Chapter 6
Pace
With a sly look back and forth, to make sure I wasn’t being watched, I took a deep inhale of the note. Discreetly. Because anything else would be extremely weird.
I hadn’t stopped thinking about this list since discovering it a few days ago. I’d carefully unfolded it and refolded it so many times that I worried it would tear. I’d been so sure that this list of items was a call to action from the universe, what I was meant to be doing . . .
Yet I hadn’t taken any action. And I wasn’t sure why.
It smelled like paper—no shock there—but also just a hint of something else. Something familiar, I couldn’t put my finger on. Like an old book, sort of sweet and maybe just a hint of vanilla?
“Did Pace just sniff that piece of paper like a weirdo?” Claire said from behind me, appearing out of thin air.
I shot up off the bench, turning to find my best friend and his fiancée. I had been waiting for them outside on Main Street. I came around and met them, discreetly tucking the paper into my pocket.
“Claire Bear!” I hugged her with enthusiasm. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve been gone three days.” She gave me a half-puzzled smile at my excitement. “And only my dad calls me that.”
“Felt like months,” I said and squeezed her in a one-armed side hug. Her arms flopped out helplessly. “Don’t I get special fireman privileges like your dad? I’m sure Ralph would approve.”
Levi stood with his arms crossed, looking very unimpressed with my antics. He obviously trusted me with his heart and soul, but that didn’t stop him from tugging Claire back to his side and tucking her under his arm.
“Hey, man,” he said and lifted his chin.
I matched his hello in return. I was so relieved to see them, so happy not to be alone with my thoughts anymore.
And yet that note all but burned in my pocket, calling to be returned to its owner.
“Are you lovebirds headed to the bonfire?” I asked and wedged myself in between them to hang on both of their shoulders.
“Yes,” Levi said. “We are very excited.” His tone was as flat as his expression.
“Aw, don’t pretend like you don’t love it,” Claire said, leaning around me to cajole him. He turned his head away, but we both saw the soft smile that tugged at his lips.
When he looked back to me, his features of nonchalance were back in place. “Why are you wearing your work pants and suspenders? Are you working the bonfire tonight?” Levi asked with a skeptical look at my ensemble.
Couldn’t a man just wear half his uniform around town without getting the third degree? “Well, not officially,” I explained. “But any time there is a large fire, I’m not going to relax. I’ll join you. No third wheels in this nonsexual throuple.”
“No,” Levi said at the same time Claire’s eyebrows shot up, head tilting, and she said, “Um.”
“Yeah, I was trying that out, but it doesn’t work. Tricycle? Pyramid? Wait, that’s four sides. We’ll work on it,” I said.
We started to stroll, shoulder to shoulder, toward the center of town, where the comforting smell of burning pinon and cedar wafted toward us.
“Are we all just going to pretend he wasn’t sniffing that piece of paper?” Claire asked. “If so, that’s cool. Who among us can judge? Just wanted to clarify. Heh. Claire-ify.” She snorted at her own wordplay.
A big, goofy grin spread across Levi’s features as he shoved me out of the way to bring Claire back under his arm. I had hoped she’d forgotten about that. Claire could jump from one topic to the next as often as a hummingbird flapped its wings.
“Why are you sniffing paper, Pace?” Levi asked, straight to the point. “Do not tell me you are still carrying around that list.”
“What list?” Claire asked excitedly.
Crap. I forgot I had told him about the list in a fit of excitement when I first discovered it. I should have kept it to myself. Though I wasn’t sure why that was my initial reaction. He’d seemed . . . not skeptical, but he didn’t share my enthusiasm. But that wasn’t really his style.
“Just looking for clues. It’s not as perverted as it seems,” I said. “And this list. I found it.”
I pulled out the list again and proffered it to the happy couple. I wouldn’t admit that I had almost every line memorized.
“Hang on, I can’t read and walk,” Claire said.
Levi already had his hands on her shoulders, leading her out of the steady flow of foot traffic that was headed into town.
“What is this?” she asked. Levi read over her shoulder in the light of the window of Cozy Creek Confectionery, tucked out of the way. “I don’t get it. This yours?” she asked.
“I found it,” I said. Then, eyes narrowed, I looked down the road. “No. It found me,” I corrected.
I bounced on my toes.
“Whose is it?” Claire asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, studying her face closely to see what her feelings might be. “I’m determined to find out.”
Levi leaned forward to read a few more lines before he straightened and pulled back. “I don’t know, this feels like it’s sort of a personal thing.”
“I thought so too,” I said.
Claire hadn’t spoken, her brows furrowing as she read.
“What do you think it is?” he asked her.
“I think the title is self-evident,” Claire said, finally tearing her gaze away.
“It doesn’t make sense. It’s a really shitty bucket list. Go to the bank? What’s fun about that?” I asked, laughing slightly, keeping my tone light, and wondering if they found it just as charming as I did. They couldn’t know the gravity of this list.
Claire shook her head. “I don’t think it’s quite that.”
“Part of it reads like a list of errands,” Levi said.
“But then others are more fun,” she finished. “It is confusing.”
“I mean, they crossed out the one that looks the most fun,” I said. “Who doesn’t want some toe-curling orgasms?”
“Maybe it’s not that they don’t want them, more that they don’t think it’s possible.
Like they keep lowering the bar.” Claire chewed her bottom lip in thought.
A moment later, she pushed the list back toward me.
“Actually, I’m with Levi. I feel weird or something reading this. Like it’s a journal entry.”
I didn’t feel weird. I wanted to know more. I wanted to know everything about this person. I was greedy for information about them.
“I am determined to find who this belongs to.” I folded the note, slipped it into the pocket of my pants, and patted it to make sure it was secure.
“Really?” Levi was giving me one of those intense looks again. “This is the most excited I’ve seen you in a while.”
“I feel excited.” I shrugged.
“What are you hoping to get out of this?” he asked.
“Can’t a guy just want to help someone? What if they are old and looking for some final adventures?” I asked.
“You’re gonna help them complete all the tasks?” Claire said.
“Okay, well, maybe not all of them. I have no idea how to put a bra back on, let alone size someone,” I joked.
Claire rolled her eyes. “But the red lipstick?”
“I’m a pro. What do you think we do at the firehouse between calls?”
She laughed. “I assumed you watched chick flicks and talked about your feelings.”
I nodded, wide-eyed. “Yes. Exactly, in between practicing our makeup skills.”
“Obviously, I’m kidding. I couldn’t help them with all their items, but I know a lot of people. I could point them in the right direction.”
“You do have a lot of connections,” Levi said.
“You’re a firefighter, it’s in your nature to help.” Claire smiled at me. “How are you going to track them down?” Claire asked, and we started walking again.
“Can’t be too hard, right?” I said.
“I’m not sure, but it sounds like it must be a local,” she said.
“What makes you think that?”
“This line about tourists. I don’t think a tourist would say that,” she said, her reporter’s sense turning on.
“True.”
“I’m getting the image of a youngish person, a local, a woman,” she said.
“Except for maybe the fact that it was written out on paper and not just as a note in their phone,” Levi said. “Let me see it again. I’m going to see if anything else stands out.”
I reluctantly handed the note back.
“You’re not one to talk, mister no social media accounts,” Claire said. “Plus, I like to take initial notes on paper. It makes it feel more serious somehow. I get that.”
“I have a website and stuff now,” Levi mumbled, but nobody acknowledged him.
Claire tilted her head. “I do agree. If I had to guess, it is a young woman, not to generalize, you know, but just the vibe, around my age, maybe younger? And maybe it is someone sick? Maybe someone who’s been sheltered their whole life?”
Claire and I exchanged a worried glance.
“Do you think it’s someone youngish with some sort of terminal disease?” she asked.
I shook my head with a frown.
“Your chest still bothering you? I thought you had the doctor check it out?” Levi interrupted.
I dropped my hand from where it had been circling above my pectoral. “No. It’s fine. Just habit.” Which was true. The thought of the note’s author being terminally ill filled me with extreme and sudden dread.
I had to find them, and I had to find them quickly.
“I don’t know,” I said, looking back at Claire and Levi with seriousness. “I just know this came into my life for a reason. I was the person who found this list. That feels significant. I can help. I have contacts. It was meant to be.”
“I do think you would be good at this,” Claire said.
“Yeah? Figuring out mysteries?” I asked.
I’d been listening to a lot of cozy mysteries on audio.
It was part of the reason I started rocking the mustache last year for a while.
I fancied myself capable of solving crimes and seeing what nobody else saw.
But then I realized how hit-or-miss the ’stache was with the ladies, and after No Shave November, I decided to let it go.
“I was referring to helping people. You are good at that,” she clarified. Levi nodded in agreement.
Warmth from the compliment spread through me.
“I do have a thought on where you might start, if you don’t mind me playing the Watson to your Sherlock,” Levi said.
I tipped my chin in deferential allowance.
“Why don’t you start here?” He grabbed the paper and flipped it over.
Hooks and Grannies Hobby Shop.
“Huh.” I blinked at the paper before snatching it back.
I’d spent so long reading the other side, it hadn’t even occurred to me to flip the paper over.
My heart thrummed at the sight. There was also a series of seemingly random numbers scrawled quickly in a different handwriting.
A locker combo or maybe lucky numbers? But I was less concerned about those.
My first clue!
“It’s a game shop, right?” I asked.
I was vaguely familiar with the shop. I’d been in there a couple of times over the years.
I think I went with Jeff and Cole once to get some things to kill time at the firehouse.
We also all went through a brief period where we tried our hand at knitting, but it didn’t stick for me.
Too much focus, sitting still, math, and counting.
“Among other things,” Levi said.
“So maybe it’s El Kincaid’s? She’s the older woman who runs it. She’s friends with Ruth, Gigi, and Beth,” I said but didn’t feel right about it.
“You’ve had this for a week, and you didn’t notice where it came from?” Claire asked. “Don’t quit your day job.”
Levi had been lost in thought, dark brows a slash of concentration. His “lost in the process” face. Then, as if it had never been there at all, his features cleared, and he spoke.
“You should go and investigate.”
A wave of unexpected nerves passed over me.
“You want us to come with you?” Claire asked.
I smiled at my two friends. “Nah. You two go ahead to the bonfire. If I recall correctly, it was a night just like this when a pushy best friend swooped in and forced your hand to go out.”
“Caring. Pushy. Same difference,” Levi said.
“You two go on your own. I’ve got some stealthy investigating to do.”
There was a pep in my step that had been missing for days, weeks maybe. Maybe Levi had been right the other day, and I was a little out of it lately, but that changed tonight. I was a man on a mission.
This was good. This was my purpose. I was going to find this poor youngish/possibly terminally ill person and help them check off some/most of the items on this list.
Not to toot my own horn, but who wouldn’t want to have me helping them?