Chapter 11
Vanessa stood under the bright artificial light on her porch and told her stupid heart to stop beating so hard. Heavy rain pelted the tin roof and claps of thunder boomed across the sky.
Dax stood in front of her, his hands shoved in the front pockets of his jeans. He’d left his cowboy hat at his place, and his dark hair stuck out in a sexy way that made her want to run her fingers through it.
He rocked back on his heels. “Thanks again for having dinner with me. I know it wasn’t the ideal first date, but Pops enjoyed your company as much as I did.”
“I think he liked Frankie more than he liked me, but that’s okay. I get that a lot.”
Dax’s lips curved up at the corners. “I doubt that. The dog’s nice and all, but…”
“Good answer.”
“Well, I guess I should get going.” His tongue swiped his bottom lip, eyes locked on hers.
Oh dear Lord, anticipation made her batty. She didn’t want to wait any longer to find out what he tasted like. Standing on her tiptoes, she rested her palms on his chest and pressed her lips to his. Excitement zipped up her spine, making her giddy.
She pulled back but kept her face close. “Was that okay?”
“Okay? More like great.” He wrapped his arm around the small of her back and molded her against him before capturing her mouth with this. His lips moved over hers until his tongue poked into her mouth.
She wrapped herself around him and her whole body tingled. Need built inside her, creating a dizziness that threatened to knock her off her feet.
Dax broke the kiss, his breath ragged. “Really, really great.”
Vanessa lowered back to flat feet and struggled to get herself under control. If he hadn’t stopped, she wasn’t sure she could have. Her pulse thundered and a part of her wanted to throw caution to the wind and invite him in to see where things went.
Hell, they both knew where things would go. And as much as the thought thrilled her, she still needed to claim a bedroom and turn it into a place she’d be comfortable bringing a man.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” She kissed his cheek then forced herself to step inside the house. She gave him one last wave then closed the door. “I’m in trouble,” she said to Frankie.
Her dog barked then trotted into the kitchen.
A quick glance at her phone told her it wasn’t too late. She could follow Frankie into the kitchen to prattle on about her evening with Dax or she could call her cousin. Nothing like fawning over a guy to bond them. It might loosen her up to discuss more serious things.
Racing upstairs, she found the pants she’d worn earlier and dug out the paper with Autumn’s and her aunt’s numbers. She opted to sit on her mom’s old bed—something about being surrounded by all things pink and girly matched her mood—and punched in the numbers.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Autumn, it’s Vanessa. I hope it’s not too late to call.” A pinch of nervousness took hold of her stomach. Maybe she should have waited until the morning.
“Oh my gosh, hi! No, it’s never too late to call. How are you? Is everything okay? Do you need something?”
Just like when they’d met, words poured out of her cousin in rapid succession.
Vanessa smiled at her excitement. “I wondered if you had time to stop by the house tomorrow.”
“Seriously?” Autumn asked. “I’d love to.”
“Good. I need a few more friends in town.” She debated saying more or sharing that she wanted to pick her cousin’s brain for information about their family. But she was afraid Autumn would refuse to come if she understood Vanessa was searching for answers.
Besides, she wasn’t lying. She did need more friends, and she wanted to get to know at least one person from her family.
“Have you met anyone else?”
“I went to Tilly’s with Dax last night and met the owner—I think her name was Eve.
” She made a mental note to stop by the restaurant again soon.
Eve seemed nice, and the food had been delicious.
If she planned to stay in town, she needed to step out of her comfort zone and make an effort to ingratiate herself with the people of Cloud Valley.
And Eve might be a good resource for figuring out how to create a community garden. A woman who dealt with food for a living could have some ideas.
“Eve’s the best,” Autumn said. “And to have Dax take you for dinner. Lucky girl.”
Vanessa tucked her bottom lip between her teeth as she caught Autumn’s excitement like a virus. “I had dinner with him again tonight. At his house, with his dad. He called it a date.”
Autumn’s squeal threatened to split Vanessa’s eardrum. “Lady! I need all the details.”
As the reminder of her kiss with Dax attacked her senses, she pressed the tips of her fingers to her mouth. Flaps of butterfly wings beat against her stomach lining. “We had such a nice time. His dad was wonderful. I didn’t want the evening to end.”
“And how exactly did it end?” Autumn’s singsong voice made Vanessa laugh.
She could be coy—could be a lady and not spill the details. But she wanted to scream what had happened from the rooftop, and the whole reason she’d called Autumn instead of a friend back in Chicago was that she knew her cousin would flip.
“With the best kiss of my life,” she said, flattening a palm over her heart.
“No. Freaking. Way. Tell me everything.”
Vanessa spent the next ten minutes pouring over the time spent with Dax and his father, ending with the moment their lips had touched on her front porch.
“I really like him,” she said. “Which kind of scares me. Is it silly to jump into a relationship with someone I barely know right after I move to town?”
“Nah,” Autumn said. “I mean do we ever truly know anyone until we peel back the layers? Sometimes the people we’ve known our whole lives turn out to be someone we’d never expect.
Might as well yank those layers away from Dax now and find out if there’s anything underneath that sexy surface.
Because it might end up being something really special. ”
“Thanks. I needed to hear that.”
They finished their conversation, Autumn promising to touch base in the morning about what time to come by, and Vanessa flopped back on the bed.
She stared up at the ceiling, the same spot her mom probably saw when she was younger, maybe even feeling zips of excitement and happiness after a date with someone she cared for.
Maybe even with her father.
A familiar ache gnawed at her heart. She’d ignored it for so long, but something about being in this house among her mother’s old things brought that ache back with such fierceness that it couldn’t be shoved aside anymore.
One way or another, she’d find answers. She just prayed they brought her peace and didn’t drown her in even more grief.
With a renewed sense of urgency, she jumped off the bed and walked over to the closet. She’d already dragged most of the boxes out. Photos and yearbooks might paint a picture of part of her mom she’d never know, but they wouldn’t spill any secrets.
Staring into the closet, she studied the clothes hanging from the silver rod and shoes stuffed in one corner.
Chances were high her mom had grabbed what she could when she’d left.
She wouldn’t have been the one to neatly store her things and stack them away to never be seen again. Her grandfather probably had done that.
That meant anything she’d want buried she would have taken with her or hidden somewhere that wouldn’t be easily found.
A clap of thunder shook the house, quickly followed by the patter of Frankie’s claws on the floors. He skidded into the room barking like a maniac.
Crouching, she cuddled him close. “It’s okay, buddy. It’s just another storm. We’re fine.”
He trembled against her and buried his snout in the crook of her arm.
She plopped on the floor and pulled him onto her lap. Running her palm over his silky fur, she stared into the closet, and an idea took hold. “Sorry, little guy. I’ve got to put you down.”
With Frankie beside her, she moved all the boxes from the closet then piled all the clothes on the bed. She shuffled the shoes out of the way and stared at the wood-paneled walls and spots of dust on the floor.
When she was a teenager, she’d found a loose floorboard in her closet to hide her diary.
She might have shared most things with her mom, but there were still secrets she’d guarded.
Boys she’d kissed or friends she’d snuck out with that she’d written about and never wanted her mom to discover. Maybe her mother had a similar spot.
She skimmed her hands over the walls first, then dropped to the ground. Dust bunnies rolled around like tumbleweeds. She brushed them away, dirt coating her palm. The boards were smooth and firmly planted.
Well, damn it.
Crawling out of the closet, she studied the rest of the room.
She didn’t have the energy to move the furniture, but if the room was kept the same, her mom wouldn’t have wanted to move the bed or dresser anytime she needed her hiding spot.
Easier to pull back the fuzzy white rug to get to the floorboards underneath.
Sighing, she replaced all the boxes in the closet, Frankie watching her with his buggy eyes. Then she folded back the soft rug, flipping the end up on the bed. She stared down at the floor. “All right, Mom. Is there something here or am I grasping at straws?”
Dropping to her knees, she roamed her palm over the worn boards.
She searched for any divots or knicks in the wood that could clue her in to a loose board.
She inched toward the bed, almost out of room, when a gap between two planks caught her eye.
Her heart seized and she dug her fingernail between the space, lifting until the board popped up.
The overhead light streamed down and highlighted a glimpse of something purple.
“Holy crap, Frankie.” She stared at the dark spot, shocked her instincts had proven correct. Hesitation stilled her hand over the newly discovered hiding spot. Her throat went dry, and a boom of thunder had her jumping out of her skin.
“Okay, I’m being stupid.” She dipped her hand into the opening, and it brushed against worn fabric. Curiosity moved her quicker, and she snatched out a tattered and stained T-shirt. Recognition turned her stomach, and she shot to her feet to snatch the photo from the mirror.
The bright purple T-shirt with an explosion of white daises stared back at her, the older and worn version in her hand.
More thunder combined with the dizzying reality crashing against her, leaving her jittery. Dread dried her throat as she flattened the T-shirt on the floor. The stains on the fabric deepened the purple and dark red splattered across the daisies.
Blood.
Fear hitched her breath higher in her throat. Scrubbing her hands over her face, her mind worked in overdrive. What the hell had happened? Why was her uncle’s shirt buried in the garden and Mom’s hidden in her room?
And then there was the hammer.
A shiver ran down her spine. She wouldn’t find any more answers tonight. What she needed was a warm bed and a good night’s sleep.
But not in here. Surrounded by the ghost of her mother. She replaced the rug and tossed the T-shirt back in the closet.
Turmoil turned her stomach with each step she took to her grandfather’s room.
His things may remain, but at least the cozy space wasn’t filled with gut-wrenching secrets—at least not any she’d uncovered.
Removing her jeans, she opted to sleep in her long-sleeved shirt that rested at the tops of her thighs.
She climbed into the king-sized bed and curled under the sheets, the smell of cedar and citrus clinging to the pillowcase.
She inhaled. Was this what her grandfather smelled like? Had his cologne lingered to greet her, to hold her with a promise that everything would be all right?
Frankie hopped onto the bed and cuddled in beside her. She wrapped him up tight, closed her eyes, and forced her thoughts on Dax. The sound of the storm was her constant companion as she finally drifted off to sleep.
* * *
The explosive blare of the alarm tore Vanessa out of a deep sleep. Her heart shot to her throat and fear thumped against her temples.
Frankie crouched beside her and growled.
Oh my God, someone was in the house. She jumped out of bed and searched around for her phone. The alarm should alert the police to an intruder, but she didn’t want to take chances. She patted the bed then swiped her hand across the nightstand.
Shit, she’d left her phone in her mom’s room. Terror stole her ability to think, to react to the nightmare storming back into her home. She rolled off the bed and curled into a ball on the floor, her mind refusing to work.
Frankie leapt to her side and barked, snapping her into attention.
She sucked in a deep breath and stayed low to the ground as she crept toward the door.
The alarm continued to scream its warning.
At the doorway, she peeked into the hall.
She’d left the lights on upstairs when she’d retired for the night.
No one waited to ambush her. No shadows lurked in the corners.
She darted into her mom’s room and waited for Frankie to follow before closing and locking the door.
She found her phone and grabbed it with shaking hands.
Her fingers moved on autopilot, bringing up Dax’s number. She hit Call and lifted the phone to her ear.
“Hey,” Dax said, answering on the first ring.
She pressed the heel of her hand over one ear, blocking out the blaring alarm as much as she could. “Someone’s in the house. I’m scared. Help me, please.”