
” She winced. Of course this would be a sore point for him.
It had taken Jake a long time to live down his reputation and his family’s in Sunshine Bay.
“I’m sorry if it seemed that way. I know you’re handling everything so I shouldn’t complain, but it still feels like a lot. ”
“I know. Sorry if I overreacted. I’ll do what I can to handle everything on my end, but I will need your opinion on things, as well as your signature.”
“Sure. Whatever you need. Is that why you were trying to reach me? Has something come up?”
“Don’t worry about it. We can talk when you get to town.”
“I’m not coming home for the weekend, Jake. I have too much to do. I can maybe get away next Saturday for a few hours. Would that help? It shouldn’t take us too long to pack up the house, should it?”
“I don’t need your help packing up the house. I just wanted to talk to you about this in person.”
“Talk about what? Does it have something to do with Alice?” There was a long pause. “Jake, what is it?”
“After you left this morning, I went back to the scene of Alice’s accident and took the same path she would have taken to the trail. I found her phone.”
“Did you give it to the police? What do they think?”
“I haven’t given it to them yet. It’s damaged, but I know a guy—”
“You know a guy ? Jake, you have to give the phone to the police. It’s evidence.”
“I’ll give them Alice’s phone once he’s taken a look at it. He’s good, Sage. Way better than anyone they’ve got working at SBPD. He’s fast too. He should have something for me at the beginning of next week.”
“Are you worried that this was something other than an accident?”
“No. Not at all. Given the distance between Alice’s bike and the tire tracks, with the dip in the road, the person driving the car likely had no idea she’d fallen. I just can’t figure out why Alice went to the farm instead of her house. I’m hoping there’s an explanation on her phone.”
Even though Jake couldn’t see her, Sage was nodding her agreement. She’d wondered the same thing. “If Alice had gone home instead of to the farm, she wouldn’t have been on the road. She would have taken the bike path. She’d still be here.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, his voice gruff.